1. (Integrated Public Alert & Warning System)
IPAWS
(Integrated Public Alert & Warning System)
Sandia National Laboratories
Ronald F. Glaser, PE ,
Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

2. Outline What is IPAWS? - administered by FEMA
Programmatic drivers / Sandia’s role
Conceptual roadmap - iterative development and deployment
Hurricane ‘07 (Spiral 0, WARN 2)
What did we do?
What did we learn?
Coordination/Interoperability - vision
The IPAWS end system - grid features
Summary - POCs and web sites

3. What is IPAWS?
Department of Homeland Security program begun in 2004 to improve public alert & warning in partnership with NOAA*, the FCC*, & other public/private stakeholders.
Evolving “system of systems”
Emergency Alert System (EAS) upgrades
National Warning System (NAWAS) enhancements
New pilots and systems:
Digital EAS (DEAS) program with APTS* and others
Web Alert and Relay Network (WARN) pilot with Sandia and others
Geo-Targeted Alerting System (GTAS) program with NOAA and others
“DHS should establish an integrated public alert and warning system in coordination with all relevant departments and agencies.”
- Hurricane Katrina Lessons Learned Report (2006)
* NOAA = National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration FCC = Federal Communications Commission APTS = Association of Public Television Stations

4. IPAWS is the Nation’s next-generation emergency warning capability
IPAWS will work with public and private sectors to integrate warning systems to effectively communicate alerts via TV, radio, telephone, internet/computer, cell phone, and other personal communications devices. The IPAWS will allow:
The President (or designated Federal officials) to communicate to the American people before, during, and after a crisis
The President and authorized Federal government officials to gain situational awareness from State and local emergency operations centers
Effective communications to State and territory agencies, Governors, tribal councils, and other alert and warning stakeholders
State and local emergency managers to send messages to residents during non-Federal emergencies
Current alert system predominately relies on audio signals carried on radio and TV.
The IPAWS PMO will work with private and public sectors to integrate warning systems to allow the President and government officials to effectively communicate with the public and State and local emergency operations centers via multiple personal communications devices.
IPAWS supports FEMA’s goal to reduce losses to life and property from all hazards by providing reliable and accurate information before, during and after an emergency

5. Territories and Tribes President & other officials
The end vision of IPAWS is to deliver coordinated messages over more channels to more people, anywhere, anytime.
State Agencies
Territories and Tribes
Private Sector
Governors
Local Agencies
International
Governments
President & other officials
Federal Agencies
Responder and Resource Communities
Public
INTERNET
LANDLINE PHONES

6. IPAWS Drivers Hurricane Katrina
Lack of communications and situational awareness paralyzed command and control.
Lack of targeted alerts and warnings.
Current alert and warning systems don’t reach sufficient proportion of the population
Audio-only alerts, distributed via television and radio.
1-12% of population, depending on time of day.
Executive Order 13407:
Ensure that under all conditions the President can rapidly and effectively address and warn the public over a broad range of communications devices and under any emergency condition.
DHS goal for IPAWS is to provide the capability to alert 85% of the listening population within 10 minutes.

7. Sandia’s Role
Design, set up, and operate pilot alert program for 2007 hurricane season
Initial capability deployed 1 August 2007
Ended 31 December 2007
Develop and pilot new architecture for next hurricane season
Understand needs/requirements of users
Develop secure architecture for sending messages (internal/public)
Develop standards (OASIS*)
Qualify vendors for IPAWS interoperability
Multiple year effort to develop architecture and roll it out nationally
* Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards

8. Conceptual IPAWS Spiral deployment timeline and national coverage
IPAWS Deployment
Spiral 0 Aug ‘07
Spiral 1 IOC Jun ‘08
Spiral 1 Dec ‘08
Spiral 2 Dec ‘09
Spiral 3 Dec ‘10
More vendor involvement over time
WARN
CRG infrastructure (vendor-neutral, basic security & message routing services)
Sandia-driven pilots
CRG infrastructure (vendor-neutral, full security & message routing services)
Vendor-driven national roll-out

9. IPAWS Pilot Capability for Hurricane Season ‘07
TV &
Radio
EAS
ENDEC
Text Collaboration
CAP Alert Generation
EAS Interface
(WSI Comm Proc)
WARN Servers
EAS Interface
(WSI RF Ctrl)
State/Local/Tribal
FEMA Ops
FEMA Regions
Alert and Warning
IP Network
(CAP/XML)
Tone Alert Radios
Sirens, etc.
Satellite TV
NOAA
Video to TV,
Cell Phones
& Internet
Satellite
Radio
DHNS
ETN
Cell Phone Carrier
Cell Broadcast
Broker
Opt-In
SMS
RSS
RBDS
Phone
Calls
Cell Phone Carrier
Life & Property
(22 + Amber)
Web
Pop Ups
Radio
Display
Text
Messages

10. Hurricane Season ’07 WARN 2 (Spiral 0) Overview
IPAWS WARN 2 deployed commercial alert and warning services in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi
Operational from Aug 1 - Dec 31, 2007
Covered 3 state EOCs and 133/213 counties/parishes
Sandia’s role:
System design, integration, and testing
Coordination with state and local Emergency Operation Centers
Commercial vendor selection and oversight
Deployed emergency notification capabilities:
Messaging framework for Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) messages to Emergency Alert System (EAS)
Emergency Telephone Notification (ETN)
Deaf and Hard-Of-Hearing Notification System (DHNS)
Subscription-based public alerts (Opt-In)
Four main capabilities

11. Spiral 0 Overview Problems: Manual EAS generation
Emergency
Operations
Centers
Sirens
CAP
Message
WSI RF
Adapter
Audio
LAT/LONG
Phone #s
Geographic
Telephone
Directory
Emergency
Notification
(ETN)
Voice XML
Message
Audio
Web Alert and
Relay Network
Public
Public Opt-In
Sign-Up
Text
Message
Alert Messages
Web
Interaction
Messages
Alert
ASL Video
DeafLink
(DHNS)
Audio
CAP
Message
ENDEC
WSI EAS
Adapter
LP1
Problems:
Manual EAS generation
Local counties couldn’t directly create EAS alerts
Lack of non-english and deaf alerting
Current EAS not compatible with 21st century communication technologies (e.g., cellphones, landlines, and )
Tell story for each capability
Governore issue pre-recorded voice message
Public signup for alerts(primarily weather)
SP0 fixes:
CAP
SP0 – state/county control of injection pts
WARN 1 pilot – small scale test
Redundant path for triggering alert
ETN, OPT-IN for , phone
DHNS for deaf

12. Capabilities deployed across Louisiana, Mississippi, & Alabama
Web Alert and Relay Network (WARN) Opt-in Software
Allows emergency personnel to generate and control warnings via web interface
Provides multiple alerts and warnings to people who opt to receive notifications
Emergency Telephone Notification (ETN)
Hardware to provide basic telephone notification (20,000 calls in 10 minutes)
Vender agreements
Database resource
Enhanced ETN (E-ETN)
Additional hardware to increase call capacity to 60,000 ETN calls in 10 minutes
Adds redundancy servers to minimize the chance of an outage due to technical failure
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Notification System (DHNS)
American Sign Language translation of emergency messages to hearing impaired
Vendor agreement to post videos on the internet

13. Population with a Sensory Disability
Demographics
State
Total Population
Counties/Parishes
Population with a Sensory Disability
Number
Percent
Alabama
4,227,433 67
248,457
5.9%
Louisiana
3,889,925 64
213,824
5.5%
Mississippi
2,639,235 82
178,504
6.8%
Nation-wide
273,835,465 -
11,829,958
4.3%
State
Rank (out of 50 U.S. States)
Percent Who Speak English Less Than
“Very Well”
Margin of Error
Alabama 43
1.9%
+/-0.1
Louisiana 37
2.6%
Mississippi 49
1.3%
Nation-wide -
8.7%
US Census Bureau, 2006 & 2007 estimates

14. Spiral 0 Results

15. Spiral 0 Successes
Emergency Telephone Notification (ETN) used by Mississippi Governor for Hurricane Dean
Opt-In demonstrated for Secretary Chertoff, AL governor, and AL congressional delegation
ETN tested with over 250,000 calls
Over 700 American Sign Language (ASL) alerts generated
Sandia/Vendors trained EOC personnel in 133 counties/parishes
Sandia developed working relationship with state EOCs and 10 county/parish EOCs

16. Spiral 0 Lessons Learned
Vendor independence is necessary for state/local buy-in
Efficient, convenient, and continuous training needs to be available for EOC personnel
Technology and staffing can be an issue at the county and parish level
Funding concerns and sustainment plans need to be addressed for an effective alert and warning capability
Emergency Telephone Notification (ETN) is highly desirable but a cellular calling capability is also needed
Understanding existing infrastructure (Telephone Network, Internet, etc.) is important to system design
Public education and awareness are critical for success
Deaf & blind public participation requires direct outreach
Talk to top 4

17. Coordination & Interoperability
There are situations requiring cross enterprise messaging
Many current architectures discuss message exchanges in terms of a single enterprise
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) benefits from its ability to cross ownership boundaries
Federal
Regional
State
Local
Tribal
To be interoperable, crossing ownership boundaries must accommodate both:
Technical aspects: syntax, semantics
Policy aspects: access control, security, …
Interoperability among diverse participants requires a prearranged groundwork for communications and understanding supporting:
Different policy and security contexts
Incremental addition of services and participants
Resource multiplier when adding another stakeholder

18. The Vision
An Architecture for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Coordination, Intelligence and Interoperability
Situational Awareness
Customized Operational Pictures Based on Common Data
A Federal Cross-jurisdictional Routing Grid (CRG)
Interoperable Multi-Agency Enterprises
Federal/Regional/State/Local/Public
Choreographed Information Sharing
Data-Content Routing
Communities of Interest
Communications Surety
Security
Authentication
Robust Delivery
Nation Wide Scalability
Open Standards Based
Vendor Independent Plug-&-Play

19. IPAWS Satellite Network
IPAWS End State Vision
IPAWS Satellite Network
Authentication
Boundary
Federal Agencies
Internet & Landline Services
IPAWS IP Network
Authentication
Boundary
Authentication
Boundary
Radio
Local EOC
Authentication
Boundary
State EOC
Mobile IPAWS Coordination Ctr
Authentication
Boundary
Television
Commercial Satellite Services
Commercial Mobile Services

20. High-Level IPAWS System
Presidential
Alert Injection
EAS
ENDEC
TV &
Radio
Text Collaboration
CAP Alert Generation
Services
EAS Interface
(Comm Proc)
WARN Servers
SPOR
EAS Interface
(RF Ctrl)
SPOR
State (Local/Tribal)
FEMA Ops
FEMA Regions
SPOR
Cross-jurisdictional Routing Grid
SPOR
SPOR
Tone Alert Radios
Sirens, etc.
SPOR
SPOR
Satellite TV
SPOR
SPOR
NOAA
SPOR
SPOR
Based on the Internet, IP, network based devices… cost / benefit compared to dedicated pipes
Object router
SPOR
SPOR
Video to TV,
Cell Phones
& Internet
Satellite
Radio
SPOR
DHNS
ETN
Cell Phone Carrier
Cell Broadcast
Broker
Opt-In
SMS
RSS
RBDS
Phone
Calls
Cell Phone Carrier
Life & Property
(22 + Amber)
Web
Pop Ups
Radio
Display
Text
Messages
SPOR = Secure Policy-oriented Object Router

21. The IPAWS Grid The Cross-jurisdictional Routing Grid (CRG):
Set of intersecting internet partitions
Defined by Communities of Interest (COIs)
Protected by Application Layer Routers/Firewalls called Secure Policy-oriented Object Routers (SPORs)
That enforce COI Policies and Rules
For Trans-enterprise Messaging
Based on Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) Emergency Data eXchange Language-Distribution Element (EDXL-DE) and Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Standards

22. IPAWS CRG Features Authentication Non-repudiation Secure
Scalable (to national level)
Standards-based, vendor neutral
Service Oriented Architecture (event-driven)
Policy-oriented routing
Geopolitical targeting
Multi-channel (not just the internet)
Hardened Secure Policy-orientated Object Routers (SPORs)
Scalability
Vendor neutrality - Standards based

23. IPAWS Pilot Summary
Demonstrated electronic delivery of emergency alerts to the public utilizing commercially-available services
Demonstrated some new capabilities to meet public alerting gaps in the current EAS system
Addressed alerting gaps through ETN, E-ETN, DHNS, Opt-In, and enhanced EAS and RF system capability.
E-ETN & DHNS capabilities can reach a more diverse population not well served by the current EAS functionality
E-ETN capability transmitted alerts in foreign languages, thereby aiding those who may have trouble understanding English
DHNS conveyed alerts to deaf, blind, and hard-of-hearing citizens
Demonstrated the promise of a national public/private emergency alert communication system
Ability to communicate emergency alerts quickly to an increased number of individuals during various times of the day
Many venues are needed to effectively alert and warn the public

24. Points of Contacts & Web Sites
IPAWS Project Manager
Ronald Glaser,
IPAWS Public Relations
Mike Janes,
FEMA IPAWS Web Site
EM Forum on IPAWS
IPAWS Supplier Web Site
OASIS Web Site