At the time this article was written, the deadline for public review of and comment on the NENA i3 solution for NG9-1-1 was fast approaching. The New Year will continue to be a busy one as agencies prepare to integrate new technologies into their communications centers and regions plan to stand up networks to manage the delivery of emergency calls for service. Work groups will continue to actively discuss the impact that new technologies will have and how many of the operational processes employed today will change. As can be expected, there’s not always agreement among members of working groups with regard to technical and operational requirements for NG9-1-1 systems. Some of the following topics will continue to be the source of significant (and lively) discussion:

NENA I3 Stage 3: The working group that is finalizing the stage 3 document for i3 will be assessing input received during the public review and comment period that ended on Nov. 17, 2010. The magnitude of effort involved in drafting and editing this nearly 300-page document cannot be overstated. As with any sizeable technical project, the process of identifying gaps and drafting mechanisms for additional functionality will continue for an extended time period. Work groups are drafting additional documentation for key functional elements and technical mechanisms, such as the Emergency Call Routing Function (ECRF), Location Validation Function (LVF), Emergency Service Routing Proxy (ESRP), legacy gateways and the design of the Emergency Service IP Network (ESInet). New work groups are being formed or rechartered to address how Discrepancy Reporting will change in NG9-1-1, best practices for integrating social networking into the PSAP, templates for Policy Rules that can be implemented by 9-1-1 Authorities and Additional Data Elements that will be received with calls.

APCO/NENA NG9-1-1 PSAP Technical Requirements Work Group—Functional Elements: The NG9-1-1 PSAP work group met twice weekly for most of 2010 to identify all of the interfaces that will be required in an NG9-1-1 PSAP. Significant time was spent discussing and drafting documentation on two key concepts: The Emergency Incident Data Document (EIDD) and the Incident Data Exchange (IDE).

The EIDD will be a standardized XML schema used for exchanging incident-related information. The schema, when complete, will be an NIEM-conformant ANSI standard. EIDDs will be sent to update the current status of incidents and can be used to exchange incident information between different authorized agencies such as PSAPs, emergency management, homeland security and first responders.

NG9-1-1 will increase the potential for data sharing and interoperability nationwide. To achieve this, however, new functional elements and mechanisms for data exchange must be assessed. The IDE is a proposed functional element that will facilitate the exchange and transport of EIDDs between agencies. The functionality of the IDE would be similar to a message broker; however, its proposed use would be on a wider scale than is seen in PSAP message switches today. At the time this article was being written, discussion on the IDE was still in its early stage with much more detailed discussion planned for 2011.

Standardized incident type codes: As work group discussions continued on the technical aspects of how to share incident information between agencies, the topic of incident codes became a priority. Interoperability on a regional or national scale will require a list of codes that can be used by any agency to classify the type of incident for which they are sharing information. The concept of a standardized list of incident codes has met with resistance over the years despite several initiatives to resolve this challenge. To truly recognize incident information sharing as it has been envisioned at the national level, however, this resistance must be overcome.         

Developing a common list of incident codes does not mean that any jurisdiction must change the way they classify the calls that are disseminated within their PSAP or agency. But it’s unrealistic to expect outside agencies to have the ability to decipher the meaning of your internal abbreviations for CAD or RMS. The APCO Data Transfer Committee will be researching previous efforts to standardize incident types. During 2011, they will be drafting a recommendation for a standardized list to which all agencies can map their incident codes when sharing data with external entities.

Text & multimedia: One of the most highly discussed topics during 2010 was the integration of text and multimedia into the PSAP. These discussions will continue to be a priority in 2011. Numerous efforts are underway to study solutions that will fully support non-voice services as specified in the NENA i3 architecture. Discussions and analysis of existing technologies, such as short message service (SMS), and their viability for use in contacting 9-1-1 will continue to be pursued.

Operational impacts of multimedia will require significant attention and long-term assessment to ensure that PSAP personnel can to adapt to these new technologies and continue to provide the same quality of service the public has come to expect. Addressing the public perception of these new technologies and setting realistic expectations will also be key considerations prior to implementation.

The above topics are just a sample of the significant NG9-1-1 topics and discussions that lie ahead of us in the coming year. One thing we can be most assured of is that there will be no shortage of work or opportunities for APCO International and its members to engage in for the foreseeable future. Please continue your involvement and commitment to APCO and its efforts as we move forward into the next generation of our industry.

About the Author
Kathy McMahon is technical service for manager APCO International. Contact her via e-mail at [email protected].

Originally published in Public Safety Communications magazine, Vol. 77(01):19-20, January 2011.