Californian fire agencies cover dead spots with HyphaMESH

The mountains and dense forests around Los Angeles make for unreliable cellular and radio connectivity for emergency responders. 

Hypha worked with fire and rescue officials in the region to deploy HyphaMESH across several critical locations prone to wildfires – to test whether it could solve the problem of communication dead spots for on-the-ground firefighting personnel. 

Challenges

With limited ability to share real-time information, wildland fire response operations can become confusing and inefficient, increasing the risk of loss of life and property. For example:

The Santa Monica Mountains and Yerba Buena Canyon routinely cause communications problems for emergency responders. 

The canyon was the site of the 2018 Woolsey Fires that burned almost 100,000 acres of land – destroying over 1,500 structures, killing three people and leading to the evacuation of nearly 3,000.

The Icehouse Canyon trail is a popular hiking destination near Mt. Baldy. Its dense, mountainous forest terrain limits cellular and radio coverage. 

The towers in the area also aim their signals away, towards the Los Angeles Basin. This means that first responders are forced to conduct rescue operations without reliable communications.

Solution

Across the Santa Monica Mountains, Icehouse Canyon and the Angeles National Forest, fire teams used HyphaMESH to access secure and reliable high-speed internet deep into areas beyond network coverage. This involved:

Staging HyphaREX, with LTE backhaul from Cradlepoint IBR900, at strategic locations – or equipping a vehicle with HyphaNODE – to create a network access point.

Briefing teams on how to use portable HyphaCAP and HyphaNODE mesh equipment to receive wireless internet – deploying them into locations with no LTE or LMR coverage.

Pushing coverage further, using multiple HyphaCAPs to extend the bounds of the mesh network – ensuring all team members remained connected to the satellite backhaul.

Accessing the dedicated Wi-Fi network, through their HyphaCAP devices, using the rugged smartphones that the fire teams would typically use every day.

Outcomes

These tests variously demonstrated the power of the HyphaMESH ecosystem by:

Providing wireless internet access deep into both Yerba Buena and Sepulveda Canyons (up to 1.4 miles down) – the first time either location had internet connectivity.

Penetrating the dense forests of Mount Baldy by ‘piggybacking’ wireless signals between multiple portable mesh HyphaCAPs – enabling Wi-Fi access more than 2 miles away.

Showcasing smartphones connected over Wi-Fi to HyphaMESH using VoIP and the ATAK application to edit and share fire map perimeters in real-time within the local mesh network.

Accessing critical information on fire incident intelligence through FIRIS and the California Highway Patrol dispatch feeds in areas known for limited LTE and LMR coverage.