Requirements for the next generation Public Warning and Alert System for Austria

The recent advancements in mobile network technologies and terminals have enabled ubiquitous Internet coverage, opening novel possibilities for public safety applications, and especially public warning and alerting. In this paper, we present the most recent results of the Austrian national project PASA (Public Warning and Alert System for Austria), the aim of which is to design, prototypically develop and evaluate a novel national public warning system, thereby following an interdisciplinary systems engineering process. After briefly describing the available technological alternatives, we summarize both our investigations about the preferences of the Austrian population and the results of the requirements specification phase of the project. Subsequently, we describe the high-level architecture of the PASA system before discussing the selected use case scenarios which will be realized in the scope of the project. Finally, we conclude the present paper with a brief summary and an outlook on our future research within the Austrian national and the European context.