Inferring network infrastructural behaviour during disasters

Abstract

An unexpected increase in natural disasters has prompted a large interest in governments and organisations to utilise ICT for many different purposes such as preparation, impact mitigation, loss reduction and relief efforts. This paper presents initial work on studying disaster scenarios from device level perspective to characterise network infrastructural behaviour during extraordinary situations. We find connectivity challenges during disasters and observe sharp decline of quality metrics and loss of station quantity between ordinary and extraordinary time periods. We also make distinctions between usual and unusual behaviour seen during ordinary and extraordinary situations.