Foreword
 

In May this year, the "Emergency Mission 2022" high-altitude and cold-region earthquake relief and disaster relief exercise, jointly held by the Office of the State Council's Earthquake Relief Headquarters, the Ministry of Emergency Management, and the Gansu Provincial People's Government, was successfully concluded. As a major highlight of this exercise, the digital battlefield system for emergency rescue created a new emergency rescue model of "individual digitalization, battlefield networking, visual command, and intelligent rescue," achieving scientific scheduling, precise command, and efficient rescue in the exercise, ensuring efficient coordination of emergency command and communication.

What is the background of the proposed emergency rescue digital battlefield system? What does it include, what are its functions, and how will it be promoted in the future?

Sun Anzhai, director of the emergency industry at Far East Communications, gave a detailed interpretation: The emergency rescue digital battlefield system mainly solves the problems of multi-team coordinated rescue and unified command in the event of major earthquakes and disasters. Aiming to improve the command capabilities of "precise rescue and scientific rescue," the emergency rescue digital battlefield system uses an intelligent command and dispatch platform as its core, an emergency tactical internet as its backbone, and a rescue site Internet of Things (IoT) perception network as its nerves. It achieves digitalization of battlefield elements, visualization of rescue situations, flattening of command and dispatch, and coordination of rescue operations, effectively improving the practical capabilities of emergency communication support, command decision-making, and force dispatch in major and serious disasters.

What is the background of the proposed emergency rescue digital battlefield system?

Currently, China's economy has transitioned from a stage of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development. The tasks of governance are more arduous, placing higher demands on the "prevention" and "rescue" aspects of emergency management. Especially in the event of major earthquakes and disasters, how to improve the emergency rescue capabilities in disaster areas is a question that emergency management departments at all levels have been considering.

"Disaster areas are like battlefields, and disaster relief is like fighting a war." Due to the great similarity between emergency rescue scenarios and military combat scenarios in terms of communication and command, the Ministry of Emergency Management innovatively proposed the emergency rescue digital battlefield system.

In the document "Opinions of the Ministry of Emergency Management on Promoting the Informatization of Emergency Management" issued by the Ministry of Emergency Management on May 13, 2021, it clearly proposed "exploring new models for emergency tactical internet." To verify the practical effects of the emergency rescue digital battlefield system, the Ministry of Emergency Management has conducted several full-element drills since the second half of 2021 in Genhe City, Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia; Hohhot; Deyang, Beichuan, and Wenchuan in Sichuan, using forest and grassland fires and earthquake geological disasters as the background for emergency rescue scenarios. Far East Communications, as the emergency communication support unit, cooperated with the Ministry of Emergency Management to complete the drill tests. The drills verified the applicability and reliability of the emergency rescue digital battlefield system. Through multiple drills, a clearer understanding of the entire emergency rescue digital battlefield system was obtained.

In the 2022 local construction tasks for emergency management informatization issued by the Ministry of Emergency Management, the local pilot construction content of the emergency rescue digital battlefield system was clarified, thus beginning the national pilot construction work.

What does the emergency rescue digital battlefield system include?
What are the main functions of each part?

Emergency Rescue Digital Battlefield System is an innovative application of the deep integration of information technology and emergency rescue operations, composed of Emergency Tactical Internet 、  Distributed Rescue Site Internet of Things (IoT) Perception Network and a unified Intelligent Command and Dispatch System This system starts from the actual emergency rescue operations, emphasizes the precision of rescue and disaster relief, strengthens the ability to obtain information at the emergency site and make judgments on the disaster situation, and improves the ability to assist in command decision-making and rescue operations. By quickly establishing a three-dimensional digital model of all battlefield elements, real-time situational awareness is achieved, the disaster situation on site is accurately judged, various communication methods are integrated, and timely and scientific command deployment is carried out, providing comprehensive technical support for national emergencies and having significant meaning for emergency rescue work.

The emergency rescue digital battlefield system is a new emergency rescue model proposed for emergency rescue scenarios involving major earthquakes and disasters. The entire system comprehensively uses new-generation information technologies such as wireless communication, satellite communication, converged communication, IoT perception, simulation and deduction, and edge computing. With the intelligent command and dispatch system as its core, the emergency tactical internet as its backbone, and the rescue site IoT perception network as its nerves, it has been comprehensively planned from multiple aspects, including air-space-ground integrated emergency communication networks, on-site IoT perception networks, on-site situation judgment, and front-rear coordinated command.

01 Emergency Tactical Internet is the Communication Foundation for Emergency Rescue
 

After the occurrence of major earthquakes and disasters, we often face extreme environments with "three disruptions" (communication, transportation, and power). Traditional public network communication has often collapsed. Quickly establishing emergency communication links within the disaster area and between the disaster area and the outside world is the first problem to be solved. Through the rapid construction of the emergency tactical internet, an emergency communication network can be established between the emergency rescue site and the rear command center. Through multi-link fusion backup technology, it meets the needs of emergency rescue scenarios in all weather, terrains, and disaster types, providing emergency communication link support for front-line communication and front-rear coordination of emergency teams.

The emergency tactical internet relies on an air-space-ground integrated emergency communication network built using satellites, large long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles, 370M mobile base stations, Mesh self-organizing network base stations, and microwave scattering base stations, which can effectively solve the problem of emergency communication under "three disruptions." The emergency tactical internet has self-organizing and self-healing networking capabilities, strong anti-destruction and robustness, and adopts a two-layer network architecture combining a tactical backbone network and tactical subnets to achieve layered deployment, on-demand access, and elastic expansion, while also taking into account mobility and flexibility. The positioning of each network node is clear and the standards are unified, enabling rapid interoperability.

  
02 IoT Perception Network is an Important Guarantee for On-site Rescue
 

After the occurrence of major earthquakes and disasters, the on-site environment is unusually complex, often accompanied by extreme weather such as strong winds, rain, and hail. Toxic and harmful gases may be present in the air, seriously threatening the health and safety of rescue personnel.

The rescue site IoT perception network uses distributed deployment and is built from front-end IoT perception devices and communication transmission links. It collects and monitors information such as location trajectories, vehicle conditions, vital signs, and on-site environments in real time. Front-end IoT perception devices with different functions collect multi-dimensional perception data on site and perform unified format processing. This data is then aggregated through communication transmission links to the intelligent command and dispatch system, providing a basis for further data analysis by the intelligent command and dispatch system.

03 Intelligent Command and Dispatch System is an Important Manifestation of the Digitalization, Intelligence, and Stereoscopic Nature of Emergency Rescue
 

Based on the emergency tactical internet and the rescue scene Internet of Things perception network, the intelligent command and dispatch system can realize the convergence of rescue scene data. Through intelligent analysis of multi-dimensional data, it forms visualized command and dispatch for emergency rescue scenarios.

The intelligent command and dispatch system is the control core of emergency rescue and the control brain of the on-site command center. The system can display in real time the monitoring location trajectory, vehicle conditions, vital signs, and on-site environment information. It can perform situational awareness from different dimensions to provide decision support for commanders. By accessing audio, video, and data information from different teams on site, the intelligent command and dispatch system can comprehensively judge multi-dimensional data, realize comprehensive management of the rescue scene, provide a fast, accurate, and three-dimensional comprehensive presentation for emergency rescue, and ultimately form an integrated command and dispatch system that integrates air-space-ground, heterogeneous network fusion, and elastic expansion, improving emergency communication guarantee, command decision-making, force dispatch, and collaborative rescue capabilities in "three-break" scenarios.

How will the digital battlefield system for emergency rescue be promoted in the future?

The digital battlefield system for emergency rescue is being promoted collaboratively according to the principle of "pilot projects first, tiered construction, and phased advancement." Currently, the digital battlefield system for emergency rescue has completed all-element drills and tests and is being piloted in some provinces. Subsequently, the Ministry of Emergency Management will optimize and improve the current digital battlefield system for emergency rescue based on the promotion effects of the pilot provinces, and simultaneously formulate relevant technical standards and specifications to ensure that in subsequent construction tasks, the system construction is complete, the technical route is consistent, and the standards are unified, solving the problems of multi-team collaborative rescue and unified command in large earthquake and major disaster scenarios.

As a national team in the field of emergency communication and emergency command, Far East Communications has rich technical accumulation and practical experience, a complete product system, and strong system integration capabilities. It has a deep understanding and recognition of the digital battlefield system for emergency rescue and has formed a relatively mature Emergency rescue digital battlefield solution and has been verified. In the future, it will continue to help improve the emergency rescue capabilities of emergency management departments at all levels and contribute greater strength to the modernization of China's emergency management system and capabilities.

*Some pictures and content are from CCTV News and CCTV.com