APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR TRANSMISSION OF EMERGENCY CALL DATA OVER WIRELESS NETWORKS

• US 20130003611A1
• Filed: 09/10/2012
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hans Martin
• Original Assignee: Hans Martin
• Inventors: Hans, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 9,220,002 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/259
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• 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: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5116 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• 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 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/15 Setup of multiple wireless link connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for providing useful data in association with a high-priority call such as an emergency call. In one embodiment, the data comprises a data (e.g., an MSD or FSD) embedded within one or more real-time protocol packets such as RTP Control Protocol (RTCP) packets, that are interspersed within the voice or user data stream (carried in e.g., RTP packets) of an emergency call. Apparatus and methods are described for transmitting the data portion reliably from the initiating terminal (e.g., an in-vehicle system) to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), by using the same transport connection as the user data.

Claims

1. A method of providing an emergency call within a network configured for substantially real-time packet-switched operation, the emergency call comprising a composite stream having a first stream and one or more second streams, the method comprising:

providing the first stream in a substantially continuous manner;

providing the one or more second streams;

forming the composite stream using at least the first stream and the one or more second streams;

establishing a session, wherein the session is additionally adapted to route the composite stream; and

transmitting the composite stream via the session.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the session comprises a real-time session established utilizing a session initiation protocol.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first stream is comprised of a plurality of voice packets, and the one or more second streams is comprised of a plurality of data packets.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the providing the first stream in a substantially continuous manner is comprised of substantially continuously encoding a voice signal to produce the voice packets.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing the one or more second streams is performed in a substantially discontinuous or non-constant manner.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the providing the one or more second streams in a substantially discontinuous manner comprises providing data from at least one source only periodically or intermittently.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the data comprises location data, and the at least one source comprises a GPS receiver.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the composite stream, the first stream and the one or more second streams are packetized.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the act of forming comprises forming the composite stream by interspersing one or more packets of the first stream, with one or more packets of the second stream.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the interspersing is performed using a multiplexing algorithm.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the forming the composite stream using at least the first stream and the one or more second streams comprises:

disposing at least portions of the first stream in a plurality of RTP packets;

disposing at least portions of the one or more second streams in a plurality of RTCP packets; and

interspersing the RTP packets with the RTCP packets.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the network comprises a 3GPP IMS-compliant cellular network, and the session is established utilizing the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

13-39. -39. (canceled)

40. A method of routing an emergency call from a source to a destination, the method comprising:

determining if both circuit-switched and packet-switched network routes are available to route the call;

when both the routes are available;

(i) evaluating at least one of the routes against at least one selection criterion;

(ii) selecting one of the routes based at least in part on the evaluating; and

(iii) routing the call over the selected route; and

when only the packet-switched route is available, routing the call over the packet switched route.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the act of evaluating further comprises determining network congestion of the at least one of the routes.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein the circuit-switched network route is only evaluated when an evaluated packet-switched network route exceeds a congestion threshold.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the act of determining network congestion is based at least in part on determining a latency associated with a packet transport.

44. The method of claim 41, wherein when a circuit-switched network route is evaluated, the network congestion is determined based at least in part on a time period to establish an end-to-end circuit connection.

45. A network controller apparatus for routing emergency data over a multi-mode wireless network, the network controller comprising;

at least two network interfaces;

a processor in data communication with the at least two network interfaces;

logic in data communication with the processor and the at least two network interfaces, the logic configured to;

determine an availability of a packet-switched network route and a circuit-switched network route to route emergency data;

when both the network routes are available;

evaluate at least one of the network routes against one or more route selection criteria;

select a network route based at least in part of the evaluation; and

route the emergency data over the selected network route; and

when only one of the network routes is available, route the emergency data over the available network route.

46. The network controller apparatus of claim 45, wherein the one or more route selection criteria comprises at least a network congestion threshold.

47. The network controller apparatus of claim 45, wherein when the packet-switched network is selected, the emergency data is configured to comprise a composite data stream comprising a first continuous stream and at least one second stream.