Combining Mobile XMPP Entities and Cloud Services for Collaborative Post-Disaster Management in Hybrid Network Environments

Crises such as the Fukushima incident in Japan showed the demand for flexible and easy-to-use monitoring and communication systems to support post-disaster management (i.e. the organization of actions in the follow-up of disasters), especially when critical infrastructure is affected. Such systems can effectively only be realized with a merging of various device classes and the integration of mobile actors and wireless communication technologies to provide the necessary flexibility. This article introduces a system design that combines portable hand-held devices as well as autonomous sensors through XMPP with the flexibility of cloud services to support post-disaster management. This combination provides the communication between the different involved parties (e.g., rescue teams, relief forces, NGOs) and enables a global view on sensed data through the use of cloud-based storage and analysis services. Along with a discussion about requirements and a description of appropriate solutions and initial evaluations, we present new insights on the practical appliance of XMPP and potential enhancements for XMPP-based real life collaboration applications in hybrid (ad hoc and infrastructure) network scenarios. We also show that resource constrained devices can run the XMPP protocol to extend smartphones with sensors or to connect different device classes in a seamless way.