Re: FCC To Require 911 for VoIP

[Michael.Dillon () radianz com]

> To expand: the problem is the VoIP client being able to *furnish* an
> approximation of where it is, to permit the selection of the proper
> Public Safety Access Point (or equivalent).

VoIP clients can't provide such information unless they 
KNOW this information in the first place. The only somewhat
reliable way to know this information is for the hardware
device containing the VoIP client to also contain a 
GPS system or some equivalent (cell triangulation, querying
cell transmitters, triangulate RTT measurements to known IP addresses)
That is a big problem.

> If each end-router supplied that data, through *some* easily queriable
> protocol, such clients could retrieve it, and then decide (in some
> fashion) where to send Emergency Services Request calls (or furnish it
> to their carrier, if they have one, for similar purposes).

And if I am using a laptop communicating with IP over Bluetooth 
to a GPRS cellphone in order to establish an IPv6 tunnel to
my colocated server in Germany, then which router should my
VoIP client query? My home DSL router in London? The router
at the colo in Germany? The GPRS cell transmitter? The Japanese
IP gateway router between the cell network and the Internet?

This is not a simple technical problem. There are human factors
included as well, for instance, should there be a separate
specification for different classes of device so that a device
with a screen greater than 320 x 320 pixels should ask the user
to confirm (or override their address)? A quick knee-jerk fix 
will only create new problems and muddy the waters further if
it is presented as the ultimate solution.

--Michael Dillon