Investigating the Suitability of Delay Tolerant Networks for Broadcasting Tsunami Warnings in Palu, Indonesia
For disaster management in regions with vulnerable communication infrastructure, this work provides a negative result showing DTNs are currently inadequate for time-critical tsunami warnings.
The paper investigates the use of Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) for broadcasting tsunami warnings in Palu, Indonesia, but finds that current DTN protocols (Epidemic and Spray and Wait) are not suitable for the tight time constraints of post-earthquake tsunami warnings.
On the 28th of September, 2018, a tsunami hit the city of Palu in Indonesia, killing 4,340 people. The earthquake preceding the tsunami crippled communication lines and may have rendered the transmission of tsunami warning messages using traditional end-to-end approaches impossible. This paper proposes an alternative approach using Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs) for tsunami warning message routing given their resilience to disruptions and sparse connections. Both Epidemic and Spray and Wait routing protocols were simulated in a pseudo-realistic environment to evaluate their effectiveness for transmitting tsunami warning messages in Palu. Results indicated that these protocols are not suitable for the tight time constraints of post-earthquake tsunami warnings with the currently available technology. However, they may have promising applications for the earthquakes that precede tsunamis.