Due to the changing climate, natural disasters are on the rise; recent floods in Spain, hurricane Helene in the US, wildfires in Canada, and flooding in Brazil are just a sample of what the world has faced in 2024. Being able to quickly and effectively respond to these disasters is vital to save lives. The foundation of this response is ensuring emergency responders can easily communicate and share information in real time, meaning incident commanders and multiple response agencies can effectively coordinate their efforts. Because most of these natural disasters usually effect the traditional communications grids by damaging cables, disabling towers, or by shear nature, just become overwhelmed with traffic, 5G and wireless WAN technology can provide a valuable solution.
5G on the front line of emergencies
Seconds are crucial in emergencies, and responding and acting as quickly as possible is of the highest priority. Following a natural disaster, wired infrastructure can often be disrupted, leading to problems communicating between responders and coordinators. In these cases, cellular networks are the solution. One of the key benefits of 5G is its high bandwidth and low latency, enabling front-line responders to share information directly from the scene. This insight can help coordinate the response or give hospitals advanced warnings on a patient’s condition, helping them more effectively care for them.
Emergency services are one of the most high-pressure jobs, so they must have confidence in their digital or physical tools. The integration of devices such as video cameras, critical comms, and drones revolutionise how first responders operate. However, for integration to be seamless, they must all be connected to a network via a 5G router. 5G connectivity makes responders more agile and flexible when dealing with emergencies. Therefore, the 5G routers they are using must also be suited to the environment. A ruggedised router ensures these workers can rely on their connectivity network regardless of what extreme environment they may be in.
Supporting command and control centres
Command and control centres allow emergency response teams to operate on the ground, meaning they can adapt and respond quickly, reliably and efficiently to changing conditions when faced with a crisis. However, multiple agencies needing to work from the same location, each with their own data demands and security protocols, can be hard to manage. 5G networks provide the necessary bandwidth and security to enable police, ambulances and fire and rescue services to all operate from the same network connection over network segments that allow them to enforce their own security and privacy policies. These sites are also important after the disaster has passed. For example, organisations like REACT, the British Red Cross, and EPRR need connectivity to help coordinate emergency shelters, distribute supplies and provide ongoing care to those affected.
Smart vehicles need a smart network
In-vehicle connectivity gives emergency responders greater insight into how resources are being used, helping improve coordination, communication and response to emergencies. For example, Wyoming Highway Patrol (WHP) uses Ericsson’s Cradlepoint dual-sim routers and NetCloud Manager to ensure consistent and reliable in-vehicle connectivity even in remote and mountainous terrain. This is critical in supporting live camera footage from 5 in-vehicle video camera systems, monitoring vehicle condition, and managing accident scenes.
A critical part of this is sustaining the security of mobile networks. Due to sensitive data being shared, whether it is patient information or evidence from crime scenes, ensuring a secure network is crucial. Using cellular networks that use SASE principles can help ensure the wrong people don’t access data and that the network is secure regardless of what external devices are added.
The future of disaster response: drones
Drone use is becoming increasingly widespread across the healthcare and emergency response industries. Recently, the NHS Foundation Trust has launched a pilot scheme in which drones will be used to fly blood samples between hospitals in London to provide the best possible patient care. Therefore, the speed, bandwidth and reliability of cellular networks must be able to support the drones when carrying out tasks such as these.
In disaster situations, responders can use drones to live-stream high-quality videos. This enables operators to cover a greater area, helping teams to deliver medicine and essential supplies and identify the most at-risk areas. Likewise, drones can be used to assess damage to buildings or get an inside view of how wildfires are developing, providing valuable insight to responders while keeping them safe. However, drones need a reliable, low latency network that can handle the volume of data being transmitted for this to work.
Securing the future of disaster response with 5G
As the frequency and severity of natural disasters grow, the demand for resilient 5G connectivity has never been more necessary. Implementing 5G connectivity has transformed front-line units, enabling instant communication and quicker responses. The ability to use new technology, such as drones, is enabling front line responders to operate in the most challenging environments.
As we look towards the future, 5G is set to redefine emergency response. In situations where every second counts, high speed 5G and wireless WAN technology will enable us to adapt to any emergency situation, and help front-line responders overcome any challenge.
Darryl Brick
Darryl Brick is VP Partner Sales EMEA at Ericsson. With over 20 years of experience in the IT industry, Darryl has held many leadership positions in vendor, distribution and reseller organisations including HP, Imperva, ServiceNow and Infoblox.
