STFbreadcrumb separatorSTFsbreadcrumb separatorSTF Homepagesbreadcrumb separatorSTF489

Specialist Task Force 489: 
Total Conversation for emergency communications

Who we are:

Team Leader: Ban Al-Bakri  meadowcom1@gmail.com

Team Members: Craig Bishop craig@bishopcom.co.uk
Gunnar Hellström, gunnar.hellstrom@omnitor.se

What we do:

Total Conversation as defined by ITU-T is an audiovisual conversation providing bidirectional symmetric real-time transfer of motion video, text and voice between users in two or more locations. As such it can provide benefits for all, but offers particular benefits to hearing impaired persons by enabling communication also via sign language and real time text.

EU policy and the Domain 3 (e-Inclusion) of the EC ICT Standardisation Work Programme 2010-2013, requires that Total Conversation be supported for communications between citizens and emergency services.  

DIRECTIVE 2009/136/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 25 November 2009. Article 26.4:

“Member States shall ensure that access for disabled end-users to emergency services is equivalent to that enjoyed by other end-users. Measures taken to ensure that disabled end-users are able to access emergency services whilst travelling in other Member States shall be based to the greatest extent possible on European standards or specifications published in accordance with the provisions of Article 17 of Directive 2002/21/EC (Framework Directive), and they shall not prevent Member States from adopting additional requirements in order to pursue the objectives set out in this Article.”

Domain 3 (e-Inclusion) of the EC ICT Standardisation Work Programme 2010-2013:

“New areas for standardisation activities (deliveries: Workshop Agreements or Technical Reports) Accessibility of and interoperability of related solutions for Total Conversation (including text telephony).”

Draft Rolling Plan for ICT standardisation (proposed outline of 29/5/2013):

“The lack of commonly agreed standards in support of electronic communications networks for the emergency call service in Europe is a barrier for implementing future proof solutions which fulfil the requirements of amended Universal Service Directive 2002/22/EC.”

To define precise conditions for using Total Conversation for emergency services, and to enable improved access to emergency services by people with disabilities, STF489 will ensure that the related standards, as well as existing work and specifications, are taken into consideration. In addition, STF489 will appropriately involve stakeholders to ensure they are made aware of the STF’s findings that facilitate deployment and interoperability. To support these aims the STF will provide a new Technical Report recommending the implementation of Total Conversation for emergency services. This may subsequently be converted to ETSI Guide (subject to ETSI Board approval).

For more details, see our Terms of Reference

Why we do it:

The rationale of Total Conversation and for Total Conversation for emergency services addressed in the standardisation documents is outlined in:
  • ITU-T Recommendation F.703;
  • ETSI TR 103 170:  “Emergency Communications (EMTEL); Total Conversation Access to Emergency Services”; and
  • ETSI TS 101 470 (Work Item DTS/EMTEL-00023) “Emergency Communications (EMTEL); Total Conversation Access to Emergency Services”.
Total Conversation, is a combination of three media in a conversational call: video, real-time text and audio. Total conversation services and terminals are deployed in the Internet in a number of countries in Europe. They may be adopted by people with disabilities who, for example, need video for sign language or real-time text for a text based conversation or as complement to a voice conversation. The objective of this STF is to define precise conditions for using Total Conversation for emergency services and thereby to enable improved access to emergency services.

Considering the complexity of the requirements and the chain of stakeholders representing the overall organisation of emergency services, STF489 is tasked to develop guidelines in order to:

  • pave the way for further standardisation work that may be  required to deploy Total Conversation for Emergency Services in a reasonable time scale; and
  • facilitate the achievement of a pan-European interoperable service of Total Conversation for emergency services, thereby satisfying the EU policy and the Domain 3 (e-Inclusion) of the EC ICT Standardisation Work Programme 2010-2013.

How we do it:

The execution of STF 489 activities will be organised in the following STF Tasks (or group of tasks).

Task 1: Produce ETSI Technical Report “DTR/EMTEL-00029 (TR 103 201) Guidelines on implementation and usage of Total Conversation”, with the following objectives:
  • Assess 3GPP and IETF standards to support Total Conversation, where it should fulfil the recommendations of ETSI TS 101 470 and ETSI TR 103 170 and is implementable with no contradictions.
Define implementation guidance to assist developers (service, application, network) and facilitate compliance with the Universal Service Directive (article 26.4).
 
Task 2: Coordinate with various standardisation-bodies and stakeholders, through liaisons sent by SC EMTEL  including:
  • other ETSI TBs, as ETSI TC HF. 
  • relevant 3GPP committees (SA1, SA2, SA4, CTx). This task is based on the outcome of Task 1 and the feedback received from the 3GPP committees that is to be considered in progressing the work.
  • IETF (ECRIT), to ensure that Total Conversation requirements are supported, also based on the outcome of Task 1 and taking the feedback of ECRIT into consideration when progressing the work.
  • GSM Association, for network operators’ acceptance of Total Conversation.
  • Also, European Emergency Number Association (EENA), British APCO, PSCE Forum, World Federation of the Deaf and other stakeholders that may be identified in the course of the activity.
Task 3: Disseminate Results and Consult with other stakeholders, such as:
  • European Emergency Number Association (EENA)
  • British APCO
  • PSCE Forum
  • World Federation of the Deaf
  • Other stakeholders that may be identified in the course of the activity
Task 4: Provide progress reports to EMTEL:
  • The STF will report to the Steering Group EMTEL on a monthly basis (generally by email with a technical report copied to the EMTEL reflector list but also via conference calls or physical meetings being held in conjunction with some EMTEL meetings).
Task 5: Provide reports to the EC/EFTA. Interim and Final Reports to the EC/EFTA that should cover the following:
  • Activities and results of the STF
  • Achievements - policy objectives and market impacts (only in the final report)
  • Financial information
  • Disseminated material such as presentational slides
To keep stakeholders informed on the progress of the work this page shall be updated (link), where materials could be accessed publicly.

Those stakeholders will be consulted at various points during the work. They will in particular be consulted when drafts of the deliverables are issued for public comments so as to get their comments and feedback (this may not apply to all deliverables). Electronic comments will be encouraged via the contact list. A register of comments received through this list will be maintained by the STF.

Base standards

The STF work will take into account the following base standards:
  • ETSI TS 101 470 v0.3.5 Emergency Communications (EMTEL); Total Conversation Access to Emergency Services – status: stable draft for TB approval, publication expected end 3Q2013.
  • ETSI TS 122 101 v11.9.0 Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); LTE; Service aspects; Service principles: approved by 3GPP SA1, under process for publication, expected end-July 2013
  • ETSI TS 124 008 v 11.7.0 Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); LTE; Mobile radio interface Layer 3 specification; Core network protocols; Stage 3: approved by 3GPP CT1, under process for publication, expected end-July 2013
  • ETSI TS 123 167 v11.7.0 Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); LTE; IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) emergency sessions
  • ETSI TS 123 228 v11.8.0 Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); LTE; IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS); Stage 2
  • ETSI TS 124 229 v11.8.0 Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); LTE; IP multimedia call control protocol based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Session Description Protocol (SDP); Stage 3
  • IETF RFC 3261: "Session Initiation Protocol".
  • IETF RFC 3264: "Offer/Answer model".
  • IETF RFC 3551: "RTP Profile for Audio and Video Conferences with Minimal Control".
  • IETF RFC 3711: "Secure RTP".
  • IETF RFC 3984: "RTP Payload for H.264 video".
  • IETF RFC 4103: "RTP Payload for text conversation".
  • IETF RFC 4566: "Session Description Protocol, SDP".
  • IETF RFC 4629: "RTP Payload for H.263 video".
  • IETF RFC 5239: "Conference model".
  • IETF RFC 5764: "Datagram Transport Layer Security, DTLS".
  • IETF RFC 6189: "ZRTP. Media Path Key Agreement for Secure RTP".
  • IETF RFC 6263: "Application Mechanism for Keeping Alive the NAT Mappings Associated with RTP / RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) Flows".
  • IETF RFC 6442: "Location Conveyance in SIP".
  • IETF RFC 6443: "Framework for Multimedia Emergency Calling Using Internet".
  • IETF RFC 6881: "Best Current Practice for Communications Services in Support of Emergency Calling. (BCP 181)".

Deliverables:

Below follows the list of deliverables to be produced by the STF 489, as per its Terms of Reference:
  • ETSI Technical Report:
    The STF will produce a Technical Report, that is the core activity for the STF;.

    DTR/EMTEL-00029 (TR 103 201) Guidelines on implementation and usage of Total Conversation (Download TR 103 201). After publication of the TR, SC EMTEL may ask that the TR is transposed to an ETSI Guide (EG), with approval of the ETSI Board and following an ETSI Membership Vote.
  • STF489 progress Reports to ETSI EMTEL:
    The STF will produce 3 Progress Reports, as described in Task 4 and the time plan.
  • Reports to the EC/EFTA
    Interim and Final Reports to the EC/EFTAReports to the EC/EFTA is to be sent by ETSI, as described in Task 5 and the time plan.

Time plan:

The STF 489 started its activities on March 1st 2015, and the expected time scale for the production of its deliverables is as follows:

 

Mil Milestone Tasks Description Cut-off date

A

M1

Determination of the work plan

- Progress Report#1 with agreed work plan and travel plan approved by SC EMTEL#33 (23-24 June 2015)

- Early draft of DTR/EMTEL-00029 for review.

- The draft documents must be uploaded by the STF Leader on the TB contributions area of the ETSI Portal 2 working days before the start of the EMTEL plenary.

EMTEL#33

23-24 Jun

M2

Early deliverable D1 available to SG for review

B

M3

Stable draft deliverable D1 available to SG (SC EMTEL) for review

- Progress Report#2 approved by SC EMTEL#34 (date tbd Oct-2015) and current draft of DTR/EMTEL-00029 for review.

- The draft documents must be uploaded by the STF Leader on the TB contributions area of the ETSI Portal 2 working days before the start of the EMTEL plenary.

EMTEL#34

Oct-2015

C

M4

Interim report to EC/EFTA

Interim Report approved by EC/EFTA:

The deadline for delivery to EC/EFTA by the ETSI Secretariat is 31-Oct-2015

The Interim Report and the current deliverables must be provided by the STF Leader to the ETSI Secretariat before 30-Sep-2015.

EC/EFTA approval is expected before 15-Dec-2015.

31-Oct-2015

D

M5

Final deliverable D1 available to SG (SC EMTEL) for approval (two-week notice)

- Progress Report#3 and final draft of DTR/EMTEL-00029 approved by SC EMTEL#35 (tbd Feb-2016) and accepted by the ETSI Secretariat for publication.

-The draft documents must be uploaded by the STF Leader on the TB contributions area of the ETSI Portal two weeks before the start of the EMTEL plenary.

EMTEL#35

Feb-2016

M6

Final dissemination of results

Deliverable D1 approved by SC EMTEL

E

M7

Final Report to the EC/EFTA

Published Deliverable D1, closure

Final Report approved by EC/EFTA:

-The deadline for delivery to EC/EFTA by the ETSI Secretariat of the Final Report and all deliverables published is 31-Mar-2016. 

-The Final Report and the TC approved deliverables for publication must be delivered by the STF Leader to the ETSI Secretariat before 29-Feb-2016. 

EC/EFTA approval is expected before 30-May-2016.

31-Mar-2016

How to contact us:

Ban Al-Bakri            meadowcom1@gmail.com

 
This information is based upon STF working assumptions.
The views expressed do not necessarily represent the position of ETSI in this context.