A new IETF working group has been proposed in the Transport Area. The IESG has not made any determination as yet. The following description was submitted, and is provided for informational purposes only. Please send your comments to the IESG mailing list (iesg@ietf.org) by February 2th. +++ Emergency Context Resolution with Internet Technologies (ecrit) ================================================================ Currect Status: Proposed Working Group Description of Working Group: In a number of areas, the public switched telephone network (PSTN) has been configured to recognize an explicitly specified number (commonly one that is short and easily memorized) as a call for emergency services. These numbers (e.g. 911, 112) relate to an emergency service context and depend on a broad, regional configuration of service contact methods and a geographically-constrained context of service delivery. These calls are intended to be delivered to special call centers equipped to manage emergency response. Successful delivery of an emergency service call within those systems requires both an association of the physical location of the originator with an appropriate emergency service center and call routing to deliver the call to the center. Calls placed using Internet technologies do not use the same systems to achieve those goals, and the common use of overlay networks and tunnels (either as VPNs or for mobility) makes meeting them more challenging. There are, however, Internet technologies available to describe location and to manage call routing. This working group will describe when these may be appropriate and how they may be used. Explicitly outside the scope of this group is the question of pre-emption or prioritization of emergency services traffic. This group is considering emergency services calls which might be made by any user of the Internet, as opposed to government or military services that may impose very different authentication and routing requirements. The group will show how the availability of location data and call routing information at different steps in session setup would enable communication between a user and a relevant emergency response center. Though the term "call routing" is used in this document, it should be understood that some of the mechanisms which will be described might be used to enable other types of media streams. Video and text messaging, for example, might be used to request emergency services. While this group anticipates a close working relationship with groups such as NENA and ETSI EMTEL, any solution presented must be useful regardless of jurisdiction, and it must be possible to use without a single, central authority. Further, it must be possible for multiple delegations within a jurisdiction to be handled independently, as call routing for specific emergency types may be independent. This working group cares about privacy and security concerns, and will address them within its documents. _______________________________________________ IETF-Announce@ietf.org https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-announce