WTSC: Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee

Leadership

Chair
Peter Musgrove, AT&T

Vice Chair
Terri Brooks, T-Mobile

WTSC: Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee

WTSC develops wireless radio access, system, and network solutions related to wireless and/or mobile services and systems. WTSC develops and continues to enhance solutions necessary to support a U.S. public warning system and wireless emergency alert system. ATIS is the 3GPP North American partner, and WTSC provides critical technical review and input for necessary contributions.

Highlights

  • WTSC spearheaded the standards and requirements needed to implement the nation’s first Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. WTSC evaluates the feasibility of and standardization/implementation considerations for future enhancements.

Subgroups

Applying Common IMS to NG9-1-1 Networks (IMS911)

The ESIF Next Generation Emergency Services (NGES) subcommittee is leading a joint work effort that addresses the application of common IMS (Stage 1, 2, and 3) for the processing, transport, and/or delivery of Emergency Service calls within the NG9-1-1 network to the appropriate PSAP. This is a joint effort with the Packet Technologies and Systems Committee (PTSC) and the Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee Systems and Network Subcommittee (WTSC SN).

 

Leadership

ESIF NGES Co-Chairs

Emergency Services & NS/EP NGN-PS Coexistence on 3GPP RANs (NSEP)

WTSC NSEP is comprised of members of WTSC RAN, ESIF NGES, and PTSC. The group will develop joint studies on Emergency Services and National Security/Emergency Preparedness Next Generation Network Priority Services (NS/EP NGN-PS) coexistence on 3GPP defined Radio Access Networks (RANs). These studies will focus on how Emergency Services could potentially starve NS/EP NGN-PS communications during network degradation conditions (e.g., congestion and overload conditions during disaster events) and provide guidance to help mitigate the problem.

Chair
Terri Brooks, T-Mobile USA

Vice Chair
Peter Musgrove, AT&T

IMS Emergency Services IP Network (IMSESINET)

Joint project led by the WTSC Systems and Networks (SN) subcommittee and coordinated with ESIF’s Next Generation Emergency Services (NGES) subcommittee and the Packet Technologies and Systems Committee (PTSC) for an IMS-based Emergency Services Network. This work is currently focused on creating ATIS standards to eliminate VoLTE Unnecessary Retries to 911 and enhance location-based routing of emergency calls.

 

Leadership

WTSC SN Chair and Vice Chair

Interoperation between Land Mobile Radio (LMR) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) Systems

WTSC’s SN and RAN Subcommittees and TIA TR-8.8 are collaborating on public safety mission critical communication interworking between 3GPP broadband systems and Land Mobile Radio (LMR).

 

Leadership

WTSC SN Chair and Vice Chair

Lawful Intercept (LI)

Mission: WTSC LI develops, maintains, amends, and enhances American National Standards and other WTSC deliverables related to lawful intercept within the GSM family (GSM/EGPRS/UMTS). This work may be done within WTSC LI or may be done in close cooperation with other U.S., regional, and international standards and specifications groups to ensure that respective standards and specifications for the GSM family meet North American regulatory and commercial requirements.

Scope: WTSC LI provides the following functions and capabilities:

  1. Formulate positions in support of WTSC objectives.
  2. Coordinates activities relevant to U.S., regional, and international standards and specifications activities including:
    • Preparation, review and presentation of contributions as proposed US positions for submission to international standards bodies such as ITU-T;
    • Establish appropriate mechanisms and coordinate contributions and positions that support WTSC objectives with other relevant committees and organizations (e.g., other US, regional, and international standards and specifications fora).
  3. Evaluate proposals for lawful intercept capabilities within the GSM family.
  4. Transpose 3GPP lawful intercept deliverables into WTSC deliverables.
  5. Develop and coordinate appropriate inputs regarding lawful intercept aspects that impact or are impacted by IMT-2000 services.

Chair
Terri Brooks, T-Mobile USA

Vice Chair
Peter Musgrove, AT&T

Radio Access Networks (RAN)

Mission: WTSC RAN: Radio Access Networks Subcommittee will develop, maintain, amend and enhance ATIS standards related to radio access network technology aspects including those of GERAN/UTRAN with their future developments as well as other broadband radio access networks. This work may be done within WTSC RAN or may be done in close cooperation with other regional and international standards and specification groups to ensure that those radio access technologies meet North American commercial and regulatory requirements.

Scope: WTSC RAN will provide the following functions and capabilities:

  1. Develop, maintain, amend, and enhance ATIS standards for radio access network technologies.
  2. Formulate positions in support of WTSC objectives on radio access technologies.
  3. Coordinate activities of WTSC relevant to international standards activities that may include:
    • Preparation, review and presentation of contributions for submission to international standards bodies and ITU-R as an ATIS sector member.
    • Establishment of appropriate mechanisms to coordinate contributions and positions that support WTSC-RAN objectives with other relevant committees and organizations (e.g., other standards fora)
  4. Evaluate Radio Transmission Technologies for IMT and other broadband wireless access technologies.
  5. Develop, evaluate, coordinate and liaise with other SDOs on current and future radio access technologies.
  6. Development of documents to transpose 3GPP radio access technology deliverables into ATIS deliverables for ITU-R.
  7. Coordinate the Radio Access activities of WTSC relevant to North American regulatory activities that may include development and coordination of inputs to industry entities or to regulatory bodies through appropriate ATIS channels.
  8. Develop, review, and evaluate spectrum requirements and spectrum harmonization that impact IMT-2000, IMT-Advanced, and other broadband wireless access systems.
  9. Handle other radio technology issues that impact IMT-2000, IMT-Advanced, and other radio access systems.
  10. Develop Standards and Specifications for Radio specific service enablers as they impact the radio access technology (e.g.; Location Services, Emergency Communication Services, Broadcast Services, QoS, radio resource schedulers).

Chair
Marc Grant, AT&T

Vice Chair
Fran O’Brien, Cisco

Systems and Networks (SN)

Mission: The Systems and Networks Subcommittee develops, maintains, amends and enhances American National Standards and ATIS deliverables related to system aspects, networks, and terminals within the GSM family (GSM/EGPRS/UMTS) such as circuit-switched, packet-switched and IP Multimedia services including future developments. This work may be done within the Subcommittee or may be done in close cooperation with other regional and international standards and specification groups to ensure that the non-radio aspects for mobile technology meets North American regulatory and commercial requirements.

Scope: The Subcommittee provides the following functions and capabilities:

  1. Formulate positions in support of WTSC objectives.
  2. Coordinate activities of WTSC relevant to international standards activities which may include:
    • Preparation, review and presentation of contributions as proposed US positions for submission to international standards bodies such as ITU-T.
    • Establish appropriate mechanisms and coordinate contributions and positions that support WTSC objectives with other relevant committees and organizations (e.g., other US standards fora).
  3. Evaluate proposals for non-radio aspects of mobile technologies within the GSM family (e.g., IP Multimedia, all IP-Network architecture, etc.).
  4. Development of documents to transpose 3GPP non-radio mobile technology deliverables into ATIS and ANSI deliverables.
  5. Develop and coordinate appropriate inputs regarding system aspects, network, and terminal requirements and harmonization, etc. that impact the services provided by IMT-2000 and beyond.
  6. Coordinate activities of WTSC relevant to North American regulatory activities that may include development and coordination of inputs to industry entities or to regulatory bodies through appropriate ATIS channels.
  7. Develop Standards and Specifications for non-radio specific service enablers (e.g.; Location Services, Emergency Communication and Priority Services, Number Portability, QoS, etc.).

Chair
Terri Brooks, T-Mobile USA

Vice Chair
Peter Musgrove, AT&T

Timelines Task Force (TTF)

Mission:

The objective of this task force is to study the impacts of overlapping resources on the timelines provided by CSRIC VIII regarding the proposed enhancements in their March 2023 report titled “CSRIC VIII Report on WEA Application Programming Interface.”  Each time-to-deployment timeline estimate in the CSRIC VIII report was considered in isolation without taking into account the impacts of having more than one enhancement move forward.  ATIS TTF has committed to determine, based on the descriptions in this report, the expected resources and level of work that would be required from each of these resources to complete the proposed enhancements.  ATIS WEA TTF will then provide recommendations on the ordering of the required efforts/tasks, any needed clarifications on stakeholder impacts, and the expected impacts on the timelines from the CSRIC VIII report.  This is strictly a scoping effort, with technical discussion to be employed only to the extent needed to provide the target recommendations.  No specification work will be performed.

Chair
Terri Brooks, T-Mobile USA

Vice Chair
Peter Musgrove, AT&T

Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA)

WTSC defined the original requirements, architecture, mobile device behavior, and more for Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). For the 2016 and 2018 FCC Report & Orders on WEA, WTSC initiated various projects to develop enhancements to the existing WEA standards and solutions. This work will update the standards to increase the maximum length of WEA messages from 90 to 360 characters, support inclusion of embedded phone numbers and URLs in WEA alerts, support the transmission of Spanish-language alerts, and target alerts based on a device’s location. This group is comprised of members of the WTSC Systems and Networks (SN) subcommittee as well as key stakeholders from DHS, FEMA, the National Weather Service, and earthquake experts.

 

Leadership

WTSC SN Chair and Vice Chair