IETF #79, 7 12 Dec, 2010, Beijing, China

PWS
Public Warning System
Hannu Hietalahti
Kevin Holley
Stephen Hayes
Brian Daly

3GPP 2010
2009 MobilePWS
3GPP Congress, Barcelona, 19th February 2009
Worldpresentation 1
 Contents
Cell Broadcast Service Overview
Current status of PWS
PWS Service requirements
Cell Broadcast Service
PWS Technical overview
Use case
Details
Extensibility
Message Identifiers
Regional Standards
CMAS architecture and call flow example
Summary
3GPP 2010
2009 MobilePWS
3GPP Congress, Barcelona, 19th February 2009
Worldpresentation 2
 Current status of Public Warning System

PWS comprises public alert services in 3GPP

Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System ETWS (Rel-8)
Commercial Mobile Alert System CMAS (Rel-9)
EU-Alert requirements are being studied (Rel-11)
Global service
Warning categories must be defined globally
Detection of the warning categories must be global for roaming users
Applicable in 3GPP systems over GSM, UTRAN and LTE radio
Specification references
Stage 1 in 3GPP TS 22.268 (Requirements)
Stage 2 in 3GPP TS 23.041 (CBS, Message Identifier coding)
Stage 3 in 3GPP TS 25.304, 25.331, 36.304, 36.331, 45.002, 44.018
(Radio interface)

3GPP 2010
2009 MobilePWS
3GPP Congress, Barcelona, 19th February 2009
Worldpresentation 3
 Service requirements
(from 3GPP TS 22.268)

Broadcast Warning Notifications to multiple users simultaneously

Geographical notification area is specified by the Warning Notification Provider
Roaming subscribers must be supported
Concurrent broadcast of multiple Warning Notifications
with no acknowledgement required
PWS capable terminals in idle mode shall be able to receive broadcast warnings
User may opt-out from certain alert categories
Warning Notifications languages are determined by regulatory requirements
Warning Notifications are processed by PWS on a first in, first out basis, subject to
regulatory requirements
Reception and presentation of Warning Notifications to the user shall not pre-
empt an active voice or data session.
Current implementation requirement is up to 90 7-bit characters
Typical contents of the warning:
Event Description
Area Affected
Recommended Action
Expiration Time (with time zone)
Sending Agency
3GPP 2010
2009 MobilePWS
3GPP Congress, Barcelona, 19th February 2009
Worldpresentation 4
 Cell Broadcast Service (CBS)

CBS is defined in 3GPP TS23.041

CBS can cover different services that are independent of each other
PWS uses CBS in GSM and UTRAN
In LTE the messages are encoded according to CBS rules, but distribution at the radio
interface is LTE specific
Unacknowledged broadcast to all CBS-capable mobiles within a particular region
defined geographical areas known as cell broadcast areas
may comprise of one or more cells, up to the entire network
CBS messages may originate from a number of Cell Broadcast Entities (CBEs)
through an operators Cell Broadcast centre (CBC)
CBS messages are sent from the CBC to the cells, in accordance with the CBS's coverage
requirements
Maximum capacity ranges from GSM 93 7-bit characters to LTE 316 characters
Message segmentation is possible (15 64 segments)
A CBS message is identified by a message identifier and serial number
Can be used by the mobile to screen which messages are received
Also to identify and ignore re broadcasts of already received messages
3GPP manages the message identifiers
CBS messages may be broadcast cyclically by the cell at a frequency and for a
duration agreed between the operator and the information provider
3GPP 2010
2009 MobilePWS
3GPP Congress, Barcelona, 19th February 2009
Worldpresentation 5
 Technical overview, use case
(Figure from 3GPP TS 22.268)

Key points:
Interface provided to Government authority to submit alert messages
Government authority is responsible for interface to and authentication of alert originators
Security against fake alarms, operator must authenticate alert issuer at interface C
Support for all terminals in the affected geographical area, including roaming users and terminals
sourced from other countries
Distribution mechanisms at radio interface differ between GSM, UTRAN, LTE but are all based on
broadcast mechanisms
3GPP 2010
2009 MobilePWS
3GPP Congress, Barcelona, 19th February 2009
Worldpresentation 6
 Technical overview, details

Radio procedures for broadcasting in 3GPP radio access technologies

Common paging or SysInfo change or CBS
Distribution area
Geographical selectivity is based on network topology
Alert codes are globally defined
Detection of alert categories is not restricted to physical distribution channel
at radio interface but part of PWS service
Paging to wake up the terminal to listen to broadcast information
Mutual authentication to avoid MiM and playback attacks
Data coding scheme is critical for compatibility and mobility
Message Identifier corresponds with alert category
Message Identifiers to be received can be pre-configured on USIM or by the user
Language code
Default 7-bit coding with several language specific extensions or 16-bit UCS2
coding for other languages
Sequencing to distinguish between different messages
3GPP 2010
2009 MobilePWS
3GPP Congress, Barcelona, 19th February 2009
Worldpresentation 7
 PWS extensibility

Message identifier ranges are assigned for different broadcast use cases
MI 0 999 are defined by GSMA for Flash messages, weather reports, traffic reports, date &
time, etc
http://gsmworld.com/documents/SE15330.pdf
MI 1000+ are defined by 3GPP for specific services, among them PWS
MI values 1100 18FF are reserved for PWS use
More than 2000 code points not assigned yet
ME application configures the reception of the MIs related with the service
Reception of any MI can be configured on USIM by the HPLMN operator
Legacy terminal processing of unforeseen data is normatively specified and
thus predictable
alert category, character set, broken sequence, etc.
All alert categories shall be globally unique
National or regional exceptions cannot change the meaning of alert code
Japanese Tsunami alert code cannot be re-used for avalanche warning in Switzerland
CMAS Presidential Level Alert code point can be re-used for EU-Alert 1
Additions to existing codes are possible
National extensions must be defined globally
3GPP 2010
2009 MobilePWS
3GPP Congress, Barcelona, 19th February 2009
Worldpresentation 8
 Message Identifiers (3GPP TS 34.041)
Decimal Hex Meaning

0 999 0000 03E7 Allocated by GSMA (see GSMA PRD SE.15 http://gsmworld.com/documents/SE15330.pdf )

... ...

4352 1100 ETWS CBS Message Identifier for earthquake warning message.

4353 1101 ETWS CBS Message Identifier for tsunami warning message.

4354 1102 ETWS CBS Message Identifier for earthquake and tsunami combined warning message.

4355 1103 ETWS CBS Message Identifier for test message.

Normal UE silently discards this message. Test UE may may display its contents.

4356 1104 ETWS CBS Message Identifier for messages related to other emergency types.

4357 4359 1105 - 1107 ETWS CBS Message Identifier for future extension.

... ...

4360 - 4369 1108 - 1111 Intended for standardization in future versions of this document. These values shall not be transmitted
by networks that are compliant to this version of this document. If a Message Identifier from this
range is in the "search list", the ME shall attempt to receive this CBS message.

4370 1112 CMAS CBS Message Identifier for Presidential Level Alerts. Not settable by MMI.

4371 1113 CMAS CBS Message Identifier for Extreme Alerts with Severity of Extreme, Urgency of Immediate,
and Certainty of Observed. Settable by MMI as per CMAS subscriber opt-out requirements

... ...

4383-4399 111F-112F CMAS CBS Message Identifier for future extension.

4400 - 6399 1130 18FF CBS Message Identifier for future PWS use. These values shall not be transmitted by networks that
are compliant to this version of this document. If a Message Identifier from this range is in the
"search list", the ME shall attempt to receive this CBS message.

6400 40959 1900 9FFF Intended for standardization in future versions of this document . These values shall not be
transmitted by networks that are compliant to this version of this document. If a Message
Identifier from this range is in the "search list", the ME shall attempt to receive this CBS
message.

... ...
3GPP 2010
2009 MobilePWS
3GPP Congress, Barcelona, 19th February 2009
Worldpresentation 9
 Regional Standards
ETWS, CMAS, EU-Alert

ETWS requirements are defined by Japanese requlator, but

not normatively referenced from 3GPP specifications
3GPP TS 22.268 captures the 3GPP system requirements for ETWS
CMAS is defined under FCC CFR 47 Part 10 Rules in the U.S.
CMAS Standards developed by ATIS and TIA:
J-STD-100, J-STD-101, ATIS-0700006, ATIS-0700007, ATIS-0700008,
ATIS-0700010
EU-Alert requirements are specified in ETSI ETS 102 900

3GPP 2010
2009 MobilePWS
3GPP Congress, Barcelona, 19th February 2009
Worldpresentation 10
 CMAS architecture

Access specific broadcast procedures

Public Network E-UTRAN
authority Operator

UTRAN

GERAN

3GPP 2010
2009 MobilePWS
3GPP Congress, Barcelona, 19th February 2009
Worldpresentation 11
11
 CMAS Call Flow Example

CMSP Gateway in the

operator network receives
the CMAS alert from the
government entity
The alert is passed to the
operators cell broadcast
centre (CBC) which
identifies the cell site(s) to
broadcast the alert
The alert is broadcast using
3GPP PWS

3GPP 2010
2009 MobilePWS
3GPP Congress, Barcelona, 19th February 2009
Worldpresentation 12
 Summary

PWS was designed by 3GPP as a global solution for issuing

public warnings over 3GPP mobile systems
PWS is designed to allow extendable set of national and
regional specific alerts while maintaining global uniqueness
PWS is a service for alerting and updating the user of emergency
situations in a timely, secure, and geographically selective
manner
PWS architecture
provides interface towards public authorities who generate and authorize
the warnings
uses common PWS broadcast and message coding capabilities
uses radio specific cell broadcast procedures in GSM, UMTS and LTE
is extendable in future 3GPP enhancements

3GPP 2010
2009 MobilePWS
3GPP Congress, Barcelona, 19th February 2009
Worldpresentation 13