Emergency services routing proxy cluster management

• US 8,929,856 B1
• Filed: 02/07/2014
• Issued: 01/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions Connectivity Incorporated (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cassidian Communications Incorporated (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV)
• Inventors: Kamboh, Ameel, Wellonen, Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): El-Zoobi, Maria
• Application Number:
  US14/175,872
• Time in Patent Office: 333 Days
• Field of Search: 379 37- 52
• US Class Current: 455/404.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1895 for short real-time information, e.g. alarms, notifications, alerts, updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/385 Uniform resource identifier for session initiation protocol [SIP URI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0661 by reconfiguring faulty entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0668 by dynamic selection of recovery network elements, e.g. replacement by the most appropriate element after failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0853 by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/3065 for real time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/46 Cluster building
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/2416 Real-time traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4511 using domain name system [DNS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/288 Distributed intermediate devices, i.e. intermediate devices for interaction with other intermediate devices on the same level
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5116 : for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0075 : Details of addressing, directories or routing tables
• 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 76/50 : for emergency connections

Abstract

Systems and methods for clustering emergency services routing proxies are provided. The described features allow a group of ESRPs running as individual servers or a group of virtual servers, to be referenced using a single URI. In one implementation, an emergency services routing proxy device includes an emergency services routing proxy node configured to route a call to a downstream entity, the call received from an upstream entity. The device further includes a cluster manager configured to receive registration information from the emergency services routing proxy node, the registration information including a routing service identifier. The cluster manager may be further configured to identify the emergency services routing proxy node for call routing based on a comparison of an identifier included in the call with the routing service identifier.

Claims

1. An emergency services routing proxy device, the device including:

a first emergency services routing proxy node and a second emergency services routing proxy node, the first emergency services routing proxy node and the second emergency services routing proxy node configured to route calls to a downstream entity, the calls received from an upstream entity; and

a cluster manager configured to;

receive first registration information from the first emergency services routing proxy node, the first registration information including a routing service identifier;

receive second registration information from the second emergency services routing proxy node, the second registration information including the routing service identifier;

receive node status information from nodes associated with the routing service identifier, the nodes including the first emergency services routing proxy node and the second emergency services routing proxy node;

generate a service status message based on the received node status information and a status policy;

transmit the service status message to the upstream entity; and

identify the first emergency services routing proxy node or the second emergency services proxy node to provide the routing service for a call, the identifying based on;

a service identifier included in the call;

the first registration information; and

the second registration information.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the downstream entity includes at least one of another emergency services routing proxy or a public safety answering point.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the call is a session initiation protocol call.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the routing service identifier and the identifier included in the call include a uniform resource identifier (URI).

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the upstream entity includes at least one of a call originating device or another emergency services routing proxy.

6. The device of claim 1, further comprising a load balancer coupled with the cluster manager, the load balancer configured to identify a node based on a load balancing policy, wherein the cluster manager is further configured to identify the first emergency services routing proxy node or the second emergency services proxy node via the load balancer.

7. The device of claim 6, further comprising:

a first database server associated with the first emergency services routing proxy node, the first database server including routing policy data; and

a second database server associated with the second emergency services routing proxy node, the second database server including the routing policy data,

wherein the first database server and the second database server are configured to replicate routing policy data such that the routing policy data included in database servers is identical.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the node status information includes at least one of node load, a number of active calls for the node, node memory usage, node network bandwidth, and node routing time.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein the status policy associates a service status with aggregated node status information values, and wherein the service status message includes the service status.

10. The device of claim 1 further comprising:

a first manager database server configured to store the registration information;

a second cluster manager; and

a second manager database server associated with the second cluster manager and configured to store the first registration information and the second registration information,

wherein the first manager database server and the second manager database server are configured for mutual replication, and

wherein the second cluster manager is configured to replace the cluster manager upon detecting a failure of the cluster manager.

11. A method of emergency services call routing, the method comprising:

receiving, at an electronic device including a cluster management processor, first registration information from a first emergency services routing proxy node, the first registration information including a routing service identifier;

receiving second registration information from a second emergency service routing proxy node, the second registration information including the routing service identifier;

receiving node status information from nodes associated with the routing service identifier, the nodes including the first emergency services routing proxy node and the second emergency services routing proxy node;

generating a service status message based on the received node status information and a status policy;

transmitting the service status message to the upstream entity;

receiving a call including a service identifier; and

identifying the first emergency services routing proxy node or the second emergency services proxy node to provide the routing service for the call, the identifying based on;

the service identifier included in the call;

the first registration information; and

the second registration information.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising providing the call to the identified one of the first emergency services routing proxy node or the second emergency services proxy node.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the call is a session initiation protocol call.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the routing service identifier comprises a uniform resource identifier (URI).

15. The method of claim 11, wherein identifying the first emergency services routing proxy node or the second emergency services proxy node to provide the routing service for the call comprises:

receiving a load balancing policy;

receiving node information from one or more of the first emergency services routing proxy node and the second emergency services proxy node; and

identifying the first emergency services routing proxy node or the second emergency services proxy node further based on the load balancing policy and the received node information.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein a first routing service identifier is received from the first emergency services routing proxy node, the first routing service identifier associated with a first tenant of the first emergency services routing proxy node, and

wherein a second routing service identifier is received from the first emergency services routing proxy node, the second routing service identifier associated with a second tenant of the first emergency services routing proxy node.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein emergency services routing nodes associated with the routing service identifier are each configured to route the call to the same downstream entity.

18. An emergency services routing proxy device, the device including:

a plurality of means for routing calls to a downstream entity, the calls received from an upstream entity;

means for receiving registration information from said plurality of means for routing calls, wherein registration information for a first means for routing calls includes a routing service identifier and registration information for a second means for routing calls includes the routing service identifier;

means for providing a service status message for a routing service associated with the routing service identifier, said means for providing the service status message configured to;

receive node status information from nodes associated with the routing service identifier, the nodes including the first emergency services routing proxy node and the second emergency services routing proxy node;

generate a service status message based on the received node status information and a status policy; and

transmit the service status message to the upstream entity; and

means for identifying one of the plurality of means for routing calls to provide the routing service for a call, the identifying based a service identifier included in the call and the registration information received from said plurality of means for routing calls.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the node status information includes at least one of node load, a number of active calls for the node, node memory usage, node network bandwidth, and node routing time.

20. The device of claim 18, wherein the status policy associates a service status with aggregated node status information values, and wherein the service status message includes the service status.