Using Wireless Sensor Networks for Fire Rescue Applications: Requirements and Challenges

Research in wireless sensor networks has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. Real applications, such as habitat monitoring, environmental and structural monitoring, start to work in practical. In this paper, we argue that wireless sensor network is a very promising technology for fire rescue applications. First, we abstract four specific requirements of this application, including accountability of firefighters, real-time monitoring, intelligent scheduling and resource allocation, and Web-enabled service and integration. To meet these requirements, we propose FireNet, a wireless sensor network architecture for this specific type of application. Based on these requirements and the characteristics of wireless sensor networks, several research challenges in terms of new protocols as well as hardware and software support are examined. Finally, we conclude that wireless sensor network is a very powerful and suitable tool to be applied in this application