Integrated Space-Terrestrial Systems to Provide Group-Oriented Services in Emergency Networks

Large scale disasters distributed worldwide have highlighted the importance of creating robust public safety networks able to respond quickly to emergency situations. In the last few years, scientific communities have carried out a massive research activity aimed at the specific design of communications and networking technologies for public safety and security. In this perspective paper a feasible emergency network architecture is designed, where the space and the terrestrial segments are integrated to efficiently provide communication, navigation and monitoring services in the incident area. Possible network architectures and the related application scenarios are described, as well as the main system requirements and the techniques to provide group-oriented services in the identified scenarios.