Communicating in Disasters

The Internet has its 1950′s roots in the disaster scenarios of nuclear war, no wonder that it together with mobile data displayed a resilience during the disaster in Japan over a month ago.

I have followed Gerhard Fasol of Eurotechnology KK for a while now, with his valuable and fascinating insights into the Japanese market. He writes:

“Japanese operators are learning from the experience and are hardening communications and broadcasting systems. Understanding communications during disasters is essential for business continuity.
It has been reported that mobile communications peak demand during the March 11 disaster increased to about 50-60 times normal volume, leading to a break-down or switch-off of mobile voice communications, and to an extended near-break down of mobile email.
Twitter and social networks showed strength and resilience, as did internet based communications”. 

I heard much the same scenario from Ericsson’s Martin Körling when he presented to SICS (Swedish Institute of Computer Science) at their Open Day, he was in Tokyo when the Tsunami struck and Facebook via mobile became for a while his communications lifeline.

I have roots in the aerospace industry, where critical functions are replicated with heterogeneous systems (no single point of failure, multiple solutions to scenarios) so am very positive to a future with ‘Hetnets’.

Connectivity has moved from the ‘nice to have’ to ‘must have’ and in situations like March 11, a lifeline. There are great opportunities to make it one of the most resilient parts of a society’s infrastructure.

You can find Gerhard’s full presentation, which he made at the 7th Korea Communications Conference in Seoul on May 12, 2011,  here:

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