I_HeERO Newsletter December 2016

112 eCall prepares to go Live - Technical standards for
eCall
by Bob Williams
Convenor CEN TC278 WG15 eSafety
After many years of preparation and negotiation, eCall – the safety system that, in the event of a crash or
manually triggered emergency alert, puts the occupants of a vehicle automatically and directly in touch
with the emergency services and provides the vehicle coordinates and other relevant information to the
emergency responders (and cannot be used to track vehicles) –, is about to go live. The GSM/UMTS mobile
phone standards deliverables were updated in their ‘Release 8’ and the CEN application level standards
that define the operating requirements (EN 16072), the HighLevel Application Protocols (EN 16062), the
Minimum Set of Data (EN 15722), and the related Conformance Tests (EN 16454) are all in place and updated
to ensure they are in line with the Regulatory Framework put in place by the Council and the European
Parliament. From 31 March 2018, all new-model cars and light vans will be required to be equipped with
112-eCall, and we can look forward to eCall playing an important role in reducing road deaths and reducing
severity of injuries.
But the eCall story does not end here – it is just beginning! Already, ETSI STF’s have recommended how to
migrate eCall to the new packet – switched (4G) networks using IMS – and three CEN Project Teams have
already begun working on this. Building on the recent ETSI work, CEN TC278 PT1506 is developing the
“High Level Application Protocols” for eCall using IMS and the associated conformance tests.
Figure 2: eCall using IMS compared to eCall using GSM/UMTS
I_HeERO Newsletter - December 2016
to be continued...
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