Someone IP-call the ambulance!!!

[rwlk]

I've got a presentation to make about IP telephony and emergency calls. I've read articles about Emergency calls compliance as regulated by Ofcom in UK but i noticed most of discussions are related to residential VoIP and not enterprise Voip. I am here looking for expert views in the way emergency calls are handled in VoIP networks here in UK.

If you had a campus LAN with IP phones in all buildings as well as softphones, how would you make sure that if someone in emergency calls for an ambulance or fire service, his location is provided to them automatically? I guess all IP phones would have their DDI phone numbers corresponding to their locations. BUT, what if the call is from a softphone? what if that softphone is on wireless-connected laptop?

By the way, do we have VoIP networks at emergency services (PSAP) or 999 calls are still received on PSTN infrastructure only?

Please someone call the ambulance for me..

rwlk

[hbroomhall]

I am certainly no expert at the regulatory side of telco. However, I am aware of some of the things that are happening on this.

I happen to work for a Telco, and one of the things I see from time to time is our system for updating the country-wide 999 address database. Whenever we put a new number on, we have to make an update to this system (who's correct name currently escapes me).

Recently the person principaly responsible for doing this came to me to see if I could help in upgrading the system. What was wanted was a new field to be added to the record. If this field was set then the caller was effectively on VoIP, and the address fields could not be relied upon.

I'll try and get more detail on this after the New Year.

We are also doing VoIP trials integrated with our broadband offering. Currently I *believe* (but don't take this as gospel) that the SIP registration will only work from the broadband line it is tied to. I will try and verify this as well. But be aware that as these are trials any actual service that may come out of them may be completely different.

Currently any 999 calls received by our switches are not handled by us, but passed to BT. As our links with BT are still TDM any VoIP origination stops on our gateways.

Harry.

[rwlk]

As our links with BT are still TDM any VoIP origination stops on our gateways.

Yes, at the gateway, things are different on both sides (VoIP on one side and TDM on the other side). On the VoIP side, it's possible to know the location of the SOS-caller through SIP signaling messages. On the TDM side, by knowing the caller's number, you have the location of the caller. But VoIP calls don't always have a phone number rather an IP address (which could be from anywhere and, therefore, cannot be relied upon to locate the caller!!!)

So, regarding the identity of the caller, i was wondering what happens to those VoIP 999 calls when they cross your gateways off into BT links.

My question also goes to those who instal/support VoIP networks. Nowadays, I see a lot of IP phones in many companies, does anyone know how 999 calls are treated and routed in the network in those companies?

[hbroomhall]

In general - most VoIP phones in companies will only register with the companies PBX/Gateway. This is certainly true for three of our buildings, so determining the location for a 999 call is not a problem.

Harry.

[hbroomhall]

BTW - I take it you have a copy of the Ofcom statement on VoIP services published Dec 5th? This also has many references to previous work, and to things like PATS.

Harry.

[rwlk]

Thanks Harry,

I just went through the ofcom statement (which is quite long!!).

In general - most VoIP phones in companies will only register with the companies PBX/Gateway. This is certainly true for three of our buildings, so determining the location for a 999 call is not a problem.

I learnt of the Cisco Emergency Responder. CER is appropriate for emergency calls and it's universal and flexible for required fields and format of location information you can configure.