IMS Emergency Session Privacy Indicator Handling
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Solution Overview
Problem
User equipment (UE) may not recognize emergency calls made in foreign countries, leading to inadequate handling of such calls, including failure to provide relevant information to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and lack of priority in congested networks.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating an indicator in SIP messages to identify emergency calls, which can be encoded in various forms such as SIP headers, URIs, or XML bodies, allowing UE to recognize and treat emergency calls appropriately, including alerting users and providing location information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If UE uses standard SIP protocol without emergency indicators, then device complexity is reduced, but emergency call recognition fails in foreign countries
Solution Approach 1:
The patent embeds emergency call indicators within existing SIP message structures by nesting them as header fields, URI parameters, or XML body elements. This allows the UE to recognize emergency calls in foreign countries without adding separate communication protocols, thereby improving reliability while minimizing the increase in device complexity through structured integration.
2Measurement precision
If UE provides detailed location information to PSAP, then emergency response accuracy is improved, but user privacy is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different privacy protection levels to different types of location information based on local regulations and user preferences. The UE can provide precise location data when required by local emergency services while masking or omitting sensitive personal identifiers, thereby achieving measurement precision for emergency response while protecting user privacy through differentiated information disclosure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary privacy policies that are configured before emergency calls are made. These policies pre-determine which location information should be shared and which should be protected, allowing the UE to automatically apply appropriate privacy settings during emergency situations without real-time user input, thus balancing location accuracy with privacy protection.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If UE requests privacy in emergency session, then personal information protection is improved, but PSAP receives insufficient data for effective response
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments location and personal information into different categories with different privacy protection levels. Critical emergency response data such as geographic location and contact information can be shared with PSAP, while sensitive personal identifiers remain protected. This segmentation allows the UE to request privacy for certain information while still providing sufficient data for effective emergency response.
Data Source
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AI summary
A network component is provided that includes a processor configured, upon the network component receiving an IMS (Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem) emergency call from a user equipment (UE) 110, to detect in the emergency call an indicator requesting the network component to restrict presentation of private information related to the UE 110. The processor is further configured, when the indicator is present, to transmit the emergency call without at least some of the private information to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) 130.