Systems and methods for implementing network gateway in catastrophe context or the like

摘要

A system has a plurality of communications devices within a geographic area. Each device is capable of communicating from within the geographic area with any other device proximate the device, and is also capable of communicating from within the geographic area with a communications service having access to an area external to the geographic area if such communications service is operational and available to the device. At least one of the devices is a gateway device that communicates from within the geographic area with the communications service, and at least some of the devices are non-gateway devices that communicate from within the geographic area with the gateway device. Each non-gateway device communicates from within the geographic area with the area external thereto by way of the gateway device and the communications service communicated with by the gateway device.

主权项

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising
instructions executable by a processor to:
allow each of a plurality of devices of a network to communicate within a geographic area with other devices within the geographic area, each device also being capable of communicating from within the geographic area to another geographic area, external to the geographic area, using an available communications service having access to the other geographic area, wherein each device includes network policing functionality allowing the device to communicate with another device responsive to an authentication of the other device as being within the network;allow access to the other geographic area via a primary gateway device, wherein the primary gateway device is configured to periodically send a message associated with an availability of the primary gateway device to at least one of the plurality of the devices of the network;allow at least one of the devices to become a secondary gateway device when a signal from the primary gateway communication has been lost, wherein the secondary gateway device communicates from within the geographic area to the other geographic area;allow at least some of the devices to become non-gateway devices that communicate from within the geographic area with the secondary gateway device; andallow the non-gateway devices to send data from the geographic area to the other geographic area via the secondary gateway device using the communications service.