Lawfully-Authorized Electronic Surveillance in Wireless Communications Systems: Standard and Requirements Overview

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Presented at JISIC 2014 by

Kafi Hassan

Abstract—Voice and data wireless communication devices have become important and convenient way of communication for most of the people around the world. In many places, the wireless cell Phones are used more than the traditional landline telephones. Therefore, it become necessary to have the wireless communications systems support lawfully-authorized electronic surveillance (LAES) as the landline communications did in the past. In United States, the United States congress has passed a legislation known as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) in 1994. CALEA requires both landline and wireless United States carriers to provide surveillance information to a lawfully authorized law enforcement monitoring center. The J-STD-025-A/B Standards define the interfaces between a telecommunication service provider (TSP) and a Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) to assist the LEA in conducting lawfully-authorized electronic surveillance. Wireless networks continuously evolve to support new voice/data Access Terminals (AT) and new Radio Access Networks (RAN). These rapid changes of the wireless systems create new challenges that require new innovations and forward thinking that will allow the electronic surveillance technology to meet and keep up with the wireless technologies. This tutorial is intended to give an overview of the Lawfully-Authorized Electronic Surveillance standards and requirements for wireless communications systems from network research and development prospective. This tutorial describes the standards requirements and challenges on both to the wireless communications networks and to the surveillance technology. As a final point, this tutorial is used to identify some important open areas that need further research in the future. Outline of this tutorial • Overview of the main system components of the wireless system interception functions: Access, Delivery, Collection, Service provider administration, Law enforcement administration. • Wireless communication electronic surveillance requirements.