Disaster satellite communication experiments using WINDS and wireless mesh network

An unprecedented Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011, and serious damage occurred. The terrestrial network were damaged and to take contact with the affected area was very difficult. Satellite communication has the feature of disaster resistant, and satellite mobile phone became the precious communication means just as after the earthquake disaster. The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) built a broadband satellite line between the disaster preventions agencies and their dispatched team which worked on disaster response activities in the affected area using Wideband InterNetworking engineering test and Demonstration Satellite (WINDS). NICT researches and develops the resilient network against a disaster using wireless network and satellite network. Three types of earth stations for satellite communication were developed, fully-automatic transportable earth station, large-scale in-vehicle earth station and small mobile vehicle earth station. NICT carried out the disaster satellite communication experiments using those earth stations. One experiment was connected two wireless mesh network using satellite link and another was transmitted HDTV image from moving earth station.