Introducing participatory fairness in emergency communication can support self-organization for survival

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Network Engineering
• Disaster Management

Background:

• Disaster-stricken communities need reliable communication for self-organized rescue when infrastructure fails.
• Power outages during disasters create a digital divide due to unequal phone battery charges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a value-based emergency communication system ensuring participatory fairness and equal communication opportunities.
• To design an infrastructure-less mobile network that dynamically adapts to battery disparities.

Main Methods:

• Developed an infrastructure-less emergency communication network protocol.
• Implemented dynamic hub assignment prioritizing high-battery phones.
• Utilized agent-based simulations to compare network performance against traditional mesh networks.
• Employed the Gini coefficient to evaluate fairness and network lifetime.

Main Results:

• The proposed network dynamically assigns high-battery phones as hubs, adapting topology based on charge levels.
• The system self-organizes for robustness against link failures and device departures.
• Comparative simulations demonstrated the novelty of the mobile protocol over mesh networks.
• Gini coefficient evaluation confirmed fairer participation and extended network lifetime.

Conclusions:

• The value-based emergency communication system promotes participatory fairness in disaster scenarios.
• The dynamic, infrastructure-less network enhances communication opportunities for all community members.
• This approach improves disaster resilience by ensuring equitable access to communication.