Messages, images, videos are shared in real time everywhere in the world and social media are now the main tool for publishing and sharing information. However, despite the wealth of tools and content, emergency services are often only reachable by phone. The transition to a more complete communication system requires new means of communication, capable of exploiting the available resources and modernizing the models currently in use.
Thus, the Next Generation 112 (NG112) architecture was born to allow contacting emergency services through modern technologies and new media.
The NG112 aims to improve three key aspects:
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Communication between citizens and emergency services
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Interoperability between emergency services
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Best geolocation services available to everyone
The Evolution Of The NG112 Plugtest™
Since 2016, ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and EENA (European Emergency Number Association) have been organizing annual Plugtests ™ to assess the interoperability of emergency communications, closely observing how the structure of Next Generation 112 (NG112) behaves.
The goal is to assess the interoperability and compliance of a variety of solutions, according to different scenarios and test cases. To do this, each component of the NG112 network-based emergency communication chain is independently tested. Among these are:
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location-based call routing
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policy-based routing
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eCall in IP format
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quality of service of NG networks
Test results from recent years show that the technology is mature. Many suppliers already have NG112 tools, capable of interacting with each other, and thus provide a wide choice of innovative products, suitable for building next generation emergency communication solutions.
NG112 Emergency Communications Plugtests ™: Beta 80’s role
Beta 80 has been at the forefront of the Next Generation upgrade since 2016, the year of the first edition, and in recent years has actively participated in the NG112 Emergency Communications Plugtests ™ with various in-house software solutions. In 2019 Beta 80 was the only company among the participants to propose the complete suite of core components and test them in an end-to-end scenario.
NG112 Plugtest: the 2021 edition
Registration is open for the fourth edition of the 112 Next Generation Plugtest, which will be held from February 22 to March 5 2021 online.
Each year, the event offers the different providers of the emergency industry the opportunity to interact and test products and services in an open and collaborative environment. This year, eCall technology will also be included and it will be possible to compare with the NG911 networks of the United States, thanks to the concomitance with the ICE 9 event of NENA (Association 9-1-1).
NG112 - FIND OUT MORE
The Role of Geographic Information Systems in Next Generation 112
NG112 and the new Emergency Services Networks Landscape
NG112: Security & Privacy Issues
NG112 Emergency Services Plugtest 2017 – Report by ETSI