BELL INDUSTRY ADVISORY

Bell Canada announces a technology trial involving the use of a new network-to-network interface to support caller location identification for cellular 9-1-1 callers. 

The purpose of the trial is to validate the effectiveness of the proposed architecture utilising Bell Mobility’s Location Studio platform in conjunction with Bell Canada’s 9-1-1 Automatic Location Identification (ALI) system to provide updated X & Y coordinates to the PSAP from a capable cellular handset.

For the trial, a 9-1-1 call will be routed via Wireless Phase 1 call routing (i.e. based on the location of the cell tower from which the call was picked-up).  The location information will be updated on the PSAP call taker’s screen with more accuracy as it is made available to the ALI system by the Location Studio platform. 

The Location Studio platform will provide the caller position.  The communication between the Location Studio platform and the 9-1-1 ALI system is performed using XML over http.

In order to display positioning information, specialized software will be installed in the cellular towers and the towers must be configured properly in the 9-1-1 ALI system.

Note that only one request will be performed on the Location Studio per wireless 9-1-1 call and there will be no ALI dip functionality provided to the PSAP during the trial.

Each cell sector of a tower is represented by an Emergency Service Routing Digits (ESRD) number.  The ESRD follows the North American Numbering Plan format (NPA-NXX-XXXX), and uses NXX 511 exclusively.  The Service Class associated with an ESRD number will determine if a particular cell sector is able to send the positioning information.  The new service class will be called “WL2”.

The technology trial will begin in 3^rd Qtr 2005 and last for approximately 6 months.  There currently are no plans to move to a commercial implementation at the conclusion of the trial.

Compatibility Impact:

The trial will test a new interface between Bell Mobility’s Location Studio platform and Bell Canada’s 9-1-1 ALI system.  The communication between the Location Studio platform and the 9-1-1 ALI system is performed using XML over http.

As this is a new interface, there are no expected compatibility impacts.

The current interface between the ALI system and PSAP Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems is not impacted.  This interface is described in BID-0013 “9-1-1 Public Emergency Reporting Service (E9-1-1) Terminal-to-Network Interface”, Appendix 2 “Data Transmission Protocol for ALI-CAD Communications Using Service Address”.

Documentation:

The Network-to-Network Interface is based on the Mobile Location Protocol (MLP) version 3.1, published by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA).  The request and response are XML over http.

For further information on the interface, please contact:

Bell Canada
Interface Standards Research
671 de la Gauchetière Street West, Floor 8 - 851
Montreal, Quebec
H3B 2M8 CANADA

Tel: (in Canada) (514) 870-5070
Email: redouane.zidane@bell.ca