Qualcomm Incorporated

Jean-Baptiste Bertrand Bourdu

Nikolai Konrad Leung

David Hugh Williams

A Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) or home network immediately accepts a registration requests from 'eCall-only' subscribers attempting to register with any Visitor Public Land Mobile Networks (VPLMNs) or roaming network. This avoids unnecessary delays in the establishment of an eCall (emergency call) that might be otherwise introduced by the home network's roaming registration management policy (RRMP) that otherwise would only permit registrations (and subsequent call servicing) by preferred roaming VPLMN partners and automatically reject registrations from non-preferred roaming networks (which may hinder or prevent timely completion of an eCall).

Home network roaming management for eCall-only subscribers

An eCall is an emergency call that may (i) be initiated automatically by a wireless terminal due to a trigger event (e.g., a vehicle involved in an accident) or manually by a user and (ii) include additional data sent automatically by the terminal to a recipient entity, e.g., a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). Emergency setup signaling (e.g., an Emergency SETUP message) is used to give high priority to registering an eCall-only mode In-Vehicle System (IVS) on a mobile network. The IVS can get higher priority from the mobile network right after an eCall emergency is triggered at the IVS. When requesting a connection to the mobile network, the IVS can use an 'emergency setup' message instead of a conventional 'registration' message in order to register on the network.

Priority registration for in-vehicle emergency call service

Proactive registration probes are conducted by an eCall-only IVS prior to an emergency to determine network availability and which available roaming networks a registration request will be approved by the home network. The results of this probing are stored and managed by the IVS. If no suitable roaming network can be found (or if only limited service is available, and this limited service cannot support an eCall), the IVS may notify the driver that the emergency call service may not be available. The frequency of the probing may be increased or decreased based on a variety of factors, including whether the IVS is currently receiving home network service, roaming network service, or no service, as well as whether the vehicle is moving and whether probing has previously been completed for a particular area (using location information, for example).

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South Lake Tahoe, CA, United States of America

Jean-Baptiste Bertrand Bourdu