Enhanced 911 (E-911) Location Service

The E-911 Location Service allows a 911 call dispatcher to locate a Vocera device user making a 911 call and quickly send help to the caller. Vocera provides an option to configure an Emergency Location Identification Number (ELIN) to identify the caller's location and connect the caller with a 911 call dispatcher.

An ELIN is a dialable number configured in the system as a Caller ID to locate the Vocera device caller making a 911 call. When configured, the system dynamically assigns this number to the user during a 911 call based on their AP Location or Facility.

If the 911 call is disconnected, the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) calls the configured ELIN number, and the call routes back to the 911 caller.

System administrators can assign one or more ELINs to AP Locations and Facilities in the system to uniquely identify a Vocera device user's location during a 911 call, see Configuring Emergency Location Identification Number (ELIN) for configuration details. You can assign ELINs to any number of Facilities and AP Locations in the system.

ELINs configured in the system must have an expiration timer. The expiration timer ensures that the association between a user and an ELIN ends when the timer expires. You can configure a system level expiration time for ELINs to allow the system to remove the users associated with a specific ELIN, see Setting System Preferences for more information.

Important: ELINs configured in Vocera, and their associated location information must be provided to your service provider so that they can include this information in the Master Street Address Guide (MSAG) database. This service is not provided directly through the Vocera system, you must negotiate this service with your service provider.

When a Vocera device user dials 911 using the device's dialer or using a Vocera Voice command, the system performs the following checks to redirect the call:

Consults the user's/device's AP Location to find the ELIN associated with the user
If an ELIN is not found for AP Location, the Facility-specific ELIN is used
If the user's Facility is not specified, the ELIN configured for the Global Facility is used
If an ELIN is configured, the call proceeds to the private branch exchange (PBX) with 911 as the called party number, and the ELIN as the calling party number.
If an ELIN is not configured for the Location or Facility, the system follows the Calling Party Number logic.

Note: <SIV - 6822> Vocera does not process the DID matching rules for ELINs. When an assigned ELIN is called, the digits presented to Vocera by the PBX are used as-is for matching. For example, if you configure ELINs as full 10-digit numbers, the PBX must present the call to Vocera with the full 10 digits to match. If the ELIN is configured as a 5-digit number, then the PBX must:

Pass only 5 digits to Vocera on inbound calls
Add the remaining 5 digits to the number on outbound calls