System, method and program product for maintaining deployed response team members synchronized

• US 8,909,189 B2
• Filed: 08/09/2012
• Issued: 12/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bianchi, Silvia Christina Sardela, Netto, Marco Aurelio Stelmar, Assuncao, Marcos Dias De
• Primary Examiner(s): Obayanju, Omoniyi
• Application Number:
  US13/570,720
• Publication Number:
  US 20140045445A1
• Time in Patent Office: 852 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.1, 455/404.2
• US Class Current: 455/404.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/556 Statistical analysis and interpretation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5116 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

An incident response system, method of responding to exigent incidents and a computer program product therefor. Local devices associated with a locale department are connected to network. An operations center on one or more networked computers, e.g., cloud computers, plans and administer locale day-to-day operations. The operations center may also plan and administer emergency operations for the locale. Locale departments have response agents associated mobile devices. The operations center assigns each mobile device with a role for responding to incidents and provides each with a likelihood table. When deployed each mobile device connects to the network individually or through other mobile devices, e.g., in an ad hoc, peer-to-peer network.

Claims

1. An incident response system comprising:

a network;

a plurality of local devices connected to said network, each local device being associated with a locale department;

one or more computers connected to said network, said one or more computers including an operations center planning and administering day-to-day operations and emergency operations for said locale; and

a plurality of mobile devices each associated with an agent of a locale department, each mobile device being assigned a role for responding to incidents by said operations center, said each mobile device including a likelihood table, an assigned region of interest, and a role model including attributes describing said assigned role, and connecting to said network individually when deployed, and

whenever a direct network connection is unavailable to one or more deployed mobile devices, said deployed mobile devices connect wirelessly in an ad hoc peer-to-peer network organized hierarchically according to role, said one or more connecting to said network through peers and sharing information in a combined push/pull communication, all said deployed mobile devices returning to connecting to said network individually whenever a direct network connection becomes available to all.

2. An incident response system as in claim 1, wherein said operations center includes an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) configuring, assigning roles to, and providing likelihood tables to, said plurality of mobile devices, said EOC managing operation of said deployed mobile devices for responding to an incident during each said incident.

3. An incident response system as in claim 2, wherein said EOC provides said each mobile device with said region of interest and said role model.

4. An incident response system as in claim 3, wherein said role model attributes provide information on performing a respective given role, and said likelihood table maps an interaction probability of each peer with other said peers based on the respective peers'"'"' roles.

5. An incident response system as in claim 3, wherein roles and regions of interest associated with each deployed mobile device are replicated to all said peers across said ad hoc peer-to-peer network.

6. An incident response system as in claim 2, wherein all peers in said ad hoc peer-to-peer network wait for push communication messages by default, and whenever a peer fails to receive a push message within a selected period of time, in a pull communication said peer pushes a request to neighboring peers.

7. An incident response system as in claim 2, wherein said one or more computers are cloud computers, said operations center and said EOC being provisioned on said cloud computers, and wherein said plurality of local devices and said plurality of mobile devices are cloud clients.

8. An incident response system as in claim 2, wherein locale departments include law enforcement, medical and fire and rescue departments.

9. An incident response system comprising:

a network;

a plurality of local devices connected to said network, each local device being associated with a locale department;

one or more computers connected to said network, said one or more computers including an operations center includes and an Emergency Operations Center (EOC), said operations center planning and administering day-to-day operations for said locale, said EOC planning and administering emergency operations during each incident; and

a plurality of mobile devices each associated with an agent of a locale department, said EOC assigning each mobile device with a role for responding to incidents, each mobile device connecting to said network individually when deployed for an incident, wherein said EOC provides said each mobile device with a likelihood table, a region of interest and a role model including attributes describing said assigned role, and during said incident whenever a direct network connection is unavailable to one or more deployed mobile devices, said deployed mobile devices connect in an ad hoc peer-to-peer network organized hierarchically according to role, said peers sharing information in a combined push/pull communication, said one or more connecting to said network through peers, all said deployed mobile devices returning to connecting to said network individually whenever a direct network connection becomes available to all.

10. An incident response system as in claim 9, wherein all said peers in said ad hoc peer-to-peer network wait for push communication messages by default and whenever a peer fails to receive a push message within a selected period of time, said peer pushes a pull request to neighboring peers.

11. An incident response system as in claim 10, wherein said role model attributes provide information on performing a respective given role, and said likelihood table maps an interaction probability of each peer with other peers based on the respective peers'"'"' roles.

12. An incident response system as in claim 11, wherein said EOC replicates roles and regions of interest associated with each deployed mobile device in all peers across said ad hoc peer-to-peer network.

13. An incident response system as in claim 12, wherein said one or more computers are cloud computers, said operations center and said EOC being provisioned on said cloud computers, said plurality of local devices and said plurality of mobile devices are cloud clients and locale departments include law enforcement, medical and fire and rescue departments.

14. A computer program product for responding to incidents, said computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having computer readable program code stored thereon, said computer readable program code comprising:

computer readable program code for associating each of a plurality of networked local devices with a locale department;

computer readable program code for planning and administering an incident operations center, assigning an incident operations role for responding to incidents to each of a plurality of mobile devices, each mobile device being associated with an agent of one said locale department, assigning including providing device a likelihood table, a region of interest, a role model including attributes describing said assigned incident operations role, and;

computer readable program code for connecting each of said plurality of mobile devices to a network individually to said incident operations center; and

computer readable program code for connecting deployed mobile devices wirelessly in an ad hoc peer-to-peer network self-organized hierarchically according to emergency operations role whenever a direct network connection is unavailable to any of said deployed mobile devices, one or more peers connecting to said incident operations center through other peers and sharing information in a combined push/pull communication, all said deployed mobile devices returning to connecting to said network individually whenever a direct network connection becomes available to all.

15. A computer program product for responding to incidents as in claim 14, wherein said incident operations center comprises an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) planning and administering said emergency operations for said locale and assigning each emergency operations role, said computer readable program code for said EOC further comprising computer readable program code for configuring and providing said likelihood table to said each mobile device, and managing operation of said plurality of mobile devices deployed for responding to an incident during each said incident.

16. A computer program product for responding to incidents as in claim 15, wherein said computer readable program code for said EOC comprises computer readable program code for providing information on performing a respective given emergency operations role.

17. A computer program product for responding to incidents as in claim 16, wherein said computer readable program code for sharing information in said combined push/pull communication, and wherein said likelihood table maps an interaction probability of each peer with other peers based on the respective peers'"'"' roles.

18. A computer program product for responding to incidents as in claim 17, wherein said computer readable program code for said EOC comprises computer readable program code for replicating emergency operations roles and regions of interest associated with each deployed mobile device to all peers across said ad hoc peer-to-peer network;

and

said computer readable program code for wirelessly connecting and sharing in said ad hoc peer-to-peer network comprises;

computer readable program code for waiting for push communication messages until a time out, and

computer readable program code for push a request to neighboring peers in a pull communication whenever a timeout occurs.

19. A computer program product for responding to incidents as in claim 17, wherein said one or more computers are cloud computers, said computer readable program code for planning and administering provisioning an operations center and said EOC on said cloud computers, wherein locale departments include law enforcement, medical and fire and rescue departments, and wherein said plurality of local devices and said plurality of mobile devices are cloud clients.

20. A computer program product for responding to incidents in a shared resource environment, said computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having computer readable program code stored thereon, said computer readable program code comprising:

computer readable program code for associating each of a plurality of networked local devices with a locale department;

computer readable program code for an operations center planning and administering day-to-day operations for the locale;

computer readable program code for an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) planning for emergency operations in cooperation with said operations center and administering emergency operations during each incident, for assigning a role for responding to incidents to each of a plurality of mobile devices, and for providing said each mobile device with an assigned region of interest, a likelihood table and a role model including attributes describing said assigned role, each mobile device being associated with an agent of one said locale department; and

computer readable program code for connecting each of said plurality of mobile devices to said EOC through a network individually; and

computer readable program code for connecting deployed mobile devices in an ad hoc peer-to-peer network self-organized hierarchically according to emergency operations role whenever a direct network connection becomes unavailable any of said deployed mobile devices, peers without a direct connection available connecting to said EOC through other peers and sharing information in a combined push/pull communication, all said deployed mobile devices returning to connecting to said network individually whenever a direct network connection becomes available to all.

21. A computer program product for responding to incidents as in claim 20, wherein said computer readable program code for said EOC comprises:

computer readable program code for providing information on performing a respective given emergency operations role;

computer readable program code for said EOC replicates emergency operations roles and regions of interest associated with each deployed mobile device; and

computer readable program code for said ad hoc peer-to-peer network distributing associated said roles and regions of interest to all peers across said ad hoc peer-to-peer network, said likelihood table mapping an interaction probability of each peer with other peers based on the respective peers'"'"' roles.

22. A computer program product for responding to incidents as in claim 20, wherein said computer readable program code for connecting in said ad hoc peer-to-peer network comprises:

computer readable program code for defaulting all peers in said ad hoc peer-to-peer network to wait for push communication messages until a time out; and

computer readable program code for pushing a request to neighboring peers to pull updates from connected neighboring peers in a pull communication message whenever a peer fails to receive a push message within a selected period of time.

23. A computer program product for responding to incidents as in claim 20, wherein said one or more computers are cloud computers, computer readable program code for said operations center and said EOC provisioning said operations center and said EOC on said cloud computers, wherein locale departments include law enforcement, medical and fire and rescue departments, and wherein said plurality of local devices and said plurality of mobile devices are cloud clients.