E MERGENCY W IRELESS C OMMUNICATIONS

EEMERGENCY MERGENCY WWIRELESS IRELESS CCOMMUNICATIONSOMMUNICATIONS

Bernard Malone III501-821-7650

[email protected]

Representative - Wireless Emergency Response Team (WERT)

Technical Manager - Lucent Technologies Mobility Team

Member – American Radio Relay League

ANSI Homeland Security Standards Panel (HSSP)

Workshops on Standardization

for Emergency Communications and for Citizen Readiness

Schaumburg, IL USA December 1, 2004

December 1, 2004 B. L. Malone III 2


OUTLINEOUTLINE

• WERT and World Trade Center experience

• Concepts for future Emergency Wireless Communications support



WERT MissionWERT Mission

The Wireless Emergency Response Team

was established on the night of September 11, 2001

to provide coordinated wireless industry mutual aid support

for Search and Rescue efforts

at the World Trade Center rubble.



WERT WTC Summary StatisticsWERT WTC Summary Statistics

• No survivors were found • 33 organizations participated • 250+ industry subject matter experts participated• An additional ~500 volunteers staffed the Public Call Center• 5,039 calls received in the WERT Public Call Center• 120 reports of a missing person’s use of a cell phone or pager

from the rubble• 134 Key Learnings• 23 Recommendations

Final Report: www.wert-help.org/



WERT Participating OrganizationsWERT Participating Organizations

Arch Wireless

Argonne National Labratory

AT&T

AT&T Wireless

BellSouth

CTIA

Cingular Interactive

EDO Corporation

Ericsson

FCC

Lucent Technologies

SkyTel

Sprint PCS

Telcordia Technologies

TruePosition

U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Marshals Service, ESU

U.S. Secret Service

Verizon

Verizon Wireless

VoiceStream

Wheat International

Metrocall

Motorola

NCS

NCC

NRSC

NRIC

Nextel

NYPD

NYC Mayor’s Office

Nortel Networks

PCIA



OperationsOperations

Coordination Command CenterCoordination Command CenterCoordination Command CenterCoordination Command Center

Service Provider IntelligenceService Provider IntelligenceService Provider IntelligenceService Provider Intelligence

Public Call CenterPublic Call CenterPublic Call CenterPublic Call Center

Ground Zero LocatingGround Zero LocatingGround Zero LocatingGround Zero Locating

Network Surveillance & AnalysisNetwork Surveillance & AnalysisNetwork Surveillance & AnalysisNetwork Surveillance & Analysis

Wireless Emergency Response Team LocationsWireless Emergency Response Team Locations



ApproachApproach• Mission of the Coordination Command Center was to

– Provide leadership for the entire team

– Coordinate with authorities

– Manage media interfaces

– Facilitate intra-team communications

• Mission of the Network Surveillance & Analysis Sub Team was to

– Look for any activity on call center list.

• Registration, Calls, or Text Messaging activity,

– Proactively screen 911 calls for false alarms.

• Identify cell site of 911 call.

• Look at call and registration history.



Approach (continued)Approach (continued)

• Mission of the Service Provider Intelligence Sub Team

– provide rapid response database lookup information: associating service provider names, switch addresses, and tandem homing arrangement information with cellular phone numbers

Distribution of Service Provider Percentage of WERT Cases (~4,000)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Per

cent

age

Service Provider

Cell A

Cell B

Cell C

Misc.Cell D

Cell E

PagerA

PagerD

PagerC

PagerB




• Mission of the Public Call Center was to – Off load calls from 911 command center and other government entities

– Receive calls and collect information about potentially trapped survivors

– Obtain cell and pager numbers for missing persons




• The Mission of the Ground Zero Locating Sub Team is to . . .

aid and assist in the location of and communication with trapped survivors who possess a variety of wireless personal equipment. There is a high probability that victims will have access to some sort of wireless device (e.g. phone, pager, FOB, etc.). This provides a unique opportunity for passive remote location and establishing a wireless link for remote communication



Key Learnings - ExamplesKey Learnings - Examples

• What Worked Well– high commitment of professionals/organizations in mutual aid

– pre-established federal coordination function of NCC

– ability to conduct rapid research

– Adapted fraud, billing and trouble shooting tools to quickly screen call center list and 911 calls.

– Provided guidelines via text messages for preserving battery life

– Provide extended network coverage into debris field using RF. repeaters, autonomous basestations, and basestation simulators.



Key Learnings - ExamplesKey Learnings - Examples

• Areas for Improvement and Further Investigation– pre-defined processes, definitions and templates

– broad language translation capabilities

– guidelines for communication with a trapped survivor between detection and location

– special instructions for 911 centers for handling wireless callers

– Handling 911 calls from a 3rd party

– Identifying Search and Rescue mobile phones

– Use of text messaging to communicate with a victim

– Would the techniques learned work in another disaster scenario

– The possible addition of an emergency mode for mobile equipment with extreme low-power and location beacons



Final Final ReportReport• Subject Matter

– Describes Approaches Used

– Systematically reviews Key Learnings

• What Worked Well - Areas for Improvement - Areas Requiring Further Investigation

– Presents Recommendations

• Widely Reviewed

– U.S. FCC NRIC V, FEMA Emergency Response Teams, NENA

– COM CITEL (Ecuador, Brazil)

– ETSI EMTEL (France), Italy, Germany Networking Conferences

– IEEE COMSOC: GLOBECOM’01, ICC’02,

– CQR Workshop 2002, Japan Network Security Seminar

• Available to Public: www.wert-help.org

USAUSA

South AmericaSouth America

EuropeEuropeAsiaAsia



““Take Away's” Take Away's”

• Keep rescue teams from danger by quickly discrediting false reports

• Assuring the public - both here and abroad - that all known technological approaches are being used to listen for any cellular or pager communication being sent

• Documented Key Learnings and Recommendations in the WERT Final Report being studied so that this capability can be enhanced and optimized

• WERT is established as an ongoing capability – can be called on by the NCS or FEMA 7 days/week, 24 hours/day



OUTLINEOUTLINE

• WERT and World Trade Center experience

• Concepts for future Emergency Wireless Communications support



Emergency CommunicationsEmergency Communications

• Preferred access to public networks by officials• Dedicated emergency networks for First Responders• Inter-working with public networks• Interoperability among agencies’ networks• Amateur Radio support of communications• E911 emergency communications – for victims

• Extended communications with victims beyond coverage boundaries ?• Citizen-to-Citizen ?



Concept: The Rescue NetworkConcept: The Rescue Network

• Some ability to communicate with disaster victims anywhere• GOAL: To communicate with and locate victims• Critical when out of coverage area or surrounding network damage• Effectively ‘Extend’ the reach of wireless network communications• Capabilities may be permanent or temporary• Highly portable, quickly deployable, quickly provision-able• Combination of hardware, software, operating techniques• Network and mobile device



ReferenceReference

• www.wert-help.org/ Wireless Emergency Response Team

• www.arrl.org American Radio Relay League

• www3.interscience.wiley.com/ Bell Labs Technical Journal

(Wiley InterScience)

• www.citizencorps.gov/ Department of Homeland Security

Citizen Corps

Thank You !Thank You !



BackupBackup



Amateur RadioAmateur Radio

. . . . A voluntary noncommercial communication service, used by qualified persons of any age who are interested in radio technique with a personal aim and without pecuniary interest.

– Regulated by FCC under Communications Act of 1934– License structure – Beginner to Expert

Among it’s Purposes:– Recognition of value in providing emergency communications support– Advancement of the radio art– Expansion of pool of trained operators, technicians, electronics experts– Promotion of International Goodwill



Amateur RadioAmateur Radio

• Over 680,000 Licensed Amateurs in U.S.• Operating privileges from 1.8 Mhz - 24 Ghz• Operate communications networks for fun and community service• Communications volunteers with local Public Safety Organizations• Active:

– When regular communications infrastructure damaged or overloaded– To provide interoperability among agencies– Through coordinated organizations & affiliations



Amateur Radio AffiliationsAmateur Radio Affiliations• National level participation

– Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) FEMA– Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) ARRL

• ARES affiliations– Department of Homeland Security – Citizen Corps– Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)– National Communications System (NCS)– American Red Cross– Salvation Army– National Weather Service– Association of Public Safety Communications Officials

• ARRL SOA with Department of Homeland Security – Citizen Corps

– Raise public awareness as safety resource– Training & accreditation for Amateur Radio Emergency Communications



Recent ActivityRecent Activity

• Hurricane Isabel -- September 2003• Northeast blackout -- August 2003• Midwest tornadoes -- May 2003• Shuttle Columbia recovery effort -- Feb 2003• Wildfires in Colorado -- June 2002• Tornado in Maryland -- April 2002• Flooding in Kentucky -- March 2002• WTC & Pentagon terrorist attacks - Sep 2001• Storm Allison Flooding in TX & LA - Jun 2001• Earthquake in India -- January 2001• Earthquake in El Salvador -- January 2001• Ice storms in Southwest -- December 2000• Tornado in Alabama -- December 2000• Avalanche in Alaska -- March 2000

• Fires in Los Alamos, New Mexico -- May 2000• Hurricane Floyd -- September 1999• Tornadoes in Oklahoma and Kansas -- May 1999• Colombian Earthquake -- January 1999• Tornadoes in Arkansas and Tennessee -- Jan 1999• Hurricane Mitch in Central America -- Nov 1998• Flooding in Texas -- October 1998• Hurricane Georges -- September 1998• Tornadoes in Florida -- February 1998• "500-Year Flood," N.D. & Minn. - April 1997• Western U.S. floods - January 1997• Hurricane Fran - September 1996• TWA plane crash - July 1996• Oklahoma City Bombing - April 1995

Documents

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