> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://library.zoom.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://library.zoom.com/zoom-workplace/zoom-phone/expert-insights/emergency-services-best-practices/nomadic-location-detection-and-configuration.md).

# Nomadic Location Detection and Configuration

Nomadic emergency services enables Zoom to automatically detect a user's location and report the correct address when an emergency call is placed. The detection logic is consistent worldwide; the difference lies in how the detected address is delivered to the PSAP (see Sections 8 and 9).

#### Location Matching Scope

When an emergency call is placed, the system evaluates locations in the following order of scope:

<table data-header-hidden="false" data-header-sticky><thead><tr><th>Priority</th><th>Scope</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>1</strong></td><td>User's assigned site</td><td>Locations defined within the site the user is assigned to are checked first</td></tr><tr><td><strong>2</strong></td><td>All other account sites</td><td>If no match is found in the user's site, all other locations across the account are evaluated</td></tr><tr><td><strong>3</strong></td><td>User's personal locations</td><td>If no company location matches, the system checks the user's personal locations</td></tr><tr><td><strong>4</strong></td><td>Default / fallback</td><td>If no match is found at any level, the default address or "Unknown" is used (see Sections 7 and 8 for details)</td></tr></tbody></table>

#### Network Detection Priority

Within each scope level above, Zoom matches the endpoint's network data against defined locations in this priority order:

<table data-header-hidden="false" data-header-sticky><thead><tr><th>Priority</th><th>Data Source</th><th>Scope</th><th>Notes</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>1 (Highest)</strong></td><td>Network switch MAC address + port (LLDP)</td><td>Company locations only</td><td>Highest precision; requires LLDP-MED on the switch. Broadcast timer ~30 seconds (recommended). Not supported on Linux. Mac requires the Zoom Helper App (privileged process). IP phones must have LLDP pass-through enabled.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>2</strong></td><td>Wireless access point MAC address (BSSID)</td><td>Company and personal locations</td><td>Supports wildcards in the last two octets (e.g., <code>74:4d:28:d5:12:xx</code>). When multiple BSSIDs are detected, the highest-RSSI (strongest signal) BSSID wins.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>3</strong></td><td>Public IP + Private IP address or subnet</td><td>Company locations only</td><td>Supports IPv4/IPv6 dual-stack. If "Apply minimum match criteria" is enabled on the location, both public and private IP must match — public alone is insufficient.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>4</strong></td><td>Public IP address</td><td>Company and personal locations</td><td></td></tr><tr><td><strong>5</strong></td><td>GPS coordinates (if available from the OS)</td><td>Approximate address</td><td>Sourced from OS location APIs (never IP-geolocation). Only invoked as fallback when no network signals match.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>6 (Fallback)</strong></td><td>Default address</td><td>See region-specific behavior in Sections 7 and 8</td><td>Site default → account default → "Unknown" (U.S./Canada falls through to a nationwide clearinghouse; Rest of World falls through to caller-ID/ELIN lookup).</td></tr></tbody></table>

### Nomadic Location Configuration

This section describes each network data source used for location detection and the corresponding configuration requirements.

#### 7.1 Wired Networks (LLDP)

For devices connected via Ethernet cable (such as IP desk phones or docked laptops), Zoom uses the Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) to determine which network switch and port the device is plugged into. This provides precise location data, down to the specific wall jack or desk.

**LLDP operation:** Network switches periodically broadcast LLDP data units (LLDPDUs) to devices connected to their ports. Each LLDPDU contains structured data fields called Type-Length-Value (TLV) elements. The Zoom Workplace app extracts two key pieces of information from the LLDPDU:

* **Chassis ID TLV** — the MAC address of the network switch
* **Port ID TLV** — the port number or interface ID on the switch

The structure of an LLDP data unit looks like this:

1. Preamble
2. Dest. MAC
3. Source MAC
4. Ethertype
5. Chassis ID TLV
6. Port ID TLV
7. Time to Live TLV
8. Optional TLVs
9. End of LLDPDU TLV
10. Frame Check Sequence

During an emergency call, the Zoom Workplace app sends the Chassis ID (switch MAC) and Port ID to the Zoom server. The server matches this data against the company locations configured by the administrator to determine the caller's physical location. When configuring a company location, the administrator enters a **switch MAC address + switchport combination** to map a specific switch port to that location. The system allows overlapping switch entries — meaning the same switch MAC address can appear in multiple location entries with different port numbers — as long as there is no conflict on any individual port across the entire account. In other words, a single switch MAC + port combination can only be assigned to one location; but the same switch can have different ports mapped to different locations (e.g., ports 1-12 on Switch A mapped to Floor 1, and ports 13-24 on the same Switch A mapped to Floor 2).

**Network configuration requirements:**

* The network switch must be configured to **send** LLDP information to connected devices. The Zoom Workplace app only receives LLDP data — it does not send LLDP packets back to the switch.
* LLDP configuration must include the mandatory TLVs (Chassis ID and Port ID) that the Zoom Workplace app needs to identify the switch and port.
* Some switch vendors require **LLDP-MED** (Media Endpoint Discovery) to be enabled on the ports for the mandatory TLVs to be included in the LLDPDU. Refer to your switch vendor's documentation for configuration steps.
* LLDP timers should be set to **30 seconds** to allow the Zoom Workplace app to detect network changes promptly.

**App** **requirements:**

* **Windows and IP phones:** Supported with minimum firmware or Zoom Workplace app version. Locations services must be enabled.
* **Mac:** Requires a helper application to be downloaded and installed. If users have admin privileges, they can be prompted to install it themselves via the admin portal. Otherwise, the helper application must be distributed to them.
* **Linux**: Not supported

**LLDP pass-through:** If a Zoom Workplace app device (such as a laptop) is connected to the network through an IP phone's pass-through port, the phone must be configured to pass through LLDP packets from the network switch to the connected device. Without this, the LLDP packets from the switch will terminate at the phone and never reach the Zoom Workplace app, preventing switch-port-based location detection.

Additionally, ensure that the IP phone does not originate its own LLDP packets and send them to the device where the Zoom Workplace app is installed. If the phone generates its own LLDP data, the Zoom Workplace app may receive the phone's LLDP information instead of the network switch's LLDP data, resulting in incorrect location mapping. The Zoom Workplace app must receive LLDP data directly from the network switch — not from the phone.

#### 7.2 Wireless Networks (BSSID)

A BSSID (Basic Service Set Identifier) is the MAC address of a wireless access point. Every Wi-Fi access point broadcasts a unique BSSID, making it one of the most reliable methods for identifying a specific physical location. When a Zoom Workplace app connects to Wi-Fi, it detects the BSSID of the access point it is connected to and reports it to the Zoom server during an emergency call.

**Configuration:** For each company location, enter the BSSIDs of the wireless access points that cover that location. If a floor has three access points, all three BSSIDs should be added to that floor's location entry. When a user connects to any of those access points and places an emergency call, Zoom matches the detected BSSID to the location and uses the corresponding address.

**BSSID wildcard:** In large deployments, access points on the same floor or area often share the first four octets of their MAC address, with only the last two characters varying. Zoom supports a wildcard approach where you can configure a BSSID with the last two characters as wildcards (e.g., **AA:BB:CC:DD:EE**). This means any access point whose BSSID starts with **AA:BB:CC:DD:EE** will match that location, regardless of the last two characters. This significantly reduces the number of individual BSSIDs you need to enter for locations with many access points.

**Higher-strength BSSID:** A user's device does not only see the access point it is connected to — it also detects other nearby access points and their signal strengths. Zoom leverages this capability. If an administrator has configured a BSSID for a specific location, and the user's device detects that BSSID with a higher signal strength than the one the device is currently connected to, Zoom will use the location associated with the higher-strength BSSID. This improves accuracy in dense office environments where a user may be connected to an access point on one floor but is physically closer to an access point on another floor.

#### 7.3 IP Address (Public and Private)

Zoom uses IP addresses as another method to identify a user's location. Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are supported. There are two types of IP addresses involved:

**Public IP address:** This is the IP address that Zoom sees when the Zoom Workplace app connects to Zoom's servers. It is the external-facing address of the user's network, typically assigned by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) or the corporate network's gateway. All devices behind the same router or firewall usually share the same public IP address. This can be an IPv4 address (e.g., 203.0.113.50) or an IPv6 address (e.g., 2001:db8::1).

**Private IP address:** This is the IP address that the Zoom Workplace app receives from the network adapter of the device itself. It is the internal address assigned by the local network (e.g., via DHCP). Private IPv4 addresses are only visible within the local network and are not routable on the internet (e.g., 10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x, 192.168.x.x). IPv6 addresses may also be used as private addresses depending on the network configuration (e.g., unique local addresses in the fd00::/8 range).

**Why both are needed:** A public IP address alone is often not specific enough to identify a location — many buildings or even entire campuses may share the same public IP address due to Network Address Translation (NAT). By combining the public IP with the private IP address or subnet, Zoom can more accurately distinguish between different locations within the same network. For example, two floors in the same building might share the same public IP but have different private IP subnets (e.g., Floor 1 uses 10.1.1.0/24 and Floor 2 uses 10.1.2.0/24).

When configuring company locations, enter both the public IP address or range and the private IP subnet for each location. Both IPv4 and IPv6 subnets are supported, including dual-stack configurations.

**Highly recommended: Enable "Apply minimum match criteria."** When creating or editing a location, enable the **Apply minimum match criteria** checkbox to require both public and private IP to match together.

**Risk if disabled:** Public and private IPs are evaluated independently. A user on corporate VPN at a coffee shop could incorrectly match an office location (same public IP, different private subnet), sending the wrong address to the PSAP and dispatching responders to the incorrect location.

**Avoid duplicate address entries:** Do not create multiple public IP + private IP combinations that map to the same address. If duplicate entries exist, the emergency address assigned to the location may cycle between those entries on successive emergency calls, resulting in inconsistent address reporting.

#### 7.4 GPS (Global Positioning System)

If the user's device has GPS capability and the operating system makes GPS data available to the Zoom Workplace application, Zoom can use GPS coordinates as a location source. The GPS coordinates are derived directly from the device's operating system — Zoom does not have its own GPS hardware.

GPS is used as a lower-priority fallback (Priority 5 in the detection order). It is only available in the U.S. and Canada, and only when the device supports GPS and the OS provides the data. If no GPS data is available from the OS, this detection method is skipped entirely, and the system falls through to the default address.

GPS coordinates are translated to an approximate physical address by Zoom's carrier. Because GPS provides an approximate location rather than a precise building/floor/room, it is less accurate than BSSID or LLDP-based detection but still significantly better than falling back to a default address.

#### 7.5 VPN Users

For users connecting through a VPN without split tunneling enabled, the VPN may mask the user's actual network data (public IP, private IP, and BSSID), preventing accurate location detection. In this scenario, the system may incorrectly match the user to the VPN concentrator's location rather than their actual physical location.

**Recommended configuration:** Add the VPN subnet to the **excluded location list** in the Zoom admin portal. When a VPN subnet is excluded, the system will not attempt to match it to any company location. Instead, the user is prompted to confirm their emergency address on every login. This ensures that VPN users always have an up-to-date address on file, even though automatic detection is not possible through the VPN tunnel.

Organizations that use split tunneling (where Zoom traffic bypasses the VPN and goes directly to the internet) do not need this configuration, as the Zoom Workplace app will see the user's actual network data rather than the VPN tunnel's data.


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