scope:

As public communication networks become more critical to the Government's missions, authorized emergency users require high standards from network providers. Network providers need to be able to deliver specific levels of network performance such as availability and restorability of Emergency Telecommunications Services (ETS). Performance measurements must be defined and agreed upon in any Service Level Agreements (SLAs) relating to ETS. Networks comprise many different components (e.g., routers, switches, media gateways, gatekeepers, servers, etc.). Based on network connectivity, specific performance measurements of a single or multiple (packet-based or switched-based) networks need to be made available to emergency organizations prior to any service acquisitions.

For availability, authorized emergency users expect to have access to highly available services in order to fulfill their mission at all times.

For restorability, network redundancy engineering is required to carry or reroute emergency traffic when one or more network components fail to perform -- e.g., Automatic Switch Protection (APS), Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON), etc.

Purpose

The purpose of this Technical Report (TR) is to address aspects of two (2) ETS functional requirements: 1) Availability; and 2) Restorability. The purpose of the ETS is to facilitate emergency recovery operations for restoring the community infrastructure and for returning the population to normal living conditions after serious disasters and events, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and terrorist attacks. The ETS will be provided through shared resources from the public telecommunications infrastructure, which is evolving from a basic circuit-switched configuration of today's conventional telephone networks to an Internet-based, packet-switched technology providing a richness of communication capabilities. The timely establishment of an effective ETS has been given significant urgency as a result of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States (U.S.).

Many challenges and considerations need to be addressed in defining and establishing the functional capabilities for the ETS in the emerging packet-based telecommunications services. This TR addresses the requirements: d. Restorability and n. Reliability/Availability of the list of the eighteen (18) requirements in T1.TR.79-2003 [1] for ETS that packet-based telecommunication and wireless mobile networks are capable of providing, and that must receive attention during the process of the convergence of these technologies. Disaster situations can occur unexpectedly at any time, any place. These events often significantly damage the community infrastructure and severely disrupt daily living. Recovery requires rapid response by local authorities, immediate reaction from utility service providers, and support from medical, construction, fire, and police resources. Effective communications are essential to facilitate the myriad activities for coordinating lifesaving activities concurrent with reestablishing control in the disaster area. Following a disaster, immediate response operations focus on saving lives, protecting property, and meeting basic human needs.