Stage Z: Altitude, z-axis testing for indoor location technologies
The 9-1-1 Location Technologies Test Bed LLC (“Test Bed LLC”) invites vendors of new or emerging location technologies to participate in the 9-1-1 Location Technologies indoor Test Bed Stage Z testing.
Stage Z is intended to evaluate and characterize the performance of wide-area location systems that determine the altitude of a 9-1-1 caller (along with the caller’s horizontal location). The results of this campaign of testing are to inform z-axis metrics that national wireless carriers will propose to the FCC by August 2018. For this reason and at the Test Bed LLC’s discretion, Stage Z results may be disclosed to a wide-variety of stakeholders, including wireless carriers, public safety community representatives, manufacturers, vendors and the FCC.
Timeline
It is estimated that Stage Z field testing may commence in early January 2018, once all applications have been reviewed by the Test Bed LLC’s Program Manager and Technical Advisory Committee. This timing is tentative and dependent on the number of vendors and complexity of technologies to be tested.
| Schedule | Planned Date |
|---|---|
| Application questions due | October 6, 2017 |
| Response to application questions | Now available, please see below |
| Application due date (extended) | October 30, 2017 |
| Estimated field test start date | January 2, 2018 |
Application questions and answers are now available, please send email to contact person to receive a copy
Application instructions and questions
If you are interested in the Stage Z testing application instructions, please send an email to the contact person listed below from your company’s email account.
All questions regarding the application instructions, the application or the Stage Z program should be sent by email to the contact person before October 6, 2017. Please note that questions and answers may be shared with all applicants.
TEST ENVIRONMENT
The scope and nature of testing to be performed will closely follow the assumptions listed below. More details on Stage Z testing can be found in the application instruction materials.- Evaluation of the accuracy of wide-area deployment location determination systems for wireless indoor 911 test calls
- Technologies to be tested may include compensated barometric pressure measurements-based techniques and non-barometric pressure-based techniques as well as hybrids of both.
- Testing will be focused on evaluating the accuracy of systems estimating altitude above a reference (e.g., height relative to mean sea level), although additional vertical height estimation methods (e.g., floor number along with X/Y) may also be considered.
- Testing in 20 representative buildings in each of two test regions (San Francisco, CA and Atlanta, GA) across all four morphologies (dense urban, urban, suburban, rural) and in urban and dense urban buildings (approximately 10 buildings) in Chicago in winter. Testing will be according to the guidelines in ATIS-0500030 and ATIS-0500031.v002.
- Testing Z-axis location systems that are deployed on a wide scale in buildings essentially selected at random; i.e., not only available in certain buildings.
- Testing with a range of dedicated off-the –shelf test handsets, i.e., handsets that do not have altered or otherwise uniquely calibrated hardware.
- The use of a software application to initiate simulated emergency test calls and trigger the vendor’s location process is generally permissible but subject to the review and approval of the Test Bed’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).
- Testing is limited to a reasonable number of individual test handsets – most likely a maximum of six distinct handsets per Z-axis technology vendor, to capture the behavior across different handset implementations and ages.
- The use of a software application to initiate simulated emergency test calls and trigger the vendor’s location process is generally permissible but subject to the review and approval of the Technical Advisory Committee
- Testing is limited to a few individual test handsets – most likely a maximum of four per location technology vendor
- Effort will be made to include a variety of test handsets that span the variations of major handset manufacturers, handset operating system providers, barometer manufacturers, and handset ages (lapsed time since handset manufacture).
- The test handsets are not to be handled by the Stage Z technology vendor, and the Test Bed Administrator-Executor will be responsible for the acquisition of the test handsets and the installation of any required test application provided by the location technology vendor.
CONTACT INFORMATION
All inquiries should be directed to the contact person listed below:
Mr. Oskar S. Magnusson
Email: omagnusson@911locationtestbed.org
Telephone: 202.736.2987
9-1-1 Location Technologies Test Bed, LLC
1400 16th Street NW, Suite 600
Washington DC 20036
Test Bed LLC – background:
In 2015, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules that require the nationwide wireless providers to establish an independently administered and transparent indoor test bed to test and verify that location technologies are capable of meeting the Commission’s new location accuracy requirements for wireless calls to 9-1-1 emergency services. (See paragraphs 121 to 132 of the FCC’s Order). In accordance with the FCC’s Order, the test bed must also be available to vendors of new or emerging location technologies that can demonstrate how those technologies might enable wireless providers to meet the new enhanced location accuracy requirements through improved horizontal location technologies or providing accurate vertical information (e.g., z axis).
At the direction of its member companies, CTIA® established the 9-1-1 Location Technologies Test Bed, LLC (“Test Bed LLC”) as an independent company to administer and operate the indoor Test Bed consistent with the FCC’s rules. The Test Bed LLC selected the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (“ATIS”) as the Test Bed program manager. The Test Bed LLC selected a vendor to administer and execute the Test Bed. The Test Bed LLC and Test Bed are modeled on the FCC’s CSRIC III and IV methodologies and recommendations and is established consistent with the Commission’s Order.
Test Bed LLC has also directed the Program Manager and Administrator/Executor to implement the Test Bed consistent with the recommendations of ATIS’ Emergency Services Interconnection Forum (“ESIF”) Emergency Services & Methodologies (“ESM”) Subcommittee which has and continues to develop requisite test plans through a collaborative multi-stakeholder process.
Wireless providers and vendors of indoor location technologies are encouraged to participate in the Test Bed by periodically visiting this website for important announcements, or by contacting the contact person below to obtain information regarding upcoming events.