In recent years, global warming and crustal activities have intensified the occurrence of natural disasters; coupled with man-made crises such as fires, chemical hazard spillovers and gas leaks, disasters have claimed thousands and millions of lives and tremendously harmed the local economy. To mitigate the effects of disastrous events and prevent further loss of life and property, a well-conceived on-site emergency response plan must be implemented to make rescue measures more effective and efficient.

But an effective emergency response always encompasses a range of complex measures dependent upon local circumstances and involves multiple rescue teams from different governmental/social institutions. First responders will risk sacrifices due to lake of environmental information or ineffective on-site communication. How to collect accurate on-site environmental data and how to enable real-time communication between cooperative rescue teams are the obstacles to achieving a successful post-disaster rescue. Thanks to the arrival of 5G communication technology, which features a high transmission rate and ultra-low latency, various modern IoT solutions now can be applied in disaster-affected areas where signal coverage is weak and on-site communication is difficult.

The Use of 5G Drones

Without understanding the on-site environment, blindly sending rescue teams to explore or perform rescue operations is likely to cause unnecessary sacrifices. Drones, equipped with 5G IoT modules, can replace the exploratory team to collect accurate on-site data by sharing real-time video through a high-definition camera from the sky, helping the command center and rescue teams implement their measures with informed details. Besides collecting visual information, drones with various sensors can aggregate on-site environmental parameters and share simultaneously with the command center, which will help strategy makers formulate appropriate and effective rescue strategies accordingly. Learning the on-site environment can also keep the rescue team from unknown dangers such as low oxygen levels and toxic gases. Besides, Drones with heat sensors also make remarkable contributions in searching survivors, especially in dense smoke areas where visibility is limited.

Highly Efficient Command Center

Time is everything in emergency response, and there must be a standardized communication platform on site to ensure that everything is carried out in a highly efficient and orderly manner. Especially after a major disaster like floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes, rescue teams from different specialized institutions will work cooperatively to support on-site rescue operations. By establishing a temporary 5G IoT command center, real-time audio or video conferences can be conducted between the command center and different rescue teams. And data collected from multiple sources can be organized and shared simultaneously with the command center and different rescue teams. Although rescue teams usually work distantly from each other, they can collaborate more efficiently through a systematic 5G IoT communication platform.

5G Telemedicine Support

Disasters are often accompanied by casualties, but the on-site staffing and the experience of the medical rescue team are often insufficient to cope with the medical needs at the scene. By supporting telemedicine, the 5G IoT solution can greatly reduce the pressure brought by the shortage of medical staff and allow the survivors to receive the best treatment possible. Through empowering the wireless communication capabilities of on-site medical equipment (such as biochemical analyzers, ventilators, ultrasonic scanners, etc.), the vital signs of the survivors can be shared and synchronized with the database of medical institutions outside the affected areas. Understanding the historical medical records of the survivors enables the first responders to implement more appropriate treatments. With the support of high-speed and low-latency 5G technology, the on-site medical teams can also conduct 4K/8K real-time video calls with experts outside the affected areas. Through the visual information learned from the video and the vital signs collected from the scene, experts can provide professional medical guidance to the first responders on the spot, allowing survivors to receive expert-level medical treatment.

5G Makes Emergency Response Securer and More Efficient

Due to the lack of information sharing and timely communication, conventional measures often lead to inefficient rescue and unnecessary casualties. Fibocom's 5G wireless communication modules capacitate on-site equipment to perform real-time 5G wireless data transmission with the command center and rescue teams. In mission-critical scenarios where time is the most important resource, multimedia and multi-channel real-time information sharing can effectively assist first responders to collect on-site information, allocate and organize rescuers and tasks, as well as provide medical assistance to survivors in a securer and more efficient way. 3G has changed the way people communicate, 4G has changed the way people live, and 5G will bring the true Internet of Everything to various industries, and revolutionize the way we interact with everyone and everything.

Fibocom FG150 (W)/FM150 (W)5G modules were launched in 2019 globally. Supporting 5G standalone network(SA) and non-standalone network (NSA) network architectures. It supports the 5G Sub 6 and mmwave bands, and is also compatible with LTE and WCDMA standards. This allows customers to quickly launch their 5g applications for commercial purposes in different network conditions without concerning investment in the initial stages of 5G construction.

Fibocom’s 5G modules have already been applied in various scenarios like 4K/8K HD live streaming, cloud office, Industrial 4.0, C-V2X, smart grid, smart security and other innovative applications, such as 5G mobile network PC, 5G HD video communication terminals, 5G electric power terminals, 5G connected devices and systems (wireless gateways, routers, CPE, SD-WAN), 5G smart dressing mirrors, 5G drones, 5G robots, 5G AR/VR, 5G cloud gaming terminals, 5GHD digital signage, and more.