Telecommunications for Disaster Relief TDR: Technical requirements and standards

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Telecommunications for Disaster Relief
(TDR)Technical requirements and standards

• P.A.Probst
• Senior Telecommunication Adviser, Swisscom
• Chairman SG16/ITU-T

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Summary

• TDR scope
• Trends
• Role of standards
• First steps and progress report
• Conclusions on future work

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TDR scope (1)

• During natural and manmade disasters, rapid
  organization and co-ordination of recovery
  operations is essential to save lives and restore
  the community infrastructure
• Recovery operations depend upon ready
  availability and access to telecommunication
  resources to support urgent communications
• Telecommunication networks often experience
  severe stress due to damaged infrastructure
  and/or very high traffic loads
• a

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TDR Scope (2)Telecommunication networks normal
operating conditions
Customers
MM SA
Voice SA
Data SA
IP-based Networks
Dedicated Networks
CS-Networks
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TDR Scope (3)Telecommunication networks
operations in crisis situation
Customers
TDR-Users
Voice SA
MM SA
Data SA
!
IP-based Networks
!
!
!
Dedicated Networks
CS-Networks
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TDR Scope (4) Telecommunication networks in
crisis situation category of customers and their
needs ?
Citizens
NGOs
Citizens
Authorities
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TDR scope (5)

• There is a need to provide specific resources for
  authorized users (e.g. governments, fire
  brigades, police, medical services, etc)
• The development and standardization of emergency
  telecommunication service capabilities provides
  the means for disaster recovery activities to
  effectively communicate
• Specific standardization activities are therefore
  required to efficiently support these
  requirements
• ITU-T can take advantage of its unique
  industry-government environment to produce
  relevant Recommendations

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TDR scope (6)

• Concept of Emergency telecommunications,
• ETS and TDR
• Access for the public to emergency utilities like
  police, medical and rescue services? Citizen
  Emergency Service (911, 112, )
• Provision of telecommunications capabilities on a
  per occasion basis for disaster relief and
  mitigation? Telecommunications for Disaster
  Relief (TDR)
• Capabilities of public telecommunications
  services (supplementary services) made available
  to national authorities to facilitate
  communications between and from authorized users
  in specific situations (emergency and disaster
  situation, emergency preparedness, )? Emergency
  Telecommunications Services (ETS)

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TDR trends

• Situation in the past-TDR are/were based on
  PSTN, ISDN, PLMN, 2G-mobile- Circuit switched
  technology- Voice centric applications-
  National solutions- Limited inter-working
• Present trends- Use the possibility of
  multimedia (video)- New applications/services
  based on mobility, location-based
  information,- Evolution to IP-based platforms-
  Needs for global solutions (international)-
  Improve inter-working between platforms
  (public/private)- .

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Key issues for TDR standardization

• Customers- segmentation- requirements
• Services and applications (incl QoS)- use of
  existing facilities- extension (new needs?)
• Network capabilities for TDR support
• Inter-working at- Service and application
  level- Network level
• Regulatory framework

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The role of standards for TDR

• Inter-working, compatibility, evolution, economy
  of scale, are the main drivers for the
  development of aFamily of standards to ensure
  global interoperability of emergency
  telecommunications
• - maintaining foundation of existing national
  capabilities,- enabling new national
  capabilities to be established,- expanding
  communications internationally on priority
  basis,- mapping ETS indicators code at national
  gateways,- facilitating orderly evolution to
  advancing technologies and enhanced
  capabilities.

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First steps towards TDR standardization in ITU-T
(1)

• Contributions submitted to several Study Groups
  to develop Recs on ETS/TDR (2001)
• The need for improved coordination and liaison
  with other SDOs was recognized
• Experiences made during the events in 2001/2002
• Projects on Security (SG17) and NGN (SG13)
• Needs expressed by the ITU-T membership, to
  develop a global and harmonized set of standards
  for ETS/TDR capabilities in close co-operation
  with other SDOs

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First steps towards TDR standardization in ITU-T
(2)

• Development and approval of a Question in SG16 (Q
  I/16 on TDR approved in October 2002)
• Questionnaire on the use of public telecom
  services for emergency and disaster relief
  operations (TSB-Circular 132/15-11-2002)
• Workshop on TDR (February 2003)
• Development of first Recs (E.106/SG2, draft Rec.
  F.706/SG16)
• Creation of an informal coordination entity TDR
  Partnership Coordination Panel (TDR PCP, endorsed
  by TSAG in February 2003)

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First steps towards TDR standardization in ITU-T
(3)

• TDR Partnership Coordination Panel
  MandateMonitor the progress of the technical
  standardisation work in general and in particular
  its mapping with the requirements of the
  different categories of users - Address
  high-level coordination issues between the
  partners involved- Develop and maintain the
  links with entities not traditionally involved in
  the development of standards- Report on the
  progress to TSAG

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First steps towards TDR standardization in ITU-T
(4)

• TDR Partnership Coordination PanelSummary of the
  results of the PCP-TDR Meeting in Geneva (May
  2004 during SG4)- ETS and TDR concepts
  discussed and proposal to consider them
  separately,- Detailed TDR/ETS aspects best dealt
  with by the experts in the specialised SGs,-
  Lack of overall coordination question for the
  various SGs,- Specific security requirements for
  TDR/ETS over and above those of the service
  capabilities,- Concept of interworking of ENIs
  (ETS National Implementation) would be a basis
  for ITU-T work,- Need to improve further the
  definitions and the concepts of TDR and ETS.

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TDR organizations involved in the development of
standards

• ITU-T SGs involved SG2, SG3, SG4, SG9, SG11,
  SG12, SG13, SG15, SG16, SG17, SSG
• ITU- D SG 2
• ITU-R SG4, SG9
• IETF
• ETSI
• TIA
• ASTAP
• UN WGET
• NGOs

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TDR Standardization progress report (1)

• GENERAL
• The importance of global international standards
  in the area of ETS/TDR has been recognized,
• Since various players are involved, there is a
  need for coordination in the development of
  ETS/TDR standards,
• Considering the evolution of telecommunication
  networks (IP, Multimedia, Mobile, etc) a
  redesign of the traditional systems supporting
  TDR capabilities seems to be necessary,
• The understanding of the needs of the various
  users has been improved,
• Refinement of the ETS and TDR concepts,
• Creation of an open informal platform to
  contribute to the development of TDR/ETS
  Standards (PCP-TDR),
• Initialization of the work in the relevant ITU-T
  SGs,
• Approval of first TDR relevant ITU-T Recs,
• Considerations on future work in view of the new
  SG structure.

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TDR Standardization progress report (2)

• How to structure future ETS/TDR work?
• TDR-PCP views are that,
• The Definition of TDR and ETS needs further
  refinements,
• There is a need for a specific TDR/ETS overall
  coordination question,
• The detailed TDR/ETS aspects are best dealt with
  by the experts in each Study Group
  specialization,
• The TDR-PCP needs a parent SG,
• The TDR-PCP suggested to include the general
  requirements and coordination as part of a
  network (or NGN) SG.
• TSAG concluded that,
• ETS/TDR specific aspects will be dealt with in
  the specialized SGs,
• Three possible options for the SG responsible for
  general TDR requirements SG M, SG K, SG I,
• PCP-TDR will report to the SG that defines the
  general TDR requirements.

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Conclusions Key factors for success and
challenges

• Understand users requirements
• Identify the regulatory framework
• Develop a set of global and compatible Standards
• Cost aspects
• Evolutionary approach
• National sovereignty
• Partnership between Member States, private
  sector, GOs and NGOs