6.1 Introduction to CMAS

22.2683GPPPublic Warning System (PWS) requirementsRelease 18TS

The Warning Alert and Response Network (WARN) Act was passed by the United States Congress in September 2006 and was signed into law on October 13, 2006, known then as CMAS. CMAS was later renamed as Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA).

The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) released several Report and Order rulings for the Commercial Mobile Alert System. [1], [2], [3], [8] and [10].

As a result of these legislative and regulatory actions the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) agreed to develop ATIS and TIA standards to support the deployment of CMAS. This standard is listed in Clause 2.

The scope of these specifications includes the support of Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) alert message via the GSM/UMTS Cell Broadcast functionality and warning message delivery via E-UTRAN. These specifications covers the mapping of CMAS messages onto the 3GPP-defined Cell Broadcast functionality and warning message delivery functionality, as well as the CMAS application layer functionality from the reception of the CMAS alert message from the Warning Notification Provider to the point of reception by the CMAS capable mobile device.

The CMAS functionality does not require modifications to the 3GPP-defined cell broadcast functionality.

The following functional reference model is based on the diagram from Section III.B.10 of the FCC First Report and Order for the Commercial Mobile Alert System, FCC 08-99 [1]:

Local EOC

A

C

State EOC

Federal

Agencies

Alert Aggregator

Alert Gateway

PLMN Gateway

PLMN Infrastructure

Mobile Device

Proposed Government Administered

B

D

E

Figure 6.1-1: CMAS Reference Architecture