Working Group 2: Comprehensive

Re-imagining of Emergency Alerting

Status Update
October 26, 2017

Dr. Farrokh Khatibi, Chair (Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.)

 WG2 Objectives
  Working Group Description:
• WG2 will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of emergency alerting and
emerging technologies (e.g., ATSC 3.0, 5G, etc.) that may result in new alerting
capabilities. As part of this overall evaluation, this Working Group develop
recommendations on any technical solutions to support authentication of alerts
through digital signatures for both the Internet-based IPAWS and the broadcast-
based legacy “daisy chain” to ensure that the alert retransmitted by an EAS
Participant was generated by an authorized alert originator and has not been
modified since its generation.
• Deliverables:
1. Report on Re-imagining Alerting – June 2018.
2. Report on Authentication and Validation – December 2018.

2
Name Affiliation
WG2 Members
Farrokh Khatibi* Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (Chair)
Art Botterell CalOES
Brian Daly AT&T Access Architecture & Devices
Wireless Network Architecture & Design
Charlotte Field Charter Communications
Claude Stout TDI -Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Dana Golub Public Broadcasting Service
Warning, Alert, Response Network project “WARN”
Denis Gusty Department of Homeland Security
Edward Czarnecki* Monroe Electronics Inc.
Francisco Sanchez* Harris County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management

Gary Smith* Cherry Creek Radio

Glenn Edwards Bayou City Broadcasting
Harold Price Sage Alerting Systems
Kelly Williams National Association of Broadcasters
Kevin Gage* One Media LLC.
Mark D. Annas City of Riverside - Office of Emergency Management
Mark Paese National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
U.S. Department of Commerce
National Environmental Satellite & Information Service
Richard Friedel Fox Networks Engineering
Robert Gessner* American Cable Association
Roger Stone* Federal Emergency Management Agency
DHS-FEMA
Susan Miller* Alliance for Telecomm Industry Solutions (ATIS)
William A. Check NCTA – The Internet & Television Association
Austin Randazzo FCC
Steven Carpenter FCC

* Also a CSRIC member

3
 Background
• It is critical to send the relevant emergency
information in a timely fashion to the targeted
individuals in an affected area.
• There are a number of techniques available to
disseminate critical emergency alerts.
• WG2’s task is to evaluate existing techniques and
propose potential improvements.

4
 WG2 Status
• WG2 has met 4 times since September 1st, 2017
• We are currently conducting a “landscaping” effort to
better understand various techniques available to
disseminate critical emergency alerts to the affected
areas. So far we have had presentations on:
– NOAA/NWS Emergency Alerting
– EAS
– ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0
– PBS

5
 WG2 Schedule
• Bi-weekly conference calls with members
• Date TBD: Submission of Draft WG2 Report 1
• Date TBD: Submission of Draft WG2 Report 2
• Date June 2018: Submission of Final WG2 Report 1
• Date September 2018: Submission of Final WG2
Report 2

6
 Next Steps
• Continue our landscaping effort through upcoming
presentations on WEA, CAP, etc.
• Develop a work plan to accomplish the CSRIC VI
charge taking advantage of WG2 members’ subject
matter expertise
• Seek WG2 volunteers to lead aspects of the work plan
• Continue bi-weekly conference calls
• Provide periodic status updates to Steering
Committee and Council