Next Generation (NG) eCall - Basic Principles and Differences to Legacy eCall

The 3GPP/CEN standards for pan-European in-vehicle emergency call service (eCall) are currently mandated in Europe. They employ automatic mobile 112 calls in circuit switched (CS) 2G/3G radio networks using an in-band modem technology. As many mobile network operators (MNOs) have announced to turn down CS networks, the EU Commission is establishing revised regulations to ensure eCall services over packet switched (PS) networks (4G/5G). This paper describes the next generation (NG) eCall technology, which was designed for PS networks, providing an extension to emergency call features based on IP-Multimedia-Subsystem (IMS) mechanisms using a session initiation protocol (SIP). The present paper includes a description of the basic principles of NG eCall and explains the differences to legacy eCall. It also provides an overview of the standardization status as well as the regulatory environment today. A possible migration path to NG eCall is also outlined.