CEN eCall standardisation work makes good early progress

Creation date: 05 March 2009

Important progress has been observed in 2008 in the CEN standardisation work for eCall service.
 
At the beginning of the year the standardisation of the MSD content has been finalised: after the CEN ballot the eCall MSD has been approved as a CEN Technical Specification (CEN 15722), soon to be balloted as a full European standard.

Working Group CEN TC 278 WG 15 has also made progress in the standardisation of the "Pan-European eCall Operational Requirements". The standard has been agreed and sent for comments in autumn 2008. It is expected to have the eCall Operational Requirements approved as Technical Specifications by mid of 2009 and the European standards by the end of 2009.

Always under CEN TC 278 WG 15, new Working Items have been opened and started drafting new standards. The “Third Party Services supporting eCall, TPS-eCall", which is looking at the standardisation needs for those private service providers offering eCall solutions. In those cases, the vehicle will dial a private number to contact a call centre, which will filter the call and transmit the MSD and the call to the Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) in case of emergency. The editing group is looking into the necessary operational requirements, and in particular into the interfaces between the eCall Service Providers and the PSAPs.

A second Working Item is the "High Level Application Protocols", for which the EU Commission intends to fund a project team to accelerate the work.

Last but not least, the Working "Quality of Service Requirements for eCall" has been proposed and accepted. This item has been submitted to TC278 Secretariat and approved at Plenary in September 2008.

Each single committee covers crucial aspects of eCall and all together, the Working Groups give a concrete push forward to the implementation of the in-vehicle emergency call by compiling knowledge and exchanging experience. Should you, readers, be interested in joining one of them please do not hesitate to contact eSafety Support : info@esafetysupport.org