The serval mesh: A platform for resilient communications in disaster & crisis

Abstract

The challenges of many crisis communication needs can be summarised as: the need to allow civilians to safely communicate with one another, and with the outside world, without reliance on any domestic terrestrial infrastructure, or on the import of physical materials. Therefore, any solution should place high precedence on infrastructure-independent operation, and the re-use of existing hardware technology. Expanding on this concept, we present a prototype solution, the Serval Mesh, and briefly discuss the design decisions that were made, and summarise the trial and pilots conducted to date. Together, these show that the Serval Mesh is well placed to provide secure, resilient mobile communications services in a variety of situations, and in conjunction with the air-droppable UHF-packet-radio enabled Serval Mesh Extender concept, to provide such services over longer distances than is possible for Wi-Fi based mobile mesh networks. Thus we argue by example that it is possible to enable effective use of mobile phones during periods of infrastructure-deprivation.