[Asterisk-biz] voip e911 and homeland security

[trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com]

On Mon, 2005-08-29 at 17:43 -0400, Paul wrote:

> How many pennies?

Depends on how you count them...  
	1. pennies to develop the standard for which this data will be
	   sent.  SIP IM?  
	2. pennies for the software additions - paid over time per unit
	3. pennies for the hardware which doesnt work well indoors
	4. pennies for the external antennas that #3 requires
	5. pennies for the enforcement that people install the 
	   external antennas by drilling holes into their home or
	   perhaps an ugly patch antenna on a window (some glass
	   shields the signal, especially tinted windows as seen
	   in every mobile based gps application manual I have seen)
	6. pennies for the voip server side to be upgraded to support
	   not only receiving the gps data from the ATA (which 99% will
	   be stationary so no need really) but also to convert it and
	   send it to the psap administrator (who answers the 911 calls)
	   in a format they see
	7. pennies for encrypting the data somehow because people will
	   abuse that information, hopefully #7 happens before
	   implementation
	8. pennies for the extra cpu required to decrypt the gps data
	   if the system is doing more its less capable to do what it
	   did, this does have a direct cost impact especially on large
	   scale operations
	9. pennies for the gps receivers in softphones so people like
	   me with a wifi enabled ipaq can actually use that as a mobile
	   phone when desired.
	10. about $1 or less per gps receiver in quantity maybe more 
	   depending on vendor, receiver sensitivity, error correction,
	   etc.

I could a whole lot of pennies and a long time to implement.  The spec
alone could take 2 years given the way things have happened in the past.

VoIP has, by its very nature, an IP address associated with it.  If the
FCC were to do anything wouldnt it be easier to make the ISPs record the
physical address where that link is installed to?  Of course this would
have to be dynamic due to dynamic IPs.  So a realtime lookup which
integrates to the phone network would be desirable.  Gee mandate more
people hop on SS7 by mandating the ISPs maintain location data (like the
GSM HLR) for the IP assignments incase of VoIP 911 calls.

The simple matter is that the federal government is out of control, this
would be an unfair mandate.  I disagree with any of these suggestions
and made them in satire.  The US constitution gives the federal
government the right to 3 crimes, treason, counterfieting (government
dox) and piracy (on the ocean not software).  Every other federal law
comes from the much abused "interstate and foreign commerce" clause in
the body of  the constitution.  

Phone calls to a local PSAP are *not* interstate in almost every
circumstance.  They are local calls made from and to the same state.
They may be staffed by government employees or private contracts (in
California mobile phones go to the highway patrol, but like in Modesto
AMR (private ambulance company basically) does the PSAP stuff.

There is very little room in the constitution for the federal government
to mandate such stuff.  But with the surpeme court ruling the way it has
(everything is federal basically, screw the constitution) bleh I cant
wait until I can move.

-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
UK +44 870 340 4605   Germany +49 801 777 555 3402
US +1 360 207 0479 or +1 516 687 5200
FreeWorldDialup: 635378
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