WIDENS project user questionnaire
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HelsinkiUniversity of Technology
Communications Laboratory
Introduction
WIDENS, WIreless DEployable Network System, is an international research project in the area of public safety communications and information systems involving European industries and universities. The project is supported by the European Commission under the IST Framework Program 6. The overall objective of the WIDENS project ( is to design, prototype and validate a high data-rate, rapidly deployable and scalable wireless ad-hoc communication system for future public safety, emergency and disaster applications.
The WIDENS rapidly deployable public safety networks will play an important role in future public safety communications. They could be deployed in the areas where there is no available communication infrastructure in order to support emergency or peacekeeping operations. The WIDENS system is an ad-hoc network that is optimized according to public safety user requirements. It will allow communication between different public safety users and permit sensor data collection while lacking a fixed infrastructure.
To be able to provide public safety end users such as firefighters, police, medical and rescue teams, a system that matches to their needs and is efficient and usable, it is essential to achieve better understanding of existing and future public safety end user requirements. This could be achieved with user studies carried out in WIDENS project. The results of WIDENS international user studies on user requirements will be organized in a systematic form and translated into WIDENS technical system requirements and parameters for system design and simulations. The questionnaire covers different aspects of user requirements such as reference scenarios, type of information, user interface, topology, services and applications. With the help of these aspects the questionnaire is an attempt to reconstruct abstract emergency scenarios.
We appreciate your willingness to take the time to assist us in conducting the study in order to develop a communication system answering to the demands of the future. Please feel free to inform your peers about the questionnaire.
Please note: Do not give any information that you or your peers might find confidential.
Please begin by filling in some
professional data.
Agency/organization:
Professional position:
Main responsibility:
Years of experience:
Country:
Please specify briefly your role within the organization:
1. Information, services and applications
1.1 Information
Considering the type(s) and content of information that is valuable to exchange as part of your work, today and/or in the future, what styles of data transmission do you think are important to your work? What kind of INFORMATION do you need? You may check more than one, and may select as generally or specifically as you like.
VOICE
DATA (All below)
Medical data:
PatientProfessionalOther, specify:
Environmental data:
Geographical data
Distribution of resources (e.g. water, fuel)
Other, specify:
Biometrical data:
FingerprintsFace image Hand geometry
IrisOther, specify:
Command control data:
Short message
Text messageVoice message
Visual signOther, specify:
Other, specify:
SENSOR produced information (All below)
Wearable sensors:
Vital activity
External
ImageTemperature
RadiationChemical contamination
Other, specify:
Fixed sensors
Other, specify:
Other, specify:
1.2 Prioritization of information and services
Please arrange the list of services by writing a number according to the priority that each service should have (1-6 with 1 asthe most important). Do not rate any services which are unnecessary for your work. Feel free to add more services or any additional information which comes to mind, in order of importance e.g.: Recorded Video Data - surveillance camera, video-conference.
DATA, INFORMATION TRANSFER
SHORT MESSAGES (SMS) (Voice, commands, information notes)
STATIC IMAGES
REAL-TIME VOICE
REAL-TIME VIDEO COMMUNICATIONS
RECORDED VIDEO DATA
2. Interoperability
2.1 In a response situation, what is typically the configuration of the team leader?
PedestrianCar
TruckAircraft
2.2 Can it be considered that all Team Leaders are under Professional Mobile Radio coverage?
YESNONot Applicable
2.2 a) If NO, which is the maximum distance between the Team Leader and the Professional Mobile Radio cover?
Some kilometers
Some 10 kilometers
More than 50 kilometers
2.3 Are SMS messages and telemetry/remote control data centralized at WIDENS network level before being communicated to/from external entities?
YESNO
3. Security
3.1In the scenario that twogroups from the same organization should communicate during a crisis(e.g Firebrigade 1 and Firebrigade 2; your own organization), what would the arrangement of communication between these two entities be? (See Fig. 3.1)
Direct communication between Firebrigade 1 and 2 (in red)
Indirect Communication through the control room (in green)
This type of communication is not applicable
Figure 3.1
3.2In the two above cases (direct or indirect communications), do you think it is necessary to (you may select more than one):
Authenticate the equipment Only authorized equipment are allowed to communicate.
Authenticate the people Only authorized people are allowed to communicate
Provide confidentiality of the communications Encryption
3.3 In the scenario that two groups from different organizations should communicate during a crisis(e.g. Firebrigade and Police; yours and another), what would the arrangement of communication between these two entities be? (See Fig. 3.2)
Direct communication between e.g. firemen and policemen (in red)
Indirect communication through the control room (in green)
This type of communication is not applicable
Fig. 3.2
3.4 In the two above cases (direct or indirect communications), do you think it is necessary to (you may select more than one):
Authenticate the equipment Only authorized equipment are allowed to communicate.
Authenticate the people Only authorized people are allowed to communicate.
Provide confidentiality of the communications Encryption
3.5.1Would the scenario be possible that one person from one organization (e.g Police) communicates using the network of another organization (e.g Firebrigade) in order to exchange information with its own organization? (See Fig. 3.3, communication in red)
YESNO
3.5.2 Would such a capability be desirable to your organization?
YES NO
3.5.3 If YES to either above, which restrictions should be
applied to this person?
Please, detail.
Figure 3.3
4. User interface
To be able to take full advantage of the new services and applications they need to be presented in a useable fashion. Maybe firefighters could wear an intelligent helmet with a screen offering video image (Fig.2) or information from wearable sensors measuring for example radiation. Or maybe it would be more practical to get fingerprints shown on a laptop or a pda (Fig.3,4,5). Below are just a few examples how information can be presented.
For your working environment, what style(s) of equipment do you think would be functional and practical? You may check more than one.
Head mounted display:
SpectaclesHelmetOther, specify:
Nomadic:
Notebook Other, specify:
Mobile:
PDAOther, specify:
Fixed
LaptopDesktop PCOther, specify:
Fig. 7 is to give you an idea how the display of information could look like. On the map you might see the location of peers, communication between peers and maybe even some information on the status of your equipment, e.g. oxygen level.
Do you find this type of display useful? Select one:YES NO
Fig. 7 Example of information display.
5. Typical scenarios and emergency situations
The aim of this part of the questionnaire is to identify the most appropriate emergency situations with the environments, user groups, number of users and mobility of users. This gives us information on how many users the network should serve in different situations and how to optimize it for different emergency situations.
We have assumed that there are four types of environments: indoor, urban, suburban and rural. Mobility of users has been assumed as fixed (none), pedestrian, vehicular (cars, ambulances etc.), aeronautical (helicopters, plains).
Type of emergency / Environment(indoor – urban – suburban – rural)
and size (in m^2) / Number of users from your organization / field of work / Estimated mobility (none – pedestrian – vehicular – aeronautic)
Example: Plane crash in a forest / Rural – 0.2 Km^2 / 50 / Pedestrian
Indoor -
Urban -
Suburban -
Rural -
Please fill in Table 3 specifying each category, suggesting one example for each environment (e.g. indoor, urban, suburban, rural). A few examples on emergency situations that you can use in this part of the questionnaire: plane crash, industrial accident, forest fire, earthquake, flood and terrorist attack. Please note that these are only examples, you are free to create your own. The first row is an example to show how to fill in the table.
Thank-you for completing our questionnaire. Are you willing to participate in further discussions? YES, contact information:
NO
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