AREDN, the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network, is a worldwide network designed to be up when internet, cable, cell phones, and other traditional services are down. Palo Alto AREDN is our portion of the worldwide network that provides wireless data networking for our Emergency Service Volunteers (ESVs). The Palo Alto AREDN network is
- Data-oriented: We are engineering our network to support decision-making by first responders through capture and rapid communication of incident information. Laptops, mobile phones and other devices connected to AREDN can share image, video, voice, web, wiki, and other data in seconds.
- Resilient: The Palo Alto AREDN network backbone consists of sites throughout the City that run on a combination of solar, battery, and emergency mains power. The AREDN backbone is engineered to be more survivable than everyday-use internet and cellular communications.
- High speed: Palo Alto AREDN's backbone provides 10's to 100's of megabits per second of throughput, compared to 1200 or 9600 baud amateur radio packet links. The additional speed greatly broadens the possibilities for using data communication in an emergency.
- Easy to access: With WiFi hotspots throughout the City, amateur radio ESVs can easily connect to and use this network.
- Extensible: Amateur radio operators are free to join in the Palo Alto AREDN network via nodes at their home or ad-hoc nodes (e.g., that are set up in minutes for events) that can easily tie into the Palo Alto AREDN backbone. Nodes use inexpensive commercial off-the-shelf radios and mature, open source AREDN firmware.
- Proven: The worldwide AREDN network has well over 1000 nodes in operation today.
- Partnership-oriented: The Palo Alto AREDN network is part of the Bay Area Mesh. We interoperate with neighboring cities -- their AREDN nodes and ours are redundantly interconnected and accessible for information sharing. We contribute to the mesh by adding networking routes, benefitting everyone when disasters might impair some AREDN nodes.
As an amateur radio member of the Palo Alto ESV community, you are invited to engage in the development and use of the Palo Alto AREDN network. This site is intended to help you learn more about AREDN and show you how you can get involved.
