Patent ID: 8457591

Claim:
A method for determining the scope of priority service in a communication system in an emergency event, the method comprising: responsive to receiving information concerning an initiation of at least one emergency call from a corresponding prioritized user: determining at least one parameter associated with the at least one emergency call, wherein the at least one parameter is one of a quantity of onging emergency calls and a priority associated with an identity of the corresponding prioritized user; determining a particular geographical area from among a plurality of geographical areas in the communication system in which to reserve resources for use by prioritized users participating in ongoing emergency calls, as a function of the one parameter compared to a plurality of threshold values, such that if the one parameter meets a first threshold value out of the plurality of threshold values, the particular geographical area is a first subset of the plurality of geographical areas, and if the one parameter meets a second threshold value out of the plurality of threshold values, different from the first threshold value, the particular geographical area is a second subset of the plurality of geographical areas that includes the first subset of geographical areas and at least one additional geographical area not included in the first subset; and reserving resources in the communication system for use by prioritized users participating in ongoing emergency calls based on the determined particular geographical area.