Systems and methods for identifying a geographical area in a commercial mobile alert service message

• US 8,554,171 B2
• Filed: 07/11/2012
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• 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: Sennett, DeWayne, Daly, Brian K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Wesley
• Assistant Examiner(s): DEAN, JR, JOSEPH E
• Application Number:
  US13/546,477
• Publication Number:
  US 20120276866A1
• Time in Patent Office: 454 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.1, 455/414.1
• US Class Current: 455/404.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• 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

Geographical locations can be encoded in alert messages and the encoded geographical locations can be processed are disclosed. Emergency alerts can be received from an emergency provider or governmental agency comprising a geographical code. The code can be evaluated to determine a geographical location by determining a primary location, such as a state or region, and a secondary location such as a county. This information can be used to determine the devices within a wireless network that should receive the alert message.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

memory comprising instructions; and

a processor in communication with the memory, wherein the processor, when executing the instructions, performs operations comprising;

receiving an emergency alert comprising a geographical code;

determining a first subset of the geographical code comprising two characters;

determining a second subset of the geographical code comprising three characters;

determining a first geographical region based on the first subset of the geographical code;

determining a second geographical region based on the second subset of the geographical code;

determining a node associated with the first geographical region and the second geographical region; and

transmitting a subset of contents of the emergency alert to the node.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the emergency alert is a Commercial Mobile Alert Message (CMAM).

3. The system of claim 1, wherein determining a node comprises determining at least one device within a wireless communication network.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise determining a priority of the emergency alert.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein transmitting the subset of the contents of the emergency alert to the node comprises mapping the subset of the contents of the emergency alert to a cell broadcast message.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the three characters of the second subset of the geographical code represent at least one of a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) region or a National Weather Service (NWS) region.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the two characters of the first subset of the geographical code represent a Federal Information Processing Standard state numeric code.

8. A method comprising:

receiving an emergency alert comprising a geographical code at a network device;

determining, at the network device, a first subset of the geographical code comprising two characters;

determining, at the network device, a second subset of the geographical code comprising three characters;

determining, at the network device, a first geographical region based on the first subset of the geographical code;

determining, at the network device, a second geographical region based on the second subset of the geographical code;

determining, at the network device, a node associated with the first geographical region and the second geographical region; and

transmitting a subset of contents of the emergency alert from the network device to the node.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the emergency alert is a Commercial Mobile Alert Message (CMAM).

10. The method of claim 8, wherein determining a node comprises determining at least one device within a wireless communication network.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining a priority of the emergency alert.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein transmitting the subset of the contents of the emergency alert to the node comprises mapping the subset of the contents of the emergency alert to a cell broadcast message.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the three characters of the second subset of the geographical code represent at least one of a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) region or a National Weather Service (NWS) region.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the two characters of the first subset of the geographical code represent a Federal Information Processing Standard state numeric code.

15. A computer-readable medium that is not a transient signal, the computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions to:

receive an emergency alert comprising a geographical code;

determine a first subset of the geographical code comprising two characters;

determine a second subset of the geographical code comprising three characters;

determine a first geographical region based on the first subset of the geographical code;

determine a second geographical region based on the second subset of the geographical code;

determine a node associated with the first geographical region and the second geographical region; and

transmit a subset of contents of the emergency alert to the node.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the emergency alert is a Commercial Mobile Alert Message (CMAM).

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions to determine a node comprise instructions to determine at least one device within a wireless communication network.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, further comprising computer-executable instructions to determine a priority of the emergency alert.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions to transmit the subset of the contents of the emergency alert to the node comprise instructions to map the subset of the contents of the emergency alert to a cell broadcast message.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the three characters of the second subset of the geographical code represent at least one of a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) region or a National Weather Service (NWS) region.