CSRIC Working Group Recommends Indoor Location Accuracy Testbed
The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council approved a report Wednesday recommending a testbed to collect data on 911 location accuracy when calls are made inside a building. A CSRIC working group on E-911 location accuracy had been asked to prepare a report by the FCC answering eight questions on indoor location accuracy. The group decided more data must be collected first to get a better handle on the topic, even as more people are using cellphones to call 911, in and out of their homes.
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"We don’t feel that there’s adequate data available today to really do a solid job of answering those questions,” said Richard Craig of Verizon Wireless, co-chair of the working group. “We felt that there’s going to be some challenges trying to get those answers within … the confines of the duration of the CSRIC charter.”
The percentage of calls made indoors on wireless devices is clearly on the rise, Craig said. “In terms of indoor testing, we believe that it has the potential to be logistically challenging, expensive and one size probably does not fit all,” he said. “Our recommendation is that we develop a flexible and efficient approach that relies on field testing in representative in-building environments.” Bench testing alone won’t work, he said. Signals from the tower to the phone, the performance of any GPS chip and other connections are affected by being indoors, Craig said. “The extent of degradation depends on the nature of the construction materials of the building and the layers of constructing obstructing the various signal paths."
CSRIC also approved a report by its E-911 best practices working group on a check list for industry to use in preparing the 911 network for a man-made or natural disaster. The report adopts 262 of 1,024 proposed best practices, said Robin Howard of Verizon, working group co-chair. The report also identified 24 gaps in the system, which led to 19 recommended best practices.