eCall is being deployed in Europe and will be required by law in new cars from 2018. Current eCall deployments are based on ETSI and CEN standards, which were started more than 12 years ago, and use an in-band modem to transport eCall data in a circuit switched 112 call. However, circuit switched 112 will eventually be replaced by IMS emergency call in UMTS-PS and LTE networks and it is further expected that EU operators will want to phase out support of circuit switched (CS) GSM and UMTS over the next decade or two.
Cars typically last around 15 years (compared to 2 years for mobile phones). The issue of how in-band modem eCall deployments in cars will continue to be supported, whilst network technology migrates to IMS, requires consideration.
This document describes work done on Next Generation eCall and makes recommendations, including timescales. It describes how Next Generation eCall can be achieved using IMS and what are its advantages and possible new functionalities. It also describes how coexistence of in-band modem eCall and IMS eCall can be managed.
EENA would like to thank Mr. David Williams, EENA Technical Committee Vice-Chair for 2015 (Qualcomm UK), for his great work on this document.