Question I/16 - Use of public telecommunication services for emergency and disaster relief operations

Background and justification The focus of this question is to address public telecommunication services that authorities can use to communicate during emergency and disaster operations. This capability, referred to as the emergency telecommunication service (ETS), will enable communications from authorized users to have preferential treatment for organizing and coordinating disaster relief operations. Preferential treatment is particularly important because telecommunication networks often experience severe stress during these events due to high traffic demands, bandwidth limitation, and possibly infrastructure damage. Unexpected natural and manmade disasters may occur anywhere at any time. The very nature of disasters requires immediate response for organizing and coordinating recovery operations. Critical disaster recovery activities may be aided by ready availability and accessibility to public telecommunication resources to support urgent communications. The development and standardization of telecommunication capabilities to support emergency and disaster relief communications is needed. There are a variety of telecommunication capabilities for use in emergency situations. The scope of this question addresses the capabilities specifically for authorities to use public telecommunication services for emergency and disaster relief operations. However, it is recognized that some of the technical solutions emerging from this work could be applicable to other emergency telecommunication capabilities. In addition, consideration could be given to possible interfacing between public networks providing ETS capabilities and dedicated systems used by authorities during disaster relief operations. This question addresses a variety of issues associated with converging and evolving next generation networks including consideration for multimedia applications, as well as traditional telephony. Standards that emerge from this work are intended to apply to international ETS traffic. Development of ETS capabilities is being addressed by many standards development and disaster relief organizations. Therefore, cooperation and liaison (coordination) among the many organizations representing different interest areas is essential to ensure consistency and completeness in the provisioning of effective telecommunication capabilities to support emergency and disaster relief operations. Study items Identify organizations addressing the various aspects related to telecommunication capabilities for emergency and disaster relief operations In conjunction with Study Group 2, identify user requirements for ETS capabilities, e.g. solicit input from Administrations and disaster relief organizations. Define ETS capabilities drawing from identified user application requirements. In conjunction with Study Group 17, define security aspects for authentication of users and prevention of interference, e.g. spoofing, changing content, denial of service, eavesdropping, with ETS traffic. Define the terminology associated with ETS capabilities for emergency and disaster relief operations Specific task objectives with expected time-frame of completion Develop and maintain a table of work items related to ETS being addressed by standards development organizations and other relevant organizations, which provides initial and eventual target dates for completion of the work items - living document Develop an emergency telecommunication requirements Recommendation - first draft May 2002. This continuing work will draw from actual user. This is a SG2 objective -first draft June 2003 Identify the ETS capabilities that are needed to fulfil the requirements - first draft January 2004 Liaise with organizations or activities responsible for addressing specific capabilities - ongoing Develop a system framework Recommendation identifying the components needed to support the ETS capabilities -2005 Relationships ITU-T Study Groups 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17, and SSG Questions of related topics within ITU-T Study Group 16, e.g., 2, F, G, and C-Metadata Ad Hoc ITU-R - WP 4B, WP 8A, and WP 9B ITU-D - Study Group 2 UN Working Group on Emergency Telecommunications (WGET) Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) - IAB, IESG, ieprep Working Group European Telecommunications Standardization Institute (ETSI), OCG EMTEL, Partnership Project MESA, ETSI Project TIPHON, and Partnership Project 3GPP Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) Partnership Project 3GPP2 Asia-Pacific Telecommunity Standardization Program (ASTAP) Expert Group on Public Disaster Relief Communications User organizations - UN and other international disaster relief organizations ____________________