This project, developing a flexible instrument and tools for research to understand and analyze next-generation 9-1-1 services, contributes to the process of planning next-generation emergency communication infrastructure. The instrument will house and evaluate the techniques for locating 9-1-1 callers, securing public safety answering points (PSAPs), ensuring continuous availability of 9-1-1 services during large-scale emergencies, providing neighborhood notifications, improving interagency coordination, and enhancing 9-1-1 services for the deaf and hearing-impaired through video phones and instant messaging. Additional goals include measuring the performance of LoST (location to service translation), LCP (location configuration), and SIPLC (SIP location conveyance) protocols used in PSAP; developing a tool for performance measurements for call processing and security (PSAP), translating the development efforts to engineering guidelines, and disseminating the results across government organizations, standards bodies such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) and 9-1-1 centers. NENA and Denco 9-1-1 center support testing and validation of the tools and instrument. Thus, the project develops:

• A flexible, high performance instrument and tools for locating callers, specifically to investigate security and scalability of next-generation 9-1-1 technology,
• The instrumentation required for investigation of several research issues related to 9-1-1 notifications during disaster, and
• A dissemination and educational program to transfer the results to industry and government agencies.

This project enables new research and education in 9-1-1 services. Workshops will be organized (3 have been held in VoIP security) and dissemination will be forthcoming. The research projects enabled will be helpful to deaf and hearing- and speech-impaired individuals.