North American Network Operators Group
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Re: FCC To Require 911 for VoIP

  • From: Robert Boyle
  • Date: Sun May 01 13:07:40 2005 


> How about an anycast address implement(ed|able) by every network
> provider that would return a zipcode?
>
> $ telnet 10.255.255.254
> Connected
> 33709
> Disconnected.
> $
>

        are you -REALLY- arguing for the return of "finger" ??

--bill




Not finger, but something like this could work. The server would return the
physical address of the customer of record assigned that IP address. Kind
of a uni-directional rwhois. The VoIP phone could connect to the anycast
address and the ISP would lookup the allocation for the connecting IP and
return a text string with the physical service location. The VoIP provider
would be handed this location as part of the SIP registration (or other
proprietary protocol used). In the event of a 911 call, the phone may check
the location again to make sure the address of record/IP address hasn't
changed before the registration expires. This would work fine for all
customers except those who are mobile and served by a wireless base station
which serves a large geographic region. If the provider was using some type
of authentication before handing out IP addresses (I think most probably
are) they could at least hand out the serving wireless AP location - some
of the newer adjustable directional APs could even be modified to give an
approximate relative location. I doubt that VoIP will be exempt from 911
regulations forever as much as I would like to see that. In lieu of the
regulatory state going away, it makes sense to come up with a workable
technology solution which is easy for IP providers and VoIP carriers to
implement. VoIP providers could recommend IP transit players who support
IP911 location services. Once it becomes a competitive advantage, the smart
players will quickly adapt their systems to support IP911. I think we could
do this within a couple of days with a few hours of coding. It isn't
terribly difficult to setup. Those providers who don't use a centralized
database for provisioning and IP allocation would definitely have a harder
time, but it could still be done with some effort. The extra message
elements of the SIP registration message could be used immediately once a
standard is decided upon much as the TXT DNS records have been used for SPF
records to fight email forgery.



-Robert





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