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NCS Develops Pilot Emergency Notification Service

ARLINGTON, VA., March, 2003 - The National Communications System (NCS), an element of the new Department of Homeland Security is creating a service that will transmit emergency notification messages to National Security Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) personnel when emergencies occur. The Emergency Notification Service (ENS), initiated by the NCS last October as a pilot program, will provide a system delivering emergency notifications quickly and reliably to designated personnel who can then take appropriate actions such as notifying local first responders or alerting residents in regions affected by the emergency situation.

The ENS concept arose from the requirement to notify key personnel during the initial stages of the 9/11 disaster. The President’s Special Advisor for Cyberspace Security tasked the NCS to study capabilities to quickly notify specific personnel including senior officials and emergency response personnel about critical events. The distinction between “notification” and “alerts/warnings” is that notifications give immediate specific information to NS/EP decision makers at the Federal or State level. “Alerts and warnings” make the general public (local, regional or nationwide) aware of an emergency event such as an approaching hurricane or spreading forest fire.

An initial analysis concluded that no single technology or medium could be relied upon to provide timely notification to essential individuals or groups needing critical information. Therefore, the approach is to identify the most effective combination of technologies and communication modalities that would facilitate efficient emergency notification delivery. To accomplish this, NCS is implementing an ENS pilot for several thousand NS/EP users to gain a better understanding of the required features and capabilities needed.

Individual communications paths cannot always be relied upon. For example, voice telephone calls may result in a “no answer” or an answering machine. Cellular phones and pagers may be turned off or in an unreachable location. ENS addresses this by providing immediate notification via multiple paths including telephones, pagers, e-mail, and SMS (Short Message Service) for each recipient. As a result, this provides the highest probability of successful notification.

Another goal of ENS is to ensure that the notifications get through congested networks. During emergency situations communications traffic increases and the networks may become congested making it difficult for the emergency notification messages to get through. This is true of the Public Switched Network used for voice calls, as well as the Internet that carries text notifications such as alphanumeric paging, and e-mail. One example of congested networks occurred during the September 11th tragedy, where emergency workers in Washington and New York City could not make cellular voice calls. One method ENS uses to bypass congested networks is to use SMS for cellular users. This path is normally available when cellular voice paths are busy. SMS is one of the multiple paths that enhance the probability of successful notification.

ENS complements other NCS systems that afford NS/EP personnel the ability to communicate over congested networks such as the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) for calls over the Public Switched Network, or Wireless Priority Service (WPS) for calls over cellular networks.

The ENS pilot launched in October 2002 with approximately 100 test users to establish baseline processes for the pilot system. In January 2003, the NCS began adding operational NS/EP users. To date over 1000 users are using the service. NCS and the users are technically and functionally evaluating ENS operational utility, such as timeliness of notification for each notification path. As expected, various users have identified additional desired features and the NCS will evaluate each and test and validate appropriate features during the pilot. Additionally, the NCS is identifying additional Federal and State organizations and missions that may need the ENS and collecting requirements from them.

Beyond the capabilities already mentioned, the ENS team is also looking into communications applications such as Instant Messaging, Geographic Information System (GIS)-based approaches, Internet-based “pop-up” messages, and satellite-based systems.

ENS is currently proving to be a robust way to notify NS/EP personnel of emergency situations quickly and effectively. At the conclusion of the ENS pilot and the analysis of additional delivery capabilities, the NCS will report its findings and recommendations to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Dale Barr is the NCS Technology and Programs Division ENS Project Team Leader. Jeremy Johnson of the NCS Customer Service Division contributed to this story.

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