IPAWS(Integrated Public Alert & Warning System)

Sandia National Laboratories

Ronald F. Glaser, PE

505-844-1075, rfglase@sandia.gov

Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

Outline• What is IPAWS? - administered by FEMA• Programmatic drivers / Sandia’s role• Conceptual roadmap - iterative development

and deployment• Hurricane ‘07 (Spiral 0, WARN 2)

– What did we do?– What did we learn?

• Coordination/Interoperability - vision• The IPAWS end system - grid features• Summary - POCs and web sites

What is IPAWS?– Department of Homeland Security program begun in 2004 to

improve public alert & warning in partnership with NOAA*, the FCC*, & other public/private stakeholders.

– Evolving “system of systems”• Emergency Alert System (EAS) upgrades• National Warning System (NAWAS) enhancements• New pilots and systems:

– Digital EAS (DEAS) program with APTS* and others

– Web Alert and Relay Network (WARN) pilot with Sandia and others

– Geo-Targeted Alerting System (GTAS) program with NOAA and others

* NOAA = National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration FCC = Federal Communications Commission APTS = Association of Public Television Stations

“DHS should establish an integrated public alert and warning system in coordination with all relevant departments and agencies.”

- Hurricane Katrina Lessons Learned Report (2006)

IPAWS is the Nation’s next-generation emergency warning capability

IPAWS will work with public and private sectors to integrate warning systems to effectively communicate alerts via TV, radio, telephone, internet/computer, cell phone, and other personal communications devices. The IPAWS will allow: The President (or designated Federal officials) to communicate to

the American people before, during, and after a crisis The President and authorized Federal government officials to gain

situational awareness from State and local emergency operations centers

Effective communications to State and territory agencies, Governors, tribal councils, and other alert and warning stakeholders

State and local emergency managers to send messages to residents during non-Federal emergencies

IPAWS supports FEMA’s goal to reduce losses to life and IPAWS supports FEMA’s goal to reduce losses to life and property from all hazards by providing reliable and accurate property from all hazards by providing reliable and accurate information before, during and after an emergencyinformation before, during and after an emergency

The end vision of IPAWS is to delivercoordinated messages over more channels

to more people, anywhere, anytime.

INTERNET LANDLINE PHONES

Private Sector

Territories and Tribes

Local Agencies

State Agencies

Governors

Responder and Resource Communities

Federal AgenciesPresident &

other officials

Public

International Governments

IPAWS Drivers

• Hurricane Katrina– Lack of communications and situational awareness paralyzed

command and control.– Lack of targeted alerts and warnings.

• Current alert and warning systems don’t reach sufficient proportion of the population– Audio-only alerts, distributed via television and radio.– 1-12% of population, depending on time of day.

• Executive Order 13407:– Ensure that under all conditions the President can rapidly and

effectively address and warn the public over a broad range of communications devices and under any emergency condition.

– DHS goal for IPAWS is to provide the capability to alert 85% of the listening population within 10 minutes.

• Design, set up, and operate pilot alert program for 2007 hurricane season– Initial capability deployed 1 August 2007– Ended 31 December 2007

• Develop and pilot new architecture for next hurricane season– Understand needs/requirements of users– Develop secure architecture for sending messages

(internal/public)– Develop standards (OASIS*)– Qualify vendors for IPAWS interoperability– Multiple year effort to develop architecture and

roll it out nationally

Sandia’s Role

* Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards

WARN

CRG infrastructure (vendor-neutral, basic security & message routing services)

Sandia-driven pilots

Conceptual IPAWS Spiral deployment timeline and national coverage

Spiral 0Aug ‘07

Spiral 1Dec ‘08

Spiral 2Dec ‘09

Spiral 3Dec ‘10

Spiral 1 IOCJun ‘08

CRG infrastructure (vendor-neutral, full security & message routing services)

Vendor-driven national roll-out

IPAWS Deployment

Alert and WarningIP Network(CAP/XML)

Alert and WarningIP Network(CAP/XML)

IPAWS Pilot Capabilityfor Hurricane Season ‘07

EAS Interface(WSI Comm Proc)

Text CollaborationCAP Alert Generation WARN Servers

NOAA

EASENDEC

State/Local/TribalFEMA OpsFEMA Regions

EAS Interface(WSI RF Ctrl)

TV &Radio

Tone Alert RadiosSirens, etc.

SatelliteTV

SatelliteRadio

ETN

RBDS

Cell BroadcastBroker

Cell Phone Carrier

Cell Phone Carrier

PhoneCalls Life & Property

(22 + Amber)

DHNSVideo to TV,Cell Phones& Internet

RSS

WebPop Ups

RadioDisplay

Opt-InSMS

TextMessages

Hurricane Season ’07WARN 2 (Spiral 0) Overview

• IPAWS WARN 2 deployed commercial alert and warning services in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi– Operational from Aug 1 - Dec 31, 2007– Covered 3 state EOCs and 133/213 counties/parishes

• Sandia’s role:– System design, integration, and testing– Coordination with state and local Emergency Operation Centers– Commercial vendor selection and oversight

• Deployed emergency notification capabilities:– Messaging framework for Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)

messages to Emergency Alert System (EAS)– Emergency Telephone Notification (ETN)– Deaf and Hard-Of-Hearing Notification System (DHNS)– Subscription-based public alerts (Opt-In)

Spiral 0 Overview

``

Alert

Messages

Web Alert andRelay Network

Web

Interaction

LP1

EmergencyOperations

Centers

CAPMessage WSI EAS

Adapter

Alert

Messages

`

ASL Video

DeafLink(DHNS)

EmailAS

L V

ideo

Public

`

Public Opt-InSign-Up

TextMessage

`Email Audio

LAT/LONG

Phone #s

GeographicTelephoneDirectory

EmergencyTelephoneNotification

(ETN)

Voice XMLMessage

Audio

Public SwitchedTelephone Network

ENDEC

Sirens

CAPMessage

WSI RFAdapter

Audio

Internet

• Web Alert and Relay Network (WARN) Opt-in Software – Allows emergency personnel to generate and control warnings via web

interface– Provides multiple alerts and warnings to people who opt to receive

notifications• Emergency Telephone Notification (ETN)

– Hardware to provide basic telephone notification (20,000 calls in 10 minutes)

– Vender agreements– Database resource

• Enhanced ETN (E-ETN)– Additional hardware to increase call capacity to 60,000 ETN calls in

10 minutes– Adds redundancy servers to minimize the chance of an outage due to

technical failure• Deaf and Hard of Hearing Notification System (DHNS)

– American Sign Language translation of emergency messages to hearing impaired

– Vendor agreement to post videos on the internet

Capabilities deployed across Louisiana, Mississippi, & Alabama

Demographics

State Total Population Counties/Parishes

Population with a Sensory Disability

Number Percent

Alabama 4,227,433 67 248,457 5.9%

Louisiana 3,889,925 64 213,824 5.5%

Mississippi 2,639,235 82 178,504 6.8%

Nation-wide 273,835,465 - 11,829,958 4.3%

State Rank (out of 50 U.S. States)Percent Who Speak English

Less Than“Very Well”

Margin of Error

Alabama 43 1.9% +/-0.1

Louisiana 37 2.6% +/-0.1

Mississippi 49 1.3% +/-0.1

Nation-wide - 8.7% +/-0.1

US Census Bureau, 2006 & 2007 estimates

Spiral 0 Results

Spiral 0 Successes

• Emergency Telephone Notification (ETN) used by Mississippi Governor for Hurricane Dean

• Opt-In demonstrated for Secretary Chertoff, AL governor, and AL congressional delegation

• ETN tested with over 250,000 calls• Over 700 American Sign Language (ASL) alerts

generated• Sandia/Vendors trained EOC personnel in 133

counties/parishes• Sandia developed working relationship with state

EOCs and 10 county/parish EOCs

Spiral 0 Lessons Learned• Vendor independence is necessary for state/local buy-in• Efficient, convenient, and continuous training needs to be

available for EOC personnel• Technology and staffing can be an issue at the county

and parish level• Funding concerns and sustainment plans need to be

addressed for an effective alert and warning capability • Emergency Telephone Notification (ETN) is highly

desirable but a cellular calling capability is also needed• Understanding existing infrastructure (Telephone

Network, Internet, etc.) is important to system design• Public education and awareness are critical for success • Deaf & blind public participation requires direct outreach

Coordination & InteroperabilityThere are situations requiring cross enterprise messaging

– Many current architectures discuss message exchanges in terms of a single enterprise

– Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) benefits from its ability to cross ownership boundaries

• Federal• Regional• State• Local• Tribal

– To be interoperable, crossing ownership boundaries must accommodate both:

• Technical aspects: syntax, semantics• Policy aspects: access control, security, …

– Interoperability among diverse participants requires a prearranged groundwork for communications and understanding supporting:

• Different policy and security contexts• Incremental addition of services and participants• Resource multiplier when adding another stakeholder

The Vision• An Architecture for Command, Control, Communications,

Computers, Coordination, Intelligence and Interoperability– Situational Awareness– Customized Operational Pictures Based on Common Data

• A Federal Cross-jurisdictional Routing Grid (CRG)– Interoperable Multi-Agency Enterprises– Federal/Regional/State/Local/Public

• Choreographed Information Sharing– Data-Content Routing– Communities of Interest

• Communications Surety– Security– Authentication– Robust Delivery

• Nation Wide Scalability• Open Standards Based

– Vendor Independent Plug-&-Play

Local EOC

IPAWS IPNetwork

IPAWS Satellite Network

State EOCMobile IPAWS Coordination Ctr

IPAWS End State Vision

Federal Agencies

Radio

Television

CommercialMobileServices

AuthenticationBoundary

AuthenticationBoundary

AuthenticationBoundary

AuthenticationBoundary Internet &

Landline Services

AuthenticationBoundary

CommercialSatellite Services

Cross-jurisdictional Routing GridCross-jurisdictional Routing Grid

High-Level IPAWS System

EAS Interface(Comm Proc)

Text CollaborationCAP Alert Generation WARN Servers

NOAA

EASENDEC

State (Local/Tribal)FEMA OpsFEMA Regions

EAS Interface(RF Ctrl)

TV &Radio

Tone Alert RadiosSirens, etc.

SatelliteTV

SatelliteRadio

ETN

RBDS

Cell BroadcastBroker

Cell Phone Carrier

Cell Phone Carrier

PhoneCalls Life & Property

(22 + Amber)

DHNS

Video to TV,Cell Phones& Internet

RSS

WebPop Ups

RadioDisplay

Opt-InSMS

TextMessages

SPOR

SPOR

SPOR

SPOR

SPOR

SPOR

SPORSPOR

SPOR

SPOR

SPOR

SPOR

SPOR

SPOR

Services

PresidentialAlert Injection

SPOR = Secure Policy-oriented Object Router

The IPAWS Grid

The Cross-jurisdictional Routing Grid (CRG):– Set of intersecting internet partitions– Defined by Communities of Interest (COIs)– Protected by Application Layer Routers/Firewalls called

Secure Policy-oriented Object Routers (SPORs)– That enforce COI Policies and Rules– For Trans-enterprise Messaging– Based on Organization for the Advancement of

Structured Information Standards (OASIS) Emergency Data eXchange Language-Distribution Element (EDXL-DE) and Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Standards

IPAWS CRG Features• Authentication• Non-repudiation• Secure• Scalable (to national level)• Standards-based, vendor neutral• Service Oriented Architecture (event-driven)• Policy-oriented routing• Geopolitical targeting• Multi-channel (not just the internet)• Hardened Secure Policy-orientated Object

Routers (SPORs)

IPAWS Pilot Summary• Demonstrated electronic delivery of emergency alerts to

the public utilizing commercially-available services • Demonstrated some new capabilities to meet public

alerting gaps in the current EAS system – Addressed alerting gaps through ETN, E-ETN, DHNS, Opt-In, and

enhanced EAS and RF system capability.• E-ETN & DHNS capabilities can reach a more diverse

population not well served by the current EAS functionality– E-ETN capability transmitted alerts in foreign languages, thereby

aiding those who may have trouble understanding English– DHNS conveyed alerts to deaf, blind, and hard-of-hearing citizens

• Demonstrated the promise of a national public/private emergency alert communication system– Ability to communicate emergency alerts quickly to an increased

number of individuals during various times of the day• Many venues are needed to effectively alert and warn

the public

Points of Contacts & Web Sites

• IPAWS Project Manager– Ronald Glaser, rfglase@sandia.gov

• IPAWS Public Relations– Mike Janes, mejanes@sandia.gov

• FEMA IPAWS Web Site– http://www.fema.gov/emergency/ipaws/

• EM Forum on IPAWS– http://www.emforum.org/vforum/lc080116.htm

• IPAWS Supplier Web Site– http://public.ca.sandia.gov/IPAWSsuppliers/

• OASIS Web Site– http://www.oasis-open.org/home/index.php