Systems and methods for improving routing of communications to emergency services

Abstract

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.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows: 
     
         1 . A communication system, comprising:
 a network device;   at least one routing proxy device; and   a routing location determination device;   wherein the routing location determination device includes a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, in response to one or more processors of the routing location determination device, cause the routing location determination device to perform actions comprising:   receiving, from the network device, signaling information associated with a communication from a communication device;   determining location reference transformation elements using the signaling information;   querying a location transform data store to retrieve geographic information based on the location reference transformation elements;   querying one or more alternate location services for alternate location data associated with the communication;   comparing a quality of the geographic information to a quality of the alternate location data;   storing the geographic information as a routing location in response to determining that the quality of the geographic information is higher than the quality of the alternate location data;   storing the alternate location data as the routing location in response to determining that the quality of the geographic information is not higher than the quality of the alternate location data; and   causing the communication to be routed by the at least one routing proxy device to a destination device based on the routing location by updating headers or body parts of the signaling information based on the routing location.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein determining location reference transformation elements using the signaling information includes retrieving session initiation protocol (SIP) data, transaction capabilities application port (TCAP) data, XML data, or JSON data using the signaling information. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein determining the location reference transformation elements includes determining at least one of a Carrier ID, a Cell ID, a Sector ID, an owner ID, a device identifier, and a network identifier. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein querying the location transform data store to retrieve geographic information includes:
 generating a complex key based on the location reference transformation elements; and   querying the location transform data store using the complex key.   
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein retrieving the geographic information includes retrieving at least one of a latitude, a longitude, a what3words value, a plus code, and a landmark; and
 wherein the communication is not associated with a provisioned address.   
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein updating headers or body parts of the signaling information includes associating the communication with a uniform resource locator (URL) that points to a storage location of the routing location. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein comparing the quality of the geographic information to the quality of the alternate location data includes:
 determining whether the alternate location data is available.   
     
     
         8 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, from a network device, signaling information associated with a communication from a communication device;   determining location reference transformation elements using the signaling information;   querying a location transform data store to retrieve geographic information based on the location reference transformation elements;   querying one or more alternate location services for alternate location data associated with the communication;   comparing a quality of the geographic information to a quality of the alternate location data;   storing the geographic information as a routing location in response to determining that the quality of the geographic information is higher than the quality of the alternate location data;   storing the alternate location data as the routing location in response to determining that the quality of the geographic information is not higher than the quality of the alternate location data; and   causing the communication to be routed by at least one routing proxy device to a destination device based on the routing location by updating headers or body parts of the signaling information based on the routing location.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein determining location reference transformation elements using the signaling information includes retrieving SIP data, TCAP data, XML data, or JSON data using the signaling information. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein determining the location reference transformation elements includes determining at least one of a Carrier ID, a Cell ID, a Sector ID, an owner ID, a device identifier, and a network identifier. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein querying the location transform data store to retrieve geographic information includes:
 generating a complex key based on the location reference transformation elements; and   querying the location transform data store using the complex key.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein retrieving the geographic information includes retrieving at least one of a latitude, a longitude, a what3words value, a plus code, and a landmark; and
 wherein the communication is not associated with a provisioned address.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein updating headers or body parts of the signaling information based on the routing location includes associating the signaling information with a uniform resource locator (URL) that points to a storage location of the routing location. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein comparing the quality of the geographic information to the quality of the alternate location data includes:
 determining whether the alternate location data is available.   
     
     
         15 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by one or more processors of a computing device, cause the computing device to perform actions comprising:
 receiving, from a network device, signaling information associated with a communication from a communication device;   determining location reference transformation elements using the signaling information;   querying a location transform data store to retrieve geographic information based on the location reference transformation elements;   querying one or more alternate location services for alternate location data associated with the communication;   comparing a quality of the geographic information to a quality of the alternate location data;   storing the geographic information as a routing location in response to determining that the quality of the geographic information is higher than the quality of the alternate location data;   storing the alternate location data as the routing location in response to determining that the quality of the geographic information is not higher than the quality of the alternate location data; and   causing the communication to be routed by at least one routing proxy device to a destination device based on the routing location by updating headers or body parts of the signaling information based on the routing location.   
     
     
         16 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein determining location reference transformation elements using the signaling information includes retrieving SIP data, TCAP data, XML data, or JSON data using the signaling information; and
 wherein determining the location reference transformation elements includes determining at least one of a Carrier ID, a Cell ID, a Sector ID, an owner ID, a device identifier, and a network identifier.   
     
     
         17 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein querying the location transform data store to retrieve geographic information includes:
 generating a complex key based on the location reference transformation elements; and   querying the location transform data store using the complex key.   
     
     
         18 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein retrieving the geographic information includes retrieving at least one of a latitude, a longitude, a what3words value, a plus code, and a landmark; and
 wherein the communication is not associated with a provisioned address.   
     
     
         19 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein updating headers or body parts of the signaling information based on the routing location includes associating the signaling information with a uniform resource locator (URL) that points to a storage location of the routing location. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein comparing the quality of the geographic information to the quality of the alternate location data includes:
 determining whether the alternate location data is available.