Denmark Begins Testing Mesh Network for Communications During Blackouts

Denmark has launched a pilot project to test the Meshcore mesh network to maintain communications during emergencies.

Danish public broadcaster Danmarks Radio reported the project.

The system is intended to maintain communications even during a large-scale, prolonged power outage, when mobile network base stations stop working.

Meshcore is a network of small private radio devices and transmitters powered by batteries and solar panels. It enables communication without relying on cellular networks. Users connect the devices to smartphones via Bluetooth and communicate through an app, while standalone repeaters extend the network’s coverage.

The Municipality of Aarhus launched the pilot project in eastern Denmark. The municipality is centered on Aarhus, the country’s second-largest city.

Kristian Risager Larsen, head of the IT team at the Municipality of Aarhus’s Department of Innovation, Technology and Creativity (ITK), told the outlet that the project aims to determine whether Meshcore can be used for emergency communications.

“The pilot project is intended to determine whether we can send messages to local schools during an emergency, informing them how long it will last, where to get drinking water and so on, if all other means of communication fail,” he said.

Although the Municipality of Aarhus wants to test Meshcore, private individuals have developed the network so far. Dennis Borup Jakobsen, head of the municipality’s ITK Tech Lab unit, maintains the Meshview.dk website in his spare time. He estimates that the network has around 400 users in Denmark, but stresses that the figure is not precise.

In comments to the outlet, the Danish Emergency Management Agency noted that it was aware of mesh networks.

However, the agency’s preliminary assessment is that Meshcore is not secure enough for government authorities to use during an emergency.

“However, it is important to remember that mesh technology is a means of communication that uses open, unlicensed frequencies, and the technology itself is not controlled and does not provide sufficient encryption. For example, Meshcore and Meshtastic can encrypt content. However, because of the technology’s low bandwidth, there are often limitations, including on encryption key lengths, which means the encryption can be broken using relatively simple methods. For these reasons, among others, our preliminary assessment is that government authorities cannot use mesh technology during an emergency,” the agency said.

Mesh Networks

Mesh networks operate through interaction among multiple nodes. One node may connect to an external network, such as the internet or a wide area network (WAN). Other nodes connect to it directly or through intermediate devices. This creates a network of interconnected nodes rather than a linear chain.

Data can travel along several routes in this kind of network. If the nearest node becomes unavailable or a channel is overloaded, a data packet can be routed along an alternative path.

A key feature of these networks is self-healing. If one node stops working, neighboring nodes can reroute traffic and continue transmitting data.

This does not mean that a mesh network is invulnerable. If there are too few nodes or all available routes are disrupted, communications will also be lost. However, when alternative paths are available, such a network is more resilient than a system that depends entirely on a single central element.

Read more in our special article: “What is a Mesh Network and Its Role in the Military.“