The NG9-1-1 Interoperability Oversight Commission (NIOC), the independent oversight body for standards-driven interoperability programs for NG9-1-1, is proud to announce the award of its RFP implementing a Forest Guide to Intrado Life and Safety.
In vetting the Forest Guide RFP responses, NIOC established an all-volunteer subject-matter-expert RFP Review Panel to evaluate sealed-bid proposals, score them, and provide a recommendation to NIOC. A full report on the selection process, including who was involved, is available here. Please note that the report includes no identifying or proprietary information.
“Interest from the 9-1-1 industry for implementing this Forest Guide is very strong. Companies understand that having a nationwide Forest Guide is a much-needed tool in ensuring accurate NG9-1-1 call delivery outside an agency’s traditional boundaries. The bids received were extremely competitive and made the selection process exciting!” said Rick Blackwell, NIOC chair. “Ultimately, the RFP Review Panel unanimously determined that Intrado’s proposal provides the best technical implementation, best managed risk, and provides the best overall value to the 9-1-1 community. After an in-depth appraisal of the Forest Guide RFP Review Panel’s finding, NIOC Commissioners concurred with the Review Panel’s recommendation to make an award to Intrado.”
The Forest Guide’s functionality is described in IETF 5582 and a Forest Guide for NG9-1-1 is specified in NENA’s i3 Standard for NG9-1-1. The Forest Guide is a LoST server which contains mappings of other LoST servers. In NG9-1-1, the Forest Guide will be queried by an Emergency Call Routing Function (ECRF) when the ECRF receives a query for a location for which it has no mappings, such as a location in a distant state; the Forest Guide will in turn provide the ECRF with routing information to route the call. This provides for interoperability between disparate ESInets for location-based routing. For users in the field, the Forest Guide will allow one to safely and securely transfer a call using any location in the world where NG9-1-1 is available, without having to first know any further information about the PSAP serving that location.
The NG9-1-1 Interoperability Oversight Commission (NIOC) is the independent oversight governance body for the NG9-1-1 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), Forest Guide, and other technical-interoperability services necessary for interoperability and security in NG9-1-1. More information is available at ng911ioc.org.