[EAS] The coming evolution of CAP-EAS

[Ed Czarnecki]

Let's be careful of definitions here.  IPAWS is one CAP dissemination system
that, to my knowledge, focuses on public scope warning messages.  Other CAP
systems out there are currently capable of disseminating messions with a
narrower scope (restricted or private), or non-EAS messaging.  Comlabs EMnet
and our own DASEOC (with Custom Messaging) are just two such CAP
origination/dissemination systems.  I mention these two because they follow
extremely different architectures.

So, CAP can provide non-emergency EAS information, emergency non-EAS
information, and EAS activations.   And not just to stations - to other
EOCs, PSAPS, etc. etc...  

FEMA's IPAWS is focused on public scope warning activations (EAS, CMAS, and
likely social media and other platforms soon).  This is a solid mission in
and of itself (and it will be one heck of a mission when they start
disseminating some 14,000 NWS CAP alerts per month).  

By contrast, some other (state and local) systems can handle a broader scope
of CAP (and non-CAP) communications.  Some do not - and likewise just focus
on EAS.  The important part is for these various levels of systems to figure
out how to best interoperate with eachother.  IPAWS has a broad national
mission, while other CAP systems can fulfill more tailored missions at the
state and local level. 

Also, the idea of using URLs to pull down additional information is not
really new, whether that means something as fundamental as the audio mp3
file for an EAS alert, or any accompanying graphics, documents, etc. that an
EM may wish to reference.  I had fielded an early version of this kind of
system back in 2004.

Finally, someone noted that classic EAS as we know does not and cannot
support URL transmission to the public.  True enough.  However, our group
has worked on a capability called Textual Data Exchange (TDX) that allows
additional information to be inserted into the EAS message in addition to
the classic EAS payload.  So, while the full text of an XML CAP message may
not be feasible over conventional FSK based EAS, it is very possible to
insert additional text info into a conventional EAS alert, and that could
well include a URL or some critical short text information from the XML CAP
message.  This would provide a measure of synchronizing the content of a CAP
message and a parallel FSK EAS message.

Edward Czarnecki, Ph.D.
  Senior Director - Strategy, Development & Regulatory Affairs
100 Housel Ave. | Lyndonville | NY | 14098
www.monroe-electronics.com
www.digitalalertsystems.com

-----Original Message-----
From: eas-bounces at radiolists.net [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On
Behalf Of Adrienne Abbott
Cc: RDFNBA at aol.com

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Gary--
Yes, this has been a very informative discussion with lots of
revelations--not the least of which is your comment: "The issue I see is
that there is no accepted way for EM to get IPAWS CAP non-EAS messages to
broadcasters.  The only IPAWS CAP messages that appear on the EAS Atom Feed
are those fully coded for EAS and are thus meant for immediate broadcast.
How do we provide EMs with a way to send us non-EAS maps, etc. when our
current EAS/CAP units only pull down EAS-coded messages?"

Back up the truck! I thought CAP technology was able to provide stations
with non-emergency EAS information as well as EAS activations. This is going
to be a problem, especially for things like Silver Alerts and "Almost AMBER"
cases. This inability is going to make it more difficult for those of us
still trying to convince emergency managers in our states to purchase CAP
technology. Do all CAP systems have this shortcoming? This was one of the
major selling points for CAP and now we find it doesn't really work this
way. How do we resolve this situation?

Adrienne Abbott
Nevada EAS Chair