Next Generation 911 (NextGen) rollout?

ChrisDonohue__GISP · ‎10-21-2016

next gen 911‌addressing##911 addressing

At the local GIS Users group meeting a few days ago there was a presentation on Next Generation 911, how it will differ from the current system, and that it is hoped to be implemented by the year 2020 in the United States and Canada. I do addressing for a medium-sized city, so am curious how this will roll down to my level, since I am not directly involved in response but the response folks do use the addresses I assign. Since NextGen 911 will be directly using municipalities centerline GIS data instead of phone company records, this caught my attention.

So some beginner questions:

Is the project on track for 2020 in all areas?
Has anyone fully implemented NextGen 911 already?
What level of effort does it typically require municipalities to update their centerline data so it works with surrounding municipalities in NextGen 911?
What level of effort is anticipated once the centerline data is in use in NextGen 911 to do the ongoing maintenance? Is it expected to require extra staffing?
Is it expected that address points will be a requirement in the near future (sounds like they are not required in the current implementation)?
Have municipalities and call centers (PSAP) been able to get funding to help implement NextGen 911? Organizational funding? Grants?
If you have worked on this, any insight on issues that have come up?
Also, on the legislative side, is there a mandate that specifies when the system must be in place? Or is it voluntary at this point?

Chris Donohue, GISP

TimWitt2 · ‎10-27-2016

ESN is the Emergency Service Number. In our county each Public Answering Point has its own ESN (some dispatch centers have more than one).

When a 911 call comes in, each phone number has one of these ESNs attached to it, which will tell the system where the call needs to be routed to. If the address point is present, it will also have that same ESN attached to it.

If the address point should be missing, our mapping system will look at the street centerline, which means you will also have to have an ESN there.

I hope this make sense!

JoeBorgione · ‎10-27-2016

Tim and Chris- I thought the concept of the esn will fall by the wayside in NextGEN 911.

Chris- this is a pretty good article you may want to take a look at: https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ecn/programs/911/Documents/GIS_Article_102208v7.pdf

Tim Witt‌

Chris Donohue, GISP‌

That should just about do it....

TimWitt2 · ‎10-27-2016

Yes, you are right. You will only need an "ESN" (more a Zone than a Number) polygon layer.

ChrisDonohue__GISP · ‎10-27-2016

Interesting. So in NextGen 911 one would have polygons of ESN zones and the system would dynamically access it in GIS to do a spatial join of the information on demand so as to find the correct ESN for the incident location?

Chris Donohue, GISP

TimWitt2 · ‎10-27-2016

Yes, I think from how I understand it and also what Joe said, you won't need to have the ESN in your street centerline and address point layer. It will route the call depending on where it falls within your polygon layer.

JoeBorgione · ‎10-27-2016

The ESN (emergency services number) and the MSAG (master street address guide) along with ANI (automatic number identification) and ALI (automatic location identification) are all on the endangered species list.

Chris, here is another pdf to take a look at: http://communications.intrado.com/assets/documents/IEN_Glossary.pdf

The ESN is assigned to a phone number (think landline). It is a little packet of information that includes :

PSAP

Law Response Agency

Fire Response Agency

EMS Response Agency

When you dial 9-1-1 and that packet hits the appropriate switch, the switch says "Oh, you need to go to XYZ PSAP", and off it goes. In the PSAP I work for, the ESN doesn't mean all that much to us. We provide it to the people who manage the MSAG/ANI-ALI as more or less a courtesy. (Remember those three are going the way of the dodo) The CAD does the actual response assignment. For example, if you live in Salt Lake CIty,Utah the esn contains SLC FD and SLC PD, but nothing more specific than that. The CAD assigns which FD station and and which PD 'beat' responds.

NextGEN 911 replaces everything top down in a GIS centric approach. PSAP: polygon boundaries of the area of responsibility per psap, and this will have to be state wide. I'm not sure if the other stuff is included at the state routing level or not, but like I said that's the job of the PSAP. In other words, get the caller connected to the correct PSAP based on geographic location (point in polygon) and then the PSAP takes it from there.

That should just about do it....

ChrisDonohue__GISP · ‎10-27-2016

So a broad question organizational question comes to mind. Who ultimately is the lead agency/organization for implementing NextGen 911 in the United States? Is a State-level agency? Federal? County-level? Or is each PSAP responsible to make it happen? All of the above? None of the above? Total Chaos?

Chris Donohue, GISP