FEMA IPAWS Note on CAP Profile

All,

Following a request from the FEMA IPAWS Program, I am forwarding the below statement.

Thanks

Sukumar

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History:

- In short, per the FCC’s 2^nd Report & Order in 12 Jul 07, the FCC deferred adoption of standards and protocols for the EAS system to FEMA. A 180-day implementation clock starts for industry upon FEMA’s adoption of its standards and protocols.

- On 30 Jul 08, FEMA announced in a press release that it will be working with its federal, state, local and industry partners, including OASIS, to develop its standards and protocols. At that time, FEMA gave notice to the community that it intends on adopting its standards and protocols by 1QCY09, or 31 Mar 09.

- On 25 Sep 08, the EAS-CAP Industry Group (ECIG) published its draft CAP Profile.

- On 22 Oct 08, FEMA and DHS S&T conducted a teleconference with the ECIG and discussed our plans and activities with them, including the OASIC process.

- On 12 Dec 08, FEMA published a draft Profile Requirements document to the OASIS Profiles Sub-Committee and to the ECIG and the ATIS/TIA Joint CMAS standard development working group. The FEMA draft Profile Requirements document addressed only one exchange partner system, namely EAS.

- Since 12 Dec 08, the OASIS Profiles SC has been adjudicating contributions from FEMA, DHS S&T, from within the SC (including NOAA and HazCollect), and from subject matter experts from the ECIG and ATIS/TIA to develop a draft IPAWS CAP Profile. FEMA welcomed the expansion of scope for the Profile development to include other exchange partner systems by including CMAS and HazCollect in addition to EAS.

Statement:

FEMA and DHS S&T acknowledge that not every community member is aware of the OASIS process or is able to participate in the OASIS process. We have been engaging Emergency Managers via a separate Practitioners Working Group (PWG) and plan to engage Industry via a separate Industry Engagement Day (IED) later this month. We have asked the PWG to provide comments on the original Profile Requirements document from Dec 08. We intend to adjudicate all comments on the Profile Requirements document in order to refine the Profile Requirements document. Further, as the OASIS Profile document has developed, that document has addressed many of the matters from the Profile Requirements document. We intend on offering all comments to the FEMA Profile Requirements document as contributions to the OASIS Profiles SC to help shape the OASIS IPAWS CAP Profile as well.

FEMA’s goal is to fulfill its responsibilities under the FCC’s 2^nd R&O to adopt standards and protocols for the Next-Generation EAS system. The OASIS standards-making process offers a public, open, fair, and rigorous forum for gathering and adjudicating all contributions from all members of the community. The community requests a single CAP message for use among multiple dissemination systems, which we have called exchange partners. We welcome contributions from the whole community in order to develop a singular OASIS IPAWS CAP Profile that will address constraints on the CAP v1.1 standard among all exchange partners.

It is FEMA’s responsibility to publish its standards and protocols. FEMA will consider and adjudicate the OASIS IPAWS CAP Profile as appropriate in preparation for its adoption of standards and protocols for the Next-Generation EAS. FEMA recognizes that the FCC’s 2^nd R&O does not require standards and protocols to be published at this time regarding security, multiple languages, alerts & warnings of special needs communities, or of video media types. Hence, we feel that it is reasonable to consider adopting the OASIS IPAWS CAP Profile as part of its pending standards and protocols. Note, however, in accordance with statements made publicly, that FEMA intends on pursuing the development of additional requirements to address any outstanding issues for NG-EAS systems.

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Sukumar Dwarkanath

Touchstone

SRA International

1920 N Street NW

Washington DC 20002

Sukumar_Dwarkanath@sra.com

202-449-7761 (direct)

703-629-4074 (mobile)

202-338-6106 (fax)

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