HANDLING EMERGENCY SERVICE CALLS ORIGINATING FROM INTERNET TELEPHONY

• US 20090141870A1
• Filed: 12/29/2008
• Published: 06/04/2009
• 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: Coster, Mark W, Anderson, John R
• Granted Patent: US 8,559,601 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, performed by a server in a data network, for processing calls, the method comprising:

identifying, by the server, a call signal received via a routing device as an emergency call;

determining, by the server and based on information included in the call signal, whether the emergency call originated from a registered location;

determining, by the server, when the emergency call originated from the registered location, whether at least one of an automatic number identification (ANI) or automatic location information (ALI) is identifiable from the call signal;

when the emergency call did not originate from the registered location or neither the at least one of the ANI nor the ALI is identifiable, retrieving, from a database associated with the server, location information associated with the routing device; and

identifying, by the server, a public service answering point (PSAP) based on the retrieved location information or the at least one of the ANI or the ALI.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

attaching information identifying the PSAP to the call signal.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a public switched telephone network (PSTN) from a plurality of PSTNs based on the identified PSAP.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

transferring the call signal to the selected PSTN.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying the routing device for an identity of the routing device.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining, based on a response to the querying, a physical location of the routing device identified in the location information.

7. The method of claim 6, where the identifying the PSAP comprises correlating the physical location of the routing device to stored PSAP information for a plurality of PSAPs.

8. The method of claim 6, where the identifying the PSAP comprises selecting the PSAP from a plurality of PSAPs based on the physical location of the routing device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, from a plurality of routing devices routing the call signal to the server, that the routing device is nearest one of the routing devices to a point of origination for the call signal.

10. A routing device comprising:

a memory to store a routing device identifier for the routing device and profile information for an Internet protocol (IP) user device;

a receive unit to receive an emergency call from the IP user device via a first data network;

a processing unit to retrieve at least a portion of the profile information from the memory and attach the routing device identifier and the retrieved portion of the profile information to the emergency call, where the profile information identifies the emergency call as originating from a registered physical location for the IP user device or a different physical location; and

a routing element to route the emergency call along with the profile information and the routing device identifier to a second data network.

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

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

13. The network device of claim 10, where the IP user device comprises a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telephony device.

14. The network device of claim 10, where the processing unit is further to:

receive a query via the second data network, and

provide a physical location of the routing device responsive to the query.

15. In a server associated with a data network, a method comprising:

receiving, by the server via a routing device, an emergency call from Internet protocol (IP) telephony selectively used at a registered location and locations other than the registered location;

determining, by the server, from profile information associated with the routing device, whether the emergency call originated from the registered location or a location other than the registered location;

determining, by the server, when the emergency call originated from the registered location, whether at least one of an automatic number identification (ANI) or automatic location information (ANI) is identifiable from information in the emergency call;

identifying, when the emergency call originated from the location other than the registered location or neither the at least one of the ANI nor the ALI is identifiable, a physical location for the routing device;

designating an assigned public safety answering point (PSAP) based on the identified location of the routing device or the at least one of the ANI or the ALI; and

forwarding the emergency call to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) based on the assigned PSAP.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

retrieving the physical location of the routing device from a database associated with the server.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

storing information for the assigned PSAP in the database; and

correlating the assigned PSAP to geographic locations that include the physical location of the routing device.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

modifying the emergency call to include information identifying the assigned PSAP.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

modifying the emergency call to include the physical location information.

20. The method of claim 15, where identifying the physical location of the routing device comprises:

transmitting a query from the server to the routing device; and

receiving, responsive to the query, an identity of the routing device.

21. A system for interfacing an Internet protocol (IP)-enabled call to an emergency communication system, comprising:

a server to implement;

means for registering in a database, a physical location of a routing device via which the IP-enabled call is received;

means for correlating a public safety answering point (PSAP) associated with the emergency communication system to the routing device;

means for determining whether the IP-enabled call originated from a fixed location;

means for determining, when the emergency call originated from the fixed location, whether the IP-enabled call includes at least one of an automatic number identification (ANI) or automatic location information (ANI);

means for attaching, when the emergency call did not originate from the fixed location or the IP-enabled call does not include the at least one of the ANI or the ALI, information identifying the PSAP to the IP-enabled call; and

means for forwarding the IP-enabled call based on the information identifying the PSAP.