Significant infrastructure is required to enable uninterrupted communication during periods of high demand after major disasters. People need to locate their loved ones as well as critical resources such as food and water. They also need to obtain official instructions and basic survival information. The current communication infrastructure (cellular networks, broadband) may not sufficiently meet these needs. For example, a cellular base station may have only 8 to 24 hours of backup power and today’s cell phone batteries tend to drain in a day or two. Intel is researching three technologies to help solve this problem: handheld devices capable of ad-hoc peer-to-peer communications, a collection of automobile-based store-carry-forward gateways capable of relaying messages between vehicles, handhelds and the available infrastructure, and a Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking architecture capable of tolerating significant connection disruption while also providing necessary privacy and security. See Disaster Response Communications and Intel Research Berkeley research projects and Disaster Response Communications video for more information.