System and method for an emergency location information service (E-LIS)

• US 20070270164A1
• Filed: 05/15/2007
• Published: 11/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Everbridge Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Red Sky Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Mertka, William L., Maier, Nicholas M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,937,067 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.200
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• 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 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A method and system for determining a location of mobile and non-mobile devices in emergency situations. The method and system provide a current physical geographic location for a mobile or non-mobile device (e.g., building address, a building floor, a room on a building floor, campus, enterprise, city, state, region, country, continent, etc.) in an emergency situation. The method and system can also be used to provide a physical geographic location for a device for non-emergency situations.

Claims

1. A method for locating a wireless device using existing wireless communication networks, comprising:

sending from a wireless access point a plurality of outbound signals to a plurality of wireless network devices connected to a wireless communications network;

receiving on the wireless access point a plurality of inbound signals from the plurality of wireless network devices;

determining on the wireless access point a set of pre-determined coordinates for the plurality of wireless network devices from the plurality of inbound signals; and

determining a plurality of physical geographic locations for the plurality of wireless network devices using the set of pre-determined coordinates, wherein the plurality of physical locations are used to locate the plurality of wireless network devices when an emergency event occurs.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising a computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for causing one or more processors to execute the steps of the method.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of inbound signals and plural outbound signals include Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Session Description Protocol (SDP), Internet Protocol (IP), Media Access Control (MAC), Commercial Mobile Radio Services (CMRS), cellular telephone, Personal Communications Services network (PCS), Packet Cellular Network (PCN), Global System for Mobile Communications, (GSM), Generic Packet Radio Services (GPRS), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) or Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), IEEE 802.11xx, Global Positioning System (GPS) and GPS map, Digital GPS (DGPS), Instant Messaging (IM), Short Message Services (SMS), Radio Frequency Identifier (RFID) or Zigbee signals.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless access point includes an emergency location server device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of pre-determined coordinates includes a set of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and Media Access Control (MAC) addresses for the plurality of wireless devices.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of pre-determined coordinates includes a set of pre-assigned unique identifiers for the plurality of wireless devices including a set of Extensible Markup Language (XML) objects or a set of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising a wired access point and a plurality of wired network devices connected to a wired communications network.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the physical geographic locations includes a room on a building floor, building floor in a building, building on a street, an enterprise, campus, village, town, city, state, country or continent or global region.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the emergency event includes an E911 communication.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the step determining a plurality of physical geographic locations for the plurality of wireless network devices further includes using the plurality of physical locations to locate the plurality of wireless network devices for non-emergency events.

11. A method for locating a device during an emergency, comprising:

receiving on a network server device an emergency message from a first mobile network device via a communications network indicating an emergency event has occurred;

translating on the network server device information from the emergency message into a current physical geographic location for a first mobile network device, wherein the emergency message includes a unique identifier for the first mobile network device and the unique identifier is used to access information about the first mobile network device;

returning from the network server device the current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device in a signal via the communications network.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising a computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for causing one or more processors to execute the steps of the method.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the emergency message includes a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) relocation header and/or message body.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein emergency message includes a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) relocation header and message body with a Session Description Protocol (SDP) message within the message body.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the emergency message is received over a wireless interface including:

Commercial Mobile Radio Services (CMRS), cellular telephone, Personal Communications Services network (PCS), Packet Cellular Network (PCN), Global System for Mobile Communications, (GSM), Generic Packet Radio Services (GPRS), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) or Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), IEEE 802.11xx, Global Positioning System (GPS) and GPS map, Digital GPS (DGPS), Instant Messaging (IM), Short Message Services (SMS), Radio Frequency Identifier (RFID) or Zigbee wireless interface.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the translating step includes translating a set of coordinates in geo-space in the emergency message or retrieving from a database a set of previously stored coordinates for the first mobile network device using the unique identifier from the emergency message including an Internet Protocol (IP) address and Media Access Control (MAC) address into a current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the translating step includes translating a set of coordinates in geo-space in the emergency message or retrieving from a database a set of previously stored coordinates for the first mobile network device using the unique identifier including a Universal Resource Identifier (URI) for the first mobile network device.

18. A method for an emergency location information service (E-LIS), comprising:

sending from network server device a plurality of outbound signals to a plurality of target network devices connected to a communications network;

receiving on the network server device a plurality of inbound signals from the plurality of target network devices;

determining on the network server a device type for the plurality of target network devices, wherein the device type for the network device is used to determine a physical geographic location for the plurality of target network devices when an emergency event occurs.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising a computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for causing one or more processors to execute the steps of the method.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein the plural inbound and outbound signals include Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Internet Protocol (IP), Media Access Control (MAC), Commercial Mobile Radio Services (CMRS), cellular telephone, Personal Communications Services network (PCS), Packet Cellular Network (PCN), Global System for Mobile Communications, (GSM), Generic Packet Radio Services (GPRS), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) or Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), IEEE 802.11xx, Global Positioning System (GPS) and GPS map, Digital GPS (DGPS), Instant Messaging (IM), Short Message Services (SMS), Radio Frequency Identifier (RFID) or Zigbee signals.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein the device type includes a smart device wherein the smart device stores its own location information.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein the device type includes dumb network device where the dumb network device does not store its own location information.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the network server service device includes a proxy server network device that store location information for dumb network devices.

24. The method of claim 18 wherein the device type includes mobile phones, non-mobile phones, non-mobile computers, wireless devices, wired electronic devices, game devices, laptop computers, personal information devices, personal digital/data assistants (PDA), hand-held devices, network appliances, Internet appliances or two-way pagers.

25. The method of claim 18 wherein the emergency event includes an E911 communication event.

26. An emergency location information system (E-LIS), comprising in combination:

means for sending from a server network device a plurality of outbound signals to a plurality of target network devices connected to a communications network, for receiving on the server network device a plurality of inbound signals from the plurality of target network devices and for determining on the server network device a set of pre-determined coordinates for the plurality of target network devices from the plurality of inbound signals and for determining a plurality of physical geographic locations for the plurality of target network devices, wherein the plurality of physical locations are used to locate the plurality of target network devices when an emergency event occurs;

means for receiving on a network server device an emergency message from a network device via a communications network indicating an emergency event has occurred, for translating on the network server device information from the emergency message into a current physical geographic location for the network device, wherein the emergency message includes a unique identifier for the network device and the unique identifier is used to access information about the network device and for returning from the network server device the current physical geographic location for the network device in a signal via the communications network; and

means determining on the network server a device type for a plurality of target network devices, wherein the device type for a target network device is used to determine a physical geographic location for the target network device when an emergency event occurs.

28. The method of claim 26 wherein the emergency event includes an E911 communication event.

27. The system of 26 wherein the plural inbound and outbound signals include Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Internet Protocol (IP), Media Access Control (MAC), Commercial Mobile Radio Services (CMRS), cellular telephone, Personal Communications Services network (PCS), Packet Cellular Network (PCN), Global System for Mobile Communications, (GSM), Generic Packet Radio Services (GPRS), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) or Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), IEEE 802.11xx, Global Positioning System (GPS) and GPS map, Digital GPS (DGPS), Instant Messaging (IM), Short Message Services (SMS), Radio Frequency Identifier (RFID) or Zigbee signals.