Method and apparatus for a mobile station to enhance the probability of successful emergency call completion and successful callback from emergency service centre

• US 20040242191A1
• Filed: 01/21/2004
• Published: 12/02/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Hossain, Asif, Islam, M. Khaledul, Plestid, T.L. Trevor
• Granted Patent: US 7,395,046 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/404.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A method and apparatus for of enhancing the probability of a successful emergency call completion and emergency callback on a mobile station in a network, the method comprising the steps of: during an emergency call attempt, monitoring whether the mobile station has received a non-voice service request from the network and, if yes, ignoring the non-voice service request. Further, during a callback period, monitoring whether the mobile station has received a service request from the network and, if yes, ignoring the service request if the service request is a non-voice service request that is anything but a position location service request. Further, during a callback period, monitoring whether a user attempts to initiate a non-voice service request that is anything but a position location service request, and if yes ignoring the non-voice service request.

Claims

1. A method of enhancing the probability of a successful emergency call completion on a mobile station in a network, comprising the steps of:

during an emergency call attempt, monitoring whether the mobile station has received a non-voice service request from the network and, if yes, ignoring said non-voice service request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of ignoring said non-voice service request includes blocking an acknowledgement message from the mobile station to the network.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

at the start of an emergency call attempt, checking whether the mobile station is already communicating with the network, and if yes, ending the communication with the network.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of:

if said communication with the network is ended, attempting to acquire a network for the emergency call attempt.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said step of attempting to acquire a network includes periodically attempting to reacquire said network that communication was ended with.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile station is allowed to acquire any network regardless of whether the network is preferred.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said mobile station can acquire a network even if a subscriber identity module or a removable user identity module is not present.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

sending an emergency call request to the network;

checking whether the emergency call request was successful;

if said emergency call request was unsuccessful, checking whether the user aborted the emergency call request; and

if said user did not abort said emergency call request, attempting to acquire a new system.

9. A method of enhancing the probability of a successful emergency callback to a mobile station in a network from an emergency service centre, the method comprising the steps of:

during a callback period, monitoring whether the mobile station has received a service request from the network and, if yes,

ignoring said service request if said service request is a non-voice service request that is anything but a position location service request.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said step of ignoring said service request includes blocking an acknowledgement message from the mobile station to the network.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein said method further includes the steps of:

setting up a call for a voice service request or a non-voice position location service request;

ending said call;

checking whether a callback timer has expired, and if so entering a regular mode.

12. A method of enhancing the probability of a successful emergency callback to a mobile station in a network from an emergency service centre, the method comprising the steps of:

during a callback period, monitoring whether a user attempts to initiate a non-voice service request that is anything but a position location service request, and if yes ignoring said non-voice service request.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

checking whether said network allows non-emergency voice or position location services, and if not, prompting whether a user wants to exit said callback period.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

checking whether a callback timer has expired, and if yes entering a regular mode.

15. A mobile station for enhancing the probability of successful emergency call completion to a network and successful callback from emergency service centre, the mobile station comprising:

a communications subsystem, said communications subsystem including a receiver, a transmitter and a digital signal processor;

a microprocessor communicating with said digital signal processor of said communications subsystem;

user input and output means communicating with said microprocessor;

memory communicating with said microprocessor; and

an emergency service module, said emergency service module communicating with both said digital signal processor and said microprocessor,

wherein during an emergency call attempt or callback said emergency service module directs said microprocessor to ignore non-voice requests from said network.

16. The mobile station of claim 15, wherein said emergency service module further directs said microprocessor to drop existing network communications during said emergency call attempt.

17. The mobile station of claim 16, wherein said emergency service module further directs said microprocessor to block any user initiated, non-position location service requests from a user during a callback period.

18. The mobile station of claim 15, further comprising a subscriber identity module/removable user identity module interface.

19. The mobile station of claim 18, wherein said mobile station can acquire a network during an emergency call attempt without a subscriber identity module or a removable user identity module present in said subscriber identity module/removable user identity module interface.