GNGTS 2024 - Atti del 42° Convegno Nazionale

Session 2.3 GNGTS 2024 Cell-broadcast warning systems and IT-ALERT as case studies To date, broadcast technology represents the most stable and reliable communicaton channel even in emergency situatons. The broadcast communicaton fow actually involves: the signal source through which the process begins, the modulaton or transformaton of the signal into a transferable format, the transmission through a medium that carries the signal, the recepton by devices in the network and capable of receiving the specifc signal, the demodulaton or decoding that allows the signal to acquire its original format again, and the reproducton or display of the inital message. Widely used and recognised throughout the world, broadcast technology recognises and supports the C.A.P. (Common Alertng Protocol), which is an internatonal standard initally used in the military feld and now adapted to the communicaton of emergency alerts and alarms. Among the strengths of the C.A.P. protocol is frstly the interoperability that allows the same message to be decoded by diferent devices and platorms, and secondly the simplicity and, if desired, schematc nature of the message. European Directve 2018/1972 of 11 December 2018 establishes the European Electronic Communicatons Code (EECC). Artcle 110 of the EECC makes it mandatory that as of 21 June 2022, when public warning systems are in place, "in the event of imminent or ongoing major emergencies and disasters, providers of mobile interpersonal communicaton services, based on the mobile phone number, shall transmit public alerts to the end users concerned". The legislaton is not mandatory regarding the setng up of public warning systems, although it regulates the character of the warning. In Italy, to date, no ofcial channels are in place to issue rapid emergency informaton. There are also several apps made by third-party developers that, with diferent applicaton interfaces and in diferent contexts, have been adopted by various municipalites. The Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers, with the directve of 7 February 2023, decides the experimentaton, on the Italian territory, of the IT-Alert public alert system with reference to the Civil Protecton actvites in order to conform the alertng procedures to the above-mentoned European regulatons (G.U. Serie Generale n.91 of 18-04-2023). The IT-Alert system, which is now operatonal, will directly inform the populaton at risk by sending an informaton message to geographically located mobile phones. Users, in order to receive the message, will need to have their mobile phone and - for now - the public alert messaging service, in the mobile phone's setngs, actve. Below are some preliminary percentage frequencies extracted from the questonnaire administraton test on 13.12.23 at the Informaton Engineering Faculty of the Università Politecnica delle Marche. 114 questonnaires were collected for the test. For this specifc research, an ad-hoc secton was added to the questonnaire developed by Backer et al. in New Zealand to survey some of the respondents' opinions about IT-ALERT. ● 86% of the respondents know IT-ALERT, 14% are not. ● 71% received the system test message, 29% did not.