Common Alerting Protocol
The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is an international standard developed by OASIS for the exchange of warning messages in XML format. CAP enables a warning message to be disseminated simultaneously via many warning systems for many applications. CAP increases the warning effect and simplifies the task of activating a warning for responsible officers.
Standardized alerts can be received from many sources and your applications can be configured to process and respond to the desired alerts. Alerts from the United States Department of Homeland Security , the United States Geological Survey at the United States Department of Interior , and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at the United States Department of Commerce (NOAA), and other state and local agencies can all be sent in the same format by the the same application can be received. Depending on the information received, the application can trigger various alarms.
By normalizing alert data about threats, responsibilities, and alert systems, CAP can also be used to identify trends and patterns in alert activities, such as: B. Trends that may indicate an undiscovered danger or hostile act. From a procedural perspective, the CAP is reinforcing a research-based template for effective warning messages and structure.
The CAP data structure is backward compatible with existing alert formats, including the Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) used in Weatheradio and the Broadcast Emergency Alert System , as well as new technology such as Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) and the addition of features such as:
- Flexible geographic alignment using latitude / longitude boxes and other geospatial data in three dimensions
- Multilingual and multi-person messaging
- Phased and delayed effective times and runouts
- Improved news update and cancellation functions
- Template support for designing complete and effective alerts
- Digital encryption and signature capability
- Facility for digital images, audio and video.