ITU activities for Emergency Communications and Disaster Relief

1
ITU activities for Emergency Communications and
Disaster Relief

• Kevin Hughes, BR
• kevin.hughes_at_itu.int
• Reinhard Scholl, TSB
• reinhard.scholl_at_itu.int
• International Telecommunication Union

Submission DateJuly 1, 2008
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Highlight of Current Activities (1)

• DECISIONS OF RA-07 AND WRC-07
• increased spectrum and protection criteria for
  relevant services
• development of relevant radio systems
• spectrum management needs
• RESOLUTION 647 (WRC-07) Spectrum management
  guidelines for emergency and disaster relief
  radiocommunication
• places emphasis on spectrum needs and encourages
  administrations to maintain available frequencies
  for use in the initial phase of an emergency
• instructs ITU/BR to assist Member States with
  their emergency communication preparedness
  activities by establishing a database of
  currently available frequencies for use in
  emergency situations

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Highlight of Current Activities (2)

• Add-ons to existing system specifications
• Early warning delivery (X.1303/CAP)
• System override for emergency message broadcast
  audio, audiovisual, text
• Extension of short text messaging to fixed
  telephones (circuit-switched and IP/soft-phones)
• Definition of methods to address multiple
  languages and communication for persons with
  disabilities, in particular for IP-based systems
• Next Generation Networks Emergency
  telecommunications Technical considerations
  (Y.2205)
• Definition of pre-allocated channel number for
  3G mobile cell broadcast use (Ongoing).

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Strategic Direction (1)

• Stimulate ITU-R Study Groups to develop technical
  bases for telecommunication and radio systems
  employed in the prediction, detection, alerting
  and relief phases, including guidelines relating
  to the management of radiocommunications in such
  situations
• ITU/BR response to Resolution 647 (WRC-07) by
  establishing a database of available frequencies/
  frequency bands for use in emergency situations,
  based on information provided by administrations
  (see BR Circular Letters 281 and 283)

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Strategic Direction (2)

• New standards should build (add-on) on existing
  infrastructure, not require a total revamp
• For new systems (e.g. NGN) emergency response
  functionality built-in from the start
• Coordination with all stakeholders
• ITU Inter-sectoral Emergency Telecommunication
  Team (IETT)
• PCP-TDR (Partnership Coordination Panel)
• Governments, industry, IGOs, NGOs
• Assistance to other groups
• e.g. assistance for spectrum management in
  disaster relief deployments by UN OCHA / WGET
• Participation in events
• e.g. Global Forum on Effective Use of
  Telecommunications/ICT for Disaster Management
  (ITU, December 2007).

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Challenges

• Consistently involve all stakeholders, in
  particular users of emergency communications
• Diversified community, not only traditional
  telecom experts
• Standards work is contribution-driven
• Sensitive area (as it involves sovereignty,
  security, etc)
• Respect national sovereignty when developing
  specifications
• National regulatory frameworks
• Encourage wider deployment of standards
• Education, awareness and preparedness
• Not a purely technical field.

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Next Steps/Actions

• Establish database of frequencies/frequency bands
  based on responses to BR Circular Letters
  requesting spectrum information from
  administrations in accordance with Res. 647
  (WRC-07)
• Ensure ITU-R Study Groups take due account of
  emergency communications and disaster relief in
  their activities and initiate/enhance activities
  where necessary
• Encourage all relevant stake-holders to recognise
  the vital role that telecommunications and radio
  systems play in disaster management, particularly
  in the initial phase of the emergency or disaster
  response intervention
• Encourage collaboration between ITU and other
  international organisations involved with
  disaster relief, including the development of
  standard operating procedures

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Proposed Resolution

• See draft revised Resolution submitted by ISACC

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Supplementary Slides
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Outline ITU standardization work

• Introduction
• Radiocommunication Sector
• Telecommunication Standardization Sector
• Future work
• Conclusion

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Introduction
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ITU Overview
191 Member States 700 Sector Members
ITU
Helping the World Communicate
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Role of ITU in TDR/ETS/EWS

• In five words, Committed to connecting the world
  ? even more so in distress situations!
• Long-time work on telecom for emergency
  situations
• Morse code (it was a long time ago)
• Three recent examples
• Tampere Convention? to facilitate exchange of
  telecom equipment in disaster relief operations
• WRC-03 reserved spectrum for emergency
  communications
• Standardization work on call priority alert
  message delivery
• Plenipotentiary Conference Resolution 136
• Use of telecommunications/ICTs for monitoring
  and management in emergency disaster situations
  for early warning, prevention, mitigation and reli
  ef

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ITUs role in Disaster Reduction (1)

• Mitigation
• Spectrum management
• Establishment of globally/regionally harmonized
  frequency bands
• Application of amateur and amateur-satellite
  services
• Global circulation of emergency equipment
• Support to emergency broadcasting, maritime and
  public safety signals
• All types of networks

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ITUs role in Disaster Reduction (2)

• Preparedness
• Standards for public telecommunication services
• International emergency for preference scheme for
  disaster relief
• Message broadcast
• Global network security
• Interoperability of telecom networks

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ITUs role in Disaster Reduction (3)

• Response
• Appropriate project management techniques
• Legal and regulatory issues (Tampere GSR)
• Universal access (early warning)
• Capacity building (preparedness)
• Relief (response)
• Reconstruction
• Partnerships (e.g., INMARSAT, WGET, OCHA, IARU)

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Scenarios for emergency communications

• Four communication scenarios
• Citizen to citizen
• Authority to authority
• Authority to citizen
• Citizen to authority
• ITU has worked in scenarios 1, 2 and 3. More work
  could be done
• Could work on scenario 4 (more relevant to
  day-to-day emergency situations fire, police,
  call for medical assistance, etc)

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How the work progresses?

• ITUs work is contribution-driven contributions
  ? progress
• Governments, users (including intergovernmental
  agencies and NGOs), manufacturers need to bring
  in proposals to enhance the features of existing
  systems
• Trend for initial focus to be on improving what
  already exists, in order to be implementable in a
  short time-frame

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Radiocommunications
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Disaster phases the radio services involved

• Disaster prediction and detection
  meteorological and Earth exploration satellite
  services
• Disaster alerting broadcast, fixed, mobile and
  related satellite services
• Disaster relief Amateur, broadcast, fixed,
  mobile and related satellite services

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Disaster prediction and detection

• Meteorological and Earth exploration satellite
  services
• Operated in the main by government and
  international agencies
• Play a major role in prediction and detection of
  disasters (such as hurricanes, earthquakes and
  tsunamis, floods, fires, dangerous pollution,
  etc.)

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Disaster alerting

• Alert the central/regional/local authorities
  responsible for warning the public fixed,
  mobile, fixed/mobile-satellite
• Issue warnings to the people likely to be
  affected
• Broadcast, sound and television
• Mobile (such as TV, Radio, SMS / Cell broadcast)

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Disaster relief

• Amateur a long history of aiding with
  communications during disasters
• Earth exploration satellite damage assessment
• Fixed/mobile satellite - to rapidly restore
  communications capabilities
• Fixed transportable, higher capacity -
  point-to-point and local area
• Mobile coordination of relief activities, both
  private and public systems used

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Resolution 646 (WRC-03)

• Recommends use of regionally harmonized bands
• Region 1 380-470 MHz as the frequency range
  within which the band 380-385/390-395 MHz is a
  preferred core harmonized band for permanent
  public protection activities within certain
  countries of Region 1
• Region 2 746-806 MHz, 806-869 MHz,
  4 940-4 990 MHz
• Region 3 406.1-430 MHz, 440-470 MHz,
  806-824/851-869 MHz, 4 940-4 990 MHz and
  5 850-5 925 MHz. 
• Encourages administrations to facilitate
  cross-border circulation of radio equipment
  intended for use in disaster relief situations

Reconfirmed by WRC-07
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ITU Regions
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Resolution 647 (WRC-07)

• Spectrum management guidelines for emergency and
  disaster relief radiocommunication
• Places emphasis on preparedness concerning
  spectrum needs in the phase immediately after an
  emergency has started
• Encourages administrations to maintain available
  frequencies for use in the very early stages of
  humanitarian assistance intervention for disaster
  relief
• Instructs ITU-BR to assist Member States with
  their emergency communication preparedness
  activities by establishing maintaining a
  database of currently available frequencies for
  use in emergency situations

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RA-07 Resolution ITU-R 53

• Use of radiocommunications in disaster response
  and relief
• Assistance to ITU Member States with their
  emergency radiocommunications preparedness
  activities
• E.g. listing of currently available frequencies
  for use in emergency situations for inclusion in
  a database maintained by BR
• Assist other international organizations (e.g.
  OCHA) with the development and dissemination of
  standard operating procedures for spectrum
  management in the event of disasters

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RA-07 Resolution ITU-R 55

• ITU studies of disaster prediction, detection,
  mitigation and relief
• It identifies areas that ITU-R Study Groups could
  address in their studies/ activities and develop
  guidelines related to the management of radiocoms
  in disaster prediction, detection, mitigation and
  relief
• This is to be done collaboratively within
  outside ITU to avoid duplication

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Status of studies global circulation

• Recommendation ITU-R M.1637
• Global cross-border circulation of
  radiocommunication equipment in emergency and
  disaster relief situationsRecommendation ITU-R
  M.1579 Global circulation of IMT-2000
  terminals
• Recognize the importance of the needs of
  organizations dealing with disaster relief

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Status of studies needs of future systems

• Report ITU-R M.2033
• Radiocommunication objectives and requirements
  for public protection and disaster relief
  (PPDR)
• Defines objectives and needs for the
  implementation of future PPDR solutions
• Focuses on operational needs around 2010

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Status of studies Broadband PPDR

• Rec. ITU-R M.1826 (2007)
• Harmonized frequency channel plan for broadband
  public protection and disaster relief operations
  at 4 940-4 990 MHz in Regions 2 and 3
• Addresses harmonized frequency channel plans in
  the band 4940 - 4990 MHz for broadband PPDR
  radiocommunications in Region 2 (Americas) and
  Region 3 (Southeast Asia).

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Status of studies Earth exploration

• Recommendation ITU-R RS.1803 (2007)Technical
  and operational characteristics for passive
  sensors in the Earth exploration-satellite
  (passive) service to facilitate sharing of the
  10.6-10.68 GHz and 36-37 GHz bands with the fixed
  and mobile services
• Recommendation ITU-R RS.1804 (2007)Technical
  and operational characteristics of Earth
  exploration-satellite service (EESS) systems
  operating above 3 000 GHz
• Recs ITU-R RS.1803 and RS.1804 are related to
  development and use of Earth exploration-satellite
  systems employed for environment including
  disaster monitoring

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Status of studies Amateur involvement

• Recommendation ITU-R M.1042-3
• Disaster communications in the amateur and
  amateur-satellite services
• Encourages the development of robust, flexible
  and independent amateur service and
  amateur-satellite service networks, capable of
  providing communications during disasters and
  relief operations

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Telecommunication Standardization
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ITU-T work on TDR/EW (1)

• Installation techniques for a sturdy outside
  plant (Handbook and L-series Recommendations)
• X.1303 Common altering protocol based on OASIS
  CAP v1.1
• E.106 Call preference scheme over the PSTN
• Support of E.106 in various ITU-defined systems
• E.107 Emergency telecommunications service (ETS)
  and interconnection framework for national
  implementations
• Enhancements of 11 existing protocols (ISUP,
  BICC, DSS2, AAL2 and IPBCP related) based on
  Q.Supp.53, Signalling support for International
  Emergency Preferential Scheme (IEPS).
• Discussion on extension of the preference scheme
  to packet technologies (IP in particular)
• Creation of work items in the technical
  committees (Study Groups)

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ITU-T work on TDR/EW (2)

• Preference scheme defined for two families of
  IP-based systems standardized by ITU
• H.323 Multimedia VoIP (ITU-T H.460.4
  H.460.14)
• IP-Cablecom (ITU-T J.260)
• Media Gateway Protocol (ITU-T H.248.44, H-Series
  Supplement 9)
• Overview of the basic requirements, features, and
  concepts for emergency telecoms for NGN (ITU-T
  Y.1271)
• Definition of a E.164 special country code for
  emergency communications under the responsibility
  of the UN
• Action Plan for Standardization on TDR/EW
• ITU Compendium on Emergency Communications
  Volume with all applicable ITU-T Recommendations
• Workshops 2002 (ETS), 2006 (Public warning)

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PCP-TDR

• Coordination role
• Monitor the progress of technical standardization
  for telecommunications for disaster relief
  early warning
• Address coordination issues between the partners
• Develop and maintain contact with entities not
  traditionally involved in standards development
• Promote the adoption of existing standards
• Participation open to all key players
• standards development organizations,
• international telecommunication service
  providers,
• related government departments,
• disaster relief organizations and
• other entities working in the field

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Ongoing / future work

• Add-ons to existing system specifications
• System override for emergency message broadcast
  audio, audiovisual, text
• Extension of short text messaging to fixed
  telephones (circuit-switched and IP/soft-phones)
• Definition of methods to address multiple
  languages and communication for persons with
  disabilities, in particular for IP-based systems
• Signalling requirements to support the emergency
  telecommunications service (ETS) in IP networks
  (Q.Supp.57)
• Framework for interconnection of priority schemes
  across the different systems (PSTN and different
  IP platforms, e.g. H.323, IP-Cablecom, SIP) and
  across proprietary/ privileged systems
• Definition of pre-allocated channel number for
  3G mobile cell broadcast use (Ongoing)
• Regulatory framework (national sovereignty
  issues)

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Conclusion
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Conclusions

• ITU has historically played an important role in
  communications for disaster prevention and
  mitigation
• Work already has been done in certain areas in
  the standardization sector for existing systems
  as well as NGN but much more can be done. For
  the work to progress study groups need to
  receive proposals from the ITU members!
• For the way forward
• Understand users requirements
• Identify the regulatory framework
• Develop a set of global and compatible Standards
• Cost aspects
• Evolutionary approach
• Respect national sovereignty
• Partnership between Member States, private
  sector, Government Agencies, and NGOs
• Participate! (next slide for web resources)

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Web resources

• Main ITU emergency telecoms page?
  www.itu.int/emergencytelecoms
• ITU-R emergency telecoms page ?
  www.itu.int/ITU-R/index.asp?categoryinformationl
  inkemergency
• ITU-T emergency telecoms page?
  www.itu.int/ITU-T/emergencytelecoms/
• Partnership Coordination Panel on TDR/EW ?
  www.itu.int/ITU-T/special-projects/pcptdr/
• Radio Assembly 2007 Resolutions?
  www.itu.int/publ/R-RES
• Tampere Convention? http//www.reliefweb.int/tele
  coms/tampere/
• ITU Compendium on Emergency Communications NEW!?
  www.itu.int/publ/D-HDB-WET-2007/en
• ITU-T Recommendations New! Free online! ?
  www.itu.int/ITU-T/publications/recs.html
• ITU-T Workshops ? http//www.itu.int/ITU-T/workse
  m