Concluded WG Internet Emergency Preparedness (ieprep)

Note: The data for concluded WGs is occasionally incorrect.

WG Name Internet Emergency Preparedness
Acronym ieprep
Area Real-time Applications and Infrastructure Area (rai)
State Concluded
Charter charter-ietf-ieprep-01 Approved
Document dependencies
Personnel Chairs Kimberly S. King, Scott O. Bradner
Mailing list Address ieprep@ietf.org
To subscribe ieprep-request@ietf.org
Archive https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/ieprep

Final Charter for Working Group

Effective telecommunications capabilities are imperative to facilitate
immediate recovery operations for serious disaster events, such as,
hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and terrorist attacks. Disasters can
happen any time, any place, unexpectedly. Quick response for recovery
operations requires immediate access to any public telecommunications
capabilities at hand. These capabilities include: conventional
telephone, cellular phones, and Internet access via online terminals,
IP telephones, and wireless PDAs. The commercial telecommunications
infrastructure is rapidly evolving to Internet-based technology.
Therefore, the Internet community needs to consider how it can best
support emergency management and recovery operations.

Three examples of emergency communications include:

  1. Conveying information about the priority of specific phone calls
    that originate in a VoIP environment through gateways to the PSTN.

  2. Access and transport for database and information distribution
    applications relevant to managing the crisis. One example of this
    is the I am Alive (IAA) system that can be used by people in a
    disaster zone to register the fact that they are alive so that
    their friends and family can check on their health.

  3. Interpersonal communication among crisis management personnel using
    electronic mail and instant messaging.

Initial documents will describe the problem space and its salient
characteristics. In particular the working group will devlop a
Requirements for Internet Emergency Preparedness in the Internet RFC
which will detail the specific functions and technologies needed to
provide support for Emergency Preparedness systems in the Internet. The
working group may also develop a Framework for Supporting Internet
Emergency Preparedness in IP Telephony RFC if it is determined that IP
telephony requires special treatment above what would be in the
requirements document.

The international community needs advice as to what standards to rely
on, in the form of a BCP. This BCP needs to identify mechanisms to
provide deterministic behavior of applications, mechanisms for
authentication and authorization, and recommendations for application
design with existing protocols. In the IETF considerations for
treatment and security of emergency communications stretch across a
number of Areas and Working Groups, notably including the various
telephony signaling working groups, Differentiated Services, Protocol
for carrying Authentication for Network Access (pana), and various
operational groups, so the IEPREP working group will have to cooperate
closely with these groups and with groups outside of the IETF such as
various ITU-T study groups.

The working group will develop a BCP RFC or set of RFCs, regarding
operational implementation of services for Emergency Preparedness using
existing Internet protocols. The RFC may include identification of gaps
in existing protocols and requirements for use in new protocol or
protocol feature design. It is out of scope for this working group to
do protocol or protocol feature development. The working group will
not focus on particular national regulations.

Deliverables

Best Current Practice:
IETF Recommendations for the Emergency Telecommunications Service
using existing protocols - what can be done with existing protcols
and what can not be done.

Informational:
Requirements for Internet Emergency Preparedness in the Internet.
Framework for Supporting Internet Emergency Preparedness in IP
Telephony.

Milestones

Date Milestone Associated documents
Dec 2003 Submit Recommendations I-D to IESG for publication as a BCP.

Done milestones

Date Milestone Associated documents
Done Submit Framework I-D to IESG for publication as an Informational RFC.
Done Submit Requirements I-D to IESG for publication as an Informational RFC.
Done Submit initial I-D of Recommendations BCP
Done Submit initial I-D of Framework
Done Submit initial I-D of Requirements