Introduction

The current communication infrastructure of 9-1-1 is based on analog

technology that doesnt support many advanced telecommunication
features (texting, emailing picture) that most end users are expecting
to be part of emergency communication system. To remedy these
problem emergency services have to be provided using IP networks.
Providing Emergency services based on Voice over Internet Protocol
(VoIP) is not only a success of VoIP but it will also give opportunities
to enhance the existing emergency call processing infrastructure.

With the growing popularity of VoIP services, 3G/4G wireless phones,
and other advanced communications technologies, customers
subscribed to these technologies expect that they can use them to reach
911 services, just as they can by using ordinary public landline
communication system to reach 9-1-1. Most of the subscribers are
unaware of the current limitations of the 9-1-1 network infrastructure
with respect to some wireless technology or internet based technology.
Sometime they got disappointed due to the fact that the technology that
they use most the time cant help them to reach 9-1-1.

The purpose of this study is to review a mechanism that can be
adopted to achieve the enhancement of the emergency communication
network that will able to exploit and/or serve current technology
subscriber s Devices by granting quality of services, reliability,
scalability, compatibility and robustness to withstand to any kind od
disasters. This mechanisms is based on a network architecture using
SIP as a signaling protocol and IP Networks.

Research Methodology
This sections presents questions used to collect required information
for the study. Their answers are presented in the section. Level II is a
set of sub-questions used to understand and answer Level I question.
We used scholar and other trusted articles to find these answers.

Study the requirement to send multimedia file over E911 network (VoIP or Wireless)
Desire AHEZA

Graduate School of Engineering, Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma City, OK
Literature Cited
Dale, H., Brad, B., & Phil, W. (2007). Health of the US 9-1-1 System. pp.1-96.
Gopal, S., & Guy, C. (2009). The journey to Next Generation 9-1-1. pp.1-12.
Ala' F. Khalifeh and Khalid A. Darabkh (2012). Current Challenges and
Opportunities in VoIP over Wireless Networks,
http://www.intechopen.com/books/mobile-multimedia-user-andtechnology-
perspectives/voip-over-wireless-networks
NENAi3 TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT NENA08-751, Issue 1, (2006,p.11)
prepared by: National Emergency Number Association (NENA) VoIP/Packet Technical
Committee Long Term Definition Working Group
https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.nena.org/resource/collection/2851C951-69FF-40F0-A6B
36A714CB085D/NENA_08-751-v1_i3_Requirements_LTD.pdf
Police chief Jeff olson,. , sheriff tony thompson, & Police chief larry d. feaker, (2013). 5 ways
ng911 can improve your agency. Retrieved from
http://www.911.gov/ng911_law/download/NG911_Resize_Mar2013_FINAL_LR.pdf




Level I
Level II
How can E911 services be enhanced by including
video/data communication and what are the limitations of
such implementations?
i. What compatibility (challenges) issues exist between
VoIP and other Wireless technology (GSM, 3G and
E911, PSTN) networks?
ii. What are the limitations of the current Emergency
network?
iii. What are the benefits of introducing Emergency
services (9-1-1 services) in IP network would benefit
the public and public safety agencies?
iv. What are the standards to meet in order to provide
emergency services (sending multimedia) over advanced
telecommunication network i.e. IP networks?
v. Evaluate the current technology of multimedia
transmission, based on your study recommend network
architecture that can be used to provide Emergency
services over IP networks?

Figure 1 Level I & II questions


Research Findings

With the growth in use of VoIP, it is evident that many calls to 9-1-1 PSAPs will be
originated from these VoIP users. The high expectations of the public that they can reach
the 9-1-1 systems using any communication device, testifies the need of EMERGENCY
SERVICES OVER IP NETWORK. So it is important to improve the compatibility
between VoIP and other communication technology . Then finally improve the 9-1-1
services.

Needs to Improve 9-1-1 Services

Soora & Clinch ( 2009,p.2) in the Journey to Next Generation 9-1-1 states that the
current 9-1-1 system has not technologically kept pace with the times, its Architecture
continues to be based upon circuit-switched analog voice telephone technology, so that
the system can process voice-only calls and the minute amount of data that comes with
those calls.








Figure 2 Woman uses FACEBOOK
to Find Help (WALSH, January 2014)

Hatfield, Bernthal, and Phil Weiser(2007, pp.30-35); states that the 9-1-1 network
infrastucture is incapable of Exploiting and/or Serving Current Technology Subscriber
Devices; PSAP cant process emails, text messages, digital images, audio and video. If a
subscriber sent to 9-1-1 for example a picture of a car leaving a crime scene the PSAP
will not have the technology to treat the kind of message because it has been designed
with voice capability only. We need a new technology to overcome this limitation.


Susann Stacy said her husband tore out their
house phone while she had no cellphone
reception. Unable to call 911, she posted a
photo of her beaten face and pleaded for
someone to help her. Note that she used a
third party i.e. Facebook instead of 9-1-1
infrastructure in order to reach someone
who can help, because the 9-1-1 PSAPs
can process images

Improvement in Telecommunication Networks

As a new technology, VoIP faces many challenges. Khalifeh and Darabkh
(2012 ,p.10) states that VoIP over wireless challenges may be associated
with the Wireless transmission and how they affect the transmission
quality. They highlighted that VoIP packet may faces bit errors
introduced by other interfering signals, packet loss due to buffers
overflow of the intermediate nodes.

Enhancing Quality of Service in 3G/4G network capabilities (bandwidth,
introducing queue management protocols, quality of services and packet
prioritization.) would overcome those issues and help to implement a
reliable VoIP communication using wireless networks (3G/4G) and
existing PSTN networks. This has proved me that if those issues affecting
VoIP traffic were removed, 9-1-1 services might be provided using VoIP
technology over IP networks.
Architecture

The architecture presented in is the implementation suggested in NENA
08-751, Issue 1, (September 2006, p.11) that can be adopted in order to
provide Emergency services over IP networks.

It is based on SIP for IP connected callers. Other protocols are permitted
if they are interworked to SIP for presenting to the PSAP. The Emergency
Services IP Network or the PSAP must accept calls from selective routers,
including CAMA-like and ISDN interfaces.

Call setup time (dialing of last digit to ring at the PSAP), under expected
peak load shall be less than 2 seconds.

It grantees that PSAPs shall accept voice, Images, video and text media
streams on RTP transport, possible for PSAPs to accept additional media
(e.g. images) from callers without tearing down the call.


Benefits

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Conclusions and Future Work

Enhancing 9-1-1 services requires the migration of the current PSAPs
to IP based PSAPs, this will result in providing emergency services
over IP networks using SIP signaling protocol. In order to achieve this
technology, Quality of Services (QoS) in IP network need to be
enhanced; constraints faced by packets over IP networks need to be
overcome by prioritizing packets containing emergency messages,
adopting optimized codecs and applying QoS network policies.
The implementation the next generation 9-1-1 faces many challenges
associated with the public safety leaders and policy makers in
establishing the framework for a nationwide network that meets state,
and local needs for robust, interoperable emergency communications.

Because each state in USAhas its own laws and procedures for
building, managing, and funding its 9-1-1 network, I recommend that
they can unit their force and build a national wide 9-1-1 infrastructure.

active crime scene is key for
officer and hostage safety.
Access to security cameras
and building sensors will
provide valuable
information for increased
officer safety,
such as number of suspects,
hostage location and more.
High Technology services in 9-1-1
Currently 9-1-1 infrastructure cant support the
sharing multimedia information; this picture
demonstrates scenarios in which these types of
information are very useful.
In a hostage situation, information about the inside
of an
Safer Communities
Once 9-1-1 infrastructure is able to easily and quickly process media like
text messages and videos, citizens can more easily report crimes,
enabling first responders to respond more swiftly and efficiently. For
example, a witness might capture a video of a robbery in progress and
send it to 9-1-1; a call-taker immediately dispatches a unit to the scene.
Here is a video of a robbery
from my smart phone
Dispatch: A
witness just sent
this video in
Benefits (cont.)
Figure 3 NENA08-751, Issue 1, September, 2006
IMPROVED SERVICE TO
SENIORS & DISABLED
I am deaf and having chest pain.
Help! Im in an alley at 4th and Main..
Help is on the way.
Calls must be routed to the correct PSAP based on the location of the caller known at
the time of the call and the declared service boundary of the PSAP
The architecture also allows Backup/Failover, when a PSAP fails, calls intended to
route to it shall route to one or more designated PSAP(s).

Information to 911
Information from 911
PSAP Center
IMPROVEDACCESS TO 911
Sometimes, citizens can find
themselves in dangerous,
even life-threatening,
situations in which speaking
to a 911 call-taker would
put them in even greater
danger. In these cases,
the ability to send a text
message to request help is
much safer.
Figure 4 Improved 9-1-1 service
Olson, Thompson & Feaker (2013, p.6)
Figure 5 Improved 9-1-1 service
Olson, Thompson & Feaker (2013, p.7)