Internet DRAFT - draft-ietf-ecrit-rough-loc

draft-ietf-ecrit-rough-loc






Internet Engineering Task Force                                R. Barnes
Internet-Draft                                               M. Lepinski
Intended status: Standards Track                        BBN Technologies
Expires: January 17, 2013                                  July 16, 2012


       Using Imprecise Location for Emergency Context Resolution
                   draft-ietf-ecrit-rough-loc-05.txt

Abstract

   Emergency calling works best when precise location is available for
   emergency call routing.  However, there are situations in which a
   location provider is unable or unwilling to provide precise location,
   yet still wishes to enable subscribers to make emergency calls.  This
   document describes the level of location accuracy that providers must
   provide to enable emergency call routing.  In addition, we describe
   additional rules for networks and endpoints to enable emergency
   calling by endpoints that do not have access to precise location.

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on January 17, 2013.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must



Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013                [Page 1]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.


Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   3.  Location Precision Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   4.  Location Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     4.1.  Filter Region for a Known Location . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     4.2.  Constructing a Location Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
     4.3.  Civic Address Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     4.4.  Privileged LoST Servers  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     4.5.  Maintaining Location Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
     4.6.  Applying Location Filters  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
   5.  Additional Requirements for Networks and Endpoints . . . . . . 14
   6.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   7.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   8.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   9.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
     9.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
     9.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19


























Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013                [Page 2]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


1.  Introduction

   Information about the location of an emergency caller is a critical
   input to the process of emergency call establshment.  Endpoint
   location is used to determine which Public Safety Answering Point
   (PSAP) should be the destination of the call.  (The entire emergency
   calling process is described in detail in [5] and [1].)  This process
   is most likely to work properly when the endpoint is provided with
   the most accurate and precise information available about its
   location.  Using location information with maximal precision and
   accuracy minimizes the chance that a call will be mis-routed.

   When location is provided to the endpoint, the endpoint is able to
   verify that the location is correct (to the extent of the endpoint's
   knowledge of its own location) prior to an emergency call, and is
   able to perform emergency call routing functions on its own,
   providing redundancy for network-provided functions.  Moreover, when
   endpoints have access to location information, they can look up PSAP
   contact information themselves, reducing dependence on other call-
   routing elements in the network, and increasing the overall
   resilience of the system.

   However, there may be situations in which it is not feasible for
   endpoints to be provided with maximally precise and accurate
   location.  These cases may arise when computing precise location is
   an expensive or time-consuming operation (e.g., in the case of
   wireless triangulation), and location is needed quickly, as is often
   the case in emergency situations.  Or they may arise because the
   policy of a location provider does not allow precise location to be
   provided to the endpoint.  While it is undesirable to use imprecise
   location for emergency call routing, the possibility that precise
   location may not be available to the calling device must be
   accomodated in order to make emergency calling possible in the
   largest possible set of circumstances.

   To put it another way, a need for emergency calling with imprecise
   location can arise in two ways.  Either the location of the endpoint
   is not known to the location provider with a high degree of
   precision, or the endpoint's precise location is known and the
   location provider chooses to provide location with lower precision.
   In the former case, the techniques described in this document can be
   used to determine whether a given positioning mechanism provides
   sufficient precision to support emergency calling.  In the latter
   case, such techniques can be used to determine how much a location
   value can be "fuzzed" before it becomes unusable for emergency
   services.

   This document is concerned with imprecise location only in the



Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013                [Page 3]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


   context of routing emergency calls, i.e., for determining the correct
   PSAP to receive a given call (e.g., via a LoST query [2]).  Depending
   on the the structure of the local emergency service network, the
   location information provided to the endpoint may also be used to
   route the call to an entity that is authorized to request precise
   location, e.g., an Emergency Services Routing Proxy.  The
   requirements and processes described in this document are the same
   for both cases.  Detailed requirements are discussed in [6]

   Location information may also be used in the emergency calling
   framework to direct the dispatch of emergency responders.  This usage
   is treated separately from call routing for purposes of this
   document, and this document does not place requirements on the
   location provided for dispatch, although it should obviously be as
   precise as possible.  The only provision for dispatch in this
   document is a recommendation that the location provider supply
   endpoints with a URI that can be used by a PSAP or other emergency
   authority to obtain a different location for use in dispatch,
   hopefully more precise than the one used for routing.

   This document describes the use of imprecise location information in
   the emergency call routing system.  Section 3 describes how location
   providers can determine the precision necessary to support emergency
   call routing, and how they can use this information to optimize
   location delivery.  Section 5 describes how emergency calls are
   placed in such an environment, and how non-emergency services can be
   invoked when precise location is not available to the endpoint by
   value.


2.  Terminology

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in [3].

   We consider in this document patterns of interaction as described in
   [5].  The two main parties of interest are endpoints and location
   providers.  Endpoints are hosts connected to the Internet that
   originate emergency calls in the emergency calling architecture,
   while location providers are entities that supply location
   information that is used for emergency calling.  In addition, we will
   discuss how these parties interact with the LoST mapping
   infrastructure [7], and with emergency and non-emergency location-
   based service providers.

   For convenience, we say that location information, either in LoST
   queries or in service boundaries, is provided "in geodetic form" if



Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013                [Page 4]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


   it is provided in the "geodetic-2d" LoST location profile, and "in
   civic form" if it is provided in the "civic" profile.

   The term "precision" is not used in a quantitative sense in this
   document.  In general, the "precision" of a location value is
   determined by the size of its uncertainty region. [8] Higher
   precision values have small uncertainty regions and lower precision
   values have larger uncertainty regions.  The notion of "sufficient
   precision for emergency services is defined in Section 3


3.  Location Precision Requirements

   A location provider wishing to provide location information usable
   for emergency call routing requires a mechanism for determining when
   a description of location (e.g., a polygon) is precise enough to be
   used for emergency call routing.  This mechanism might be used to
   decide when to terminate a positioning process that converges over
   time, or to choose a polygon larger than the known location of the
   endpoint (in order to obscure the known location of the endpoint),
   while preserving the utility of the location for emergency call
   routing.

   There are three basic requirements for a location to be usable for
   emergency call routing:

   1.  The location SHOULD be sufficiently precise that a LoST request
       with the location and any emergency service URN will return a
       unique URI mapping value.  This may not be possible in all cases,
       e.g., because of overlapping service boundaries creating areas
       with non-unique mappings, or because of positioning limitations
       that prevent sufficiently precise positioning.

   2.  When the location of the endpoint is known by the provider to
       greater precision than is being provided, the provided location
       MUST return the same mappings from LoST, for all emergency
       service URNs, as the known location.

   3.  When the location of the endpoint is known by the provider to
       greater precision than is being provided, the provided location
       MUST contain the precise location (as a geographic subset).


4.  Location Filtering

   In effect, the first of these rules divide the world into regions
   where each point is served by the same set of emergency services
   (i.e., the LoST mappings are the same).  We call this division of



Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013                [Page 5]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


   space a "location filter" and the consituent regions of uniformity
   "filter regions".  The second rule says that the rough location must
   be in the same filter region as the precise location.  (The third
   rule is unrelated to filtering.)

   A location filter is a collection of geographical regions satisfying
   the following criteria:

   1.  For any location value that is a subset of a filter region, a
       LoST request for any service will return a unique mapping result.

   2.  Any two locations within the same filter region receive the same
       LoST results for all services

   Given a location filter, it is easy to determine when a given
   location value is sufficiently precise, or to create a less precise
   version of location that is still precise enough.  Namely, a location
   value is precise enough when if fits within a given filter region,
   and any superset of a location value (e.g., a polygon containing a
   point) can be used as a less precise version of the location value,
   as long as it still fits within the same filter region.

4.1.  Filter Region for a Known Location

   A simple fuzzing algorithm that maintains sufficient precision for
   emergency services is to replace a given location value with the
   filter region that contains it.  Given a known location, a location
   server can compute a filter region using a series of LoST queries.

   With each service-to-URI mapping, a LoST query provides a service
   boundary that represents the set of locations in which that mapping
   is valid.  A consequence of this is that given a set of service
   boundaries for different services, the intersection of those service
   boundaries is the region in which all of the corresponding mappings
   are valid.  If one service boundary corresponds to the area where
   "urn:service:sos.fire" is served by "sip:fire@example.com" and
   another maps "urn:service:sos.police" to "sip:police@example.com",
   then the intersection is the area where both of these mappings are
   valid ("urn:service:sos.fire" maps to "sip:fire@example.com" and
   "urn:service:sos.police" maps to "sip:police@example.com").  Outside
   that area, one or more of the mappings is invalid.  So as was
   suggested above, the intersection of two service boundaries defines a
   set of mappings, and any two locations within that intersection are
   equivalent for the purpose of LoST mapping (i.e., emergency call
   routing).

   Filter regions can be deduced constructed from LoST mappings for a
   sample location by intersecting all the service boundaries for



Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013                [Page 6]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


   services available at that point.  Figure 1 illustrates how the
   filter region containing the point X is the intersection of the
   service boundaries for police and fire services that serve X.

         sos.police           sos.fire          sos.ambulance

      +-------+           +---------------+
      | A     |           |             B |
      |       |           |               |       +-------+
      |     X |           |     X         |       | X     |
      +-------+           +---------------+       |       |
                                                  |     C |
                                                  +-------+

              |                   |                   |
              |                   |                   |
              +-------------------+-------------------+
                                  |
                                  V

                          +-------+-------+
                          | A     |     B |
                          |   +-------+   |
                          |   | X |   |   |
                          +-------+-------+
                              |     C |
                              +-------+

                                  |
                                  |
                                  V

                              +---+
                              | X |
                              +---+
                       Resulting filter region
                 (police=>A, fire=>B, ambulance=>C)

         Figure 1: Generating a Filter Region from a Sample Point

   In pseudocode form, algorithm for constructing a filter region from a
   point is as follows:









Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013                [Page 7]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


   function filterRegion(X):
   Set REGION = the world
   For each service URN S in the urn:service:sos namespace
       Perform a LoST <findService> query for Y and S
       If LoST returned an error
           Continue
       Set SB = <serviceBoundary> from LoST <findServiceResponse>
       If SB is not provided, throw an error
       Else set REGION = intersection( REGION, SB )
   Return REGION


   It is important that the filter take into account all emergency
   services available in over the coverage area of the LIS.  (That is,
   the services listed in the LoST serviceList elements.)  The feature
   is necessary in order to ensure that calls to all available emergency
   services can be routed correctly using rough location values provided
   by the filter.

   While in principle, a location server could execute this algorithm to
   compute a fresh filter region on each query, it is much more
   efficient to use the offline algorithm for computing an entire
   location filter, described in the next section.

4.2.  Constructing a Location Filter

   When a location server knows ahead of time that it will be providing
   rough location values, it can pre-compute a location filter that
   contains all the filter regions for locations it's concerned with.
   Once the filter has been computed (as an off-line computation), the
   filter region for a given precise location can be found by searching
   for the pre-computed region that contains the precise location.  When
   precise location is not known, a complete filter can be used to test
   evaluate the utility of an imprecise location by determining the
   degree to which it overlaps with each filter region.

   For example, a simple fuzzing algorithm that maintains sufficient
   precision for emergency services is to replace a given location value
   with the filter region that contains it.  This way, the server can
   compute the filter off-line (as described below), then provision the
   location of each possible device by storing a pointer to the filter
   region that contains the device's location.









Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013                [Page 8]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


                  Service boundaries for individual services

                urn:service:sos.police    urn:service:sos.fire

                     +-------+                +-------+
                     | A     |                | C     |
                     |       +---+            |   +---+---+
                     |       |   |            |   |       |
                     +---+---+   |            +---+       |
                         |     B |                |     D |
                         +-------+                +-------+

                           |                        |
                           |                        |
                           +-----------+------------+
                                       |
                                       V

                               +-------+
                               | A,C   |
                               |   +---+
                               |   | +---+
                               +---+ |A,D| +---+
                                     +---+ |   |
                                       +---+   |
                                       |   B,D |
                                       +-------+

                        Resulting Location Filter Regions

           Figure 2: Generating a Filter from Service Boundaries

   The filter regions in a filter can are constructed by taking
   intersections of service boundaries.  Figure 2 shows a simple
   location filter: Starting with a set of four service boundaries for
   two different services.  The filter that results from taking
   intersections of these boundaries has three regions:

   1.  A region where police calls are directed to A and fire calls are
       directed to C.

   2.  A region where police calls are directed to A and fire calls are
       directed to D.

   3.  A region where police calls are directed to B and fire calls are
       directed to D.

   These regions satisfy the criteria for a location filter because each



Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013                [Page 9]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


   one has a unique set of mappings and those mappings are valid across
   the entire region.  The service regions for B and C do not overlap --
   there is no place where police calls go to B and fire calls to C --
   so there is no (B,C) region.

   More generally, a filter region is the intersection of the service
   boundaries for all services available within the region.  A filter
   can be used to determine whether a location is usable for emergency
   call routing in the following way:

   1.  The location SHOULD be contained in exactly one of the regions in
       the filter.  This guarantees that LoST mappings are unique.

   2.  When the precise location of the endpoint is known, the provided
       location MUST be contained in the same region(s) of the filter as
       the known location.  This guarantees that LoST queries with the
       provided location return the same results as those done with the
       known location.

   3.  When the precise location of the endpoint is known, the provided
       location MUST contain the precise location (as a geographic
       subset).

   Practically speaking, a location filter is built up by computing
   filter regions for sample points, using the algorithm described
   above.  In the example of Figure 2, one would need to sample three
   points: One in the (A,C) region, one in the (A,D) region and one in
   the (B,D) region.  The overall algorithm thus samples random points
   until the computed filter regions cover the desired area.  (For
   simplicity, we assume that the entity performing filtering will only
   be using the filter to test locations contained within a particular
   geographic "coverage area".  In principle, this coverage area could
   be the entire world, but assuming a more limited coverage area allows
   for a filter to be built more quickly)


   function filter(LS_AREA):
   Set FILTER = the empty set
   Set COVERAGE = the empty set
   Set ERR_COUNT = 0
   While COVERAGE < LS_AREA && ERR_COUNT < 100
       Choose a random uncovered point X in LS_AREA
       Compute R = filterRegion(X)
       If R != the empty set
           Add R to FILTER
           Set COVERAGE = union(COVERAGE, R)
       Else
           ERR_COUNT += 1



Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013               [Page 10]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


   Return FILTER


   If the server also stores the lists of URN-URI mappings for each
   region, then the filter can also be used as a cache for LoST
   mappings; the LoST mappings for a location are the mappings bound to
   the region(s) containing it.

   If the LoST servers have been provisioned properly then this
   algorithm will terminate successfully.  If LoST mappings do not cover
   a point X, then the filterRegion(X) will return the empty set, and
   the algorithm will give up after 100 such queries.  This limit on
   queries introduces some risk that a small covered area will be left
   out of the filter and marked as uncovered; if this is a concern, then
   the query limit can be increased, or the algorithm can be explicitly
   directed to sample certain specific points.

   Of course, if the location server operator has information about
   service boundaries through some channel other than LoST, then the
   LoST queries above can be replaced by queries to a local store of
   mapping information.  The choice of random points can also be guided
   to ensure that all mapped areas are covered even if there are some
   uncovered areas.  The location server can also cache service
   boundaries acquired during the algorithm to avoid unnecessary LoST
   queries.

4.3.  Civic Address Considerations

   This algorithm actually results in two filters -- one for geodetic
   service boundaries and one for civic service boundaries -- since
   civic and geodetic boundaries cannot be directly compared or
   intersected.  It is RECOMMENDED that location servers always compute
   a geodetic filter for use with emergency services, since the notion
   of civic service boundaries have some inherent ambiguity.

   Indeed, the notion of intersection of civic service boundaries has
   some dependence on the jurisdiction within which the service
   boundaries are defined.  Civic service boundaries are comprised of a
   set of <civicAddress> elements, each defining a set of civic
   addresses that are within the boundary, namely those that match the
   civic elements provided.

   When computing the intersection of two civic service boundaries, any
   <civicAddress> elements that are shared between the two service
   boundaries MUST be included in the resulting intersection.  When two
   <civicAddress> elements in the service boundaries being compared are
   different from each other, then their intersection must be computed
   according to local addressing standards.



Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013               [Page 11]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


   Note that the resulting filter regions SHOULD still cover the
   location server's coverage area, i.e., there should be a filter
   region that contains every civic address within the coverage area.
   In particular, the server SHOULD NOT use a specific address to
   represent a filter region: Such an address would not include many
   points in the service region (i.e., it would not meet the third rules
   from the lists of rules above).  If the server creates a PIDF-LO
   document describing a civic address that does not contain the precise
   location of the device, then it MUST set the 'method' element of the
   PIDF-LO it returns to value 'area-representative' registered in
   Section 8.

   If the above procedures are not workable for a given scenario, then
   the server MAY fall back to geocoding of service boundaries, in which
   case the above procedures for geodetic location can be used.

   Geocoding may also be necessary in cases where the location of the
   target is known as a civic address with limited granularity, with
   which service boundaries do not align.  For instance, the target's
   location may be known to the level of a postal code, but postal code
   regions may span multiple PSAP service areas or filter regions.  In
   such cases, the server MAY geocode the target's location to obtain a
   rough geodetic position, which can be dealt with as discussed in
   Section 4.6 below.

4.4.  Privileged LoST Servers

   In certain scenarios, it may be possible that some LoST servers are
   authorized to access more precise location information than networks
   are willing to reveal to endpoints.  For example, a network operator
   might allow a LoST server operated by a national authority to access
   an endpoint's precise location, even if it does not allow the
   endpoint access to this information.

   In these situations, the precision required for emergency services
   routing is different than in the base case considered above.  Rather
   than needing location precise enough to identify a given PSAP, the
   location value provided to the endpoint only needs to be precise
   enough to route the LoST request through the mapping infrastructure
   to a LoST server that is authorized to access the endpoint's precise
   location.  Once the request reaches that server, the server can
   request more precise location information and use that information to
   route the request further.

   Indeed, such privileged LoST server could even be operated by the
   network itself.  In this case, if an endpoint complies with
   requirement ED-52 in [1], it will send its LoST request directly to
   the network-provided LoST server, which can look up the client's



Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013               [Page 12]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


   location and return mappings.  However, it is possible that clients
   will use an alternative LoST resolver, so it is still beneficial to
   provide a rough location that can route the request to a nearby
   privileged LoST server.

   In cases where a network allows one or more privileged LoST servers
   to access precise location information, the network MAY designate a
   location that is precise enough to reach one of these LoST servers as
   precise enough for emergency call routing.

   This document does not specify how these privileged LoST servers
   could obtain more precise location information from network
   operators.  One possible solution is to extend LoST to carry a
   location reference in addition to a location by value.

4.5.  Maintaining Location Filters

   As the LoST mappings that underlie the filter change, the filter will
   need to be updated.  The entity maintaining the filter MUST obtain a
   new mapping for a region when an existing mapping expires.  The
   service boundary from the new mapping is compared to the service
   boundary from the old mapping: If they are the same, then the filter
   need not be updated.  If they differ, then regions in the filter that
   intersect either the old service boundary or the new service boundary
   will need to be recomputed.  Note that since this operation only
   requires the server to determine if two service boundaries are
   identical, the server need only store a hash of the old boundary to
   which it can compare a hash of the new boundary.

4.6.  Applying Location Filters

   After constructing a location filter, a location server can use it to
   optimize how it delivers location.  How this is done depends on
   whether the location server is trying to reduce the precision of a
   known precise location, or trying to determine whether an imprecise
   position is good enough for emergency services.

   When the location provider knows the precise location of the caller,
   a location filter can also be used as a "location cache".  That is,
   the location provider can simply look up which of the filter regions
   contains the caller's precise location and return that region as the
   caller's location, or some subset that contains the precise location.

   This caching strategy allows an additional optimization in some
   cases: If the location server knows that the caller's precise
   location will be within the same region for a period of time, it can
   instruct the client not to re-query in that time.  For instance, if
   the server is delivering location over HELD, then it can use the HTTP



Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013               [Page 13]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


   cache-control headers (e.g., Expires).  However, the location server
   MUST NOT instruct the client to wait for longer than the current
   filter is valid; the expiry time of the location MUST be before the
   earliest expiry of a LoST mapping used in the filter.

   When the location server starts with imprecise location, there are
   different ways to apply the filter, depending on the positioning
   technique being used.  For example with a positioning algorithm that
   grows more accurate with time, the filter can tell the server how
   long to run the algorithm -- the algorithm can be terminated when the
   estimated location (that is, an uncertainty region containing the
   device's location) is within one of the regions in the filter.

   A location filter can also be used to test whether a database of
   rough locations for IP addresses (as is commonly used for web
   localization today) contains precise enough values for use with
   emergency services.  To make this determination, each value in the
   database woud be tested to see if it falls mostly or entirely within
   a given filter region.  Note, however, that this test does not
   address concerns about the accuracy of location information, i.e.,
   the probability that the caller is actually contained within the
   specified uncertainty region.

   Note that the requirements for containment in a filter region differ
   between these two use cases.  When precise location is known, the
   rough location that is returned MUST be contained within a single
   filter region; otherwise, there will be an increased risk of mis-
   routing.  When the location server starts with imprecise location, it
   may choose location values that are not entirely within one filter
   region.  The distribution of the imprecise location value among
   filter regions corresponds to the risk that LoST routing will provide
   incorrect information, so the choice of location value should balance
   the risk of incorrect routing against the additional time needed to
   obtain more precise location (which can translate to a delay in call
   setup).  In this case, it may not even be possible for a location
   server to return a location value that is entirely within a single
   filter region.


5.  Additional Requirements for Networks and Endpoints

   When a location provider wishes to deliver endpoints location
   information that is below its maximum available precision while still
   supporting emergency calling, it MUST provide to the endpoint a
   location (by value) that is sufficient for emergency call routing (as
   defined above) and MUST provide a location reference (i.e., a URI)
   that can subsequently be used by authorized parties to obtain more
   precise information about the location of the endpoint.  The endpoint



Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013               [Page 14]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


   then can then use both the location value and the location reference
   to request emergency services and other location-based services
   (LBS).

   This arrangement allows the client to provide rough location (by
   value) to any entity, and to provide precise location (by reference)
   to authorized parties.  An assumption of this model, of course, is
   that emergency authorities are authorized by the location provider to
   receive precise location.  Location providers may also authorize
   other entities to receive precise location information (e.g.,
   commercial services that have agreed to pay for location).
   Authorization policy for location URIs is set by the referenced
   location server; a mechanism for clients to request information about
   this policy is described in [9].

   ED-84:  When an endpoint has access to location both by value and by
      reference, it MUST include both forms of geolocation in the SIP
      INVITE message initiating an emergency call, each in a separate
      Geolocation header.  The endpoint SHOULD include a Geolocation-
      Routing header with the value "yes".

   AN-30:  Networks providing imprecise location MUST also provide
      location by reference.

   AN-31:  Networks providing imprecise location SHOULD provide DHCP-
      based LoST discovery, advertising a LoST server that is authorized
      to dereference location URIs issued by the network's LIS.

   The overall procedure for placing an emergency call is identical to
   that described in [5].  In particular, the endpoint requirements in
   Sections 8 and 9 of [1] still apply to an endpoint that receives
   imprecise location, with the above modification (use of the location
   URI in LoST).

   In addition, an endpoint that receives location both by value and by
   reference from its location provider MUST include both the location
   value and the location reference in the SIP INVITE message that
   initiates an emergency call, as specified in [10].  Note that this
   process crucially relies on the location value having sufficient
   precision for routing emergency calls (see Section 3 for techniques
   to ensure the location value is suitable for emergency call routing).

   When a PSAP receives a SIP INVITE that contains both a location value
   and a location reference, and the value is too imprecise for use in
   dispatch then the PSAP SHOULD dereference the LbyR to obtain more
   precise information.  In turn, the location provided by the location
   provider SHOULD allow access by all PSAPs whose service boundaries
   overlap with the region served by the location provider.  This means



Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013               [Page 15]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


   that either the provider must supply a reference that can be
   dereferenced by any party, or else the provider must establish
   explicit authentication and authorization relationships with all
   PSAPs in its service area.  It is RECOMMENDED that location providers
   establish similar relationships with other PSAPs in adjoining
   jursidictions -- even if their service regions do not overlap with
   the location provider's -- in case such a PSAP needs access to
   precise location information, for example, if it is acting as a
   backup for one of the location provider's normal PSAPs.


6.  Acknowledgements

   This document generalizes the concept of "rough location" that was
   originally discussed in the context of the location hiding problem.
   This concept was put forward by Henning Schulzrinne and Andy Newton,
   among many others, in a long-running ECRIT discussion.  Thanks to
   Hannes Tschofenig and Martin Thomson for detailed reviews of this
   document.


7.  Security Considerations

   The use of imprecise location provides a security trade-off for
   location providers.  When location providers are required to provide
   location in support of emergency services, they have to balance that
   requirement against the risk that location information will be
   disclosed to an unauthorized party.  The use of location
   configuration protocols inherently introduces some risk that an
   entity other than the device will be able to masquerade as the device
   (e.g., another host behind the same NAT or malicious software on the
   host) [11].  In some cases, the location provider may not authorize
   the device itself to access precise location.  At the same time,
   because endpoints can roam between networks, it is operationally
   difficult to have strong client authentication for LCPs.

   Using of rough location to support emergency calling enables a
   location provider to provide low-precision location with low
   assurance (e.g., without client authentication)and high-precision
   location with higher assurance.  Because lower-precision location
   generally has lower value -- to location providers and LBS providers
   as a commercial asset, and to devices as private information -- this
   trade-off allows a location provider to avoid the cost of protecting
   location with high-assurance access controls when this location has
   low value.

   However, in order to support emergency services, location providers
   cannot provide only low-precision location; they also have to provide



Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013               [Page 16]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


   PSAPs with access to high-precision location information.  Because
   PSAPs require high-precision location for emergency response, a
   location provider that normally provides imprecise location to
   clients MUST also provide them a location URI that a PSAP can use to
   obtain high-precision location.  This constraint means that the
   provided URI MUST have either no access control at all or a policy
   that allows access by appropriate PSAPs and other emergency response
   systems, e.g., ESRPs.  That is, if such a location URI is access
   controlled, then the location provider MUST be able to authenticate
   requests from PSAPs.

   The use of location by reference introduces some risk that the
   reference will be used by an attacker to gain unauthorized access to
   the device's location.  These risks are not specific to emergency
   service, however; general risks and mitigations for location by
   reference are discussed in [12]

   As described in Section 4 above, the location provider choosing to
   provide a less precise location than a known location has a
   significant amount of choice in deciding which location to provide:
   Any location that contains the known location and is in the same
   filter region will do.  When the provider is reducing precision for
   privacy purposes, there is a some privacy benefit to choosing a
   random location meeting these criteria.  If a watcher is interested
   in whether or not the endpoint is moving, an imprecise location may
   still reveal that fact if it is constant when the endpoint is at
   rest.  If the provided location is randomized each time it is
   provided, then the watcher is unable to obtain even this level of
   information.  An algorithm for securely fuzzing a device's location
   can be found in [13]; for emergency services, the additional
   constraint must be added that the fuzzed location must remain in the
   same filter region as the original.


8.  IANA Considerations

   This document requests that IANA register a new PIDF-LO 'method'
   token in the registry defined by RFC 4119 [4]

   area-representative:  Location chosen as a representative of a region
      in which the device is located; may not be the device's location.


9.  References







Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013               [Page 17]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


9.1.  Normative References

   [1]   Rosen, B. and J. Polk, "Best Current Practice for
         Communications Services in support of Emergency Calling",
         draft-ietf-ecrit-phonebcp-20 (work in progress),
         September 2011.

   [2]   Hardie, T., Newton, A., Schulzrinne, H., and H. Tschofenig,
         "LoST: A Location-to-Service Translation Protocol", RFC 5222,
         August 2008.

   [3]   Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
         Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [4]   Peterson, J., "A Presence-based GEOPRIV Location Object
         Format", RFC 4119, December 2005.

9.2.  Informative References

   [5]   Rosen, B., Schulzrinne, H., Polk, J., and A. Newton, "Framework
         for Emergency Calling Using Internet Multimedia", RFC 6443,
         December 2011.

   [6]   Schulzrinne, H., Liess, L., Tschofenig, H., Stark, B., and A.
         Kuett, "Location Hiding: Problem Statement and Requirements",
         RFC 6444, January 2012.

   [7]   Schulzrinne, H., "Location-to-URL Mapping Architecture and
         Framework", RFC 5582, September 2009.

   [8]   Thomson, M. and J. Winterbottom, "Representation of Uncertainty
         and Confidence in PIDF-LO",
         draft-thomson-geopriv-uncertainty-07 (work in progress),
         March 2012.

   [9]   Barnes, R., Thomson, M., Winterbottom, J., and H. Tschofenig,
         "Location Configuration Extensions for Policy Management",
         draft-barnes-geopriv-policy-uri-02 (work in progress),
         November 2010.

   [10]  Polk, J., Rosen, B., and J. Peterson, "Location Conveyance for
         the Session Initiation Protocol", RFC 6442, December 2011.

   [11]  Tschofenig, H. and H. Schulzrinne, "GEOPRIV Layer 7 Location
         Configuration Protocol: Problem Statement and Requirements",
         RFC 5687, March 2010.

   [12]  Marshall, R., "Requirements for a Location-by-Reference



Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013               [Page 18]

Internet-Draft          ECRIT with Rough Location              July 2012


         Mechanism", RFC 5808, May 2010.

   [13]  Schulzrinne, H., Tschofenig, H., Cuellar, J., Polk, J., Morris,
         J., and M. Thomson, "Geolocation Policy: A Document Format for
         Expressing Privacy Preferences for Location Information",
         draft-ietf-geopriv-policy-26 (work in progress), June 2012.

   [14]  Thomson, M. and K. Wolf, "Describing Boundaries for Civic
         Addresses", draft-thomson-ecrit-civic-boundary-02 (work in
         progress), January 2011.


Authors' Addresses

   Richard Barnes
   BBN Technologies
   9861 Broken Land Pkwy, Suite 400
   Columbia, MD  21046
   USA

   Phone: +1 410 290 6169
   Email: rbarnes@bbn.com


   Matt Lepinski
   BBN Technologies
   10 Moulton St
   Cambridge, MA  02138
   USA

   Phone: +1 617 873 5939
   Email: mlepinski@bbn.com



















Barnes & Lepinski       Expires January 17, 2013               [Page 19]