Subject: RE: [Ecrit] Emergency [mapping still needed?]

From: "Winterbottom, James" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 19:20:04 -0500

Comments inline.

> 
> 1) "security issues with passing location through the network"
> At some point, the location information has to get from the user's
> access network to the emergency provider.  If the user's phone
includes
> its location in the call setup, it has exactly the same "security
> issues" as the emergency call - no more.
> 
> 2) "ensure the location is valid and hasn't been altered"
> When examining the threat of altered location information, one has to
> consider which actors have what motivations.  It seems to me that the
> actor least interested in altering location information is the user
who
> is seeking emergency service.    Consider what the emergency responder
> would do if the caller is recorded saying he/she is at a location
other
> than where the system reports - would they not respond to that
> location?  I don't think so; the legal liability is too great.

[[AJW] If the intent of the caller is that of an emergency this is
probably true, it is the as ease at which someone other than a genuine
caller can make this occur that frightens me. This is a real problem and
needs collaboration to make it work.

> 
> The point that someone not seeking emergency service might make a
> fraudulent call is true today and not solvable in the general case by
> anything in the call process.  It would be nice if the
> location-indicating function of VoIP could eliminate the existing
> nuisance of bogus emergency calls, but nice is not the same as
> necessary.

[AJW] This is a very narrow view of the problem, which I hope that you
don't really believe that. The phone network today requires a presence
within the PSAP collective boundary for this to occur. Further more it
requires in most cases, one line per call. This is quite simply not the
case with VoIP. I can originate quite a number of VoIP calls remotely
from the same broadband connection each with a different location making
the problem tantamount to intractable. This is a problem that requires
solving, it is not good enough to say it can't be done so let's not
bother!

> 
> 3) "For a very long time there will be phones out there that aren't
> capable of storing their own location"
> My experience with the rapid rate at which cell phones are voluntarily
> replaced by their owners suggests that this might be a mistaken
> forecast.  I will keep my fallback wireline phone around, but it has
> the existing location mechanism.  What fraction of the expected
> eventual deployment of IP phones do you think is now deployed?
> Wouldn't it be easier to provide some work-around for those legacy
> location-challenged phones than to make the entire system brittle
> because it is unnecessarily complex?
> 
> What fraction of the now-deployed IP phones include the process of
> obtaining a HELD-type reference and including that in their emergency
> call setup?
> 
> My alternative forecast is that widespread adoption of GPS and Galileo
> technology will make it likely that phones and other devices will have
> their own locations.  The economics of large-scale microelectronics
> suggest that it will not take very long before the cost of including
> location capability will be such a small fraction of the price of the
> phone that it will be included as routinely as personal computers now
> include ethernet interfaces.  http://www.useu.be/Galileo/
> 
> John
> 
> On Sep 12, 2005, at 2:19 PM, McCalmont, Patti wrote:
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [email-masked]  On Behalf Of Brian Rosen
> > Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 9:37 AM
> >
> >> I think that the idea that a phone gets its own location,
recognizes
> >> emergency calls itself, and does its own mapping is a Really Good
> >> Idea.
> >> It means fewer things have to work to get an emergency call
through.
> >
> > PLM - Now you have all the security issues with passing location
> > through
> > the network. You also have the issues around how to ensure the
location
> > is valid and hasn't been altered. For a very long time there will be
> > phones out there that aren't capable of storing their own location,
yet
> > alone doing the mapping and addressing security. The hardest part to
> > any
> > requirements is to support the existing infrastructure along with
what
> > is coming out. I agree that if we all could just toss in all the old
> > technology and could start out with a brand new slate that what
Brian
> > states is correct. HOWEVER.....that's not the real world. Location
by
> > reference seems a better path - IMO and HELD looks like it is
> > attempting
> > to address the new and old world.
> >
> > <SNIP>
> 
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