Implementing wireless priority service for CDMA networks

The need to provide personnel who respond to man-made or natural disasters with priority access to the wireless network has long been recognized. There have been a number of proposals for such priority services, including priority access and channel assignment (PACA), radio reservation for priority subscribers (RRPS), emergency call routing (ECR), and wireless access to government emergency telecommunications service (GETS). To date, none of these proposals have been commercially successful due to a variety of technical and political issues. The events of September 11, 200 1, and the subsequently identified communications needs of homeland security have refocused the attention of the U.S. government and the wireless telecommunications industry on specifying an end-to-end solution that provides priority access to radio channels and enhanced call completion for national security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) calls. The government and the wireless industry have recently agreed upon a solution referred to as the wireless priority service full operating capability (WPS FOC). This paper summarizes the capabilities that must be implemented in the code division multiple access (CDMA) network to support the WPS FOC. (C) 2004 Lucent Technologies Inc.