System and Method for Delivering Wireless Emergency Alerts to Residential Phones

• US 20150365809A1
• Filed: 06/16/2014
• Published: 12/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United States Cellular Corporation (Telephone & Data Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: United States Cellular Corporation (Telephone & Data Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lemberg, Vyacheslav, Saxena, Narothum, Irizarry, Michael S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,877,178 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/08 Text analysis or generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text, e.g. grapheme to phoneme translation, prosody generation or stress or intonation determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/045 using recorded signals, e.g. speech
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A method and system for providing a Commercial Mobile Alert System paging notification, such as a text based emergency alert message, to a fixed wireless terminal system is provided. The fixed wireless terminal provides an interface between cellular wireless networks and a residential phone system comprising the fixed wireless network and one or more receivers configured to operate over a traditional Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS). The fixed wireless terminal receives the text based alert message and converts the alert message into an audio file that can be provided to the one or more residential phone receivers over the POTS network.

Claims

1. A method for receiving public warning messages at residential phones, the method comprising:

receiving an alert message at a residential phone system, wherein the alert message is a text-based file providing a warning message;

converting the alert message from the text-based file to an audio file containing the warning message; and

playing the audio file containing the warning message at a receiver of the residential phone system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the residential phone system is a fixed wireless terminal, and wherein the alert message is contained within a Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) paging notification from an evolved Node B (eNode B) of an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN).

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the alert message is a SystemInformationBlock Type 12 (SIB12) message comprising a plurality of segments, and wherein the method further comprises:

assembling the text-based file of the alert message from the plurality of segments of the SIB12 message.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the text-based file of the alert message locally in a memory device at the residential phone system.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the residential phone system is currently in use;

issuing an alert, if the residential phone system is not currently in use, at the receiver of the residential phone system; and

determining whether the receiver of the residential phone system is off-hook.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein if the receiver of the residential phone system is off-hook, the method further comprises:

terminating the alerting at the receiver of the residential phone system;

waiting for a timer to expire; and

alerting, after the timer expires, at the receiver of the residential phone system.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the residential phone system is currently in use;

waiting, if the residential phone is currently in use, for a timer to expire;

determining, after expiration of the timer, whether the residential phone system is currently in use;

alerting, if the residential phone system is not currently in use, at the receiver of the residential phone system; and

determining whether the receiver of the residential phone system is off-hook.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiver interfaces with the residential phone system over a Registered Jack 11 (RJ11) interface and the audio file is sent to the receiver over the RJ11 interface.

9. A non-transitory computer readable storage device for receiving public warning messages at residential phones, the computer readable storage device having computer executable instructions for performing the steps of:

receiving an alert message at a residential phone system, wherein the alert message is a text-based file providing a warning message;

converting the alert message from the text-based file to an audio file containing the warning message; and

playing the audio file containing the warning message at a receiver of the residential phone system.

10. The computer readable storage device of claim 9, wherein the residential phone system is a fixed wireless terminal, wherein and the alert message is contained within a Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) paging notification from an evolved Node B (eNode B) of an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN).

11. The computer readable storage device of claim 10, wherein the alert message is a SystemInformationBlock Type 12 (SIB12) message comprising a plurality of segments, and wherein the computer readable storage device having computer executable instructions for performing the further step of:

assembling the text-based file of the alert message from the plurality of segments of the SIB12 message.

12. The computer readable storage device of claim 9 further comprising instructions for performing the step of storing the text-based file of the alert message locally in a memory device at the residential phone system.

13. The computer readable storage device of claim 9 further comprising instructions for performing the steps of:

determining whether the residential phone system is currently in use;

issuing an alert, if the residential phone system is not currently in use, at the receiver of the residential phone system; and

determining whether the receiver of the residential phone system is off-hook.

14. The computer readable storage device of claim 13 further comprising instructions for performing the steps of:

terminating the alerting at the receiver of the residential phone system;

waiting for a timer to expire; and

alerting, after the timer expires, at the receiver of the residential phone system.

15. The computer readable storage device of claim 9 further comprising instructions for performing the steps of:

determining whether the residential phone system is currently in use;

waiting, if the residential phone is currently in use, for a timer to expire;

determining, after expiration of the timer, whether the residential phone system is currently in use;

alerting, if the residential phone system is not currently in use, at the receiver of the residential phone system; and

determining whether the receiver of the residential phone system is off-hook.

16. The computer readable storage device of claim 9, wherein the receiver interfaces with the residential phone system over a Registered Jack 11 (RJ11) interface and the audio file is sent to the receiver over the RJ11 interface.

17. A residential phone system configured to receive public warning messages, the residential phone system comprising:

a fixed wireless terminal configured to receive a text based alert message from a wireless cellular network and convert the text based alert message to an audio based alert message; and

one or more receivers external to the fixed wireless terminal and in communication with the fixed wireless terminal,

wherein the fixed wireless terminal transmits the audio based alert message to the one or more receivers for playing the audio based alert message.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the alert message is received from a Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) paging notification from an evolved node b (enodeb) of an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN).

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the alert message is a SystemInformationBlock Type 12 (SIB12) message comprising a plurality of segments, and prior to the fixed wireless terminal converting the text based alert message to the audio based alert message, the first wireless terminal assembles the text based alert message from the plurality of segments of the SIB12 message.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the one or more receivers communicate with the fixed wireless terminal over a Registered Jack 11 (RJ11) interface.