Method and apparatus for emergency call processing

A method for a data session border controller (D-SBC) to identify emergency calls, the method comprising:

• establishing a plurality of transport protocol streams with a signaling session border controller (S-SBC) coupled with the D-SBC;
• allocating a subset of the plurality of established transport protocol streams to be dedicated for emergency calls;
• reserving resources for processing emergency calls;
• upon receiving a message over one of the allocated transport protocol streams dedicated for emergency calls, processing that message at a high priority using at least some of the reserved resources.

A method in a distributed session border controller (SBC) system to identify emergency calls without using an emergency token, wherein the SBC system includes a signaling SBC (S-SBC) coupled with a data SBC (D-SBC), the method comprising:

• establishing a plurality of transport protocol streams between the S-SBC and the D-SBC;
• allocating a subset of the plurality of the established transport protocol streams between the S-SBC and the D-SBC to be dedicated for carrying messages for emergency calls, wherein each allocated transport protocol stream is identified on the S-SBC and the D-SBC with a stream identifier;
• reserving resources for processing of emergency calls on the S-SBC and the D-SBC;
• responsive to the S-SBC receiving an emergency call, the S-SBC performing the following:
• assigning the emergency call to one of the allocated transport protocol streams dedicated for emergency calls using at least some of the reserved resources, and
• transmitting an add request message corresponding with the received emergency call to the D-SBC over the assigned transport protocol stream using at least some of the reserved resources;
• upon receiving the add request message at the D-SBC on one of the allocated transport protocol streams, the D-SBC performing the following:
• determining that a stream identifier corresponding to the transport protocol stream on which the message was received is associated with a transport protocol stream dedicated for carrying messages for emergency calls, and
• processing the add request message at a high priority using at least some of the reserved resources of the D-SBC.

A distributed session border controller (SBC) system for processing emergency calls, the SBC system comprising:

• a signaling SBC (S-SBC) coupled with a data SBC (D-SBC), wherein the S-SBC and the D-SBC communicate messages over a plurality of transport protocol streams, each transport protocol stream including a stream identifier, wherein a subset of the plurality of transport protocol streams are each dedicated for carrying messages relating to emergency calls, the S-SBC including,
• a number analysis module to determine whether received calls are emergency calls,
• a call stream assignment module to assign the received calls to one of the plurality of transport protocol streams, wherein the call assignment module is to assign emergency calls to one of the subset transport protocol streams dedicated for carrying messages related to emergency calls, and
• a message generation module to generate messages to transmit to the D-SBC over the assigned transport protocol stream;
• and
• the D-SBC including,
• an amount of resources reserved for processing emergency calls,
• a transport protocol socket to receive messages from the S-SBC carried on the plurality of transport protocol streams and process the messages at the transport layer, wherein the stream identifiers are determined through processing of the messages at the transport layer,
• an emergency call determination module coupled with the transport protocol socket, the emergency call determination module to determine whether a stream identifier corresponding to the transport protocol stream on which a message was received is associated with one of the subset transport protocol streams dedicated for carrying messages for emergency calls, wherein messages for emergency calls are processed using at least some of the reserved resources and at a higher priority than messages not for emergency calls.