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EP-4465612-B1 - METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CLUSTERING EMERGENCY CALLS

EP4465612B1EP 4465612 B1EP4465612 B1EP 4465612B1EP-4465612-B1

Inventors

  • Dromazou, Nikolitsa
  • Kouzanidis, Antonios
  • Manolaki, Maria
  • Pagonis, Athanasios
  • Psaropoulou, Areti
  • Liakopoulou, Ariadni

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20230519

Claims (14)

  1. A method for clustering emergency calls, the method comprising the steps of: - S210 receiving, by a Public Safety Answering Point, PSAP, a new emergency event from an Emergency Service Routing Proxy, ESRP; - S220 extracting, by an application, key data regarding the new emergency event; - S230 preparing, by the application, a search key for clustering incoming calls belonging to the same event, based on the key data extracted in the previous step; - S235 checking, by the application, whether a matching event is in a cluster storage, based on the extracted key data of the incoming event and key data of previously reported events in the cluster storage; - S240 adding, by the application, further key data into the cluster storage, in case a matching event is in the cluster storage; - S250 sending, by the application, a personalized message to the emergency caller, using the available key data of the matching event in the cluster storage; and - S500 ending the method.
  2. The method according to claim 1, wherein in case no matching event is in the cluster storage, the method further comprises: - S260 optimizing, by the application, the search key, in case no matching event is in the cluster storage; - S270 adding, by the application, an abandoned event to the abandoned events without clustering, in case the optimization is not successful; and - S500 ending the method.
  3. The method according to claim 2, wherein in case the optimization of the search key is not successful, the method further comprises: - S280 creating, by the application, a new entry of an incoming event into the cluster based on the previously prepared search key; - S290 moving, by the application, the incoming event to the call handling system; - S300 monitoring, by the application, a Real-Time-Protocol, RTP, streaming, and extracting, by the application, event key words; - S310 updating, by the application, the entry into the cluster storage with the event key words; and - S500 ending the method.
  4. The method according to claim 2, wherein in case the optimization of the search key is successful, the method further comprises: - S240 adding, by the application, further key data into the cluster storage, in case a matching event is in the cluster storage; - S250 sending, by the application, a personalized message to the emergency caller, using the available key data of the matching event in the cluster storage; - S500 ending the method; or - S260 optimizing, by the application, the search key, in case no matching event is in the cluster storage.
  5. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein optimizing represents a tree diagram of the emergency data and their connection, wherein the search key starts from a corresponding optimization level based on the key data extracted from a new emergency call.
  6. The method according to any one of the proceeding claims, wherein the application is an entity of the emergency system, a part of the the Public Safety Answering Point, PSAP, and/or designed as a bot and/or as an Interactive Voice Responder, IVR, and/or the application can be running as an external component where the PSAP has access.
  7. The method according to any one of the proceeding claims, wherein the key data are selected from the group comprising time, location locX and other parameters like ADR Y and ADR Z.
  8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the parameters ADR Y and ADR Z are selected from Uniform Resource Name, URN, service SOS sub-service, an emergency call data service info-element, or an emergency call data comment-element.
  9. The method according to any one of the proceeding claims, wherein the clustering is based on a location locX within a time-window t.
  10. The method according to any one of the proceeding claims, wherein the key data are stored at corresponding optimization levels, preferably wherein there are up to three optimization levels.
  11. A system for clustering emergency calls, wherein the system is configured to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.
  12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the system comprises an Emergency Service Routing Proxy, ESRP, an application, a Public Safety Answering Point, PSAP and a cluster storage.
  13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the application is an entity of the emergency system, a part of the Public Safety Answering Point, PSAP, or another component of the network system, and/or designed as a bot and/or as an Interactive Voice Responder, IVR and/or the application can be running as an external component where the PSAP has access.
  14. The system according to claim 12, wherein the cluster storage contains the key data information in a node-tree architecture.

Description

The present invention relates to a method for clustering emergency calls and a system to perform the method. Emergency calling services are a cornerstone of public safety. They allow every citizen to contact experienced professionals which reside on the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) side to communicate the details of an emergency incident and get help from first responders. Occasionally, the call center of a PSAP receives an overwhelming amount of emergency calls. In case of major incidents (e. g. a car accident on a highway reported by many eyewitnesses, or a fire incident in a large building), a burst of calls reaches the PSAP service center in a limited timeframe. Within this limited timeframe, some of the calls are successfully served, while a significant proportion of them wait in the queue or become abandoned by the caller. Based on the NG9-1-1 or NG1-1-2 standards issued, for example, by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) organization, the operation call center of the emergency service should try to call back the emergency caller in case of abandoned calls. The PSAP has a specific capacity to serve the calls, as the queue is critically increasing. Thus, there is a major delay in serving incoming calls. At the same time the call back of abandoned calls increases the queue and adds additional delay on the response time, as well. US 2002/0054670 A1 relates to emergency call load management for call centers. An interactive voice response (IVR) unit associated with a switching apparatus is used to divert calls in special conditions, such as during emergencies or disasters when calls to certain destinations may suddenly increase dramatically. Calls are diverted depending on call destination and/or pre-programmed triggers, such as a call load threshold experienced by the switching apparatus or for a specific destination. The IVR unit in some cases negotiates with callers for priority to further route calls and may play pre-recorded messages. US 4,996,704 B relates to electronic messaging systems with additional message storage capability. The document focuses on an electronic messaging system which allows a system subscriber to record a plurality of "customized" announcement messages. Each such message is associated with at least one calling party. Upon receiving an incoming communication for a system subscriber, the system automatically utilizes the calling party identification for that incoming communication to retrieve any associated customized message. US 8,280,025 B2 describes automated unique call announcements for incoming telephone calls. When a call is received at a mobile or wired telephone, a variety of data about the calling party, for example, caller identification and profile data for the calling party and data associated with the called party, for example, scheduling data, contact data, and contextual data, such as time of the day, may be used for generating a text-to-speech message that may be played to the called party as a unique call announcement. US 10,594,816 B2 is related to capturing, composing and sending a targeted message to nearby users requesting assistance or other requests for information from individuals or organizations. This document deals with a method of sending targeted messages to nearby users requesting assistance based on their location. US 2006/0223494 A1 relates to a system and method for sending and receiving emergency announcements from a server to a client device. The announcements are sent based on the location of the client device and a time-window. US 2013/078943 A1 discloses a method and system of emergency call management. As is apparent from the above, the prior art concentrates on static call data to create a message to communicate with a caller without clustering dynamic data from previous calls. Dynamic data are all the data presented at the signaling level, e. g. location, Additional Data Record and the feedback provided by a caller while he/she is replying to a personalized message. As more incidents come in and are served, the tree of data that is created for characterization as "a clustering of calls" becomes more dynamic. Thus, there is no proposal from the state of the art on how to improve the resource utilization of the PSAP center and to reduce the response time in emergency networks. Therefore, the present invention is based on the object to provide a method, and a corresponding network system, for clustering emergency calls. In particular, to use the location information in a specific time-window, and additionally, to use the caller's emergency call data in combination with voice stream input to create dynamically personalized messages via a rewarding mechanism. This object is solved by a method having the features according to claim 1, and a network system having the features of claim 11. Preferred embodiments of the invention are defined in the respective dependent claims. With the present invention, the resource utilizat