Government Emergency Telecommunications Service
Encyclopedia
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
-directed emergency phone service provided by a division of the Department of Homeland Security. GETS uses enhancements based on existing commercial technology.
Purpose
GETS supports federal, state, local, and tribal government, industry, and non-governmental organizationNon-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
(NGO) personnel during crises or emergencies by providing emergency access and priority processing for local and long distance calls on the public switched telephone network
Public switched telephone network
The public switched telephone network is the network of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks. It consists of telephone lines, fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables, all inter-connected by...
. GETS is intended to be used in an emergency or crisis situation when the public switched telephone network
Public switched telephone network
The public switched telephone network is the network of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks. It consists of telephone lines, fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables, all inter-connected by...
is congested and the probability of completing a call over normal or other alternate telecommunication means is reduced.
GETS is necessary because reliance on telecommunications has been accompanied by an increased vulnerability to network congestion
Network congestion
In data networking and queueing theory, network congestion occurs when a link or node is carrying so much data that its quality of service deteriorates. Typical effects include queueing delay, packet loss or the blocking of new connections...
and system failures. Although backup systems are in place, disruptions in service can still occur. Natural disaster
Natural disaster
A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard . It leads to financial, environmental or human losses...
s, power outages, fiber cable cuts, and software problems can cripple the telephone services of entire regions. Additionally, congestion in the public switched telephone network
Public switched telephone network
The public switched telephone network is the network of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks. It consists of telephone lines, fiber optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables, all inter-connected by...
, such as the well-documented "Mother's Day
Mother's Day
Mother's Day is a celebration honoring mothers and celebrating motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, yet most commonly in March, April, or May...
phenomenon," in which Mother's Day
Mother's Day
Mother's Day is a celebration honoring mothers and celebrating motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, yet most commonly in March, April, or May...
generally has the highest blocking of long-distance telephone calls of any single day of the year, can prevent access to circuits. However, during times of emergency, crisis, or war, government personnel and emergency workers need to know that their calls will go through.
For cellular telephone users, a related capability is offered by the Nationwide Wireless Priority Service
Nationwide Wireless Priority Service
The Nationwide Wireless Priority Service is a system in the United States that allows high-priority emergency telephone calls to avoid congestion on wireless telephone networks. This complements the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service , which allows such calls to avoid congestion on...
(WPS). WPS users have the ability to queue at the top for the next available communications channel to their registered base station in order to place their call by dialing , greatly enhancing their ability to complete wireless calls during times of congestion. WPS is available only to designated leadership at all government levels, national security, emergency responders, and private sector critical infrastructure personnel, as approved by the NCS and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Rules and Requirements.
GETS uses these major types of networks:
- The local networks provided by local exchange carrierLocal exchange carrierLocal Exchange Carrier is a regulatory term in telecommunications for the local telephone company.In the United States, wireline telephone companies are divided into two large categories: long distance and local...
s and wirelessWirelessWireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
providers, such as cellularMobile phoneA mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
carriers and personal communications servicePersonal Communications ServiceAt the most basic level Personal Communications Service or PCS describes a set of wireless communications capabilities that allows some combination of terminal mobility, personal mobility, and service profile management...
s (PCS) - The major long distance networks provided by interexchange carrierInterexchange carrierAn Interexchange Carrier is a U.S. legal and regulatory term for a telecommunications company, commonly called a long-distance telephone company, such as MCI , Sprint and the former AT&T in the United States...
s such as AT&TAT&TAT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, Verizon, and Sprint, including their international services - Government-leased networks, including the Federal Technology Service and the Defense Switched NetworkDefense Switched NetworkThe Defense Switched Network is a primary information transfer network for the Defense Information Systems Network . The DSN provides the worldwide non-secure voice, secure voice, data, facsimile, and video teleconferencing services for DOD Command and Control elements, their supporting...
In accordance with Section 1(g)5 of Executive Order 12472, the NCS also performs research and development to further enhance the GETS and WPS services through the use of new packet-based technologies (such as IP, or Internet Protocol). This work is done in the NCS' eXperimental Testbed Environment, or XTE as it is known. The multi-vendor NCS XTE has performed several successful interoperability tests with other labs and research groups to validate these new approaches in today's Next Generation Networks (NGNs). Interoperability between NGNs and legacy telephone systems will continue to be an area of extreme interest and more elaborate studies for the NCS and their Committee of Principals throughout the transition from these legacy systems.
Accessibilty
GETS is accessed through a dialing plan and Personal Identification NumberPersonal identification number
A personal identification number is a secret numeric password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system. Typically, the user is required to provide a non-confidential user identifier or token and a confidential PIN to gain access to the system...
(PIN) card verification system. Using common telephone equipment, the user dials a universal access number: 1-710-NCS-GETS (627-4387). A prompt directs the entry of the user's assigned twelve-digit PIN
ISO 9564
ISO 9564 is an international standard for personal identification number management and security in retail banking.The PIN is used to verify the identity of a customer within an electronic funds transfer system, and to authorise the transfer of funds, so it is important to protect it against...
and the destination telephone number. Once the user is authenticated as a valid, his or her call receives special treatment. When dealing with GETS User Assistance, users may need to provide a registered password
Password
A password is a secret word or string of characters that is used for authentication, to prove identity or gain access to a resource . The password should be kept secret from those not allowed access....
of 4 to 9 alphanumeric characters for those cards issued to an individual rather than through stockpile.