{"id":280,"date":"2017-06-09T13:45:10","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T08:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nocturnalknight.com\/?p=280"},"modified":"2017-06-09T13:45:10","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T08:15:10","slug":"internet-fast-lane-for-first-responders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/3.10.118.248\/?p=280","title":{"rendered":"Internet fast lane for first responders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time is the enemy of first responders, and communication delays can cost lives. Unfortunately, during natural disasters and other crises, communications — both cellular and internet — are often overloaded by friends and family reaching out to those in affected areas. That extra network traffic has in the past impacted the ability of first responders send and receive data.
\nResearchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology are testing a new protocol — developed with funding from the National Science Foundation and U.S. Ignite — that will allow first responders and emergency managers to send data-intensive communications over the internet regardless of the amount of other traffic eating up the available bandwidth.
\nThe protocol — dubbed MultiNode Label Routing, or MNLR — runs below existing internet protocols, allowing other traffic to run simultaneously. Rather than using traditional transmission protocols, it uncovers routes based on the routers\u2019 labels, which in turn carry the structural and connectivity information among routers.
\nIt also features an immediate failover mechanism so that if a link or node fails, it uses an alternate path as soon as the failure is detected, which also speeds transmission.
\nAccording to Nirmala Shenoy, professor in RIT\u2019s Information Sciences and Technologies Department and principal investigator of the project, the protocol is designed to give transmissions over MNLR priority over other traffic so that critical data isn\u2019t lost or delayed.\u00a0 \u201cBecause MNLR literally bypasses the internet protocol and other routing protocols, it can put other traffic on the Internet to a lower priority,\u201d she said.
\nAccording to the RIT team, the protocol\u2019s ability to prioritize transmissions solves problems encountered during recent major hurricanes when first-responders and emergency managers had difficulty transmitting large but critical data files such as LIDAR maps and video chats.
\n\u201cSharing data on the internet during an emergency is like trying to drive a jet down the street at rush hour,\u201d Jennifer Schneider, RIT professor and co-principal investigator, told\u00a0RIT news<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cA lot of the critical information is too big and data heavy for the existing internet pipeline.\u201d
\nAnother communications challenge during disasters is damage to network routers.\u00a0 Accordingly, the team built capabilities into the MNLR protocol to get around routing limitations of the major existing internet protocols.\u00a0 Specifically, the team included a faster failover mechanism so that if a router link fails, the transmission will be automatically rerouted more quickly than existing protocols support.\u00a0 In testing the protocol during a link failure, the team found that MNLR recovered in less than 30 seconds, while Border Gateway Protocol required about 150 seconds.
\nWhile the team is continuing to refine the protocol, Shenoy acknowledged that deployment of MNLR will face two hurdles.\u00a0 First, the protocol has to be broadly adopted into current routers.\u00a0 \u201cThat depends on equipment vendors,\u201d she said.
\nSecondly, heavy use of MNLR during an emergency will impact other internet traffic.\u00a0 While most service providers and even customers are likely to be OK with that, service agreements will likely need to be modified to account for variable service during emergencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time is the enemy of first responders, and communication delays can cost lives. Unfortunately, during natural disasters and other crises, communications — both cellular and internet — are often overloaded by friends and family reaching out to those in affected areas. That extra network traffic has in the past impacted the ability of first responders … <\/p>\n

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