METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HANDLING EMERGENCY CALLS

• US 20120295577A1
• Filed: 08/02/2012
• Published: 11/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: OLSSON, Magnus, BUSIN, Ake, TERRILL, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 8,503,976 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/404.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1016 IP multimedia subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1096 Supplementary features, e.g. call forwarding or call holding systems providing special services or facilities to telephony subscribers H04M3/42
• 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 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A method and apparatus for providing location information for subscribers connected to a packet-switched mobile access network in connection with emergency calls made over a multimedia service network. An emergency request is received at the multimedia service network from a subscriber containing the calling number of the subscriber. In response thereto, a media gateway control function in the multimedia service network sends a location query including said calling number to a mobile positioning centre in the mobile access network, which then can retrieve location information for the subscriber. After receiving location information from the mobile positioning centre, the media gateway control function selects an emergency centre and sends a location indication for the subscriber thereto in a circuit-switched control message for initiating an emergency call, according to prevailing standards.

Claims

1. A method, executed in a multimedia service network, of providing location information for subscribers connected to a packet-switched mobile access network, comprising the following steps:

receiving an emergency request from a subscriber containing a calling number,

sending a location query for said calling number to a mobile positioning centre in the mobile access network if more detailed location information is needed,

receiving location information for the subscriber in response to the location query, and

providing a location indication for the subscriber to a selected emergency centre in a circuit-switched control message, according to prevailing standards for initiating a circuit-switched emergency call.