ProximAid: Proximal adhoc networking to aid emergency response

Mobile adhoc networking is considered as one of the key technologies to support communication when different emergencies or disasters strike. Unfortunately, the majority of existing adhoc networking solutions are based on proprietary hardware and software which severely limits their use by only those competent authorities that are well trained and properly equipped. As a consequence, patients/victims and bystanders are excluded from this communication network. This work details a novel adhoc networking solution that is purposefully designed to operate on consumer electronics such as smartphones, tablets and laptops that support the WiFi-Direct standard. The networking solution proposed is shown to be both highly scalable, robust and energy efficient due to the distributed and purely local operation of all its functionalities. The proposed solution is implemented and tested on Android devices and experimental results demonstrate its favourable features.