Business VoIP

February 20, 2008

VIXXI and SolaCom Brings E911 to VoIP and Mobile Carriers

By Richard Grigonis
Executive Editor, IP Communications Group

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC (News - Alert)) sent mobile Voice Service Providers (VSPs) scrambling in recent years by mandating that each mobile phone company doing business in the U.S. must offer either handset- or network-based location detection capability capable of pinpointing the caller’s geographic location to within 100-meters, so that Emergency 911 services would work properly. The FCC also demanded the provisioning of E911 service for interconnected VoIP

providers.

This has opened up a slew of opportunities for companies such as VIXXI Solutions (www.VIXXIsolutions.com) — the name is “Virtual 911” in Roman numerals — a company majority owned by Spatial Data, Inc., which has been providing Geographic Information System (GIS) software and solutions since 1988. I recently perused VIXXI’s offerings at ITEXPO (News - Alert) EAST 2008 held in Miami Beach, Florida.

Ben Stringer, Vice President of Sales, says, “We’re in the 911 business. We terminate VoIP, traditional TDM

, wireless and 911 calls. We also maintain database records for North America for carriers such as Tier-1, Tier-2, Voice Service Providers [VSPs], and others. Our locator technique is geospatial-based. We route and make all decision based on geography. We generate a fixed X-Y coordinate and work with a reverse geocode.” [Note: Geocoding, also known as georeferencing and geolocating, is defined as “the act of assigning locations to things within the geographic frame of reference”. In a georeferencing system, each location has a unique code, such as a street address. Reverse geocoding solutions convert latitude-longitude or X-Y coordinates into descriptive locations and street addresses.]

“When your phone’s chip actually gets an X-Y coordinate, we can take that reverse geocode and match it up with the nearest PSAP [Public Safety Answering Point], a physical location where 911 emergency telephone calls are received and routed to the proper emergency services,” says Stringer. “We can locate callers between 5 to 50 meters, depending on the U.S. government, which has control over the whole system.

“We also have another company that utilizes this technology for other Location-Based Services [LBSs],” says Stringer. “Our company, however, is primarily focuses on 911 resolution.”

“We sell our service via a licensing fee,” says Stringer. :We receive a fee per month per phone number,” says Stringer. “Typically we’ll bill a phone company based on many numbers they have in our database.”

VIXXI offers three main sets of products: VIXXILink, VIXXI R-Link and VIXXI / Solacom EG200.

1. VIXXILink is an E911 solution for VoIP service providers and PSAPs. For a VoIP telephone users, VIXXILink’s procedure is pretty straightforward: the VoIP telephone user, for whom the telephone instrument IP

address is registered with the VoIP Service Provider (VSP), with its known and physical address, initiates a 911 emergency call. The VSP’s 911 server then forwards the call to VIXXI. VIXXI sends the caller to the appropriate Selective Router (Tandem 911 Switch) through a gateway selected by the VIXXI Data Center (based on the caller’s location) that converts VoIP calls into the required format for the PSAPs. The VIXXI Gateway sends the necessary address information and callback number in the correct format to the PSAP through the Automatic Location Identification (ALI) and database. PSAP personnel use the caller number and ALI to know how to respond (i.e., dispatch the police, fire department, ambulance, etc. to the correct location).

2. VIXXI R-Link, on the other hand, provides ALI Management to PSAPs not yet connected to E911 Selective Routers. VIXXI R-Link permits reception of ALI data from VoIP users at the PSAP and, if desired, even maps, or written directions, can be provided to the rural emergency location. VIXXI Solutions hosts the PSAP’s E911 MSAG database and pre-validates all VoIP customers for the PSAP. MSAG hosting assures the PSAP that addresses provided by VIXXI R-Link can be dispatched. Customers who apply for VoIP service in the PSAP’s footprint are given fields to load and validate their address as well as the ability to pick their location off a map. This map will be transmitted to the PSAP via the internet.

3. Finally, VIXXI Solutions and SolaCom Technologies have teamed to provide a low cost selective and location-based calling router – the EG200 – for PSAPs who cannot receive VoIP calls today, or who wish to make a change from their current, more expensive provider.

Essentially the companies have combined the VIXXI E911 Call Routing

and ALI Management Positioning Center with SolaCom’s Selective Router to reduce the costs of accepting E911 calls at the PSAP. This solution also anticipates compliance with emerging FCC i3 specifications for E911 VoIP calls, with no capital expenditures.

The EG200 complies with the FCC’s emerging i3 specifications for E9-1-1 VoIP. The VIXXI/SolaCom E9-1-1 Emergency Network combines the VIXXI Call Management and VoIP Positioning Center (VPC) with SolaCom’s Selective Router to reduce the costs of terminating/ accepting E9-1-1 calls at smaller PSAP locations. Equally important for PSAPs is that, in conjunction with the VIXXI VoIP ALI database and SolaCom’s device, this solution will provide the ability to be compliant with emerging FCC i3 specifications for E9-1-1 VoIP calls, with no capital expenditures.

The VIXXI/SolaCom E9-1-1 Emergency Network architecture thus provides a SIP

(Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert)) “Appliance” (the EG200) interoperable with SolaCom’s IQGateway Selective Router and the VIXXI Positional Database. The equipment supports interconnection to existing PSAP equipment via analog CAMA interfaces and operates behind PSAP firewall systems if required. Remove 24/7 monitoring capabilities are also provided to detect and resolve faults quickly without the need for PSAP personnel involvement.

With the FCC threatening to impose hefty fines on carriers avoiding their E911 responsibilities, VIXXI appears to be a company that’s in the right place at the right time.

Richard Grigonis is an internationally-known technology editor and writer. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert) as Executive Editor of its IP Communications Group, he was the Editor-in-Chief of VON Magazine from its founding in 2003 to August 2006. He also served as the Chief Technical Editor of CMP Media’s Computer Telephony magazine, later called Communications Convergence (News - Alert) (News — Alert), from its first year of operation in 1994 until 2003. In addition, he has written five books on computers and telecom (including the Computer Telephony Encyclopedia and Dictionary of IP Communications). To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

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