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to Private Sector Industry Partner: CMAS Participants

CMAS Carriers are the commercial cellular providers who have chosen to participate in CMAS in accordance with federal regulations

Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS)

The IPAWS vision is to ensure that all Americans are able to receive accurate alerts and warnings, regardless of what communications technologies they use. The inclusion of cellular alerts under the IPAWS system reflects the important role that wireless technologies play in consumers’ lives today. IPAWS will include a wireless mobile alerting capability into the IPAWS network to better warn citizens. Providing critical alert information via wireless devices will help the public avoid danger or respond more quickly during crisis, and thereby save lives and property.

The Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) is one of the major components of the IPAWS. The CMAS component will provide an interface to participating cellular mobile service providers for delivery of critical alert information to cellular phones in a danger zone. Specifically, the IPAWS CMAS capability will provide Federal, State, territorial, tribal and local government officials the ability to send 90 character, geographically targeted text alerts to the public ,warning of imminent threats to life and property. The cellular industry, the FCC, and DHS S&T are critical partners with FEMA in developing this new alerting capability. The initial requirements of the system were developed by an advisory committee established by the FCC in accordance with the Warning, Alert and Response Network (“WARN”) Act of 2006. The Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee (CMSAAC) conducted meetings during 2008 with findings published in three FCC Report and Order documents.

A key differentiator of the IPAWS CMAS capability versus existing subscription-based text messaging alert services currently available in some localities is that the IPAWS CMAS will enable alert messages to be sent to any cell phone within range of a particular cellular communications towers. The CMAS also utilizes different communications channels and protocols in cellular systems which decrease the impact of network congestion on alert message delivery during times of emergency.
The IPAWS Program worked with DHS S&T and the Alliance of Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) during 2009 to establish a specification for the interface between a federal alert aggregator/gateway and commercial service provider gateways. In November 2009, the ATIS/TIA Joint CMAS Working Group approved the “Joint ATIS/TIA CMAS Federal Alert Gateway to Commercial Mobile Service Providers (CMSP) Gateway Specification” and the specification was adopted as the Government Interface Design Specification for the FEMA IPAWS federal alert aggregator/gateway in a joint FEMA and FCC on December 7, 2009. The press release initiated the 28-month period during which participating Commercial Mobile Service (CMS) providers must develop, test and deploy their portion of the CMAS.

The FEMA IPAWS team is currently continuing work with the ATIS/TIA JCMAS Working Group to define a CMAS Interface Test and Certification Spec and to implement the federal CMAS requirements in the IPAWS OPEN aggregator/gateway infrastructure. The IPAWS Program Office expects to have an initial IPAWS CMAS operating capability in early 2011.

The IPAWS wireless initiative will ensure that:

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Facts

What CMAS Participants need to know::

  1. CMAS supports Presidential messaging capability, imminent threat alerts and warnings, and AMBER alerts.
  2. State, local, tribal, and territorial authorities are interested in and excited about the possibilities of using CMAS for alerts and warnings.
  3. The IPAWS PMO is implementing a proactive partner communications outreach plan to enhance State, local, tribal and territorial interest and use of CMAS technology.

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Key Benefits

Why CMAS Participants want to know the facts:

  1. Continue technology development to meet CMAS requirements.
  2. It is anticipated that demand for commercial notification services will be created.

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Calls-to-Action

Recommendations for PLAN/CMAS Participants:

  1. Continue technology development to meet PLAN/CMAS requirements.
  2. Partner with IPAWS in assisting with outreach to State, local, tribal, and territorial governments, as well as the American people.
  3. Comply with regulatory requirements established by the FCC.
  4. Participate in working groups for IPAWS’ Commercial Alert Service Provider partners.

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Information for Cellular Carriers Wishing to Participate in CMAS

Cellular carriers that have filed with FCC their intent to participate in CMAS will need to complete the following two phase process. The first phase allows the carrier to test and verify their CMSP Gateway solution with the Federal Alert Gateway. The second phase establishes the production connection and enables live CMAS alerts to be sent to the public.

Test Phase:

  1. Cellular carrier emails IPAWS and requests Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for testing
  2. Cellular carrier signs the MOA for CMAS testing in a FEMA test environment
  3. Initial “kick-off” meeting is scheduled with cellular carrier and IPAWS
  4. Coordinate several days and times to conduct testing:
    1. VPN connection from CMSP Gateway to the IPAWS OPEN Federal Alert Gateway
    2. J-STD-102 CMAS Test Cases
  5. IPAWS produces a test report and sends to cellular carrier indicating testing is complete

Production Phase:

  1. Carrier emails and requests both MOA and ISA for CMAS services in the Production environment
  2. Carrier signs and returns the MOA and ISA
  3. Initialization of the CMAS services
    1. VPN connection from the CMSP Gateway to the Production IPAWS OPEN Gateway
    2. Perform basic test to ensure no issues arise from the new connection
  4. Carrier is ready to go for CMAS production services

The following documents clarify the CMAS interface and testing requirements:

The Joint ATIS/TIA CMAS Federal Alert Gateway to CMSP Gateway Interface Specification (webstore.ansi.org/RecordDetail.aspx?sku=J-STD-101) is a technical document describing the message exchange and interface between the Federal Alert Gateway and the CMSP Gateway.

The Joint ATIS/TIA CMAS Federal Alert Gateway to CMSP Gateway Interface Test Specification (webstore.ansi.org/RecordDetail.aspx?sku=J-STD-102) is a test document including all test cases we will run through during CMAS testing.

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Last Modified: Wednesday, 21-Dec-2011 15:29:28 EST