Research on a Vehicle-Mounted Emergency Communication System Using BeiDou Regional Short Message Communication (RSMC) for Firefighting Operations in Forest Areas without a Public Network

The low coverage of public networks in pristine forest areas prevents on-site firefighters from communicating directly with remote command centers during forest fires, reducing firefighting efficiency. In this study, we designed a vehicle-mounted emergency communication system Using BeiDou RSMC (Regional Short Message Communication) for firefighting operations in forest areas without a public network to establish a satellite communication network and Zigbee self-organizing network technology to establish a local self-organizing network. Beidou RSMC is a satellite communication service developed and operated independently by China, and its signals now cover the entire globe. The combination of these two components ensures emergency communication in the event of a fire in a forest area without public network coverage. The performance of the system was tested by simulating a fire, and it was able to establish a reliable communication link between the firefighters on the scene and the remote command center in the absence of a public network. The proposed system solves the emergency communication problem that arises when a fire occurs in a forest area without a public network, enabling the remote command center to monitor fire information and dispatch various resources in real time, thereby improving firefighting efficiency and reducing casualties.