ESIF: Emergency Services Interconnection Forum

Leadership

Chair
Brandon Abley, NENA

First Vice Chair
Paul McCollum, Comtech

Second Vice Chair
Jeff Torres, Verizon Wireless

Industry Advisors

Steve Leese, APCO
Kirk Burroughs, Apple
Christian Militeau, Bandwidth
Roger Marshall, Comtech
Darrin Morkunas, Intrado

Contact

ESIF: Emergency Services Interconnection Forum

ESIF develops Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) and location accuracy requirements and solutions and is where the industry comes together in a voluntary open forum to identify and resolve technical and operational issues to facilitate interconnection of emergency services networks with other networks (e.g., wireline, cable, satellite, Internet, etc.). ESIF members comprise industry, government, standards, and public safety organizations.

Highlights

ESIF Emergency Services & Methodologies (ESM) Subcommittee is currently developing solutions for:

    • Common Morphology Mapping/Classification Process for E9-1-1 Location Performance Assessment
      • Investigating a consistent and reasonably accurate method to map wireless carrier cell/sectors into one of the four ESIF identified morphologies (dense urban, urban, suburban, rural) for live 911 call reporting.
    • Test Methodology for Localized Deployment Location Technologies
      • Developing and documenting a systematic approach and a set of recommendations for localized deployment indoor location testing.
    • Indoor Test Methodology to Mitigate Correlation between Test Calls
      • Extending the principles of indoor test methodology adopted in ATIS-0500022, Test Plan Input for a Location Technology Test Bed and provide recommendations regarding the application of the methodology to indoor accuracy testing.

Subgroups

Applying Common IMS to NG9-1-1 Networks (IMS911)

The ESIF Next Generation Emergency Services (NGES) subcommittee is leading a joint work effort that addresses the application of common IMS (Stage 1, 2, and 3) for the processing, transport, and/or delivery of Emergency Service calls within the NG9-1-1 network to the appropriate PSAP. This is a joint effort with the Packet Technologies and Systems Committee (PTSC) and the Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee Systems and Network Subcommittee (WTSC SN).

Leadership

ESIF NGES Co-Chairs

Emergency Services & Methodologies (ESM)

Mission:

The mission of the ESIF Emergency Services & Methodologies (ESM) Subcommittee is to provide requirements for the performance assessment, routing and conveyance of all types of emergency location solutions in a variety of operational and access network environments based on sound engineering and statistical practice.

Co-Chairs
Kelly Springer, AT&T
Jeanna Green, T-Mobile USA

Emergency Services & NS/EP NGN-PS Coexistence on LTE RANs (WTSC NSEP)

WTSC NSEP is comprised of members of WTSC RAN, ESIF NGES, and PTSC. The group will develop a joint study on Emergency Services and National Security/Emergency Preparedness Next Generation Network Priority Services (NS/EP NGN-PS) coexistence on LTE Radio Access Networks (RANs). This study will focus on how Emergency Services could potentially starve NS/EP NGN-PS communications during network degradation conditions (e.g., congestion and overload conditions during disaster events) and provide guidance to help mitigate the problem.

Leadership

WTSC RAN Chair and Vice-Chair

IMS Emergency Services Network (IMSESINET)

Joint project led by the WTSC Systems and Networks (SN) subcommittee and coordinated with ESIF’s Next Generation Emergency Services (NGES) subcommittee and the Packet Technologies and Systems Committee (PTSC) for an IMS-based Emergency Services Network. This work is currently focused on creating ATIS standards to eliminate VoLTE Unnecessary Retries to 911 and enhace location-based routing of emergency calls.

Leadership

WTSC SN Chair and Vice Chair

Next Generation Emergency Services (NGES)

Mission: The ESIF Next Generation Emergency Services (NGES) Subcommittee coordinates emergency services needs and issues with and among SDOs and industry forums/committees, within and outside ATIS, and develops emergency services (such as E9-1-1) standards, and other documentation related to advanced (i.e., Next Generation 9-1-1) emergency services architectures, functions, and interfaces for communications networks. The Subcommittee supports standards development as it relates to North American communication networks, in coordination with the development of standards activities to include relative ATIS committees (e.g., PTSC), ITU, 3GPP, ETSI and NENA, and the identification of guidelines and operational impacts associated with those standards in support of Public Safety.

Activities, Role and Responsibilities

  1. Investigate all actual and potential SDO or SDO-like groups, in the US and globally (3GPP, ETSI, ITU, etc.) as to their connection or potential connection to standards development work that does or could affect NG9-1-1, and what their roles and actions are in the emergency communications services arena.
  2. Identify and establish liaison work with and from those groups with ATIS (ESIF, NGN Focus Group, PTSC, WTSC, etc.) and NENA, to handle requirements, analysis, design, and SDO standards development work coordination.
  3. Relay to other SDOs basic “keep in mind and act on” issues, such as the need for callback and caller location capabilities in future development of devices and new services (Wi-Fi & WiMAX) that affect emergency communications, such as the E9-1-1 service.
  4. Address the needs identified in the Gap Analysis from the ATIS NGN Framework, Part III in order to:
    • Formulate the NG Emergency Services standard architecture based on the IMS/NGN standards.
    • Develop NENA’s i3 Stage 2/3 standard in the context of the IMS/NGN standards.
    • Identify gaps and provide input to the IETF (through established liaisons such as PTSC) for Detailed Interface Design of Protocols in the context of the ATIS NGN Framework (Call Routing and Location Determination) for NG Emergency Services.
    • Provide NG Emergency Services input to 3GPP Service Architecture 1/2 working groups for consideration into 3GPP Technical Report (TR) 23.837 and Technical Specification (TS) 23.167.
    • Coordinate joint reviews with ETSI EMTEL on NG Emergency Services for a global standard coordination effort between NG9-1-1 (North America) and NG1-1-2 (European Union) emergency services initiatives.
    • Other Activities, Role and Responsibilities may be identified as work unfolds.
  5. Support Public Safety through the development of guidelines and the identification of operational impacts associated with NG Emergency Services standards.

Subcommittee Work Plan & Deliverables

  1. Serve as the coordination point within ATIS for all work in the IP domain that may have an impact on, or be impacted by E9-1-1/NG9-1-1, or emergency services in general.
  2. Develop IMS-based NG9-1-1 Emergency Services Functional Architecture Standards based on industry input such as the NENA i3 Standard for Next Generation 9-1-1.
  3. Develop NG9-1-1 Emergency Services Design Recommendations based on the above documents.
  4. Develop specifications analyzing operational impacts and providing guidelines for use by Public Safety based on the NG9-1-1 standards development activities described above.

Participants

Open to all ATIS members, and when applicable the subcommittee activities will be accessible to other organizations or groups (e.g., NENA members) that have skillsets ESIF needs to achieve the goals of the subcommittee.

Co-Chairs
Terry Reese, Ericsson
Ed Amoah, Verizon Wireless