Emergency assistance calling for voice over IP communications systems

摘要

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a process for handling emergency calls from a caller in a voice over IP system is described. The process involves receiving a routing request message including a caller identifier and a callee identifier. The process also involves setting an emergency call flag active in response to the callee identifier matching an emergency call identifier pre-associated with the caller. The process further involves producing an emergency response center identifier in response to the emergency call identifier. The process also involves determining whether the caller identifier is associated with a pre-associated direct inward dialing (DID) identifier. The process further involves producing a direct inward dialing (DID) identifier for the caller by associating a temporary DID identifier with the caller identifier when the emergency call flag is active and it is determined that the caller has no pre-associated DID. The process also involves producing a routing message including the emergency response center identifier and the temporary DID identifier for receipt by a routing controller operable to cause a route to be established between the caller and the emergency response center.

主权项

1. A process for routing emergency communications having a caller identifier associated with a caller and a callee identifier associated with a callee, the process comprising:
receiving a routing request including the caller identifier and the callee identifier; using the caller identifier to identify a unique dialing profile associated with the caller from among a plurality of dialing profiles that are persistently stored in a memory, each dialing profile associated with a particular caller, and each dialing profile including an emergency call identifier and an emergency response center identifier both having been assigned to each particular caller, wherein the emergency call identifier is selected and stored in the dialing profile corresponding to each particular caller prior to any emergency call being made, and wherein each dialing profile includes a username and a user domain, wherein the emergency call identifier is one among a set of predefined emergency call identifiers, each predefined emergency call identifier being exclusive to one or more countries; when said callee identifier matches said emergency call identifier:
producing a routing message for receipt by a call controller operable to cause a route to be established between the caller and an emergency response center, said routing message having a first portion and a second portion, said first portion including said emergency response center identifier; andinitiating a search of a direct inward dial (DID) database for a DID record associating a DID identifier with said caller, wherein each of the DID records stored in the DID database comprise a username, a user domain and a DID identifier, and wherein each particular caller has optionally been pre-assigned to one of the DID records stored in the DID database, and
when said search finds a DID record having the same username and user domain as the dialing profile of the particular caller and associating a DID identifier with said caller, causing said second portion to include said DID identifier from said DID record, andwhen said search does not find a DID record associating a DID identifier with said caller, associating a temporary DID identifier with said caller and causing said second portion to include said temporary DID identifier.