1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to emergency messaging. More particularly, it relates to queue mechanisms and queue control for systems that have multiple users capable of doing work for any given item inserted into the queue mechanism.
2. Background of Related Art
9-1-1 is a phone number widely recognized in North America as an emergency phone number that is used to contact emergency dispatch personnel. Enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) is defined by an emergency call being selectively routed to an appropriate PSAP, based on a special identifier (P-ANI, or “Pseudo Automatic Number Identifier”, also referred to as “ESxK”), and includes the transmission of callback number and location information when 9-1-1 is used. E9-1-1 may be implemented for landline, cellular or VoIP networks. A Public Service Answering Point (PSAP) is a dispatch office that receives 9-1-1 calls from the public. A PSAP may be a local, fire or police department, an ambulance service or a regional office covering all services. As used herein, the term “PSAP” refers to either a public safety access point (PSAP), or to an Emergency Call Center (ECC), a VoIP term.
The current 911 infrastructure is designed to route a live voice call to a local public safety answering point (PSAP), with location data typically staged in a database that is queried by the PSAP to determine location information. More recently the possibility of text messaging an emergency message to ‘911’ has become a reality. But the handling of emergency text messages by a public safety answering point is in its infancy, with much to be improved upon.
For instance, existing queue mechanisms for assigning responsibility to handle an incoming emergency text message is believed by the present inventors to be too slow and too inflexible. The lack of speed and flexibility comes from the use of a conventional queuing mechanism to handle incoming emergency text messages, which the current inventors have appreciated adds overhead to transactions made from the queue, costing time. Conventionally a first-available PSAP operator is given responsibility for an incoming emergency text message, and handles disposition of the needs of that emergency texter. Once assigned to that PSAP operator, re-assignment of responsibility for that given item (e.g., emergency text message) taken from the queue mechanism is not possible, unless the emergency text is returned to the queue.
The present inventors appreciate that such conventional assignment from an incoming emergency text message queue proves to be a terrible disadvantage in that it does not permit the same queue item (e.g., a given emergency text message) to be taken and worked on by a different recipient device (e.g., another PSAP operator) that may excel at certain needs of the queue item more than others, at various times in its life cycle. If reassignment of a given queued item (e.g., an emergency text message) is enabled, it is conventionally not as fast as the inventors herein feel it could be for the same reason that initial assignment is not fast: the re-assignment of any given transaction taken from the queuing mechanism (e.g., a given emergency text message) must be completed first, before a new ‘owner’ device can take that same queued item and perform work for it.