Affiliations: Center for Wireless Telecommunications, Virginia Tech, Mail Code 0111, Blacksburg, VA 24061‐0111, USA Tel.: +1 540 231 5096; Fax: +1 540 231 3004; E‐mail: cwt@vt.edu | S.A.I.C., 2829 Guardian Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452, USA Tel.: +1 757 463 5774; Fax: +1 757 631 2264; E‐mail: w.michael.kurgan@saic.com
Abstract: Emergency personnel responding to large‐scale disasters like those of 9/11/2001 require rapidly deployable integrated high‐capacity communications systems. This paper discusses the technical characteristics of such systems and describes one that the authors are developing under US government sponsorship. The system operates in the 28–30 GHz band, using radio technology originally developed for satellite links. We describe its important features and speculate about how it could be linked with a Ka‐band satellite network.
Keywords: Disaster communications, LMDS, rapid deployment network, channel sounder, Geographic Information System (GIS), lidar, ultra‐wideband (UWB)
