Enhanced emergency service provider

• US 8,027,658 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2004
• Issued: 09/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sbc Knowledge Ventures, L.P.
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Grannan, Michael F., Suryanarayana, Lalitha, Gorti, Sreenivasa Rao
• Primary Examiner(s): Appiah; Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sabouri; Mazda
• Application Number:
  US11/010,180
• Publication Number:
  US 20060128357A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,482 Days
• Field of Search: 379/37, 379/45, 455/404.2, 455/404.1
• US Class Current: 455/404.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• 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

A service enhancement to emergency-911 capability involves a new entity termed an EESP which implements and operates a system that communicates subscriber-specific emergency information portably linked to subscriber identity in a timely fashion to emergency care providers.

Claims

1. An enhanced emergency service comprising:

a subscriber emergency database hosted by a service provider and including subscriber emergency information, wherein the subscriber emergency database comprises an identifier associated with each subscriber, and wherein two or more subscribers may be associated with a particular identifier;

a validation module hosted by the service provider to automatically validate at least a portion of the subscriber emergency information of one or more subscribers against at least one of insurance information for the one or more subscribers and government information for the one or more subscribers; and

a session initiation protocol proxy hosted by the service provider, wherein the session initiation protocol proxy sends a uniform resource locator identifying the subscriber emergency database as part of a session initiation protocol signaling message to a public safety answering position, wherein the uniform resource locator identifying the subscriber emergency database is received at the session initiation protocol proxy as part of a session initiation protocol invite message received from a session initiation protocol client.

2. The enhanced emergency service of claim 1, wherein the session initiation protocol client resides on a subscriber communication device, wherein a communications network is adapted to connect the subscriber communication device with an emergency care provider, wherein the communications network supports voice over internet protocol communication.

3. The enhanced emergency service of claim 2, wherein the subscriber communication device supports a smart card to provide portability of access to the subscriber emergency database across devices and networks on the basis of a subscriber identity associated with the subscriber communication device.

4. The enhanced emergency service of claim 1, wherein the subscriber emergency information is included in a federated database.

5. The enhanced emergency service of claim 1, wherein the subscriber emergency database is at least partially federated.

6. The enhanced emergency service of claim 5, wherein federation of the subscriber emergency database is based upon user-specified rules or preferences regarding privacy and sharing of information included in the subscriber emergency database.

7. The enhanced emergency service of claim 1, wherein a time sensitive passcode or key is used for access authorization to the subscriber emergency database wherein the time sensitive passcode or key is not a session key.

8. The enhanced emergency service of claim 1, further comprising an updating module to automatically update the subscriber emergency information.

9. The enhanced emergency service of claim 1, further comprising a radio component portable across communication devices to portably link a particular subscriber identity to particular subscriber emergency information.

20. The enhanced emergency service of claim 1, further comprising a subscriber-enhanced emergency service provider mapping database accessible to a network service provider to identify the service provider associated with the identifier.

10. A system to provide enhanced emergency service, the system comprising:

at least one communications network element comprising a network service provider system adapted to;

identify an enhanced emergency service provider associated with a device that initiates an emergency communication, wherein the enhanced emergency service provider maintains a subscriber emergency information database;

determine an identifier of the subscriber emergency information database based on the device;

determine whether the identifier is associated with more than one subscriber; and

send a uniform resource locator identifying the subscriber emergency information database as part of a session initiation protocol signaling message to a public safety answering position, wherein the uniform resource locator identifying the subscriber emergency information database is received at a session initiation protocol proxy as art of a session initiation protocol invite message received from a session initiation protocol client.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one communications network element supports voice over internet protocol communication, and wherein the at least one communications network element further comprises a communications terminal having a resident session initiation protocol client.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one communications network element is adapted to route the emergency communication comprising information related to the enhanced emergency service provider to an emergency care provider, and wherein the at least one communications network element is further adapted to send an out of band query to a third party database to look up information related to the enhanced emergency service provider.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising a cross reference database that identifies all enhanced emergency service provider subscribers for a network service provider to identify a particular enhanced emergency service provider associated with a particular subscriber identity.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one communications network element is accessible to a communication terminal that maintains a particular subscriber'"'"'s profile identifying a particular subscriber'"'"'s enhanced emergency service provider, and which has a resident session initiation protocol client, and wherein the particular subscriber'"'"'s profile is provided to the network service provider system as part of a session initiation protocol invite for the emergency communication.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising an interactive voice response system to update the subscriber emergency information database.

16. The system of claim 10, further comprising a voice activated user interface to update the subscriber emergency information database.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the subscriber emergency information database is automatically updated and validated from other online information.

18. A method for providing an enhanced emergency service, the method comprising:

receiving a voice over internet protocol call that includes a first identifier;

correlating the first identifier with a first enhanced emergency service provider obtained from an enhanced service provider mapping database;

determining whether the first identifier is associated with more than one subscriber; and

sending a uniform resource locator identifying a subscriber emergency information database hosted by the first enhanced emergency service provider as part of a session initiation protocol signaling message to a public safety answering position, wherein the uniform resource locator identifying the subscriber emergency information database is received at a session initiation protocol proxy as part of a session initiation protocol invite message received from a session initiation protocol client.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

correlating a second identifier with a second enhanced emergency service provider provided by the enhanced service provider mapping database.

21. A system comprising:

an emergency service provider system having access to at least one subscriber emergency information database and having access to a network to receive emergency calls from a subscriber, wherein the at least one subscriber emergency information database includes subscriber emergency information associated with the subscriber and access to the subscriber emergency information in the subscriber emergency information database for the subscriber is based upon specified rules or preferences retrievable from the subscriber emergency information database and relating to privacy and information sharing regarding when and how information is to be disseminated to emergency care providers;

an interactive voice response system to receive information from the subscriber to update the subscriber emergency information for the subscriber; and

a session initiation protocol proxy configured to send a uniform resource locator identifying the subscriber emergency information database as part of a session initiation protocol signaling message to a public safety answering position, wherein the uniform resource locator identifying the subscriber emergency information database is received at the session initiation protocol proxy as part of a session initiation protocol invite message received from a session initiation protocol client.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the emergency service provider system has access to a subscriber-enhanced emergency service provider mapping database.

23. A method comprising:

receiving an emergency call from a device associated with a plurality of subscribers;

retrieving an enhanced emergency service provider identifier of an enhanced emergency service provider associated with the plurality of subscribers from a subscriber-enhanced emergency service provider mapping database in response to the emergency call; and

sending a uniform resource locator identifying a subscriber emergency information database hosted by the enhanced emergency service provider as part of a session initiation protocol signaling message to a public safety answering position, wherein the uniform resource locator identifying the subscriber emergency information database is received at a session initiation protocol proxy as part of a session initiation protocol invite message received from a session initiation protocol client.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising routing subscriber-specific emergency information from the subscriber emergency information database associated with the enhanced emergency service provider, to the public safety answering position, in response to a query received from the public safety answering position.