Identification of public safety answering platform next generation 911 media support

• US 8,699,672 B1
• Filed: 08/20/2012
• Issued: 04/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Schumacher, Gregory
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, QUOC DUC
• Application Number:
  US13/589,780
• Time in Patent Office: 603 Days
• Field of Search: 379/45, 379/22.01, 379/26.01, 455/404.1, 455/404.2
• US Class Current: 379/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2254 in networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42357 where the information is provided to a monitoring entity such as a potential calling party or a call processing server
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5116 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A method, system, and medium are provided for generating a profile for public safety answering platforms. The profile identifies media formats supported by the PSAPs at various cell sector locations maintained by a network provider. A network server selects a cell sector and generates a test emergency services call. The test emergency services call is transmitted to a PSAP. The PSAP generates a response that indicates whether the PSAP supports a media format identified in the test emergency services call. The PSAP transmits the response to the network server for storage in the profile.

Claims

1. Non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed, perform a method to identify public safety answering platform (PSAP) capabilities for emergency service calls, the method comprising:

selecting a cell sector maintained by a network provider;

generating a test emergency services call;

transmitting the test emergency services call to a PSAP associated with the selected cell sector; and

receiving a response from the PSAP that indicates whether the PSAP supports a media format identified in the test emergency services call.

2. The media of claim 1, wherein each cell sector maintained by the network provider is identified in a separate test emergency services call.

3. The media of claim 1, wherein the test emergency services call is a session description protocol (SDP) message.

4. The media of claim 1, wherein the test emergency services call is a session initiation protocol (SIP) message.

5. The media of claim 1, wherein the test emergency services call identifies at least one media format that is supported by the network provider.

6. The media of claim 1, wherein the test emergency services call identifies at least two media formats that are supported by the network provider, wherein the two media formats may be transmitted at the same time to the PSAP.

7. The media of claim 1, wherein the media formats include push to talk (PTT), text, video, voice, instant messaging, email, two way communication, and one way communication.

8. The media of claim 1, wherein the test emergency services call is transmitted to a loopback interface of the PSAP.

9. The media of claim 1, further comprising:

extracting PSAP identifiers from the response; and

creating a PSAP profile that includes the identifiers and media support information for each cell sector.

10. The media of claim 9, further comprising:

storing the PSAP profile for each cell sector in a database.

11. Non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by a public safety answering platform, perform a method to generate a response to a test emergency services call received from a network server, the method comprising:

obtaining a test emergency service call at the PSAP;

extracting multimedia formats requested in the test emergency services call;

identifying current capabilities of the PSAP;

determining whether any of the current capabilities match the extracted multimedia formats;

generating a response that includes the matching capabilities; and

transmitting the response to the network server.

12. The media of claim 11, wherein the test emergency services call is a SDP message.

13. The media of claim 11, wherein the response is a SDP message.

14. The media of claim 11, wherein the response includes an identifier for the PSAP.

15. A communication system for building a public safety answering platform (PSAP) profile, the system comprising:

a network server configured to perform the following;

select a cell sector maintained by a network provider, generate a test emergency services call,

transmit the test emergency services call to a PSAP associated with the selected cell sector, and

receive a response from the PSAP, wherein the response indicates whether the PSAP supports a media format identified in the test emergency services call.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the PSAP executes the following:

obtain the test emergency service call, extract media formats requested in the test emergency services call;

identify current capabilities, determine whether any of the current capabilities match the extracted multimedia formats, and generate the response that includes the matching capabilities;

transmits the response to the network server.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

a database configured to store a PSAP identifier and corresponding media formats identified in the response generated by the PSAP.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the media formats include push to talk (PTT), text, video, voice, instant messaging, email, two way communication, and one way communication.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the test emergency services call is transmitted to a loopback interface of the PSAP.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the response is a SDP message.