Handling emergency service calls originating from internet telephony

• US 20060233317A1
• Filed: 04/15/2005
• Published: 10/19/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MCI Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Anderson, John R., Coster, Mark W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,496,182 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/40 Support for services or applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5116 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0075 Details of addressing, directories or routing tables

Abstract

A method and system for interfacing internet protocol-enabled emergency calls to a public 9-1-1 system are described. The method can include routing an emergency call originating from internet protocol telephony to a data network via a routing device which may include an identifier. The method can include transferring the routed emergency call to a predetermined public service answering point based on the identifier.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

routing an emergency call originating from internet protocol telephony to a data network via a routing device having a routing device identifier; and

transmitting the routed emergency call to a public service answering point (PSAP), based on the routing device identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the routing device identifier comprises a physical location of the routing device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transferring the routed emergency call to a predetermined public switched telephone network (PSTN).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein routing the emergency call comprises transmitting the emergency call and the routing device identifier together.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by a server associated with the data network, a physical location of the routing device from the routing device identifier.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

communicating, from a memory storage device to the server, routing device identifier information that corresponds to physical location information stored in a database of the memory storage device.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

communicating, from a memory storage device to the server, PSAP information that corresponds to physical location information stored in a database of the memory storage device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying the routing device for the routing device identifier using a server associated with the data network; and

responding to the query by providing the routing device identifier from the routing device to the server.

9. A network device comprising:

a routing device to;

receive incoming data including an emergency call from an IP telephony user device via a first data network; and

route the received data including the emergency call along with routing device location information to a second data network.

10. The network device of claim 9, wherein the first data network is a local area network (LAN).

11. The network device of claim 9, wherein the routing device comprises an edge router associated with the LAN.

12. The network device of claim 9, wherein the IP telephony user device comprises a voice over internet protocol (VOIP) telephony device.

13. The network device of claim 9, wherein the routing device further comprises a storage medium to store the router location information.

14. The network device of claim 13, wherein the routing device further comprises a processing unit to respond to a query from the second data network, and provide the router location information from the storage medium in response to the query.

15. A method comprising:

receiving a dialed 9-1-1 call on a data network from an IP user device configured to be selectively used from a fixed location connection and from a plurality of remote connections, wherein the 9-1-1 call includes profile information;

determining, from the profile information, that the dialed 9-1-1 call originated from one of the remote connections;

identifying an end-user routing device used to route the dialed 9-1-1 call;

designating an assigned public safety answering point (PSAP) based on the identified end-user routing device;

redirecting the routed 9-1-1 call to a public switched telephone network (PSTN); and

forwarding the redirected 9-1-1 call to the assigned PSAP.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

populating a database with a geographic position of the end-user routing device.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

populating the database with the assigned PSAP corresponding to the geographic position.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

entering geographic position information in a memory of the end-user routing device.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the geographic position information is included in a header of the dialed 9-1-1 call.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein identifying the end-user routing device comprises:

transmitting a query from a server on the data network to the end-user routing device; and

transmitting a response to the query from the end-user routing device to the server.

21. A system for interfacing internet protocol (IP)-enabled emergency calls to a public 9-1-1 system, comprising:

means for registering in a database, a fixed geographic location of a customer premise routing device;

means for designating a public safety answering point (PSAP) in a 9-1-1 system for the customer premise routing device;

means for receiving an emergency call routed through the customer premise routing device;

means for determining that the customer premise routing device routes the received emergency call; and

means for transmitting the received emergency call to the designated PSAP.