§9.28. Definitions. — Inbound Citations

(a) Terms in this section and § 9.20 have the meanings set forth in §§ 9.3 and 9.28 and as follows:

(1) A point at which network monitoring data for a 911 service area is collected and routed to a network operations center (NOC) or other location for monitoring and analyzing network status and performance.

(2) An attestation by a certifying official, under penalty of perjury, that a covered 911 service provider:

(i) Has satisfied the obligations of paragraph (c) of this section and § 9.20(a);

(ii) Has adequate internal controls to bring material information regarding network architecture, operations, and maintenance to the certifying official's attention; and

(iii) Has made the certifying official aware of all material information reasonably necessary to complete the certification.

(3) A corporate officer of a covered 911 service provider with supervisory and budgetary authority over network operations in all relevant service areas.

(i) Any entity that provides covered 911 services, which are 911, E911, or NG911 services for which a failure would impede the real-time routing, delivery, or transfer of 911 traffic. Covered 911 services include:

(A) The provision of 911, E911, or NG911 capabilities such as call routing, automatic location information (ALI), automatic number identification (ANI), or the functional equivalent of those capabilities, directly to a public safety answering point (PSAP), statewide default answering point, or appropriate local emergency authority as defined in § 9.3.

(B) For purposes of this section, a central office directly serves a PSAP if it hosts a selective router or ALI/ANI database, provides equivalent NG911 capabilities, or is the last service-provider facility through which a 911 trunk or administrative line passes before connecting to a PSAP.

(C) The provision of Next Generation Core Services (NGCS) facilities, including NGCS location facilities or NGCS routing facilities, directly by contract or tariffed service to any 911 Authority, whether via owned and operated facilities or leased or contracted facilities.

(E) The operation of a Location Information Server (LIS) or equivalent IP 911 location database that provides service to two or more originating service providers (OSPs).

(F) The operation of a Legacy Network Gateway (LNG), a legacy selective router gateway (LSRG), or an emergency services gateway (ESGW) used for IP conversion of 911 traffic, that provides service to two or more OSPs.

(J) For purposes of the requirement in § 4.9(h) of this chapter to notify 911 special facilities about outages that potentially affect them, only entities described in paragraphs (a)(4)(i)(A) through (D) of this section are “covered 911 service providers.”

(ii) The term “covered 911 service provider” shall not include any entity that:

(A) Constitutes a PSAP, 911 Authority, or other governmental authority to the extent that it provides 911, E911, or NG911 capabilities; or

(B) Offers the capability to originate 911 calls where another service provider delivers those calls and associated number or location information to the appropriate 911 Authority.

(i) 911 facilities that originate at a selective router and terminate in the central office that serves the PSAP(s) to which the selective router delivers 911 calls, including all equipment in the serving central office necessary for the delivery of 911 calls to the PSAP. Legacy covered 911 circuits also include ALI and ANI facilities that originate at the ALI or ANI database and terminate in the central office that serves the PSAP(s) to which the ALI or ANI databases deliver 911 caller information, including all equipment in the serving central office necessary for the delivery of such information to the PSAP(s). In NG911 transitional architecture, circuits connected to LSRGs, ESGWs, or LPGs are also legacy covered 911 circuits.

(ii) Paths carrying IP communications that:

(A) Originate at an NG911 Delivery Point or equivalent ESInet point of interconnection and terminate at the last routing facility before the NG911 PSAP or the legacy PSAP gateway, including all equipment associated with a covered 911 service necessary for the delivery of 911 traffic to the PSAP, such as any trunks, circuits, or paths to and from NGCS facilities and the ESInet transmission network necessary for routing and caller location information to the PSAP(s), and any intermediate paths in the chains of delivery;

(B) Transport 911 traffic via major IP transport facilities for ultimate delivery at an NG911 Delivery Point or equivalent ESInet point of interconnection, including any intermediate paths in the chain of delivery; or

(C) Transport 911 traffic via IP 911 traffic aggregation facilities for ultimate delivery at an NG911 Delivery Point or equivalent ESInet point of interconnection, including any interconnecting paths between ESInets, and including any intermediate paths in the chain of delivery.

(6) A periodic analysis of the geographic routing of network components to determine whether they are physically diverse. Diversity audits may be performed through manual or automated means, or through a review of paper or electronic records, as long as they reflect whether covered 911 circuits and paths are physically diverse.

(7) Facilities that collect and transmit network monitoring data to a NOC or other location for monitoring and analyzing network status and performance.

(8) Circuits or paths are physically diverse if they provide more than one physical route between end points with no common points where a single failure at that point would cause both circuits or paths to fail. Circuits or paths that share a common segment such as a fiber-optic cable or circuit board are not physically diverse even if they are logically diverse for purposes of transmitting data. IP routers, transport nodes, and node links create physical diversity if these elements are redundant, geographically distributed, load balanced, and capable of automatic failover and rerouting to redundant elements sufficient to reasonably mitigate the risks of single points of failure.

(9) An inventory management process whereby legacy covered 911 circuits are labeled in circuit inventory databases to make it less likely that circuit rearrangements will compromise diversity. A covered 911 service provider may use any system it wishes to tag legacy covered 911 circuits so long as it tracks whether those facilities are physically diverse and identifies changes that would compromise such diversity.

(10) 911 network architecture is geographically distributed if 911 traffic can be delivered through more than one covered 911 facility in different geographic locations in different physical facilities.

(11) 911 network architecture is load balanced if call volume is dynamically distributed among multiple active databases or call processing facilities to accommodate changes in traffic volume.

(12) Dedicated SIP facilities that include voice and text transport meeting or exceeding Optical Carrier 48 (OC48)/2.5 Gbps in capacity that collect and/or transmit IP 911 traffic mixed with non-911 traffic, originated from two or more OSPs and transported over interstate routes, for ultimate transport and delivery to an NG911 Delivery Point or equivalent ESInet point of interconnection. Any 911 traffic originated on the facility provider's network is not considered for purposes of determining whether a provider is serving two or more OSPs.

(13) Facilities that collect and segregate IP 911 traffic from non-911 traffic for two or more OSPs, or transport such 911-only traffic for ultimate delivery to an NG911 Delivery Point or equivalent ESInet point of interconnection. Any 911 traffic originated on the facility provider's network is not considered for purposes of determining whether a provider is serving two or more OSPs.

(14) NG911 IP facilities connected to an ESInet that enable the real-time provision of 911 caller location information to the PSAPs, including but not limited to the Emergency Call Routing Function (ECRF), the Location Validation Function (LVF), and successor technologies.

(15) NG911 IP facilities connected to an ESInet that enable the real-time routing, delivery, or transfer of 911 traffic to PSAPs along with callback information and other associated data, including but not limited to the Emergency Services Routing Proxy (ESRP), the Policy Routing Function (PRF), and successor technologies.

(16) Interstate facilities that transport IP 911 traffic from an ESInet for ultimate delivery to another ESInet, including facilities designated for intermittent, contingent, or backup exchange of IP 911 traffic between ESInets.

(17) Testing of covered 911 services and covered 911 circuits and paths to determine whether an NG911 interoperability solution conforms to a relevant commonly accepted standard.

(18) Testing conducted between two or more NG911 covered 911 service providers in different states that validate the interoperable exchange of information.

(19) The technical and operational capability of NG911 systems, networks, and services to exchange 911 voice, text, data, and multimedia between jurisdictions, PSAPs, and service providers, in real time without the need for proprietary interfaces and regardless of jurisdiction, equipment, device, software, service provider, or other relevant factors.

(b) The rules in this subpart apply to “originating service providers” as defined in § 9.28.