April 2020

Committee Reports

Click on a committee name below to display this month's issues.

• ESIF: Emergency Services Interconnection Forum
  • Issue: 0106
  • Title: SHAKEN and 9-1-1 Overview, Document Roadmap, and Operational Considerations
  • Statement: Regulators in North America currently have a strong focus on combatting nuisance calls, including robocalling and illegitimate caller ID spoofing, using caller authentication techniques based on the Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using toKENs (SHAKEN) standards developed by ATIS and the IETF RFC related to Secure Telephone Identity Revisited (STIR). There are standards development activities underway within ATIS, 3GPP and NENA to address the application of SHAKEN and STIR to 9-1-1 and callback calls. It is critical that Public Safety understand and have input into these standards development activities to ensure that the operational needs of 9-1-1 Authorities/PSAPs are supported by the standards that ultimately get generated, and that operating procedures can be developed by Public Safety to address the application of SHAKEN/STIR and other false data manipulation mitigation techniques to 9-1-1 and callback calls.
  • Resolution:
  • Status: New Issue

  For more information, visit the ESIF home page or contact Drew Greco.

• WTSC: Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee
  • Issue: 0091
  • Title: Location Accuracy Improvements for Emergency Calls Using Alternative Location Determination Methods
  • Statement: ATIS-0700028.v002, Location Accuracy Improvements for Emergency Calls, was originally developed to support the National Emergency Address Database (NEAD) architecture. Because of the recent decommissioning of the NEAD, it was determined at the Feb. 26, 2020 IMSESINET meeting that there is valuable material in ATIS-0700028.v002 that should be retained (e.g., class of service indications DL1, DL2, civic), and it was agreed that references to the NEAD should be removed.
  • Resolution:
  • Status: New Issue

  • Issue: 0092
  • Title: Wireless Operator Best Practices for WEA 3.0 Geotargeting
  • Statement: It has been reported recently by Alert Originators (AOs) that some mobiles well outside the alert area are receiving WEA alerts. It has also been reported that some mobiles within the alert area are not receiving WEA alerts. These experiences are not new and have occurred since WEA 1.0 deployment. With the deployment of WEA 3.0, the expectations of AOs are higher than ever for being able to alert in a more exacting manner. The AOs have also indicated a desire for network-based geotargeting uniformity among wireless operators to the extent possible. Since cellular coverage is highly dependent on cell site topology and RF propagation, the cell/sector coverage boundaries will not match the alert area boundaries. This means that selection algorithms to determine the broadcast area will either leave broadcast gaps in the alert area or overshoot the alert area in some cases in order to eliminate broadcast gaps. The latter case may include the need to use cell sites at a distance outside the boundaries of the alert area. WEA 2.0 requires presentation to all mobiles within the best approximation of the alert area. As WEA 2.0 mobiles that receive the alert will also present it, unless prevented by user settings, the broadcast area determined by the network selection of cell/sectors roughly equates to the area within which the mobiles will present the alert. WEA 3.0 requires presentation to all mobiles in 100% of the alert area, with the allowance of 0.1 miles overshoot. This allows for the network to choose cells/sectors ensuring 100% of the alert area is covered. The coverage of some selected cell/sectors will go beyond the alert area boundaries in the attempt to ensure 100% coverage; however, WEA 3.0 mobiles receiving the broadcast would check their location before presenting the alert. Under these same circumstances, however, WEA 2.0 mobiles would present the alert without checking their location. This may result in overshooting well beyond 0.1 mile. There is a mixture in the field of WEA 2.0 and WEA 3.0 cell/sector selection algorithms, and a mixture of mobiles with WEA 1.0, WEA 2.0 and WEA 3.0 capabilities. It will likely take years before the market approaches a very high percentage (>90%) penetration of mobile devices that support WEA 3.0, meaning that we'll have a large number of mobile devices behaving differently for some time. ATIS has been asked to take a closer look at the inconsistencies occurring in the field to determine what steps, if any, may be taken to bring more uniformity to the field results.
  • Resolution:
  • Status: New Issue

  For more information, visit the WTSC home page or contact Anna Karditzas.

Definitions

• New Issue: Business, operational, or technical needs that a committee has reached consensus to address.
• Issue in Initial Closure: Issues for which a committee has reached consensus on a proposed resolution. The industry has a 21 calendar day period to review and comment on the consensus resolution developed by the committee. The committee's consensus resolution concludes its work on an issue unless new or substantive information is brought forth. During the 21 day review period, comments on a consensus resolution may be provided to the committee contact and committee leaders.
• Issue in Initial Pending: Issues previously in Initial Closure for which new and substantive information impacting the consensus resolution has been received. An issue may also be in Initial Pending if output that may impact the consensus resolution is expected from another industry group, regulatory body or similar organization.
• Issue in Final Closure: Issues for which work is completed and the resolution accepted by the industry.

Recently Approved ATIS Standards

TOPS

• Document Number: ATIS-I-0000079
• Title: Technical Impacts if DNS Privacy and Security on Network Service Scenarios
• Type: New
• View Here

Recent Policy Filings

ATIS

• Date: March 30, 2020
• Description: Ex Parte offering copies of the ATIS SHAKEN Specifications for the FCC record.
• View filing

NRSC

• Date: April 1, 2020
• Description: Comments from NRSC in response to the California Office of Emergency Services on Regulations for Community Isolation Outage reporting.
• View filing
• Date: April 30, 2020
• Description: Comments from NRSC on sharing NORS and DIRS data with some state and federal agencies.
• View filing