Systems, methods, devices and arrangements for emergency call services

• US 8,879,540 B1
• Filed: 06/03/2010
• Issued: 11/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 8X8, Inc.
• Original Assignee: 8X8, Inc.
• Inventors: Martin, Bryan, Judge, Garth
• Primary Examiner(s): JENSEN, NICHOLAS A
• Application Number:
  US12/793,343
• Time in Patent Office: 1,615 Days
• Field of Search: 370/352, 455/456.2, 455/457, 455/466
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A variety of methods, systems, devices and arrangements are implemented for emergency call centers. According to one such method, a location database is populated from a plurality of endpoint devices. The location database determines locations for nodes in a data transmission route from information received from the endpoint devices. Emergency calls using these nodes are located using the populated database.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an endpoint device, having;

a location circuit configured and arranged to provide physical location data about the physical location of the endpoint device;

one or more external ports for communicating data to an external network; and

a processing circuit configured and arranged to transmit one or more populating data packets, containing the physical location data about the physical location of the endpoint device, to a remote location-determination server; and

a location-determination server configured and arranged to;

in response to receiving the one or more populating data packets from one of the endpoint device;

calculate respective physical locations for one or more nodes in a transmission route between the endpoint device and the location-determination server as a function of the physical location data in the one or more populating data packets and connectivity of the nodes in the transmission route; and

store the calculated physical location of the nodes in the transmission route; and

in response to an emergency call from a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) device;

identify one or more nodes in a transmission route used to send data from the VoIP device;

retrieve the stored physical location for the identified nodes;

determine a probable physical location for the VoIP device as a function of the stored location data for the identified nodes and a probable location algorithm; and

provide the determined probable physical location for the VoIP device to an emergency operator; and

wherein the endpoint device is configured and arranged to;

transmit a data packet to at least two network access points without establishing a bidirectional communication with the at least two network access points, the data packet including

a unique identifier of the endpoint device, and

a request for the network access point receiving the request to send a data transmission that includes the unique identifier to the location determination server that is remote from the network access point, and for the network access point to add a respective identifier of the access point to the data transmission; and

subsequent to transmission of the data packet, transmit the one or more populating data packets to the location-determination server with information correlating the physical location data in the one or more populating data packets with the unique identifier of the endpoint device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein

the endpoint device is configured and arranged to insert security information into the one or more populating data packets, and

the location-determination server is configured and arranged to, in response to receiving the one or more populating data packets from the endpoint device, authenticate the endpoint device based upon the security information, and

the probable location algorithm is configured and arranged to:

assign respective weightings to the calculated physical locations of the nodes based on a degree of certainty of the location data, the location data of the endpoint device having a greater certainty than other end point devices that also provide populating data packets to the location-determination server,

in response to subsequent populating data packets received by the location-determination server, recalculate the physical locations for the nodes a function of the physical location data in the subsequent populating data packets, connectivity of the nodes in the transmission route, and the previously calculated locations of the nodes, and the assigned weightings of the previously calculated locations of the nodes.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the location-determination server is further configured and arranged to use physical location data obtained from the endpoint device as a training dataset for a learning algorithm that defines the probable location algorithm.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit of the endpoint device is further configured to provide feedback to users of the endpoint device in the form of a competitive system linked to a social networking online application.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the location-determination server is further configured to update a current calculated physical location for the one or more of the identified nodes in the transmission route based upon receipt of additional populating data packets and a parameter representing resistance to change from the current calculated physical location.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the calculated physical location for one of the identified nodes in the transmission route is a geographic area determined as a function of the probability that an endpoint device connected to one of the identified nodes in the transmission route is within the geographic area.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit of the endpoint device is configured to encrypt data about nodes in a local-area-network (LAN) near the endpoint device and to include the encrypted data in a populating data packet.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

one or more servers configured and arranged to

provide VoIP services to a plurality of endpoint devices including the endpoint device;

identify a request for emergency services from at least one endpoint device of the plurality of endpoint devices;

identify nodes used to transmit from the at least one endpoint device to the one or more servers;

determine a location information for the at least one endpoint device as a function of the identified nodes;

identify an Automatic Number Identification (ANI) number, other than a telephone number assigned to the at least one endpoint device, as a function of the determined location information; and

connect the at least one endpoint device to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) service while providing the identified ANI number thereto.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more servers are further configured and arranged to link the identified ANI number to the at least one endpoint device and, in response to a call from the PSAP service to the ANI number, connect the call from the PSAP service to the at least one endpoint device.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more servers are further configured and arranged to identify the ANI number as a function of the type of the at least one endpoint device from which the request for emergency services originated.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more servers are further configured and arranged to provide additional information about the at least one endpoint device to the PSAP service using an Internet Protocol connection thereto.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein different ones of the one or more servers are associated with different VoIP providers for corresponding ones of the plurality of endpoint devices and wherein the one or more servers are further configured and arranged to identify the ANI number as a function of a respective VoIP provider that corresponds to the at least one endpoint device.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more servers are further configured and arranged to identify the ANI number from a set of ANI numbers reserved for VoIP calls.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more servers are further configured and arranged to identify the ANI number from a set of ANI numbers reserved for VoIP calls and to provide a web-accessible access point for a PSAP operator to access additional information about the at least one endpoint device.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein

the location-determination sever is further configured to provide the determined probable physical location of the VoIP device to the VoIP device;

and

the VoIP device is configured to provide an interface for a user to confirm the probable physical location of the VoIP device.

16. An endpoint device comprising:

one or more communication ports for connecting to network access points;

a processing circuit that includes a processor and a non-transitory storage medium, the non-transitory storage medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor perform the steps of;

transmitting a data packet to at least two of the network access points without establishing a bidirectional communication with the at least two network access points,

the data packet including;

a unique identifier of the endpoint device;

a request to send the data packet to a location-determination server that is remote from the network access point that received the data packet; and

a request for the network access point that received the data packet and each node on a transmission path of the data packet from the network access point to the location-determination server to add a respective unique identifier to the data packet, thereby causing that the data packet received by the location-determination server to include unique identifiers the endpoint device, the network access point and each of the nodes; and

subsequent to transmitting of the data packet, transmitting location information to the location-determination server with information correlating the location information with the unique identifier of the endpoint device.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the step of transmitting location information includes:

selecting a subset of parameters from a set of parameters providing location information; and

sending the location information in response to the selected subset of parameters.

18. The device of claim 16, wherein the step of transmitting the data packet to the at least two of the network access points is implemented using a protocol that places a limit on an amount of data that can be transmitted by any one endpoint device.

19. The device of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to obtain a new unique identifier after expiration of a set time limit.

20. The device of claim 18, wherein the step of transmitting the data packet to the network access is implemented using a protocol that places a limit on types of data packets that may be transmitted by the endpoint device.

21. The device of claim 16, wherein the step of transmitting location information to the location-determination server is carried out using a communication path that does not include any of the network access points.

22. The device of claim 16, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to generate multiple unique identifiers and correlate each unique identifier with different location information.