If the earthquake severely damaged cellphone towers and severed fiber-optic cables and power lines that supply the electricity needed to run Internet servers, millions of residents suddenly might be unable to communicate via text messages or connect to online to navigate, and getting crucial information from authorities about the emergency would become difficult.
With supermarkets increasingly reliant upon the Internet to do just-in-time stocking of their shelves, local communities quickly might also run out of food.
For these reasons, a just-issued report by the office of Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti advocates creating a backup: a citywide, solar-powered WiFi network that would keep residents online despite the catastrophe.
“This low-powered system could serve as a way to maintain communication through email and texting, should electrical system failures cause other communications systems to fail,” the report explains.
Other parts of the country are developing such systems as well. In Hoboken, N.J., where communications were disrupted by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, volunteers are crowd-sourcing a backup called MileMesh. The latter utilizes a technology called wireless mesh networking, in which network access is provided by scores of small, inexpensive radio transmitters that act both as wireless routers and relays that connect to one another. MileMesh’s organizers are aiming to get at least some of the volunteers to invest in $500 solar panels to power their routers.
Building a solar-powered backup system is critical, because keeping commercial cell towers online could prove difficult if a quake knocks out power lines that cross the San Andreas Fault. The towers are too energy-hungry to make it practical to supply them with solar panels or backup generators for very long, the report said.
Read more at Discovery News
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