911 Location updating for an enterprise using VOIP telephones

• US 20060245570A1
• Filed: 05/02/2005
• Published: 11/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Pfleging, Gerald W., Wilkin, George P., Pfleging, Rachel M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,548,537 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/211.20
• 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 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/12 for working between exchanges having different types of switching equipment, e.g. power-driven and step by step or decimal and non-decimal

Abstract

An exemplary method automatically identifies the location of a voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) telephone relative to the structure of a building upon the VOIP telephone making a 911 call. The identity of the VOIP telephone is transmitted to a database accessible by the VOIP system upon a 911 call origination. Records have been previously created and stored in the database that link each VOIP telephone located in or associated with a building to a text based description of an area of the building. A node instructs the database to find the stored record associated with the VOIP telephone. The identity of the VOIP telephone and the text based location information of the location of the VOIP telephone relative to the structure of the building are transmitted to the 911 call center. This enables a 911 call center operator to immediately discern the location of the 911 caller relative to the structure of the building.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) system comprising the steps of:

generating first information about the location of a VOIP telephone;

transmitting said first information and information identifying the associated VOIP telephone to a database accessible by the VOIP system;

comparing said first location information with second location information stored in records in the database, where each second location information comprises a location associated with a corresponding area of a building, each record containing a text description of the associated area related to the structure of the building, the first location information not containing location information related to the structure of the building;

determining the closest appropriate second location information to the first location information;

linking the identifying information of the VOIP telephone with the closest appropriate second location information, so that the text description of the area associated with the VOIP telephone can be identified and retrieved for use during a 911 call request from the VOIP telephone.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the linking step comprises linking the identifying information of the VOIP telephone with the record that contains the closest appropriate second location information.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining the closest appropriate second location information to the first location information comprises determining the closest second location information to the first location information where the closest second location information is on the same floor as the first location information.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

initiating a 911 call from a first VOIP telephone;

automatically generating and transmitting a query to the database in response to the 911 call initiation from the first VOIP telephone;

identifying in the database the second location information and the corresponding text description linked to the first VOIP telephone;

transmitting a message to a 911 call destination containing the identity of the first VOIP telephone and at least the text description.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of generating first information about the location of a VOIP telephone comprises generating the first information by a VOIP telephone that is adapted to acquire global positioning satellite (GPS) information of the location of the VOIP telephone.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the VOIP telephone contains a GPS module that acquires the GPS information.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

storing in the database identification of telecommunication numbers of local personnel located at the building;

automatically sending a message to the telecommunication numbers upon the origination of a 911 call from a VOIP telephone, the message alerting the local personnel of the origination of a 911 call.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising the step of conferencing the local personnel onto the voice channel carrying the 911 call origination.

9. A voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) system comprising:

means for generating first information about the location of a VOIP telephone;

means for transmitting said first information and information identifying the associated VOIP telephone to a database accessible by the VOIP system;

means for comparing said first location information with second location information stored in records in the database, where each second location information comprises a location associated with a corresponding area of a building, each record containing a text description of the associated area related to the structure of the building, the first location information not containing location information related to the structure of the building;

means for determining the closest appropriate second location information to the first location information;

means for linking the identifying information of the VOIP telephone with the closest appropriate second location information, so that the text description of the area associated with the VOIP telephone can be identified and retrieved for use during a 911 call request from the VOIP telephone.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the means for linking comprises means for linking the identifying information of the VOIP telephone with the record that contains the closest appropriate second location information.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the means for determining the closest appropriate second location information to the first location information comprises means for determining the closest second location information to the first location information where the closest second location information is on the same floor as the first location information.

12. The system of claim 9 further comprising:

means for initiating a 911 call from a first VOIP telephone;

means for automatically generating and transmitting a query to the database in response to the 911 call initiation from the first VOIP telephone;

means for identifying the second location information and the corresponding text description linked to the first VOIP telephone;

means for transmitting a message to a 911 call destination containing the identity of the first VOIP telephone and at least the text description.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the means for generating first information about the location of a VOIP telephone comprises means for generating the first information by a VOIP telephone that is adapted to acquire global positioning satellite (GPS) information of the location of the VOIP telephone.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the VOIP telephone contains a GPS module that acquires the GPS information.

15. The system of claim 9 further comprising:

means for storing in the database identification of telecommunication numbers of local personnel located at the building;

means for automatically sending a message to the telecommunication numbers upon the origination of a 911 call from a VOIP telephone, the message alerting the local personnel of the origination of a 911 call.

16. The system of claim 15 further comprising means for causing the conferencing the local personnel onto the voice channel carrying the 911 call origination.

17. A node in a voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) system comprising:

means for receiving identification of a first VOIP telephone that initiated a 911 call, where the first VOIP telephone is in a building;

means, responsive to the receiving means receiving the identification, for transmitting a first query to a database accessible by the VOIP system where the query includes said identification, the query seeking information based on the identification of the first VOIP telephone;

means for receiving a reply to the query where the reply contains text based location information describing a corresponding area of the building related to the structure of the building, the text based location information descriptive of the location of the first VOIP telephone related to the structure of the building;

means for transmitting a message to a 911 call center where the message is based on the reply, identifies the first VOIP telephone, and includes at least the text based location information, thereby conveying an easily understood location of the first VOIP telephone relative to the structure of the building to an operator of the call center.

18. The node of claim 17 wherein the message transmitted by the means for transmitting the message comprises additional text based information identifying a street location of the building where the additional text based information is contained in the reply.

19. The node of claim 17 further comprising:

means for receiving the first location information from the first VOIP telephone wherein the first location identification information comprises global positioning satellite (GPS) information of the location of the VOIP telephone;

means for transmitting the GPS information and the identity of the first VOIP telephone to the database in correlating the GPS information with existing location information of the building to determine the location of the first VOIP telephone relative to the structure of the building.