Re: [Ecrit] country specific emergency URNs

[John-Luc Bakker <[e-mail]>]

Vasil makes a key point: countries determine the emergency services provided within the country and the countries assign the number. So far, countries have not been required to consult with foreign organizations. Countries may choose to allocate the same number allocated by other countries, however calls may still be routed to PSAPs offering primarily different emergency services: take for example 112 in Europe. Some countries route calls to 112 to police, while others route them to ambulance (in these countries a dedicated emergency number for police may exist (which should bind to the police URN)). Countries have full jurisdiction over their number plans and rules that prescribe how calls to certain numbers shall be treated/routed.

The only policy they have in common is perhaps the  immediacy of the response. This lines up with the “sos” label (RFC 5031):

   The 'sos' service type describes emergency services requiring an
   immediate response, typically offered by various branches of the
   government or other public institutions.

The binding of number to URN is country specific. Additional policies beyond the immediacy of the response are country specific. The specific list of services for which immediacy of the response is required are country specific (some services treated as emergency in, say Austria, are not required to be treated as emergency in many other countries).

Requiring regulators to engage in discussions on ECRIT or awareness of IANA registration processes just for SIP emergency calls seems not practical and confusing, at a minimum.

Since so much falls solely within the jurisdiction of countries/regulators, this calls into question the need for having a detailed/exhaustive registry beyond identifying some basic, more or less universal services. Beyond this, it is really up to the needs of the public in the country in question.

From: Ecrit [mailto:[e-mail]] On Behalf Of Aleksiev, Vasil
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2017 6:05 AM
To: Henning Schulzrinne <[e-mail]>
Cc: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: [Ecrit] country specific emergency URNs

Henning,
In one country always there is a regulator commission which is monitoring the telecom carriers. The regulator issues rules in written form and monitors if all the carriers are following it. If the written rules are not followed, the regulator issues the respective penalties. So every mobile or fixed operator looks into the written rules and takes care of it. In this sense the telecom operators are only caring what is the regulator definition of emergency calls. That is why we have created a file with links to the respective documents, which are issued by the regulators in the respective countries (in form of law). In such document there is definition for emergency calls and list is present with the numbers considered as emergency in the country. The definition usually includes serving the calls with priority, providing location of the subscribers, providing possibility for call back.
One operator uses such mechanisms only for numbers defined as emergency by the law. Of course every organisation is free to define its own emergency number for some reasons, but the operators do not have an obligation to take care of this and route such numbers as normal calls.
I think there is no reason to search in google for every possible emergency number which nobody is routing as emergency according to the regulators requirements.

BR Vasil


Von: Henning Schulzrinne [mailto:[e-mail]]
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 12. Juli 2017 17:29
An: Aleksiev, Vasil <[e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>>
Cc: Brian Rosen <[e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>>; [e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>
Betreff: Re: [Ecrit] country specific emergency URNs

Vasil,

the service URN does not prescribe any network priority treatment. Indeed, at least in the US, landline 911 calls are treated exactly the same as regular calls, e.g., during network congestion. (We have the SIP RPH mechanism for prioritizing call treatment, but it's not used for civilian emergency calls.)

I suspect this is try for many of the non-112 calls today. I very much doubt that marine emergency calls in Finland or 1-800 calls to the poison control center in the US (and the equivalent set of numbers in Germany, say) receive any priority treatment in the network.

Again, I think it helps make progress if we do not overload labels with policy.

Naturally, any country or carrier is free to use any label, including the URN, to signify any treatment local law and regulation permits or requires. But the label does not require or imply such network treatment.

I admit I'm thoroughly confused by this discussion. Where did the priority issue suddenly come from? It's not in any ECRIT document that I'm aware of.

Henning

On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 10:49 AM, Aleksiev, Vasil <[e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>> wrote:
Hi Brian,
A service URN with a top-level service type of "sos" is used only when the user intends to establish an emergency call. The emergency call will be treated with priority in the network. For non-emergency numbers in one country sos shall not be used since priority there is not needed.

Best regards,

Vasil


Von: Brian Rosen [mailto:[e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>]
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 12. Juli 2017 15:46
An: Aleksiev, Vasil <[e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>>
Cc: Henning Schulzrinne <[e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>>; [e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>
Betreff: Re: [Ecrit] country specific emergency URNs

Vasil

Once again, the name has no significance as long as it is unique.  We use the names as suggestive for the service to aid the service providers, regulators and public safety authorities in setting up the systems, but the urn name is not used by anything other than computer software during an emergency.

If one country has a service for an ambulance service that is considered an emergency service, but in another country it is not considered an emergency service, we can, and should still use the service in the sos tree for the non-emergency service.  On the other hand, if there was a country that had two ambulance services, one that was used for emergency transport and another that was used for non-emergency transport, then we would need two URNs, because we have distinct services and need different URNs.

Brian



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