Illinois Institute of Technology’s Real-Time Communications Lab recently hosted, and provided infrastructure and technical support for the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) ICE 6: End to End Test of i3 Architecture. This network architecture permits all 9-1-1 calls—wherever they originate—to be carried over an Internet backbone network with special IP telephony components that enable routing the call to the appropriate agency and providing the caller’s location to that agency so it can dispatch emergency support. Carol Davids, director of the IIT Real-Time Communications (RTC) Lab, and Industry Professor of Information Technology and Management (ITM), coordinated the event with NENA. Numerous ITM students and alumni provided technical support.

NENA oversees the 9-1-1 emergency network and serves the public safety community as the only professional organization solely focused on 9-1-1 policy, technology, operations, and education issues. With more than 7,000 members in 48 chapters across North America and around the globe, NENA promotes the implementation and awareness of 9-1-1 and international three-digit emergency communications systems.

NENA works with public policy leaders, emergency services and telecommunications industry partners, like-minded public safety associations, and other stakeholder groups to develop and carry out critical programs and initiatives; to facilitate the creation of an IP-based Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) system; and to establish industry leading standards, training, and certifications.

In NG9-1-1, all call media must be recorded, including voice, video, and text. In addition, all elements involved in call processing log event records for each step in the process. The NENA i3 Solution defines standard interfaces for recording and retrieving all of this data in order to provide historical records for legal purposes and for analyzing and troubleshooting NG9-1-1 processes. The ICE 6 event at IIT’s School of Applied Technology allowed vendors of all NG9-1-1 call-processing elements to test logging, recording and retrieval interfaces while processing calls from origination to termination with different media types.

The event was open to NENA professionals only and was held at IIT’s Rice Campus in Wheaton from November 10–14. More than 50 registrants participated from cities across the United States, Canada, and Europe. In addition to Illinois Tech’s Industry Professor Carol Davids, Joe Cusimano, an RTC Lab Industry Mentor, led the lab’s ICE test work supported by Student Support Team members Bart Dworak, Kbrom Tewoldu, Christina (Cruz) Tovar, and Michal Siuty. Members of Professor Davids’ IP Telecommunications course participated as observers, learning first-hand how the technology they are learning about in the classroom is being applied in the real world.

NENA chose IIT’s RTC Lab for its outstanding resources and support as well as its proven record of past success with previous ICE events.

Learn more about the Illinois Tech and NENA ICE 6 event by clicking here.  

(left to right) Christina (Cruz) Tovar, Joe Cusimano, Carol Davids, Bart Dworak

NENA ICE 6 testing in progress at the IIT Rice Campus.

(Left to Right) Delaine Arnold and Christy Williams accompanied by ICE 6 participants