Method and apparatus for bypassing overload control for emergency calls

• US 20070189467A1
• Filed: 01/31/2006
• Published: 08/16/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Croak, Marian, Eslambolchi, Hossein
• Application Number:
  US11/344,635
• Publication Number:
  US 20070189467A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/37
• 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 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

A method and apparatus for enabling a network element to continue to process and respond to emergency, e.g., E911, call signaling messages despite any overload control mechanism that might be in effect due to congestions caused and experienced by other non-emergency call signaling messages are disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for bypassing overload control in a communication network, comprising:

receiving an emergency call setup message for establishing an emergency call; and

exempting said emergency call setup message from an overload control mechanism that is applied to at least one non-emergency call signaling message if said overload control mechanism is enabled.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said communication network is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network or a Service over Internet Protocol (SoIP) network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said emergency call is an Enhanced 911 (E911) call.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said emergency call setup message is received by a network element of said communication network.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said network element comprises at least one of:

a Call Control Element (CCE), a Border Element (BE), or an Application Server (AS).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said overload control mechanism comprises at least one of:

a call gapping mechanism or a signaling message queue lengthening mechanism.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said exempting comprises:

excluding said emergency call setup message from said call gapping mechanism;

or

advancing said emergency call setup message to a head of a lengthened signaling message queue.

8. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, the plurality of instructions including instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps of a method for bypassing overload control in a communication network, comprising:

receiving an emergency call setup message for establishing an emergency call; and

exempting said emergency call setup message from an overload control mechanism that is applied to at least one non-emergency call signaling message if said overload control mechanism is enabled.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein said communication network is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network or a Service over Internet Protocol (SoIP) network.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein said emergency call is an Enhanced 911 (E911) call.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein said emergency call setup message is received by a network element of said communication network.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein said network element comprises at least one of:

a Call Control Element (CCE), a Border Element (BE), or an Application Server (AS).

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein said overload control mechanism comprises at least one of:

a call gapping mechanism or a signaling message queue lengthening mechanism.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein said exempting comprises:

excluding said emergency call setup message from said call gapping mechanism;

or

advancing said emergency call setup message to a head of a lengthened signaling message queue.

15. An apparatus for bypassing overload control in a communication network, comprising:

means for receiving an emergency call setup message for establishing an emergency call; and

means for exempting said emergency call setup message from an overload control mechanism that is applied to at least one non-emergency call signaling message if said overload control mechanism is enabled.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said communication network is a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network or a Service over Internet Protocol (SoIP) network.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said emergency call is an Enhanced 911 (E911) call.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said emergency call setup message is received by a network element of said communication network, and wherein said network element comprises at least one of:

a Call Control Element (CCE), a Border Element (BE), or an Application Server (AS).

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said overload control mechanism comprises at least one of:

a call gapping mechanism or a signaling message queue lengthening mechanism.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein said exempting means comprises:

means for excluding said emergency call setup message from said call gapping mechanism;

or

means for advancing said emergency call setup message to a head of a lengthened signaling message queue.