System and method for establishing emergency communications in a telecommunication network

• US 20070115943A1
• Filed: 10/06/2006
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Poza Jimenez, Manuel, Perez Hernandez, Maria Del Mar
• Application Number:
  US11/543,788
• Publication Number:
  US 20070115943A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• 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

Abstract

System and method for establishing a voice or data communication in a Internet Protocol (IP) communication network (1), the network comprising a gateway (13, 23) and at least one call server (15, 24). In case of failure in the communication link between the gateway (13) and the call server (14), the gateway initiates an alternative signaling procedure by means of a peer-to-peer communication link for establishing communication, through an alternative communication link with a node (40), said node being adapted to redirect the communication to a destination terminal (21, 43).

Claims

1. Method for establishing a voice or data communication in an Internet Protocol (IP) communication network (1), the network comprising a gateway (13, 23) adapted for establishing a master/salve relationship with at least one call server (15, 24) characterized in that the method comprises the steps of;

detecting unavailability of a communication link between the gateway (13) and said at least one call server (14);

initiating at the gateway (13), an alternative signaling procedure for establishing communication, through an alternative communication link with a node (40), said link being a peer-to-peer communication link; and

establishing communication through said alternative communication link.

2. Method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of:

redirecting, at said node (40), the communication to a destination terminal (21, 43) to which the communication is intended to be sent.

3. Method according to claim 1, wherein the step of detecting unavailability of a communication link is performed by checking the status of communication links with respect to a plurality or to all call servers with which the gateway (13) is in connection.

4. Method according to claim 1 wherein the gateway (13) checks the type of the communication requested to be transmitted and initiates the alternative signaling procedure with a node (40) if the communication is of emergency type.

5. Method according to claim 2, wherein once the alternative signaling procedure is initiated between the gateway (13) and the node (40), the latter establishes the communication directly with the destination terminal (43) if the destination terminal is directly connected to said node 40.

6. Method according to claim 2, wherein once the alternative signaling procedure is initiated between the gateway (13) and the node (40), the latter automatically redirects the emergency communication, through a pre-established route, towards a called party gateway or towards any other intermediate entity capable of transmitting the communication to the called party destination terminal.

7. Method according to claim 2, wherein once the alternative signaling procedure is initiated between the gateway (13) and the node (40), the latter selects, by means of appropriate software and based on pre-established criteria, the route through which the communication is to be redirected towards a called party gateway or towards any other intermediate entity capable of transmitting the communication to the called party destination terminal.

8. A voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication network (1), the network comprising a gateway (13, 23) connected in a master/salve relationship to at least one call server (15, 24) adapted for establishing a first signaling procedure with said at least one call server (15, 24), characterized in that the gateway (13) is further connected to a node (40) through a peer-to-peer communication link and is adapted for initiating an alternative signaling procedure for establishing a communication, through said peer-to-peer communication link with said node (40) when said first signaling procedure is unavailable.

9. A network according to claim 8, wherein said node (40) is adapted for redirecting the communication to a destination terminal (21, 43) to which the communication is intended to be sent.

10. A network according to claim 9, wherein said node (40) is in peer-to-peer connection with a gateway (13) corresponding to said destination terminal (21, 43), or in connection with intermediate network elements being in connection with said destination terminal (21, 43).

11. A gateway unit for use in a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communication network (1), the gateway (13, 23) being connected to at least one call server (15, 24) adapted for establishing a master/salve signaling procedure with said at least one call server (15, 24), characterized in that the gateway (13) is further connected to a node (40) through a peer-to-peer communication link and is adapted for initiating an alternative signaling procedure for establishing a communication, through said peer-to-peer communication link, with said node (40).

12. A node (40) for cooperating with the gateway of claim 11 by mean of a peer-to-peer communication link and adapted for establishing communication to a destination terminal (21, 43) in response to a signaling procedure initiated by said gateway (13) and received through said peer-to-peer communication link.

13. A node according to claim 12, wherein the node (40) is connected directly to the destination terminal (43) and is adapted for establishing the communication directly with the latter, once an alternative signaling procedure is initiated between the gateway (13) and the node (40).

14. A node according to claim 12, wherein the node (40) is adapted for automatically redirecting the emergency communication, through a pre-established route, towards the destination terminal or towards an intermediate entity capable of transmitting the communication to the destination terminal, once the alternative signaling procedure is initiated between the gateway (13) and the node (40).

15. A node according to claim 12, wherein the node (40) is adapted for selecting, by means of appropriate software and based on pre-established criteria, a route through which the communication is to be redirected towards the destination terminal or towards an intermediate entity capable of transmitting the communication to the destination terminal, once the alternative signaling procedure is initiated between the gateway (13) and the node (40).