EVENT HELD:  November 4-8, 2013

Illinois Institute of Technology, Rice Campus, Wheaton IL

9-1-1 & Tech Industry Experts Successfully Test 21^st Century 9-1-1 Capabilities & Features

Representatives from almost two dozen public safety service providers came together to test the features that would enable 9-1-1 centers across the country to keep pace with consumer technologies and introduce multimedia "call” capabilities, allowing text, images, and real-time video to be sent from those in need of emergency assistance directly to 9-1-1 call takers.

This Industry Collaboration Event, dubbed "ICE 8”, focused on testing interfaces for logging of processing events and recording NG9-1-1 multimedia and call data, as well as interfaces for retrieving and reproducing both. NENA’s "i3” NG9-1-1 standard specifies the system interfaces that were tested at ICE 8.

"Through the ICE initiative, NENA is proud to provide a space for all relevant players to come together in an open, collaborative atmosphere to test the products and services that will ultimately enable Next Generation 9-1-1 and improve emergency responses for all citizens in need,” said NENA President Bernard Brown, ENP. "We thank the Illinois Institute of Technology for hosting this critical event and INdigital for assisting in establishing the network connectivity between participants.”

ICE 8 Final Summary Report 

In NG9-1-1, all call media must be recorded, including voice, video, and text. In addition, all elements involved in call processing log event records for each step in the process. The NENA i3 Solution defines standard interfaces for recording and retrieving all of this data in order to provide historical records for legal purposes and for analyzing and troubleshooting NG9-1-1 processes. The ICE 8 event, being planned for the fall of 2013, will allow vendors of all NG9-1-1 call processing elements to test logging, recording and retrieval interfaces while processing calls from origination to termination with different media types.

More information on ICE:

• Delaine Arnold – NENA ICE Testing Coordination Manager - 813.960.1698
• Roger Hixson – NENA Technical Issues Director - 614.442.9110
• Ty Wooten– NENA Director of Education & Operational Issues

ICE 8 Participants

• Michael Smith – DSS Corp Chair
• Simon Farrow - Stancil Vice Chair
• Matthew Varner – Verint Systems
• Robert Bowman – Higherground
• Guy Churchouse – Revcord
• Dave Higton – NICE Systems
• Jim Daniel – Voice Print International
• Mattthew Daughtrey - Eventide
• David Staub - Assure911
• Helmut (Hal) Koch - EXACOM
• Gene Shennikov - Versadial
• Brian Berkovits - CVDS
• Brian Knueppel - Acme Packet
• Chris Flynn - Aculab
• Dan Banks - Digital Data Technologies
• Dan Mongrain - Frequentis
• Avery Penniston - Geocomm
• James Kinney -- INdigital
• Philip Reichl - Modular Communications Systems
• Patrick Voight - Synergen Emergency Services
• Jeff Knighton - Voiceriver
• Christian Militeau, ENP - Intrado
• Jerry Eisner - Redsky

Charter

Elements to be tested include, but are not limited to:

• Elements identified in the i3 architecture that are required to log processing events. This includes almost all elements involved in processing "calls” of any kind: I3 PSAP, ESRP, Bridge Services, BCF, LVF, ECRF, LNG, LSRG, and LPG.
• The Logging Service as defined in the i3 standard (NENA 08-003), including media recording, event logging, retrieval of events, and playback of media.
• Elements that wish to test an Instant Recall function that retrieves event records and plays back media from a logger, such as CAD and RMS elements.
• Elements that wish to test retrieving event records from a logger for creating statistical, traffic analysis or trouble-shooting reports, such as MIS elements.
• LIS and Time Services are important supporting elements, and vendors of those elements are strongly encouraged to participate.

The Interfaces to be tested (defined in NENA 08-003):

• Recording of voice, video and text media
• Event Logging by both network and PSAP Functional Elements
• Queries and retrieval/playback of media and events

The ICE 8 Planning Committee will develop appropriate Scenarios, Test Plans, and Data Collection and Reporting mechanisms for executing the interoperability tests. The collection/reporting mechanisms for this event will be developed with the assistance of Devery Thumann of the ICE Steering Committee, who headed the Data Collection and Reporting Committee in previous ICE events.