Systems and methods for mapping commercial mobile alert service message attributes to a cell broadcast interface

• US 8,275,350 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2009
• Issued: 09/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Mobility II LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Daly, Brian K., Sennett, DeWayne
• Primary Examiner(s): WANG-HURST, KATHY W
• Application Number:
  US12/571,709
• Publication Number:
  US 20110081882A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,090 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.1, 455/466, 455/2, 455/412.2, 379/33, 379/37, 379/45
• US Class Current: 455/404.1
• 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

Cell broadcast protocols are used to distribute emergency alerts to mobile devices. Emergency alerts may be received from an emergency provider or governmental agency. Parameters of an emergency alert may be derived and mapped to parameters of a cell broadcast message, which may then be transmitted to mobile devices. In one embodiment, attributes of an emergency alert are mapped to a first parameter of a cell broadcast message, and the contents of the emergency alert are mapped to the first parameter of the cell broadcast message. If the contents of the emergency alert exceed the available space in the first parameter, the remaining contents of the emergency alert are mapped to a second parameter of the cell broadcast message.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a memory comprising computer instructions;

a receiver configured to receive a commercial mobile alert message;

a processor coupled to the memory and the receiver, wherein when executing the computer instructions, the processor is configured to;

determine attributes of the commercial mobile alert message;

determine contents of the commercial mobile alert message;

map the attributes of the commercial mobile alert message to a first 27 octets of a CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter of a 3GPP Write/Replace message of Request/Indication primitive type; and

map at least a portion of the contents of the commercial mobile alert message to the CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter of the 3GPP Write/Replace message; and

a transmitter configured to transmit the 3GPP Write/Replace message.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein when executing the computer instructions, the processor is further configured to map at least a portion of the contents of the commercial mobile alert message to a CBS-Message-Information-Page2 parameter of the 3GPP Write/Replace message.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter has a fixed length.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein a combined length of the attributes of the commercial mobile alert message and the contents of the commercial mobile alert message is less than the fixed length of the CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the processor is further configured to fill the unused portion of the CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein a combined length of the attributes of the commercial mobile alert message and the contents of the commercial mobile alert message is greater than the fixed length of the CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein:

mapping the at least a portion of the contents of the commercial mobile alert message to the CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter of the 3GPP Write/Replace message comprises mapping a first portion of the contents of the commercial mobile alert message to the CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter of the 3GPP Write/Replace message;

the first portion is a length equal to a portion of the CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter that is unused after the attributes of the commercial mobile alert message have been mapped to the CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter;

wherein when executing the computer instructions, the processor is configured to map a second portion of the contents of the commercial mobile alert message to a CBS-Message-Information-Page2 parameter of the 3GPP Write/Replace message; and

the second portion is a portion of the contents of the commercial mobile alert message that has not been mapped to the CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to prioritize the commercial mobile alert message among a plurality of commercial mobile alert messages.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the attributes of the commercial mobile alert message comprise an attribute that causes a user mobile device to filter the 3GPP Write/Replace message.

10. A method comprising:

receiving a commercial mobile alert message from an alert gateway at a cell broadcast center;

determining attributes of the commercial mobile alert message at the cell broadcast center;

determining contents of the commercial mobile alert message at the cell broadcast center;

generating a 3GPP Write/Replace message of a Request/Indication primitive type by mapping the attributes of the commercial mobile alert message to a first 27 octets of a CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter and mapping at least a first portion of the contents of the commercial mobile alert message to the CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter; and

transmitting the 3GPP Write/Replace message.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining that the combined length of the contents of the commercial mobile alert message and the attributes of the commercial mobile alert message exceed a fixed length of the CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter; and

mapping a second portion of the contents of the commercial mobile alert message to a CBS-Message-Information-Page2 parameter of the 3GPP Write/Replace message, wherein the combined length of the first portion of the contents of the commercial mobile alert message and the attributes of the commercial mobile alert message are equal to a fixed length of the CBS-Message-Information-Page1 parameter.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising prioritizing the commercial mobile alert message among a plurality of commercial mobile alert messages.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein prioritizing the commercial mobile alert message among the plurality of commercial mobile alert messages comprises first processing all Presidential Alert commercial mobile alert messages from among the plurality of commercial mobile alert messages and then processing non-Presidential Alert commercial mobile alert messages from among the plurality of commercial mobile alert messages in the order in which the non-Presidential Alert commercial mobile alert messages were received.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the commercial mobile alert message is received over a wireless communications connection.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining a subset of the cells within a network to which the 3GPP Write/Replace message is to be transmitted.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein transmitting the 3GPP Write/Replace message comprises transmitting the 3GPP Write/Replace message to a base station controller.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein transmitting the 3GPP Write/Replace message comprises transmitting the 3GPP Write/Replace message to a radio network controller.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising mapping a second portion of the contents of the commercial mobile alert message to a CBS-Message-Information-Page2 parameter-of the 3GPP Write/Replace message and mapping a third portion of the contents of the commercial mobile alert message to a CBS-Message-Information-Page3 parameter-of the 3GPP Write/Replace message.