NRSC is home to a key set of industry advisors on the health of the nation’s communications networks. NRSC provides timely consensus-based technical and operational expert guidance and best practices to all segments of the public communications industry. Employing a proactive approach, it collaborates and holds quarterly public meetings with the FCC and provides information to help minimize the number of agency rule-makings and mandates while ensuring network reliability and resiliency.
Highlights
Situational Awareness for 9-1-1 Outages
PSAP Tutorial
- The NRSC has developed a brief tutorial targeted to PSAPs and 9-1-1 authority recipients of outage notifications. This tutorial provides information related to the collection and submission of contact data so that service outage notifications can be successfully received.
ATIS-0100068: Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for Updating Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) Outage Contact Information
- In November 2019, NRSC published this Technical Report which is the second deliverable developed by a collaborative initiative led by the NRSC which included participation by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO), the National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA), and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). This Technical Report provides information on how Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) contact information is to be collected and documented. This process addresses the challenges associated with identifying PSAP and 9-1-1 authority recipients of outage notifications and the mechanisms for collecting and standardizing contact information.
ATIS-0100066: Service Providers: Outage Reporting Structure and Potential Types of 9-1-1 Outages
- This first deliverable, published in June 2018, includes a template and associated report. The report provides guidance to all types of service providers that report service impacting outages to the PSAP community. It also provides recommendations for standardized content and delivery, which will help minimize confusion. The companion template facilitates the delivery of necessary, actionable information to PSAPs in a consistent manner and format.
NRSC Operational Report
- The NRSC Operational Report provides a snapshot of activities and issues.
Public Industry Resources
Communication experts joined together under the ATIS NRSC to prepare industry checklists to help ensure business continuity during significant events that could critically impact service:
For access to a database of voluntary methods and techniques developed by industry experts applicable to a variety of business situations, please visit the Best Practices website.
NRSC Quarterly Public Meetings
Subgroups
The NRSC Best Practices Subcommittee develops and maintains voluntary, industry-consensus, expert Best Practices that, if implemented, may be effective in preventing service outages in public communications networks, or may ameliorate their impact should they occur.
Co-Chairs
Andis Kalnins, Verizon
Wendy Panella, AT&T
This Subcommittee reviews and provides recommendations to the FCC with the objective of aligning the Network Outage Reporting System (NORS) and Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) User Manuals, and other associated documentation, with the functional systems.
Co-Chairs
Mike Tan, AT&T
Becky Wormsley, T-Mobile
The NRSC Regulatory Subcommittee monitors, reviews, and addresses regulatory activity related to network reliability, resiliency, and outage events at a local, state and/or federal level.
Co-Chairs
Robin Howard, Brightspeed
Paul Brown, Lumen
This Task Force was formed in December 2016 to update the NRSC Hurricane Checklist, ATIS-0100019, to reflect the current realities of Hurricane response. The Task Force expanded the checklist in 2019 to be inclusive of other disasters, and renamed it the NRSC Emergency Preparedness and Response Checklist.
Co-Chairs
Andy Gormley, T-Mobile USA
Christopher Oberg, Verizon
The NRSC IP Reliability Subcommittee was formed to identify outage reporting metrics/methodologies that can be used to consistently detect voice outages by all service providers with networks in various stages of PSTN transition. The Subcommittee will also evaluate how to measure network availability in an All-IP environment.
Co-Chairs
Mark Peay, Cox
Chris Oberg, Verizon Wireless
This Task Force was formed in May 2017 with the goal of providing actionable information to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPS) and service providers in the case of a 9-1-1 outage. This Task Force has received significant FCC attention for collaboration between industry, PSAPs, and public safety associations.
Co-Chairs
Andy Gormley, T-Mobile USA
Mary Boyd, West Safety Services
This Task Force was formed in April 2017 to investigate causes for the increasing trend in NORS VoIP outage reports. After investigation, no single actionable cause was found. NRSC communicated these findings to the FCC during the 2Q2018 public meeting and agreed to close the investigation.
Co-Chairs
Gail Linnell, Vencore Labs
Vacant