PEACE: IP-based Emergency Applications and Services for Next Generation Networks C. Politis 1 , T. Dagiuklas 2 , Y. Rebahi 3 , J. Rodriguez 4 1 WiMM group, Kingston University, London, KT1 2EE, United Kingdom, e-mail: c.politis@kingston.ac.uk 2 Fraunhofer Fokus, Kaiserin Augusta Allee 31, 10589 Berlin, Germany, e-mail: yacine.rebahi@fokus.fraunhofer.de 3 Wireless Telecommunications Laboratory, University of Patras, Patras, Greece, e-mail: ntan@teimes.gr 4 Instituto de Telecomunicações/Univ. Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal, e-mail: jonathan@av.it.pt Abstract The transition to next generation networks is often coupled with the vision of innovative services providing personalized and customisable services over an all-IP infrastructure. To enable a smooth transition, next generation all-IP networks need not only support more services but also support emergency services. In the PEACE project we will provide a general emergency management framework addressing extreme emergency situations such as terrorist attacks and natural catastrophes as well as day-to-day emergency cases based on ad- hoc networking and the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) respectfully. In order to enable multimedia communication for emergency situations, an architecture will be architected for supporting the distribution of currently centralised services such as VoIP and name translation and supporting those services in a reliable and secure manner withstanding any failures and changes of the network. Keywords IMS, Ad-hoc networking, emergency services 1. Introduction The transition to next generation networks is often coupled with the vision of innovative services providing personalized and customisable services over an all-IP infrastructure. To enable a smooth transition, next generation all-IP networks need not only support more services but also support current vital services, namely emergency services. In the PEACE project we will provide a general emergency management framework addressing extreme emergency situations such as terrorist attacks and natural catastrophes as well as day-to-day emergency cases based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). To achieve this goal the PEACE project will be addressing two major technological challenges. First a general solution for secure multimedia communication in extreme emergency situations will be provided. Such emergency services in cases of natural disasters or catastrophes will often involve the establishment of an ad-hoc networking environment. In this context, the PEACE project will be devising mechanisms for fast and lightweight establishment of trust relations between ad-hoc members of an emergency team and ensuring the security of their communication. Further, to enable multimedia communication in such environments the