LLDP port ID subtype configuration for E-911

E-911 (or E911) is a system that is used in North America to link people who dial 911 requesting emergency call services with the appropriate public resources.

The E-911 system routes a 911 call to the Public Service Answering Point (PSAP) that has jurisdiction over the physical location of the 911 caller. To connect the caller with the correct PSAP, the E-911 system must know the location of the caller. An Automatic Location Information (ALI) database is maintained on behalf of local governments and can be used to determine the location (street address) of a caller based on the caller ID.

However, in some situations the street address alone is not sufficient to rapidly locate the 911 caller. For example, when the 911 caller is an employee in a large office complex and the emergency services arrive at the street address, they would need additional information to quickly locate the caller; for example, it would be helpful to know that the call originated from Cube 2500 on Floor 5 in Building 2.

In a VoIP network, the physical location of a caller can be tracked by associating physical location information with the network port through which the caller accesses the network.

RUCKUS network device ports can advertise physical location information by way of the LLDP port ID subtype that is advertised.

The following LLDP port ID subtypes are supported:

• 1—Interface alias as defined in RFC 2863 and stored in the ifAlias MIB object.
• 3—MAC address.
• 5—Interface name as defined in RFC 2863 and stored in the ifName MIB object.
• 7—Locally assigned identifier as defined in RFC 2863. RUCKUS devices advertise the information stored in the ifIndex MIB object.

Port ID subtypes 1, 5, and 7 can be configured to hold information about the physical location of the port.

The LLDP port ID subtype to be advertised is configured using the lldp advertise port-id-subtype command.