WiMAX for Emergency Services: An Empirical Evaluation

WiMAX, as a Broadband Wireless Access technology for Metropolitan Area Networks, supporting fixed and mobile terminals, is very promising for Next Generation Networks. Emergency Services can also strongly benefit from WiMAX features, allowing the exploitation of novel application scenarios and business models. This paper presents a set of scenarios, such as Environmental Monitoring, Telemedicine and Fire Prevention, defined and implemented in several European testbeds, interconnected by the European research network GEANT 2, in the framework of the WEIRD project. In particular, we focus our attention on the scenario implemented in the Portuguese testbed - Fire Prevention - providing a detailed description about the testbed planning, implementation and evaluation.