# Bushfire Disaster Monitoring System Using Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN)
## 2 Peer-To-Peer (P2P) and Ad-Hoc Networks
### LPWANs  
LPWANs basically provides low power-driven clients (devices) for longer range coverage comparing to existing Wireless Area Network (WAN) technologies, whilst existing IoT protocols can work with short-range protocols such as Bluetooth, Zigbee and Wi-Fi. There are existing protocols and vendors (e.g., LoRa, NWave, OnRamp, Platanus, SIGFOX, Telensa, Weightless, Amber Wireless and M2M Spectrum Networks) for current standards, standards-in-progress or proprietary examples [24] with different aspects and traits. However, all of them aim to provide low-cost-driven solutions for longer range coverage, which is suitable for disaster monitoring networks. LPWANs are unlikely to be controlled, owned or managed by public carrier network operators. Instead, a separate entity such as a private network service provider can control the LPWAN network except the gateway interconnection to the public carrier networks in case that the network operators do not use licensed spectrum such as LoRa and Random Phase Multiple Access (RPMA). In this case, security issues will be limited to the LPWAN operators, and will not be an issue for the carrier networks. LPWAN sensors are progressively triggered in a disaster situation based on time changes, for example, from T1, T2 to T3, the sensors are triggered in a timely manner by each affected area. In this paper, LPWANs are used to demonstrate an application scenario to forward location information and the timestamp to the gateway, which may then connect to peer-to-peer networks or public carrier networks.  
A few technologies and platforms are proposed for the next generation disaster recovery systems [2]:  
Self-Power Wireless Communication Platform (SPWC): A self-deployable system, which can be used in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), providing protections through flying objects, which use Low Altitude Platform (LAP) [25].  
LTE-A: This provides an all-IP connectivity between devices and devices and infrastructures, supporting Quality of Service (QoS)-ready Multimedia Priority Services (MPS), suitable for public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) scenarios.  
Point-of-Care-ready Small-World Networks: This uses wireless handheld devices to optimize patient care during disaster relief operations [26].  
Smart Cities for disaster management systems: It provides efficient city-wide emergency responses and resilience using intelligent transportation systems, vehicular ah hoc networks and cloud computing networks [27].  
Table 1 depicts various technologies using licensed and unlicensed spectrums. The long-term evolution for machines (LTE-M), simplified for the long term evolution for machine-type communications (LTE-MTC) low-power wide-area (LPWA) technology standard published by the third generation partnership project (3 GPP), is likely to migrate 2G and 3G M2M devices for higher bandwidth, but with lower power consumption to extend battery life [28]. As shown in Table 1, LPWAN networks provided by technologies such as LTE-M and NarrowBand Internet of Things (NB-IoT) using licensed spectrums are likely to be operated by public carrier network operators.