Patent ID: 8537805

Claim:
A process for handling emergency calls from a caller in a voice over IP system, the method comprising: receiving a routing request message including a caller identifier and a callee identifier; retrieving a dialing profile associated with the caller, said dialing profile including an emergency call identifier field and an emergency response center identifier field; setting an emergency call flag active when the contents of said emergency call identifier field of said dialing profile match said callee identifier; determining whether said caller identifier is associated with a pre-associated direct inward dial (DID) identifier by searching a DID database for a DID record associating a DID identifier with said caller and determining that said caller identifier is associated with a pre-associated DID identifier when said record associating a DID identifier with said caller is found and determining that said caller identifier is not associated with a pre-associated DID identifier when a record associating a DID identifier with said caller is not found; producing a DID identifier for said caller by: associating a temporary DID identifier with said caller identifier when said emergency call flag is active and it is determined that said caller has no pre-associated DID identifier; and using said pre-associated DID identifier as said DID identifier for said caller when said emergency call flag is active and it is determined that said caller has a pre-associated DID identifier; producing a routing message for receipt by a call controller operable to cause a route to be established between the caller and an emergency response center, said routing message including: an emergency response center identifier from said emergency response center identifier field of said dialing profile associated with the caller, said emergency response center identifier being associated with said emergency response center, and said DID identifier.