Geo-redundant and high reliability commercial mobile alert system (CMAS)

• US 20100075626A1
• Filed: 10/28/2008
• Published: 03/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TeleCommunication Systems Inc (Comtech Telecommunications Corporation)
• Original Assignee: TeleCommunication Systems Inc (Comtech Telecommunications Corporation)
• Inventors: Titus, Mark, Yang, Fei
• Granted Patent: US 8,954,028 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/404.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) providing redundant cell broadcast centers (CBC). Multiple CBCs are interfaced to any given base station controller (BSC) or radio network controller (RNC) to provide geo-redundancy and high availability so that the failure of one CBC or a cluster of CBCs at one site will not cause service interruption for the area controlled by the associated BSC or RNC or for the entire service area in the public land mobile network (PLMN) network. The BSC or RNC interfaces to multiple CBCs at multiple sites without changes to the otherwise conventionally existing BSC/RNC, 3GPP 23.041 standard architecture.

Claims

1. In a commercial mobile alert system (CMAS), geo-redundancy provided by:

a base station controller; and

a plurality of cell broadcast centers (CBCs) interfaced to said base station controller;

wherein redundancy is provided in said CBC in a given geographical area.

2. In a commercial mobile alert system (CMAS), geo-redundancy provided according to claim 1, wherein:

one of said plurality of cell broadcast centers (CBCs) is operated in an active mode, while another one of said plurality of cell broadcast centers is operated in a standby mode.

3. In a commercial mobile alert system (CMAS), geo-redundancy provided according to claim 1, wherein:

at least two of said plurality of cell broadcast centers (CBCs) are each operated in an active mode.

4. A commercial mobile alert system (CMAS), comprising:

a cell broadcast entity to handle an emergency alert message to be transmitted via a cell broadcast center;

a cell broadcast center (CBC) server farm comprising a plurality of CBC servers is configured to accept said emergency alert message from said cell broadcast entity; and

a base station controller (BSC) in communication with said plurality of CBC servers, said BSC configured to receive said emergency alert message from only one of said plurality of CBC servers.

5. A commercial mobile alert system (CMAS), comprising:

a cell broadcast entity to handle an emergency alert message to be transmitted via a cell broadcast center;

a cell broadcast center (CBC) server farm comprising a plurality of CBC servers is configured to accept said emergency alert message from said cell broadcast entity; and

a radio network controller (RNC) in communication with said plurality of CBC servers, said RNC configured to receive said emergency alert message from only one of said plurality of CBC servers.

6. A method of global load balancing achieved by distributing traffic between two commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) sites via a DNS name resolution process, comprising:

querying a primary domain name server (DNS) for an address of a content management service provider (CMSP) gateway, and if said primary DNS is not available, querying a secondary DNS;

sending an address resolution request either to a first site load balancer, or to a second site load balancer, using a load balance scheme; and

returning a virtual IP to a querying source of an emergency alert message.

7. The method of global load balancing achieved by distributing traffic between two commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) sites via a DNS name resolution process according to claim 6, wherein:

said DNS authoritative server returns said virtual IP to a Federal Alert Gateway.

8. The method of global load balancing achieved by distributing traffic between two commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) sites via a DNS name resolution process according to claim 6, wherein:

a relevant one of said first site load balancer and said second site load balancer serves as a DNS authoritative server; and

said relevant one of said first site load balancer and said second site load balancer returns a local virtual IP to the DNS authoritative server if a local site can handle the traffic, otherwise returns said virtual IP (VIP) of its peer site.

9. The method of global load balancing achieved by distributing traffic between two commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) sites via a DNS name resolution process according to claim 8, wherein:

said DNS authoritative server returns said virtual IP to a Federal Alert Gateway.

10. The method of global load balancing achieved by distributing traffic between two commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) sites via a DNS name resolution process according to claim 8, wherein:

said load balance scheme is a round robin technique.

11. Apparatus for achieving global load balancing by distributing traffic between two commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) sites via a DNS name resolution process, comprising:

means for querying a primary domain name server (DNS) for an address of a commercial mobile service provider (CMSP) gateway, and if said primary DNS is not available, querying a secondary DNS;

means for sending an address resolution request either to a first site load balancer, or to a second site load balancer, using a load balance scheme; and

means for returning a virtual IP to a querying source of an emergency alert message.

12. The apparatus for achieving global load balancing by distributing traffic between two commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) sites via a DNS name resolution process according to claim 11, wherein:

said DNS authoritative server returns said virtual IP to a Federal Alert Gateway.

13. The apparatus for achieving global load balancing by distributing traffic between two commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) sites via a DNS name resolution process according to claim 11, wherein:

a relevant one of said first site load balancer and said second site load balancer serves as a DNS authoritative server; and

said relevant one of said first site load balancer and said second site load balancer returns a local virtual IP to the DNS authoritative server if a local site can handle the traffic, otherwise returns said virtual IP (VIP) of its peer site.

14. The apparatus for achieving global load balancing by distributing traffic between two commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) sites via a DNS name resolution process according to claim 11, wherein:

said DNS authoritative server returns said virtual IP to a Federal Alert Gateway.

15. A method of global load balancing achieved by distributing traffic between two commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) sites via global load balancing, comprising:

a primary CMSP gateway at a first site;

a secondary CMSP gateway at a second site; and

a federal alert gateway configured to broadcast emergency alert messages to a first IP address associated with said primary CMSP gateway, and with a second IP address associated with said secondary CMSP gateway;

wherein a first global load balancer at said first site communicates directly with both said primary CMSP gateway and said secondary CMSP gateway; and

wherein a global load balance scheme is achieved wherein the load of emergency alert messaging is distributed across all CMSP servers.

16. A cell broadcast center regional approach, comprising:

assigning each of a plurality of cell broadcast centers (CBCS) to a respective BSC/RNC of a specific region of a public land mobile network (PLMN);

performing geo-targeting by sending an emergency alert message to a BSC/RNC in a specific region that is in an alert target area of said emergency alert message; and

dropping said emergency alert message by a given CBC if said alert target area has no overlap with a region controlled by said given CBC;

wherein CMSP gateway server farms always send alert messages received from a federal alert gateway to CBCs in all regions regardless of desired target area of a given emergency alert message.