The standards an intercept is delivered to.
Standards do three jobs in lawful intercept: they define the scope of what a given order can reach, they make the handover between a provider and an agency interoperable, and they are the safe harbor CALEA § 107 gives a provider that follows them. Subsentio delivers to the ATIS standards in the United States and the ETSI standards abroad.
Scope, interoperability, safe harbor.
They define scope
Two types of intercept exist in the United States: pen-register intercepts, where only addressing and signaling information may be provided, and content intercepts, where communications content is provided as well. The differences are subtle — when location information may be delivered, for instance — and the standards define the proper course of action for each. Delivering an intercept without following a standard is a legal risk, not just a technical one.
They make the handover work
A standard specifies in detail the "handover interface" between the provider's delivery function — in the provider's network or a Trusted Third Party's — and the collection system inside the agency. Both ends speak the same protocol or the agency receives packets it cannot reconstruct.
They are the safe harbor
CALEA § 107(a)(2): a carrier "shall be found to be in compliance" with the § 103 capability requirements if it is in compliance with publicly available technical standards adopted by an industry association or standard-setting organization. The standard is the protection.
ATIS in the United States. ETSI almost everywhere else.
Standards are developed by committees inside industry associations and standards organizations — carriers, equipment makers, trusted third parties and law enforcement at the same table. There is one for each network type, and they are revised as the networks change; which one applies is decided by the network and by the jurisdiction of the agency receiving the intercept.
ATIS
The lawful-intercept delivery standards used under CALEA — one for each network type: wireline and wireless circuit-switched networks, interconnected VoIP, broadband Internet access, and the error-and-exception reporting between the delivery and collection functions.
3GPP
The handover interfaces for lawful interception on UMTS, LTE and 5G mobile networks, developed jointly by ATIS, TIA, ETSI and the other regional bodies.
ETSI
The handover interfaces an agency outside the United States expects — and the reason a U.S. solution cannot simply be reused abroad.
CableLabs
PacketCable electronic-surveillance specifications for cable voice; most cable operators deliver to the ATIS standards instead.
ATIS (Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions) develops most of the widely used CALEA standards. TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) pertains mainly to traditional telephone service. CableLabs developed several standards for cable, though most cable operators use the ATIS standards. 3GPP is a collaboration among standards bodies including ATIS, TIA and ETSI. ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) sets the handover standards for Europe and for much of the world beyond it.
A standard is a moving target. The safe harbor moves with it.
Standards change. A major re-publication is a new version; a lesser change is a supplement. A new version supersedes the previous one, and everything in a supplement supersedes the specific earlier material it changes. The VoIP standard, for example, has been revised several times since it was first published.
To keep the safe harbor and keep the handover working, a solution has to track the current version — or the provider has to work with a partner whose job is to keep it current. That is part of what a Trusted Third Party carries.
Standards, answered.
What is ATIS?
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions — the U.S. standards body whose committees, made up of carriers, equipment makers, trusted third parties and law enforcement, develop most of the lawful-intercept delivery standards used under CALEA. When an agency in the United States receives an intercept, it arrives in an ATIS-defined format.
What is ETSI?
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute — the body whose lawful-interception handover standards define how intercepted communications are handed to law-enforcement monitoring facilities in Europe and much of the rest of the world.
Why does the standard matter if the data is the same?
Because the agency's collection system only understands its own standard. Deliver a suspect's traffic to an EU agency in the U.S. ATIS format and the agency receives every packet and can reconstruct none of it. The standard is what turns captured traffic into evidence an agency can use.
What is the "safe harbor" in CALEA § 107?
Section 107(a)(2) provides that a carrier in compliance with publicly available technical requirements or standards adopted by an industry association or standard-setting organization "shall be found to be in compliance" with the § 103 assistance-capability requirements. Building to the applicable standard is the safe harbor — and keeping up with the current version of it is what keeps you there.
Does Subsentio support both ATIS and ETSI?
Yes. Subsentio delivers to the ATIS standards for CALEA in the United States and to the ETSI standards for its international clients. Which one applies is decided by the jurisdiction of the agency receiving the intercept, not by where the provider is headquartered.
What are "optional capabilities" in a standard?
Capabilities the standards committee could not categorically say fall within CALEA, or on which the committee disagreed — often because law enforcement wanted them and enough other participants did not want them mandatory. A provider can claim compliance with the standard without implementing an optional capability; many are nonetheless useful and worth implementing.
What is the ATIS standard for CALEA?
There is not one — there is a family, one standard per network type: wireline and wireless circuit-switched networks, interconnected VoIP, broadband Internet access, and error-and-exception reporting, with the 3GPP handover interfaces for LTE and 5G mobile networks. Each is revised over time, so the current version is the one that matters. "ATIS standard CALEA" and "ATIS lawful intercept" both refer to this family — the safe-harbor standards a U.S. intercept is delivered to.
Which standard is yours?
Tell us the network and the jurisdiction and we will tell you the standard, the version, and whether what you have delivers to it.
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