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An Emergency Medical Communications System by Low Altitude Platform at the Early Stages of a Natural Disaster in Indonesia

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Abstract

A natural disaster is a consequence of a natural hazard, such as a tsunami, earthquake or volcanic eruption, affecting humans. In order to support emergency medical communication services in natural disaster areas where the telecommunications facility has been seriously damaged, an ad hoc communication network backbone should be build to support emergency medical services. Combinations of requirements need to be considered before deciding on the best option. In the present study we have proposed a Low Altitude Platform consisting of tethered balloons combined with Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) 802.11 technology. To confirm that the suggested network would satisfy the emergency medical service requirements, a communications experiment, including performance service measurement, was carried out.

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Notes

  1. Application scripts make identical Application Programming Interface (API) calls to the network protocol stacks as real applications, causing the protocol stacks to perform as in a real situation.

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Acknowledgment

This research was granted by Asia Pacific Tele-Community (APT), HRD Program for Exchange of ICT Researchers and Engineers, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Japan. We would like to thank the other team members: Hariyo Santoso, Anggoro K. Widiawan, Heru Wijayanto, Sony Ari Yuniarto, and Daduk Merdika Mansur for their fully support during project implementation and intensive helpful discussion.

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Correspondence to Andri Qiantori.

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Qiantori, A., Sutiono, A.B., Hariyanto, H. et al. An Emergency Medical Communications System by Low Altitude Platform at the Early Stages of a Natural Disaster in Indonesia. J Med Syst 36, 41–52 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-010-9444-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10916-010-9444-9

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