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Published on: 4/1/2008
Last Visited: 12/26/2008
"Today, whenever emergency responders fail to locate the caller who needs help, it's usually the enterprise network that causes the problems," says Mark Fletcher, chairman of the multi-line telephone system subcommittee for NENA.
He's also product manager for emergency services at Nortel.
"The enterprise VoIP emergency response issue is often a result of low priority on IT 'to do' lists because just how serious a threat this is to the safety of employees isn't really appreciated until something goes wrong," says Fletcher.
For example, a Maryland man * called for medical help for chest pains from his office in a multi-building complex.
Because his caller ID showed only one address, responders went to the wrong building.
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Recognized as an industry visionary on E911, Fletcher has been on a public education mission about enterprise VoIP safety concerns for several years.
He sees awareness of location-specific information for emergency response finally increasing as enterprise VoIP becomes more widely used.
But while on-site identification of computer-based phones is a good start, it only solves part of the problem.
The off-site mobility of IP-based employee phones is causing a new level of complexity for first responders unlike anything the industry has had to confront in the past.
"Even after the location of every phone has been programmed into the central server by building, by floor and specific area on each floor, that location for emergency response becomes useless as soon as employees walk out the door with their laptops," Fletcher says.
"Wherever a user plugs that laptop into the Internet outside the office, and dials a country's emergency number, the dispatchers will only get the caller-ID information for that phone's location back at the employee's desk.
If users can't stay on the line long enough to say exactly where they are , as happened with the man in Maryland , emergency response fails."
The VoIP number mobility issue for enterprise is currently being addressed through the development of next-generation location-specific software upgrades that should be ready for market in the next year, Fletcher says.
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Fletcher says, "Anywhere I power up my computer and access an IP address, the enterprise network will immediately update my phone software by sending it an ID location token.
Say I'm in a big international airport.
I hook into its WiFi network and the token automatically goes into my VoIP phone.
If I make an emergency call, it shows I'm located at gate 50 within the departures terminal.
The token principle works the same on every enterprise network like in a hotel, a coffee shop or on a trade show floor."
All equipment vendors are well aware of the current gaps in VoIP emergency number location across enterprise, wireline and wireless networks, Fletcher says, and are working to address them quickly.
Part of the problem has been establishing common, worldwide technology standards.
He expects those will be ratified over the next year to help speed up the process of plugging all holes in the few parts of the communications pipeline , like enterprise , that still exist.
North America leads the world in being pro-active about the standards for the technology pieces needed, he says, and is being used as a model by other countries worldwide.
Nortel is currently developing next-generation emergency number capabilities across all of its enterprise call server portfolios globally, Fletcher says, as well as its contact center and carrier products.
The company also has dedicated resources on R&D teams with designers or engineers sitting on public committees and standards groups.
"Nortel's vision and strategy is in line with what's being developed across the industry and we are members of standards and technical committees that are helping to shape its direction," Fletcher says.
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