Wireless Networks at the Service of effective First Response Work: the E-SPONDER Vision D. Vassiliadis, An. Garbi Department of Research and Programmes Management EXODUS S.A. 6-10 Farandaton Street, Athens (Greece) {dvas, angarbi}@exodussa.com G. Calarco, M. Casoni, A. Paganelli Department of Information Engineering University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (I) Via Vignolese, 905, Modena (Italy) {giorgio.calarco, maurizio.casoni, alessandro.paganelli}@unimore.it R. Morera, C.-M. Chen, M. Wódczak Telcordia Technologies, Inc. Applied Research One Telcordia Drive Piscataway, NJ 08854 {rmorera, cchen2, mwodczak}@telcordia.com Abstract—This paper presents the work that is currently performed in the E-SPONDER (FP7-242411) project. E- SPONDER is a suite of real-time data-centric technologies which will provide actionable information and communication support to first responders that act during normal and abnormal events (crises). This information will enable improved control and management, resulting in real time synchronization between forces on the ground (police, rescue, firefighters) and out-of- theater command and control centers (C&C). The approach guiding the E-SPONDER project is based on the fusion of variable forms of field-derived data within a central system which will then provide information analysis and decision support applications at designated C&C locations in order to provide in situ support to first responders that operate in Critical Infrastructures. Keywords: first responder, crisis event, command and control center, wireless network, security I. INTRODUCTION E-SPONDER addresses the operational challenges that involve better understanding of the complexity of large-scale disasters by identifying, prioritizing and, most-importantly, connecting the various heterogeneous domains involved. E- SPONDER tackles a wide series of practical operational challenges including reduced operating costs, increased effectiveness with the same number of human resources, enhanced situational awareness, effective and safe tactics, effective medical support of the victims during and after extrication and uninterrupted flow of information and decision making through different levels of commandment and logistics organization. A fundamental issue addressed by E-SPONDER is the enhanced ICT support provided to first responders in the view of increasing their security and operational effectiveness. To this end, E-SPONDER will be aiming at the following objectives: Improving front end data collection technologies installed both on portable and fixed platforms, providing a flexible yet comprehensive coverage of the affected area; Fusing and analyzing the aforementioned data to provide real-time decision support; Enabling the seamless collaboration at all the levels of the first response work by facilitating an interoperable (always available) wireless communications infrastructure. To achieve that, E-SPONDER will make extensive use of wireless networking to provide a seamless communication platform across all system levels, and in particular: Mesh and ad-hoc networking infrastructures will be used to increase coverage and operability; Different communications protocols and transmission techniques will be incorporated such as cooperative and/or multi-hop relaying. Ultimately this will facilitate: Communication between victims and First Responder Units; Communication planning; Quality of Service (QoS) tailored to emergency situations; Emergency plan context communication;