June, 16, 2011 — The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) announced today that its Executive Board formally approved an end-state architectural vision for Next Generation 9-1-1; along with a number of directives for additional Technical Development review. The document, commonly known as “i3,” lays out a detailed architecture for key elements of NG9-1-1 systems, describing how networks and devices will eventually work together to enable voice, text, picture, and data exchange between citizens and first responders. Executive Board President Steve O’Conor called this “one of the most significant milestones on the road to deployment of Next Generation 9-1-1 systems nation-wide.”

“In its current iteration, the i3 standard represents an end-state vision for NG9-1-1 system architecture, rather than a ‘build-to’ specification for a complete NG9-1-1 system.” O’Conor said. The i3 architecture was designed to include some future-proofing to accommodate foreseeable evolution in communications services. Much further development and transitional work remains before the public and public safety agencies will be able to communicate using the full range of technologies available to any person with an advanced mobile device.

The motion to adopt the i3 standard also directed NENA’s Technical and Operations Committees to expedite their work on Next Generation 9-1-1 transition planning, system security, and an interface for originating services based on existing Internet Multimedia Subsystem (“IMS”) standards work. In addition, the Board directed NENA staff to begin an education campaign for public officials.

“It is important that everyone understand what it is, and what it isn’t,” said Craig Whittington, NENA’s Immediate Past President: “You can’t just go out with an RFP that says ‘we want an i3 system;’ it’s important that the public safety community understand that this is a long-term, endstate vision.”

Adoption of the i3 standard comes after lengthy consideration of both the standard document and the process by which it was developed. NENA’s incoming President Rick Galway stated: “This is one of the longest and most important standard documents the NENA Board has ever considered. As a group, we took very seriously our responsibility to conduct a thorough and painstaking review of the technical and policy considerations its adoption implicates.”

While much additional work will be required before end-to-end Next Generation services can be offered to the public, the Board expressed confidence that NENA would complete that work in a timely fashion. “It was necessary to establish a technical vision so that our committees can finish developing a detailed transition model,” said Galway, “Now that the vision is complete, we have given clear instructions about the next steps.”

The i3 standard, known by its technical name NENA Technical Standard Document 08-003, Detailed

Functional and Interface Standards for the NENA i3 Solution, is available at www.nena.org/technical-standards, and includes an explanatory statement adopted by the NENA Executive Board.