(A.) Policy and legislation
(A.1) Policy objectives
Emergency communications are defined primarily as communication by individual citizens to public safety answering points (PSAPs), using individual electronic communication devices, with a view to requesting and receiving emergency relief from emergency organisations. Reverse services (i.e. communication between PSAPs and individuals) may also be considered.
This service should be independent of the network and access technologies used and the individual’s physical and mental abilities.
Article 110 of the European Electronic Communication Code requires that each Member State can transmit warning messages to the general public via mobile number-based devices by 21 June 2022.
(A.2) EC perspective and progress report
The lack of commonly agreed standards in support of electronic communications networks for the emergency communications in Europe is a barrier to implementing future proof solutions which meet the requirements of Directive (EU) 2019/882 of 17 April 2019 on the accessibility requirements for products and services and Directive (EU) 2018/1972 on the European Electronic Communications Code.
Standards for total conversation access to emergency services are required to meet special needs for users living with disabilities and to ensure equivalence of access under Directive (EU) 2018/1972. Directive (EU) 2019/882 in addition entail the availability of total conversation for emergency communication by using the European emergency number ‘112’.
The lack of harmonised values for location accuracy and reliability hampers Member State’s efforts to develop adequate solutions.
(A.3) References
Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 establishing the European Electronic Communications Code.
- COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2019/320 of 12 December 2018 supplementing of Directive 2014/53/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the application of the essential requirements referred to in Article 3(3)(g) of that Directive in order to ensure caller location in emergency communications from mobile devices.
- Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 establishing the European Electronic Communications Code (Recast) (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv%3AOJ.L_.2018.321.01.0036.01.ENG)
- Directive 2009/136/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 amending Directive 2002/22/EC on universal service and users’ rights relating to electronic communications networks and services, Directive 2002/58/EC concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector and Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 on cooperation between national authorities responsible for the enforcement of consumer protection laws.
- Directive 2009/140/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 amending Directives 2002/21/EC on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services, 2002/19/EC on access to, and interconnection of, electronic communications networks and associated facilities, and 2002/20/EC on the authorisation of electronic communications networks and Services.
- Directive 2002/21/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services (Framework Directive).
- Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications).
- Directive 2002/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 March 2002 on universal service and user’s rights relating to electronic communications networks and services (Universal Service Directive).
- Recommendation 2003/558/EC of the Commission of the European Communities of 25 July 2003 on the processing of caller location information in electronic communication networks for the purpose of location-enhanced emergency call Services.
- P7_TA (2011)0306, European Parliament Resolution of 5th July 2011 on Universal Service and the 112 emergency number (2010/2274(INI)).
- Mandate M/493 — Standardisation request in support of the location-enhanced emergency call Service.
(B.) Requested actions
Action 1 SDOs to address data protection and privacy requirements (privacy by design) in ongoing standardisation activities concerning location accuracy.
Action 2 Identify standardisation needs for the deployment of 112 smartphone applications enhanced with caller location and multimedia features accessible for the widest range of users.
Action 3 SDOs to complete the M/493 standards to support the location-enhanced emergency call service. Global standards bodies are invited to contribute taking into account next-generation networks and location accuracy and reliability.
Action 4 SDOs to identify the standardisation needs for the transmission of the GNSS location data from the handset to the PSAPs by mobile network operators.
Action 5 SDOs to define dictionaries for warning messages for emergency communication service based on the input of various civil protection agencies.
Action 6 SDOs to add rich media to the EU-Alert.
Action 7 SDOs to define requirements for communications involving IoT devices in all types of emergency situations.
Action 8 SDOs to describe the architecture (currently named Next Generation Emergency Communication architecture), the core elements and corresponding technical interfaces for network independent access to emergency services.
Action 9 SDOs to set requirements, functional architecture, protocol and procedures specification for a Pan European mobile emergency application.
Action 10 ESOs to elaborate standards on accessibility of emergency number 112 as arising under the European Accessibility Act.
(C.) Activities and additional information
(C.1) Related standardisation activities
ETSI
Work in response to European Commission Mandate M/493 on the location enhanced emergency call has been completed, with the development of protocol specifications for retrieving and transporting emergency caller location. This service is intended to cover situations where different service providers and network operators must co-operate to determine the location of an emergency caller – such as when a user makes an emergency call using a Voice-over-IP service instead of a conventional mobile or fixed telephone.
Work on total conversation access to emergency services resulted in the publication of TS 101 470, total conversation for emergency communications, implementation guidelines.
SC EMTEL completed its work on a TR to prepare requirements for communications involving IoT devices in all types of emergency situations (e.g. communications of individuals with authorities/organizations, between authorities/organizations, from authorities/organizations to the individuals, amongst individuals). The next step is to include the requirements in the appropriate Technical Specifications.
ETSI performs work to describe the architecture (currently named ‘Next Generation Emergency Communication architecture’), the core elements and corresponding technical interfaces for network independent access to emergency services. ETSI continues work on a TS and associated TR. The TS describes the architecture, core elements and corresponding technical interfaces. This work is complemented by a TR describing test cases and scenarios for related interoperability testing.
ETSI has completed work on the requirements, the functional architecture, the protocol and the procedures for implementing the Pan-European Mobile Emergency Application. There are presently hundreds of emergency calling applications in use across Europe, but their use is constrained to the boundaries of the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) with which they are integrated. The resulting TS, to be published in early 2018, will make it possible for data to arrive at the most appropriate PSAP, wherever the call is made.
The concept of ‘Next Generation 112’ (NG112) has been identified as a potential solution to the increasing requirements and demands of content-rich emergency calling. Following two successful events held in co-operation with the European Emergency Number Association (EENA) and the European Commission, ETSI hosted the third NG112 Emergency Communications Plugtests™ event in January 2019. This featured a testing campaign based on the use cases developed by ETSI and EENA. It will offered vendors of emergency communication equipment the opportunity to test their product against different implementations and scenarios. Supporting this event, ETSI is developing conformance test specifications for NG112.
ITU-T
ITU-T Focus Group on “Disaster relief systems, network resilience and recovery” produced several technical specifications that were published (http://www.itu.int/pub/T-FG/e) and were refined in ITU-T SG2 and SG15:
Recommendation ITU-T L.392 “Disaster management for improving network resilience and recovery with movable and deployable ICT resource units’ was approved by ITU-T SG15 in April 2016.
Supplement ITU-T Suppl.35 “Framework of disaster management for network resilience and recovery” was approved by ITU-T SG15 in June 2017.
Recommendation ITU-T E.108 “Requirements for a Disaster Relief Mobile Message Service” was approved by ITU-T SG2 in January 2016.
Recommendation ITU-T E.119 (ex. E.rdr-scbm) “Requirements for Safety Confirmation and Broadcast Message Service for Disaster Relief” was approved by ITU-T SG2 in April 2017.
Draft new Recommendations ITU-T E.102 (ex. E.TD-DR) “Terms and definitions for disaster relief systems, network resilience and recovery “ is under approval process by ITU-T SG2.
E.Suppl.1 to ITU-T E.100 series (ex E.sup.fdr) “Framework of disaster management for disaster relief systems” was agreed by ITU-T SG2 in February 2019.TR.CLE, “Identify call location for emergency service” was agreed by ITU-T SG2 in June 2020, and provides an overview of technical solutions available for this purpose.
ITU-T SG2 also produced an amendment to its E.123 standard for quickly identifying next-of kin (or other emergency contact) in a mobile handsets’ directory, for use in case of emergency, and has established a framework for international emergency call priority (ITU-T E.106 and E.107). SG2 has also developed the following:
Recommendation ITU-T E.161.1 on “Guidelines to select Emergency Number for public telecommunications networks”
TR.CLE, “Identify call location for emergency service” was agreed by ITU-T SG2 in June 2020
ITU-T SG17 has transposed the OASIS Common Alerting Protocol versions 1.1 and 1.2 into ITU-T X.1303 and X.1303bis.
ITU-T SG13 developed a numbers of Recommendations including ITU-T Y.2074, Y.2222, Y.2705, Y.1271, Y.2205 and Supplement 19 to the ITU-T Y.2200-series —covering different aspects of emergency communication operation.
ITU-T FG NET2030 White Paper “Network 2030 - A Blueprint of Technology, Applications and Market Drivers Towards the Year 2030 and Beyond” elaborates on the critical infrastructure enable people to survive in emergency situations. https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/focusgroups/net2030/Documents/White_Paper.pdf
ITU-T SG11 approved ITU-T Q.3615 which describes the Open GeoSMS Standard, which was developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC); geo-localisation is a key part of rapid and effective emergency responses. SG11 also drafted a number of Supplements to the Q-series Recommendations (e.g. Supplements 47, 53, 57, 61, 62, 63, 68, 69, 70 and 72) to support emergency telecommunications. SG11 is currently developing a new Recommendation which describes signalling architecture of the fast deployment emergency telecommunication network to be used in a natural disaster (Q.ETN-DS). ITU-T SG12 developed Recommendation ITU-T P.1140 (ex P.emergency) “Speech Quality Requirements for Emergency Calls” in March 2017. SG12 is updating this Recommendation.
ITU- T SG16 developed Recommendation ITU-T H.785.1 (ex H.DS-PISR) “Digital signage: Service requirements and a reference model on information services in public places via an interoperable service platform”. This technology can be used for early warning to lessen damages, reporting up-to-the-minute situations and announcing traffic status/evacuation sites.
ITU-T SG20 developed the following:
Recommendation ITU-T Y.4119 “Requirements and capability framework for IoT-based automotive emergency response system”,
Recommendation ITU-T Y.4467 “Minimum set of data structure for automotive emergency response system”
Recommendation ITU-T Y.4468 “Minimum set of data transfer protocol for automotive emergency response system”.
SG20 is developing Recommendations on “Framework of smart evacuation during emergencies in smart cities and communities” and “Requirements and reference architecture of smart service for public health emergency”.
The ITU’s radio communication sector (ITU-R) is also carrying out studies on emergency communications. Resolution ITU-R 55 (Radiocommunication Assembly, 2015) instructs all ITU-R Study Groups to carry out studies on the use of radiocommunications in disaster prediction, detection, mitigation and relief. https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-R/information/Pages/emergency.aspx
ITU-D SG2 Question 5/2 has developed a report on Utilization of telecommunications/ICTs for disaster preparedness, mitigation and response: https://www.itu.int/pub/D-STG-SG02.05.1-2017
CEPT/ECC/WG NaN/PT ES
Are investigating criteria for location accuracy and reliability.
The ECC considers and develops policies on electronic communications activities in European context, taking account of European and international legislations and regulations. Its membership is formed of European National Administrations and National Regulators in the field of electronic communications.
Access to emergency services is a right of all citizens and ECC is working to improve access through developing appropriate policies on access, numbering harmonisation and on the provision of accurate and reliable caller location information for calls to the emergency services.
The ECC’s Working Group on Numbering and Networks (WG NaN) established Project Team Emergency Services (PT ES) in 2013 with the sole objective of developing ECC Report 225 on “Establishing Criteria for the Accuracy and Reliability of the Caller Location Information” in support of Emergency Services. ECC Report 225 also identified other aspects of emergency services communications that required further study. As a consequence, the ECC broadened the scope of its activities in the field of emergency services. The revised ECC Strategic Plan for 2015-2020 sets an action for WG NaN to “study relevant aspects of emergency services communications and provide support and advice to European emergency services stakeholders where appropriate”.
As part of this broader remit, the ECC published ECC Report 255 in November 2016 which analyses the implementation of Assisted-Global Navigation Satellite System (A-GNSS) on a harmonised basis across Europe as a first step in a multi-step plan towards improving caller location. The ECC’s work in this area requires close cooperation and consultation with the emergency services stakeholders throughout Europe including the national emergency services authorities, public safety answering points (PSAPs), police, ambulance and fire services, network operators and network and handset equipment vendors.
In order to improve cooperation between different European countries, WG NaN is implementing an ECC project aimed at hosting a directory of contact numbers between national PSAPs, for which PT ES conducted a feasibility report ECC Report 264 in May 2017.
Currently, PT ES is developing policies dealing with the provision of caller location information from private networks and the definition of PSAP-side statistics necessary to quantify the effectiveness of emergency caller location information received.
W3C
WebRTC, the web’s real-time communication service is currently being developed and specified jointly between the IETF and W3C. The IETF is working on the protocol level. The group heading this effort is called RTCweb.
W3C specifies the necessary API to connect the service to the web — application framework created by, among others, by HTML5. The group working on this part is called WebRTC. A good overview of the technology developed can be found in the STREWS project’s security report on WebRTC.
IETF
The Emergency Context Resolution with Internet Technologies (ECRIT) Working Group has developed a general architecture for enabling IP applications to discover and connect to emergency services.
The Geographic Location/Privacy (GEOPRIV) Working Group developed protocols that allow IP networks to inform end devices about their geolocation, a critical pre-requisite for emergency calling.
The application-specific working groups in the IETF (for example, the Session Initiation Protocol Core (SIPCORE) Working Group) have developed extensions to support emergency calling as required.
The Secure Telephone Identity Revisited (STIR) WG is developing Internet-based mechanisms that allow verification of the calling party’s authorisation to use a particular telephone number for an incoming call. The main focus is on the SIP as one of the main VoIP technologies used by parties that want to misrepresent their origin, in this context the telephone number of origin. See, for example, RFC7375 “Secure telephone identity threat model”.
https://trac.ietf.org/trac/iab/wiki/Multi-Stake-Holder-Platform#Emergency
ISO
ISO/TC 204: intelligent transport systems (ITS). This covers standardisation of information, communication and control systems in the field of urban and rural surface transportation, including intermodal and multimodal aspects thereof, traveller information, traffic management, public transport, commercial transport, emergency services and commercial services in the intelligent transport systems (ITS) field.
Projects include:
ISO/AWI 19083-2: ITS — Public transport — Emergency evacuation and disaster response and recovery — Part 2: Data flow
ISO/PRF TR 19083-1: ITS — Public transport — Emergency evacuation and disaster response and recovery Part 1: Framework
ISO/NP 20530: ITS — Information for emergency service support via personal ITS station — General requirements and technical definition
ISO/PWI 21344: ITS– Public transport — Emergency services E-Call device for emergency on connected vehicles using ITS station
ISO 22951:2009 (Ed. 1): Data dictionary and message sets for pre-emption and prioritisation signal systems for emergency and public transport vehicles (PRESTO)
ISO 24978:2009 (Ed. 1): ITS Safety and emergency messages using any available wireless media — Data registry procedures
ISO/DTR 18317: ITS — Pre-emption of ITS communication networks for disaster relief and emergency communications
http://www.iso.org/iso.iso_technical_committee%3Fcommid%3D54706
oneM2M
Some examples of features of oneM2M to enable communication in emergency situations are access controls, message prioritization, network congestion alleviation, group communication, subscription/ Notification and location tracking.
See also: WI-0070 - Public Warning Service Enabler, including the development of a “Public Warning Data Model and Mapping”
OASIS
The OASIS Emergency Management TC created the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), used by crisis responders, weather prediction agencies and emergency management stakeholders for broadcasting data about crisis conditions and locations, over various media including SMS, police radio and weather radio. CAP also is approved as ITU-T Rec X-1303. A suite of related Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) resource and crisis management XML standards have also been developed, supporting exchange of health facility availability information (HAVE), data sharing of information on situations, incidents, events and responses (SitREP) and sharing of emergency patient and tracking information (TEP).