Message broadcasting control system and method

• US 8,438,212 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2012
• Issued: 05/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Envisionit LLC A Delaware Limited Liability Company
• Original Assignee: Envision IT LLC
• Inventors: Preston, Kevin Russell, Wood, Mark Andrew, Weiser, Douglas
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky, Moustafa M
• Application Number:
  US13/356,411
• Publication Number:
  US 20120191771A1
• Time in Patent Office: 470 Days
• Field of Search: 709200-203, 709217-227, 709/228, 455/404.1, 455/404.2
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/006 Alarm destination chosen according to type of event, e.g. in case of fire phone the fire service, in case of medical emergency phone the ambulance
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/00 Alarm systems in which the alarm condition is signalled from a central station to a plurality of substations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast

Abstract

A system and method for providing broadcast messages to message specific broadcast target areas having a broadcast admission control module receiving records each having a broadcast message, a message specific broadcast target area, and a broadcast message originator identifier for each one broadcast message, validating each received broadcast message record as a function of the broadcast message originator identifier and the broadcast target area, and generating a validated broadcast message record for each successfully validated broadcast message record. The system includes a broadcast message distributor module receiving the validated broadcast message records, determining for each message record which message broadcast transmission network provides broadcast messaging service to at least a portion of the broadcast target area and transmitting each broadcast message and all or a portion of the broadcast target area, over an output interface coupled to the determined broadcast transmission network.

Claims

1. A message broadcasting system providing a plurality of broadcast messages to a plurality of message specific broadcast target areas, the system comprising:

a broadcast admission control module receiving a plurality of broadcast message records each having one of the plurality of broadcast messages, a message specific geographically defined broadcast target area, and a broadcast message originator identifier for each one broadcast message, validating each received broadcast message record as a function of the broadcast message originator identifier and the broadcast target area, said broadcast admission control module generating a validated broadcast message record for each successfully validated broadcast message record; and

a broadcast message distributor module receiving each of the validated broadcast message record, determining for each message record which ones of a plurality of message broadcast transmission networks provide broadcast messaging service to at least a portion of the geographically defined broadcast target area for each message and transmitting each broadcast message to at least a portion of the geographically defined broadcast target area, over an output interface coupled to the determined broadcast transmission networks.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a broadcast network interface module coupled to the broadcast message distributor module for receiving each broadcast message record and forwarding each the broadcast message record to a broadcast network transmission module associated with one of the determined broadcast message transmission networks providing broadcast message service to at least a portion of the broadcast target area.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the output interface of the broadcast message distributor module is configured to interface with a broadcast network transmission module associated with one of the determined broadcast message transmission networks.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the broadcast admission control module includes an aggregation module for managing the receipt of the plurality of broadcast message records from a plurality of broadcast message originators and to identify each particular broadcast message originators from among the plurality of broadcast message originators for each broadcast message and associated broadcast target area of each broadcast message record.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the broadcast admission control module verifies an authority of each broadcast message originator for each broadcast message as a function verifying the authority of each originator to send the broadcast message to the geographically defined broadcast target area, said transmitting the broadcast messages being responsive to the authority verification.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein broadcast message distributor module is configured to identify at least one broadcast transmission network that has declined to receive the broadcast message even though that identified one broadcast transmission network provides transmission service to at least a portion of the broadcast target area and to generate a broadcast transmission network decline parameter in response thereto.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein each broadcast message record includes a broadcast message language identifier identifying a language of the broadcast message, and wherein the broadcast message distributor module further verifies that each determined message broadcast transmission network supports the receipt of said broadcast message language identifier, wherein transmitting of a particular broadcast message to a particular one of the determined message broadcast transmission networks is only to a message broadcast transmission network supporting said broadcast message language associated with the broadcast message language identifier.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein each broadcast message record includes a broadcast message type identifier identifying a type of broadcast message, and wherein the broadcast message distributor module further verifies that each determined message broadcast transmission network supports the receipt of said broadcast message type identifier, wherein transmitting of a particular broadcast message to a particular one of the determined message broadcast transmission networks is only to a message broadcast transmission network supporting said broadcast message type associated with the broadcast message type identifier.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the broad cast message record includes one or more broadcast message parameters selected from the group of parameters consisting of a reusable geographic broadcast target area template definition parameter, a broadcast message target area parameter, a message priority parameter, a message language text format parameter, a network authorization parameter, and a message language priority parameter, and wherein the broadcast message distributor module also determines for broadcast message transmission network that is determined to provide broadcast messaging service to at least a portion of the broadcast target area, that said determined message broadcast transmission networks also accepts a broadcast message including the one or more included broadcast message parameters.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the broadcast admission control module validating the broadcast message records against one or more broadcast transmission network parameters, wherein each of the one or more broadcast transmission network parameters is associated with a particular broadcast transmission network.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein one of the determined message broadcast transmission networks is a mobile carrier offering cell broadcast messaging service to at least a portion of the broadcast target area and wherein the output interface of the broadcast message distributor module is configured for interfacing with a mobile carrier network interface system for receiving at least the broadcast message and the geographically defined broadcast target area.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the broadcast admission control module is configured for receiving the plurality of the broadcast message records formatted in the common alerting protocol (CAP) format.

13. A method of broadcast messaging to a broadcast target area, the method comprising:

receiving over a data interface a plurality of broadcast message records each having a broadcast message and a geographically defined broadcast target area associated with the broadcast message, wherein each received broadcast message record is associated with a different broadcast message originator identifier each of which identifies a different originator of each message;

validating each broadcast message record as a function one or more of the broadcast message originator identifier and the broadcast target area of each broadcast message record;

generating a validated broadcast message record for each validated broadcast message record;

determining for each message record which ones of a plurality of message broadcast transmission networks provide broadcast messaging service to at least a portion of the geographically defined broadcast target area for each message;

and

transmitting each broadcast message and each associated geographically defined broadcast target area over an output interface to each determined broadcast transmission network.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein each validating includes verifying an authority of each originator for each message as a function of a verifying the authority of each originator to send the broadcast message to the geographically defined broadcast target area.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

managing the receipt of the plurality of broadcast message records from a plurality of broadcast message originators; and

identifying an identity of each broadcast message originator for each received broadcast record from among the plurality of broadcast message originators.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising identifying one or more broadcast transmission networks providing broadcast message communications to broadcast message receiving devices located within each broadcast target area, further comprising comparing the identified broadcast transmission networks with a the determined broadcast transmission networks, wherein the transmitting each broadcast message includes only those determined broadcast transmission networks that are also the identified broadcast transmission networks.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein one or more received broadcast message record includes a broadcast message language identifier identifying a language of the broadcast message, and wherein the broadcast message distributor module further verifies that each determined message broadcast transmission network supports the receipt of said broadcast message language identifier, wherein transmitting of a particular broadcast message to a particular one of the determined message broadcast transmission networks is only to a message broadcast transmission network supporting said broadcast message language associated with the broadcast message language identifier.

18. The method claim 13 wherein one or more broadcast message record includes a broadcast message type identifier identifying a type of broadcast message, and wherein the broadcast message distributor module further verifies that each determined message broadcast transmission network supports the receipt of said broadcast message type identifier, wherein transmitting of a particular broadcast message to a particular one of the determined message broadcast transmission networks is only to a message broadcast transmission network supporting said broadcast message type associated with the broadcast message type identifier.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein one or more broadcast message record includes one or more broadcast message parameters selected from the group of parameters consisting of a reusable geographic broadcast target area template definition parameter, a broadcast message target area parameter, a message priority parameter, a message language text format parameter, a network authorization parameter, and a message language priority parameter, and wherein the broadcast message distributor module also determines for broadcast message transmission network that is determined to provide broadcast messaging service to at least a portion of the broadcast target area, that said determined message broadcast transmission networks also accepts a broadcast message including the one or more included broadcast message parameters.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein the received broadcast message records are received in a common alerting protocol (CAP) format, and further comprising:

formatting each broadcast message and the associated broadcast target area into a format as predefined by each determined broadcast transmission network, wherein transmitting the broadcast message record and the associated broadcast target area to a particular message broadcast transmission network is in the format for the particular determined message broadcast transmission network.