Monday, August 11, 2003

IPCC Defines CALEA Safe Harbor Requirements for Packet Voice

The International Packet Communications Consortium (IPCC) published an informational report entitled, "Lawfully Authorized Surveillance for Softswitch-based networks." CALEA requires telecommunications carriers to provide specified capabilities to law enforcement agencies (LEAs) when presented with the proper lawful authorization. CALEA also requires manufacturers of equipment used in connection with the covered telecommunications facilities and services to make available the features or modifications necessary to permit carriers to comply with these capabilities requirements. While this informational report contains partial technical guidelines based on preliminary work performed by the IPCC LI Working Group and does not offer Safe Harbor under CALEA, it does address CALEA requirements for the benefit of any carriers, vendors and government agencies who might use this architecture or technology. Specifically, the report describes the interfaces between a Telecommunications Carrier that provides telecommunications services and a Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) to assist the LEA in conducting lawfully authorized electronic surveillance. It also describes services and features that support lawfully authorized electronic surveillance of packet-mode communications provided by Telecommunications Carriers. The document is now available online.
http://www.packetcomm.org/dms/viewdetail.asp?parentID=27&CatID=56&id=578