Wireless Broadband Association releases three reports on Wi-Fi and Emergency Services

The Wireless Broadband Association (WBA) released a trio of reports aimed at providing a framework for how Wi-Fi, Passpoint, and OpenRoaming services “can facilitate and sustain emergency calling and priority communications around the world.” The reports, which were developed by the organization’s Mission Critical & Emergency Services Program, are “Mission Critical & Emergency Services Cellular Emergency Calling over OpenRoaming\Wi-Fi Networks,” “Mission Critical & Emergency Services National Security & Emergency Preparedness,” and “Mission Critical & Emergency Services.” The WBA says that the reports collectively cover six areas related to emergency services:

• Wi-Fi as mission-critical infrastructure: Wi-Fi’s evolution to a standards-compliant, resilient infrastructure capable of supporting emergency and public safety services
• Emergency services access: Ways to ensure support for E-911/E-112 calls over Wi-Fi regardless of mobile subscription status
• Priority access for NS/EP users: How to provide real-time prioritization of first responder traffic during network congestion
• OpenRoaming and Passpoint integration: Provisioning of secure, seamless, and policy-based access across federated Wi-Fi networks
• Advanced location handling: Insight into the shared emphasis on accurate, standards-based location delivery using RFC 5580, IEEE 802.11mc Round Trip Time (RTT), and Location Configuration Information (LCI) or emergency call routing to local PSAPs
• Regulatory and legal readiness: Description of the legal frameworks and alignment with 3GPP, IEEE, FCC, and global emergency standards