Integrated Public Alert and Warning System

The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) is an architecture that unifies the United States' Emergency Alert System, National Warning System, Wireless Emergency Alerts, and NOAA Weather Radio, under a single platform. IPAWS was designed to modernize these systems by enabling alerts to be aggregated over a network and distributed to the appropriate system for public dissemination.

In June 2006, following criticism over the government's response to the natural disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina, President George W Bush signed Executive Order 13407 ordering the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a new program to integrate and modernize the nation's existing population warning systems. These systems include the:

The new network, subsequently termed the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) is designed to integrate these various systems into one modern network, and also update them to take into account newer forms of communication such as cellular telephony and SMS, satellite and cable television, electronic billboards and the internet.

The program is organized and funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. The system allows for alerts to be originated by Federal, State, local and tribal officials, and subsequently disseminated to the public using a range of national and local alerting systems including EAS, CMAS and NWR. The system uses open standard digital formats such as the EDXL-based v1.2 for its messages, allowing for interoperable dissemination to a wide range of third party receivers.

Integrated Public Alert & Warning System Open Platform for Emergency Networks (IPAWS-OPEN) is a based network that has integrated the different emergency alert systems of the United States. Its purpose is to connect alert originators to a server which then aggregates and disseminates alerts to the proper systems. IPAWS-OPEN uses .

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