Connectivity Innovation Network strengthens disaster preparedness

Several new research projects, developed through the Connectivity Innovation Network (CIN), are paving the way for first-of-their-kind technologies that aim to strengthen disaster preparedness, improve power resilience and secure critical communications across NSW.

CIN was co-established by NSW Telco Authority and the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer in 2021 to accelerate technology development for emergency services, government and communities. At a Stage 1 Showcase event held at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in August, attendees heard about some of CIN’s proof-of-concept projects, which are a collaborative effort between researchers, industry experts and government agencies to tackle some of the state’s most complex connectivity challenges.

“These technologies are not just research concepts — they are practical, first-of-their-kind solutions designed to help emergency services respond faster and keep communities safe,” said CIN Director Dr Ian Oppermann.

“From real-time disaster sensing to platforms that improve power and network resilience, these projects show how research and collaboration can deliver tangible benefits for NSW.”

Sensing for disasters

CIN’s Sensing for Disasters Solutions initiative, delivered in collaboration with the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN), emerged from the discussions and outcomes of the inaugural Regional Connectivity Symposium held in Lismore in September 2023. Following a call for proposals, CIN awarded three sensing projects designed to enhance early detection of floods and bushfires, addressing the drawbacks of current sensing technologies — such as weather radar, water gauges and satellite imaging — which require substantial investment and regular maintenance, and prove insufficient when rapid response and precision are required (as demonstrated during the Lismore floods and similar crises).

The first of these projects, helmed by Professor Jinhong Yuan from UNSW Sydney, applies a new integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) technique for environment and disaster monitoring. The project seeks to make use of existing wireless communication infrastructure by deploying a UNSW-developed waveform, dubbed orthogonal delay-Doppler division multiplexing (ODDM) modulation, which has been demonstrated to enable simultaneous communications and sensing in real time. What’s more, it can achieve both using the same infrastructure — using shared radio frequency hardware, spectrum and signal processing — and it may reduce interference compared to standard techniques.

The second project covers geospatial sensing, and is being led by Dr Wanchun Liu from The University of Sydney. Liu explained that, with NSW under seemingly constant threat of floods and bushfires, we need to be able to estimate when disasters are coming — through nowcasting, or short-term forecasting for early warnings and evacuations. The problem is that existing sensor coverage is uneven, plus sensors can be faulty, prone to malfunction, and damaged in the very disasters that they are designed to predict.

The solution, according to Liu, is to combine meteorological data, remote sensing data and terrain data, and to feed this data into AI in order for it to predict an impending disaster. The AI could even be trained with data sourced from disasters in different regions, Liu noted, bearing in mind that these may share common physics but differ in drivers. For example, if AI compares fires in California and NSW, it can be taught to pick up on those drivers that may be comparable and to combine these with its knowledge of general physics. The result, theoretically, is a comprehensive data fabric for bushfire and flood protection.

The third project is the development of a real-time, wireless rain gauge, led by Dr Kai Wu from UTS. Wu noted that accurate, real-time rainfall sensing is essential for early warning and management of flash flooding, but current rainfall sensors have certain drawbacks — including maintenance requirements, subjectivity to wear and tear, environmental degradation, and reduced responsiveness during flash floods. Wu’s team has thus proposed a standalone sensor that uses wireless downlink signals from mobile networks, in combination with machine learning algorithms, to estimate rainfall intensity in real time.

The proposed sensor will be plug and play, Wu said, meaning it could be rapidly deployed across existing mobile coverage areas with no installation or alignment needed. Its use of ambient wireless signals means there will be no moving or exposed parts, making it inherently robust to environmental wear. Importantly, the sensor’s use of continuous signal analysis will enable real-time rainfall estimation with a high level of accuracy, rather than being accumulation-based. Wu’s team is currently working on a prototype based around the Raspberry Pi single-board computer, with software and firmware development well underway.

Power resilience

CIN’s Power Resilience Platform is designed to enhance the resilience of the NSW Telco Authority’s Public Safety Network (PSN) — a critical communications system used by frontline emergency services, government agencies and essential services across NSW. The initiative aims to improve the resilience of network infrastructure during disasters, by providing real-time monitoring of the power supply at individual sites, predictive analytics for potential disruptions and proactive measures to maintain network functionality. It is being developed in direct response to priorities raised by participants across the energy, telco and emergency services sectors at CIN’s Power Resilience Symposium in early 2023.

So how can we improve the resilience of telecommunication systems during emergencies? While disasters can obviously lead to power or telecom outages, Professor Wenjing Jia explained that drones can be deployed in advance to map every part of a network, as well as the surrounding terrain, to feed into a digital twin. This digital twin can be shared with all relevant agencies, who can use its clear visuals to track and even predict any outages, allowing for battery back-up planning if needed.

For his part of the project, Dr Vinh Bui from Southern Cross University is developing an integrated platform for sharing multimodal data of NSW power infrastructure, by leveraging drone imagery, AI-based analysis, mixed reality and secure data sharing. The platform is expected to support proactive maintenance through situational awareness and historical trends, and will also be trained in anomaly detection when it comes to towers and hazards; by teaching the system what ‘normal’ looks like, it will be able to identify what is abnormal. A pilot study has already been conducted in South Gundurimba, NSW, with the research team now seeking to expand testing across diverse geographic and weather conditions.

But what happens if a base station is disabled during a disaster? This is particularly a problem in remote areas, said Dr Fenghui Ren from the University of Wollongong, as it makes it difficult for rescue and repair workers in these areas to gain real-time disaster information — including information on the state of the base stations themselves. Ren noted that traditional manual dispatch struggles with rapidly changing conditions, variable resource availability and shifting task priorities; there is therefore a need for an automated dispatch system to serve as an alternative. Ren proposed the use of software agents, claiming they are capable of reasoning, decision-making and learning individually or collaboratively in order to achieve their goals — all without human intervention. Such agents would theoretically be able to adapt dynamically to evolving conditions, changing their plans based on real-time updates and thus accelerating emergency response efforts, according to Ren.

Conclusion

The Stage 1 Showcase served as something of a halfway milestone for these projects, with final outcomes expected by the end of 2025. The event marked the second wave of innovations funded through CIN, with NSW Telco Authority Managing Director Kylie De Courteney saying the projects are demonstrative of ongoing connectivity innovation.

“Connectivity is a basic need, and reliable and secure networks help save lives,” De Courteney said.

“By investing in pioneering proof-of-concept research, we’re ensuring NSW remains at the forefront of innovation that strengthens our state’s communications infrastructure and disaster preparedness.”

Image credit: iStock.com/davidf