Method and apparatus for aggregating information in a wireless communication system
View Patent ↗A Wireless Router (WR) aggregates information regarding the emergency calls based on their context and routes the aggregated emergency information to the correct portal which directs the aggregated emergency to appropriate Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). The information aggregation is automatically triggered when the number of calls exceeds the multihop capacity to the egress point. The PSAP responds to the emergency situation by sending a response message via the Portal. The WR multicast/broadcasts the response message to the mobile devices which initiated the emergency calls. The response message generally includes emergency instructions based on incident type and location. Further, a call-back list is created for users whose emergency calls were not completed. By using the call-back list PSAP personnel can initiate calls to end users to provide assistance in emergency situations.
1. A method of aggregating information at a wireless communication device in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
receiving a request for an emergency call;
estimating available bandwidth for the emergency call; and
when the estimated available bandwidth is less than a predetermined threshold or the wireless communication device has received an aggregation trigger:
extracting high level information from a plurality of emergency calls,
creating a multicast tree based on the extracted high level information,
aggregating emergency information based at least on the extracted information,
sending the aggregated emergency information to a gateway wherein the gateway directs the information to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) based on a pre-stored PSAP list which maps a plurality of PSAPs with different locations,
receiving a response message from the PSAP in response to the sent aggregated information, wherein the response message comprises at least information related to an emergency context, and
transmitting an emergency message to the plurality of wireless communication devices based on the multicast tree, wherein the emergency message is one of the response message and a stored emergency message.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein estimating available bandwidth for the emergency call comprises:
distributing the request for the emergency call to the plurality of wireless communication devices; and
receiving replies of the request from the plurality of wireless communication device, wherein a reply indicates a bandwidth margin left after routing the emergency call.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein estimating available bandwidth for the emergency call comprises using capacity measurement stored in a knowledge database.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the aggregated information further comprises emergency information, wherein the emergency information includes at least one of:
location information,
caller identification information, and
and emergency type information.
5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:
extracting the emergency information from the plurality of emergency calls;
forming a multicast tree based at least on the extracted emergency information.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein aggregating information related to plurality of calls comprises at least one of:
aggregating a plurality of voice frames; and
aggregating the emergency information.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless communication device aggregates information based on at least one of:
a location from which the plurality of emergency calls originate,
a type of emergency, and
PSAP identification information, wherein the PSAP identification information indicates a PSAP which serves a geographical area.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the emergency message to the plurality of wireless communication devices comprises multicasting/broadcasting the emergency message.
9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
creating a call-back list at the PSAP based on the received aggregated information; and
calling back a plurality of users associated with the plurality of wireless communication devices based on the call-back list.
10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
determining a bandwidth outage caused by routing the emergency call; and
performing the extracting, creating, aggregating, and sending operations when the bandwidth outage is less than a predetermined threshold.
11. The method of claim 10 , wherein determining the bandwidth outage comprises:
distributing the call to a plurality of wireless communication devices; and
receiving replies from the plurality of wireless communication devices, wherein a reply indicates a bandwidth margin left after routing the emergency call.
12. The method of claim 10 , wherein determining the bandwidth outage comprises using capacity measurement stored in a knowledge database.
13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the high level information comprises
location information,
caller identification information, and
emergency type information.
14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the aggregated information comprises at least one of:
aggregated high level information; and
aggregated voice packet information, wherein the aggregated voice packet information is generated by aggregating a plurality of voice packets.
15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the aggregated information further comprises a flag, wherein the flag enables the PSAP to determine multiple emergency call situations.
16. The method of claim 10 further comprising:
determining an emergency context;
receiving a response message in response to the sent aggregated information from the PSAP through the gateway;
processing the response message; and
when the response message is dependent on the emergency context:
broadcasting/multicasting the response message to the plurality of wireless communication device based on the multicast tree,
otherwise, broadcasting emergency services information stored in a knowledge database on the wireless communication device.
17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the emergency context is determined based on the high level information.
18. An apparatus for aggregating information in a wireless communication system, the apparatus comprising:
a transceiver; and
a processor configured to perform the operations of:
receiving a request for an emergency call;
estimating available bandwidth for the emergency call; and
when the estimated available bandwidth is less than a predetermined threshold or the wireless communication device has received an aggregation trigger:
extracting high level information from a plurality of emergency calls,
creating a multicast tree based on the extracted high level information,
aggregating emergency information based at least on the extracted information,
sending the aggregated emergency information to a gateway wherein the gateway directs the information to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) based on a pre-stored PSAP list which maps a plurality of PSAPs with different locations,
receiving a response message in response to the sent aggregated information from the PSAP, wherein the response message comprises at least information related to an emergency context and
transmitting an emergency message to the plurality of wireless communication devices based on the multicast tree, wherein the emergency message is one of the response message and a stored emergency message.
19. The apparatus of claim 18 , further comprising a memory element to perform the of storing emergency context information, emergency services information, and bandwidth capacity measurements.