The Future of E911 - The new 911 architecture for IP Telephony, SIP and IMS

Architectures and standards are being formulated now that enable accurate determination of the location of IP telephony clients (i.e., IP hard and soft phones), both inside and outside the boundary of the enterprise network. As enterprises implement IP Telephony systems to extend applications to the edge of the network, it is important to consider the existing and future requirements for providing E911 service as well.

Based on our experience in implementing complex E911 solutions for medium and large enterprise communications systems, RedSky is providing thought leadership with regard to emergency calling technology in the leading standards committees. Our involvement in these committees helps us to integrate new technology and practices into our systems as well as provide important feedback to the committees so that requirements for enterprises are fair and reasonable. 

RedSky’s contributions to the work of the relevant standards bodies emphasizes that the standards developed must allow for the implementation of scalable, cost-effective solutions that provide automated, real-time location services for IP telephony endpoints, regardless of their location. 

Part of this involvement includes active participation by Senior executives from RedSky’s product management team with the ATIS Emergency Services Interconnection Forum (ESIF) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).  Both of these groups are currently formulating standards for next-generation E911 and Location Information Services (LIS) in SIP-enabled networks, such as the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), being standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

These two groups are tackling critical issues regarding real-time location determination of VoIP endpoints from within the enterprise and for VoIP Service Provider customers. RedSky is a key participant in the development of the standards that meet this key industry goal, shared by participants across the industry spectrum of players in the service provider, vendor, enterprise user, and public safety agency sectors.

Here are the latest standards activities updates and a discussion of what they mean for enterprise customers.

Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) ESIF Next Generation Emergency Services Working Group (NGES) Meeting – June 20 – 22, 2006, Lakewood, CO

A new network element, previously not deployed in enterprise/service provider networks, known as the Location Information Server (LIS), is emerging as a key network architectural element in SIP-based network architectures, such as IMS. The LIS will perform key functions such as determining the location of the phone and certifying this location for downstream location users. The LIS will be responsible for managing all phone/IP Telephony client location data and will interface to other network elements that are involved in the registration, service provisioning or call routing of IP-based real-time voice communications.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) #66 Meeting  – July 9-14, 2006, Montreal, Canada

The IETF is the standards body that supports and develops standards for the Internet. Examples of key standards developed by the IETF include TCP/IP, the basic protocol set behind the Internet, and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the future basis for real-time voice communications over IP networks. Several of the Working Groups that met during this IETF meeting were constituted specifically to discuss and develop standards and protocols for IP-based emergency calling systems.  Key issues under discussion at the Working Groups included 1) how to support emergency calls (i.e., 911 calls in North America) from an IP-based SIP endpoint to the current TDM-based 911 Emergency network (and by extension to TDM-based public safety answering points) and 2) which set of  protocols would be used to communicate IP endpoint location in real time between SIP-enabled endpoints, Location Information Servers, and the recipients and users of such location information, such as public safety answering points (PSAP).

What does all this mean for enterprises?

• Industry leaders are developing standards for advanced technology like IP, SIP and IMS in order to lay a solid foundation for the future 911 network in North America.
• Enterprises will ultimately be responsible for interconnecting to this new network for 911 calls and provide up-to-date location information for users on their network.
• RedSky is expanding its E911 Manager solution to incorporate the new requirements and deliver a scalable solution that manages E911 automatically for all types of phones and users on the corporate network.

Watch our flash demo or access our LIS datasheet to see how RedSky’s Location Information Server works in this new environment to deliver real-time location identification and E911 service to all of your employees both in and outside of your network.  For more information contact Bill Mertka, RedSky’s Senior Product Manager.