Sara Jayousi

SALICE project: Satellite-Assisted Localization and Communication Systems for Emergency Services

Restoring the connectivity in the emergency areas and providing NAV/COM services able to support and coordinate the rescue teams represent two of the main telecommunication needs for efficient emergency situation management. The SALICE (Satellite-Assisted LocalIzation and Communication system for Emergency services) Project aimed at identifying the system architecture and the most suitable solutions to be adopted in the future integrated reconfigurable NAV/COM systems and to analyze their feasibility in realistic emergency scenarios. The article analyzes the proposed strategies and the most significant project results in pursuing both the global coverage of the emergency areas and the development of a reconfigurable and cooperative NAV/COM system.

Cooperative Delay Diversity in Hybrid Satellite/Terrestrial DVB-SH System

In this paper we study simple and feasible cooperative relaying strategies which rely on the introduction of the Delay Diversity technique in a DVB-SH compliant hybrid satellite/terrestrial network. These strategies are investigated in a public emergency scenario where the adoption of a hybrid network combined with the cooperative diversity techniques guarantees the connection between the incident area and the external areas: particularly, the drawbacks of the Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) propagation are mitigated. The proposed schemes are analysed and compared, highlighting the assumptions required and the simulation results with respect to the satellite-only and the terrestrial-only cases.

SALICE - Satellite-Assisted LocalIzation and Communication systems for Emergency services

This paper describes the SALICE (Satellite-Assisted LocalIzation and Communication systems for Emergency services) project, an Italian National Research Project which has been recently funded by the Italian Ministry of Research; the SALICE project aims at identifying the solutions which can be adopted in an integrated reconfigurable NAV/COM device and studying its feasibility in realistic scenarios. The first goal of the SALICE project is the definition of the baseline scenarios and system architecture which will allow the design of new and effective solutions for what concerns integrated communications and localization techniques, Software Defined Radio (SDR) NAV/COM devices, satellite and HAPS integration in the rescue services, heterogeneous solutions in the area of intervention (IAN, Incident Area Network). Particular attention will be devoted to the optimization of the resources management strategies and to the cooperative localization of rescue entities (persons and means) that intervene in emergency situations.

Hybrid satellite/terrestrial cooperative relaying strategies for DVB-SH based communication systems

The integration of satellite and terrestrial systems in a hybrid network permits to benefit from both systems, overcoming the drawbacks of a Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) propagation. The purpose of this paper is to study simple cooperative relaying strategies which rely on the introduction of the Delay Diversity (DD) technique in a DVB-SH compliant hybrid satellite/terrestrial network with the aim of improving the performance of the network. The application of this strategy represents a promising solution to guarantee communication also in public emergency situations, such as the ones caused by fire, earthquake, flood or explosion. We investigated the pros and cons of the proposed scheme, comparing the assumptions which are required and the simulation results with respect to the satellite-only and the terrestrial-only systems.

Emergency satellite communications: research and standardization activities

Space communications is an ideal candidate to handle critical and emergency situations arising on a regional to global scale, provided there is effective integration among them. The article presents a review of solutions offered by space communication systems for early warning and emergency communication services. It includes an up-to-date review of public research and standardization activity in the field, with a specific focus on mass alert. The main technical issues and challenges are also discussed along with the cutting-edge research from the scientific community.

Cooperative Strategies of Integrated Satellite/Terrestrial Systems for Emergencies

In this paper some simple cooperative relaying strategies which rely on the exploitation of the Delay Diversity technique and the Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC) receive diversity algorithm are proposed for a DVB-SH compliant hybrid satellite/terrestrial network. These strategies are investigated in a public emergency scenario where the adoption of an integrated heterogeneous network combined with the cooperative diversity techniques guarantees the connection between the incident area and the external areas: particularly, the drawbacks of the Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) propagation are mitigated. The NAV/COM capabilities of the cooperative DD algorithm in a DVB-SH Single Frequency Network (SFN) are discussed, highlighting the suitability of these schemes in emergency situation management. A comparison analysis of the proposed schemes is performed, describing the assumptions required and the simulation results with respect to the satellite-only and the terrestrial-only cases.

Flexible heterogeneous satellite-based architecture for enhanced quality of life applications

The future pervasive communication ecosystem can improve and enhance the quality of our everyday lives by increasing comfort and safety perception, and improving interaction and conditions of activities: remarkable quality and performance will be afforded by the synergistic use of communication, positioning, and monitoring techniques, provided by means of meshed heterogeneous architectures based on satellite and terrestrial segments. In such a scenario satellite communication will represent the missing link of the evolution of services. This article aims to describe a flexible architecture that could be adopted in the future system and discussing the open points in the development of the system as well as of its single building blocks.

TESHEALTH: An integrated satellite/terrestrial system for e-health services

This paper aims at investigating the integrated satellite/terrestrial interactive e-health system, which has been developed within the framework of the European Space Agency (ESA) project TElemedicine Services for HEALTH (TESHEALTH) in collaboration among industry, academia, and hospitals. The implementation of a secure, scalable and flexible heterogeneous network capable of providing the appropriate infrastructure, is analysed, focusing on the end to end QoS solution, that satisfies the quality level required by the telemedicine applications. Moreover the developed interactive Service Platform, which aims at sharing health information among the different applications and services (Self-Care and Assisted Services) and includes realtime audio and video interactions among patients, specialists and health service providers, is described.

Future Wireless Systems for Human Bond Communications

In the near future the capability of the human beings to communicate sensations is going to be enhanced by incorporating the five sensory features in the messages and allowing more expressive and holistic sensory information exchange through communication techniques. The human bond communication (HBC) is currently a vision, but it is expected to become true. The objective of this paper is to give an overview of the potentiality and the main challenges for the adoption of HBC in the existing and future wireless systems. Starting from the HBC main features, a flexible architecture that could be considered for the development of these systems is described, highlighting how wireless systems could eventually boost the HBC adoption in different scenarios. The security and privacy issues are presented, focusing on the requirements and the new threats identification and proposing some possible solutions. Finally, some potential application contexts are analyzed and the open key issues for HBC implementation are addressed.

Satellite assisted delivery of alerts: A standardization activity within ETSI

The fast and efficient delivery of alerts to citizens in case of natural or manmade disasters is a crucial element in the crisis reaction chain. Current procedures and practices are however inhomogeneous and rely partially on outdated technologies. The increasing availability of new information channels suggests that the exploitation of available communications technologies can provide a consistent improvement in the alerting process. These considerations have led the ETSI Working Group SES/SatEC (Satellite Earth Stations and Systems/Satellite Emergency Communications) to initiate a standardization activity in order to define a multi-technology alert encapsulation protocol called MAMES (Multiple Alert Message Encapsulation over Satellite). This paper reports on the motivations and the approach followed within SES/SatEC in the definition of MAMES.