Systems and methods for providing 9-1-1 services to nomadic internet telephony callers

• US 8,605,864 B2
• Filed: 06/09/2011
• Issued: 12/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures II LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Intellectual Ventures II LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Colunga, Elizabeth Anita
• Primary Examiner(s): WOO, STELLA L
• Application Number:
  US13/156,973
• Publication Number:
  US 20110235633A1
• Time in Patent Office: 915 Days
• Field of Search: 379/45, 379 37- 40, 379/90.01, 370/352
• US Class Current: 379/45
• 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: 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 7/006 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 system for facilitating 9-1-1 service delivery to internet telephony customers is provided. The system includes a server device for receiving a 9-1-1 call from a user device via a data network, where the 9-1-1 call are based on “9-1-1” digits dialed at the user device. The server device is configured to forward the received 9-1-1 call to an operator services interface operatively connected to the server device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a server device, information indicative of an emergency call initiated from a particular device;

determining, at the server device, that the particular device is not associated with a fixed geographic location; and

in response to the determining, forwarding the emergency call to a computer device in order to identify an emergency service provider for the emergency call.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the determining includes identifying that the particular device is a mobile device;

and

wherein the forwarding the emergency call to a computer device includes forwarding the emergency call to a computer device of an operator.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining is based on a user-maintained profile associated with the device.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein the determining includes identifying that the device is a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) device that is not indicated as being fixed to a geographic location.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the information indicative of the emergency call includes receiving information indicative of a “

9-1-1”

call from a VoIP device that is not associated with a fixed geographic location.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the forwarding the emergency call to a computer device includes forwarding the “

9-1-1”

call to a computer device of an emergency operator for determination of a corresponding geographic location.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the forwarding the “

9-1-1”

call includes forwarding the “

9-1-1”

call via a Public Switched Telephone Network.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable memory medium having stored thereon instructions that are executable by a computing device to cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving information indicative of an emergency call initiated by a first device;

determining that the first device is not associated with a fixed geographic location; and

in response to the determining that the first device is not associated with a fixed geographic location, forwarding the emergency call to a second device in order to determine an emergency service provider for the emergency call.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable memory medium of claim 8,

wherein the determining that the first device is not associated with a fixed geographic location comprises determining that the first device is a mobile device that is not associated with a fixed location.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable memory medium of claim 8,

wherein the determining that the first device is not associated with a fixed geographic location is based on a user-maintained profile associated with the first device.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8,

wherein the determining that the first device is not associated with a fixed geographic location comprises determining that the first device is a VoIP device that is not associated with a fixed geographic location.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable memory medium of claim 8, wherein the receiving the information indicative of the emergency call initiated by the first device includes receiving information indicative of a “

9-1-1”

call initiated by a mobile device.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable memory medium of claim 8,

wherein the forwarding the emergency call to the second device includes forwarding the emergency call via a Public Switched Telephone Network to a computer device of an emergency operator for determination of a corresponding geographic location.

14. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory coupled to the one or more processors, wherein the memory stores instructions executable by the apparatus to cause the apparatus to perform operations comprising;

receiving information indicative of an emergency call initiated from a device;

determining, in response to receiving the set of dialed digits, whether the device is associated with a fixed geographic region;

processing the emergency call in a first manner in cases where the device is determined to be a non-fixed device that is not associated with a fixed geographic location; and

processing the emergency call in a second manner in cases where the device is determined to be a fixed device that is associated with a fixed geographic location.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, where processing the set of dialed digits in the first manner includes:

forwarding the emergency call to a computer device in order to determine an emergency service provider for the emergency call.

16. The method of claim 14, where processing the set of dialed digits in the second manner includes:

forwarding the emergency call to an emergency service provider associated with the fixed geographic location.

17. The method of claim 16, where processing the set of dialed digits in the second manner further includes:

determining the fixed geographic location.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, where the emergency call is a “

9-1-1”

call.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, where the device includes a Voice over Internet Protocol device.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, where the determining is based on a user-maintained profile associated with the device.