Skip to content

Unique Systems

State, local, territorial, and tribal alerting authorities may already have a range of unique alerting and dissemination technology at their disposal.  These systems could include, but are not limited to, emergency telephone networks, sirens, or digital road signs.  These unique systems can be upgraded to be compliant with the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) in order to seamlessly integrate these technologies into IPAWS and make alert and warning process streamlined and more resilient.

Benefits of upgrading existing unique systems to the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)

The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is an international technical data specification developed by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) that allows emergency messages to be disseminated over a wide variety of existing and emerging public alerting systems.  In addition to the basic CAP standard, a supplemental IPAWS Profile technical specification was developed to ensure compatibility with existing warning systems used in the Unites States.  FEMA has formally adopted CAP and the IPAWS Profile to implement the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS).

Emergency Alert System (EAS) participants (broadcast radio and television stations, cable television, satellite radio and television services and wireline video service providers) are required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to upgrade their equipment to be capable of receiving CAP formatted alerts.  The current compliance deadline is June 30, 2012. 

Currently, there is no requirement for State, local, territorial, and tribal alerting authorities to make similar upgrades to their unique alerting systems.  However, by making unique alerting systems CAP compliant, alerting authorities will be able to send a single alert through IPAWS that will reach their unique alerting systems as well as radio, television, cell phones and other mobile devices, internet services, and all future CAP compliant technologies.  Utilizing multiple channels for public alerts increases the likelihood that the message will successfully reach the public.  In addition, using a single CAP alert message reduces the amount of time required to prepare separate, system-specific alerts, thus speeding the delivery of potentially critical, lifesaving information.

IPAWS is not mandatory and does not replace existing methods of alerting, but instead offers a way to make alerting more effective, reliable, integrated, and flexible.  If your public safety organization is interested in upgrading your unique system(s) to CAP, please refer your system manufacturer or system integrator to the section of this website for OPEN Developers.

 To return to the FEMA IPAWS Home Page, click here.

Last Modified: Tuesday, 03-Jan-2012 18:19:09 EST