Emergency Routing via B2BUA Location Transformation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for routing emergency communications to public safety answering points (PSAPs) face challenges due to reliance on pseudo-ANI values, which can lead to inaccurate geographic location determination, increased bandwidth consumption, and delays, especially with the advent of wireless communication, where precise location information may not always be available.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a back-to-back user agent (B2BUA) device within the emergency services network that transforms location reference data into geographic information, allowing for direct inclusion in signaling, and utilizes alternate location services like HELO or ELS for precise routing, eliminating the need for queries to ALI databases.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If pseudo-ANI values are used for routing emergency communications, then routing can be performed with available network information, but geographic location determination becomes inaccurate and bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an Alternate Location Service (ALS) server as an intermediary between the emergency communication system and location data sources. This ALS server receives requests from legacy network gateways, transforms pseudo-ANI values into accurate geographic locations using alternate location services, and returns the transformed location data. This intermediary approach resolves the contradiction by enabling accurate location determination without directly consuming excessive bandwidth in the core routing path.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transforms the routing parameter from pseudo-ANI values (which have poor location accuracy) to actual geographic location coordinates through the ALS server. This parameter transformation changes the nature of the routing key from a network identifier to a geographic identifier, thereby improving location determination accuracy while managing bandwidth consumption through efficient data transformation.
2Loss of time
If queries are made to ALI databases for location information, then routing decisions can be made, but network latency and query delays increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs location transformation preliminarily by having the ALS server convert pseudo-ANI values to geographic locations before the final routing decision is made. This preliminary transformation action ensures that accurate location data is ready in advance, reducing the need for multiple sequential queries to ALI databases during the time-critical routing phase.
Solution Approach 2:
The ALS server maintains continuous availability and readiness to transform location data, ensuring that the routing process can proceed without interruption or delay. By keeping the location transformation capability continuously available, the system avoids the stop-start nature of repeated ALI database queries, thereby reducing overall routing latency while maintaining accuracy.
3Productivity
If traditional routing methods are used with legacy network gateways, then system complexity is minimized, but location information accuracy and routing efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The ALS server acts as a specialized intermediary component that bridges traditional legacy network gateways and modern location-based routing requirements. This single intermediary addition enables accurate location-based routing without requiring complete system redesign, thus improving productivity while adding only minimal architectural complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The ALS server provides multi-functional capabilities by handling both the transformation of pseudo-ANI values and the provision of geographic location data in a single component. This universal function reduces the need for multiple separate systems, thereby improving routing efficiency without proportionally increasing overall system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and techniques for routing emergency communications to appropriate public safety answering points (PSAPs) based on location information associated with the communications are provided. Currently, only imprecise location information is available for call routing, and retrieving the imprecise location information requires a slow, expensive query to an automatic location identification (ALI) database. The present disclosure obtains location information that can be used for routing without performing the query to the ALI database, and also incorporates the use of precise location information available from mobile device providers (when available). Similar techniques for routing other types communications to other destination devices based on location information are also disclosed.