A hybrid mesh, ad hoc, and sensor network for forest fire management

Abstract

In the context of forest fire management, wireless communication is an indispensable tool. It insures events information transmission and communication between fire defenders. Traditionally, cellular networks (CNs) are used during crisis. However due to the lack of population in far forests, CNs suffer from coverage problems. In addition, the experience has proved some reachability and capacity problems of CNs. In this paper, we propose a mesh and sensor network model as a wireless communication support for forest fire management. The sensor nodes (SNs) penetrate dangerous zones to aggregate events' data and to guide rescuers to safe paths. The mesh nodes (MNs) insure communication between rescuers, and data and video transfer. Our models are empowered by a multi-agent system (MAS) to enforce the autonomy of the nodes and a fuzzy logic model to guarantee the quality of service (QoS). The simulations have proved the efficiency of our models to help in the management of forest fire. © 2011 IEEE.