First-response teams arriving at a disaster zone often find that local power and communications are down. But this SUV, codenamed Striker, is a power generator and next-gen connection hub on wheels, spreading its own 4G network wherever it goes. Armed with cameras and iPads, Striker keeps rescue workers on the grid. Four cameras fixed to the body of the car add their feeds to the wall of touchscreen monitors facing the rear seats.
A generator connected to the petrol engine of this modified Chevy Suburban supplies power to the mobile LTE (long term evolution) 4G network. "It's the kind of server solution that usually occupies a large air-conditioned building," said Fred Scalera, head of Alcatel Lucent's ng Connect project that built this demo. "Verizon uses five cores
[mobile-phone coverage switching centres] across the entire US -
Striker has one compact LTE micro-core." Just don't ask about the roaming charges.
This article was taken from the June 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Get access to our iPad edition at no extra cost with a print subscription and be the first to read Wired's articles -- try a subscription to Wired by subscribing online now.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
