Next generation emergency services in the future

Simple and guaranteed access to emergency services in general and to the local responsible public safety answering points locally responsible for the given location of the caller in particular has a long tradition in conventional telephone systems and is regarded by the public as a matter of course. With the upcoming new technologies also real-time communications and especially voice are migrating to new infrastructures such as Internet and NGN. One of the most important challenges in this migration is providing emergency services over these new infrastructures. In this article, starting from the existing emergency systems and their legal basis, the approaches currently discussed in the international standard bodies are explained. These emerging standards will help to provide the same quality or even enhanced emergency services to the public in future.