The Filipino government is implementing a new Broadband Wireless System for Disaster Operations, provided by OKI and based on the group’s media server.
The country’s Department of Science and Technology’s Information and Communications Technology Office (DOST-ICTO) - together with its research partners Ateneo de Manila University and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company - will use the system for trial studies involving building resilient information and telecommunication systems for use in the event of disasters.
In the previous year alone, natural disasters in the Philippines included Typhoon Haiyan, known locally as typhoon Yolanda, the deadliest Philippine typhoon on record, and a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that caused great destruction in Bohol province.
In response, DOST-ICTO Ateneo de Manila University spent considerable time looking for various ways to address communication problems resulting from damaged communication networks caused by natural disasters.
Efforts focused on the area one-seg technology, which broadcasts video, voice and data to a specific area. Both an IPTV applied fixed network and an area one-seg wireless network were installed at Ateneo de Manila University’s Ateneo Innovation Centre. Based on the theme of broadband wireless for disaster operations, the decision was made to pursue research on resilient networks and reconfigurable information systems for rapidly deployable disaster response.
Undertaken as part of Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) programs to develop human resources, this research was directed by Department of Science and Technology - Information and Communications Technology Office, including Ateneo de Manila University, PLDT, Keio University, OKI, and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. OKI built the trial broadband wireless for disaster operations.
This system is based on OKI Media Server, OKI’s IP video delivery system, which delivers disaster information using IPTV STB for TV and one-seg transmitters for mobile terminals. The system enables transfers of high-quality video of a disaster area and related information via IP networks, delivering video, voice, and data to the affected network area via area one-seg broadcasting or WiFi networks.
