Incident aware service operations for wireless infrastructure

• US 9,008,607 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2012
• Issued: 04/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Inventors: Ibbotson, Craig A.
• Primary Examiner(s): PHUONG, DAI
• Application Number:
  US13/687,137
• Publication Number:
  US 20140148115A1
• Time in Patent Office: 867 Days
• Field of Search: 4554041-4042, 455/428, 455/435.1, 455/438, 455/439, 455/445, 455/446, 455/456.1
• US Class Current: 455/404.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5051 Service on demand, e.g. definition and deployment of services in real time
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

In a two-way radio frequency (RF) communications system having a plurality of subscriber units (SUs) and a supporting infrastructure including a wireless core network, a service request is received indicating one of a device, application, and transport link that will be removed from service. One or more SUs out of the plurality of SUs are identified that will be impacted by the removal from service. A determination is then made of whether any one of the SUs is currently involved in an incident response. For each SU determined to be currently involved in an incident response, it is determined whether the respective incident response is of a non-interruptible incident response type. Responsive to determining that a SU is currently involved in a non-interruptible incident response, a notification is caused to appear at a network management console or a dispatch console, and the service request is at least temporarily suspended.

Claims

1. In a two-way radio frequency (RF) communications system having a plurality of subscriber units and a supporting infrastructure including at least one fixed terminal and a wireless core network, the method comprising:

receiving, at a network management console device via an input interface of the network management console or from a subscriber unit via an input/output interface of the network management console, a service request indicating one of a device, application, and transport link in the supporting infrastructure that will be removed from service;

identifying, by the network management console device, one or more subscriber units out of the plurality of subscriber units that will be impacted by the removal from service;

determining, by the network management console device via access to agency dispatch information associated with the plurality of subscriber units, whether any one of the one or more subscriber units is currently involved in responding to an incident;

for each subscriber unit determined to be currently involved in responding to the incident, determining, by the network management console device, a type of the respective incident being responded to and whether the type of the incident is of a non-interruptible incident type; and

responsive to determining that a particular one of the one or more subscriber units is currently involved in responding to the incident of the non-interruptible incident type;

causing, by the network management console device, a notification to appear at one of the network management console device and a dispatch console device indicative of the particular subscriber unit and the non-interruptible incident type, and at least temporarily suspending the service request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein an authorization override option is provided at the network management console and, responsive to receiving a corresponding authorization override instruction at a network management computing device, stopping the temporary suspending of the service request.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the authorization override instruction is received at the network management computing device responsive to receiving a manual override input instruction at the network management console.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein an authorized operator is authenticated via one or more authentication steps before being allowed to select the authorization override option.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more authentication steps include one or more of a username, a password, a username and password combination, a smartcard swipe, a challenge/response, and a biometric scan.

6. The method of claim 2, the method further comprising removing the one of the device, application, and transport link in the supporting infrastructure that will be removed from service responsive to one of (i) determining that none of the one or more subscriber units is currently involved in responding to a non-interruptible incident type and (ii) determining that the particular subscriber unit is the only subscriber unit currently involved in responding to a non-interruptible incident type and receiving the authorization override instruction.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the service request is received responsive to a first user activation of an input interface at the network management console device, and the notification is caused to appear via a display device at the network management console.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the service request is received from a second particular one of the plurality of subscriber units, and the notification is also caused to appear at a display of the second particular one of the plurality of subscriber units.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more subscriber units out of the plurality of subscriber units that will be impacted by the removal from service comprises accessing one of subscriber unit attachment information and application subscription information stored at a services manager cache in the wireless core network.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more subscriber units out of the plurality of subscriber units that will be impacted by the removal from service comprises transmitting information requests to a services manager device at each of one or more agency dispatch systems associated with one or more agencies being provided with wireless communications services by the RF communication system and receiving a response from each respective agency dispatch system.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether any one of the one or more subscriber units is currently involved in responding to an incident comprises accessing active incident information stored at a services manager cache in the wireless core network.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether any one of the one or more subscriber units is currently involved in responding to an incident comprises transmitting an information request to a services manager computing device at each of one or more agency dispatch systems associated with one or more agencies being provided with wireless communications services by the RF communication system, and receiving a response from each services manager computing device indicative of whether any one of the one or more subscriber units associated with each respective agency dispatch system is currently involved in an incident and, if so, the type of incident.

13. A network management computing device operating in a wireless core network of a two-way radio frequency (RF) communications system having a plurality of subscriber units and a supporting infrastructure, the network management computing device configured to:

receive, via an input interface of the network management computing device or from a subscriber unit via an input/output interface of the network management computing device, a service request indicating one of a device, application, and transport link in the supporting infrastructure that will be removed from service;

identify one or more subscriber units out of the plurality of subscriber units that will be impacted by the removal from service;

determine, via access to agency dispatch information associated with the plurality of subscriber units, whether any one of the one or more subscriber units is currently involved in responding to an incident;

for each subscriber unit determined to be currently involved in responding to the incident, determine a type of the respective incident being responded to and whether the type of incident is of a non-interruptible incident type; and

responsive to determining that a particular one of the one or more subscriber units is currently involved in responding to the incident of the non-interruptible incident type;

cause a notification to appear at one of the network management computing device and a dispatch console indicative of the particular subscriber unit and the non-interruptible incident type, and at least temporarily suspend the service request.

14. The network management computing device of claim 13, further configured to, responsive to receiving an authorization override instruction, stopping the temporary suspending of the service request.

15. The network management computing device of claim 14, wherein the authorization override instruction is received at the network management computing device from the network management console.

16. The network management computing device of claim 15, wherein the authorization override instruction is accompanied by authentication information, the network management computing device being further configured to authenticate, on its own or with the aid of a remote authentication server, the authentication information before further processing the authorization override instruction.

17. The network management computing device of claim 16, wherein the authentication information includes one or more of a username, a password, a username and password combination, a smartcard swipe, a challenge/response, and a biometric scan associated with an authorized operator.

18. The network management computing device of claim 13, further configured to remove the one of the device, application, and transport link in the supporting infrastructure from service responsive to one of (i) determining that none of the one or more subscriber units is currently involved in responding to a non-interruptible incident type and (ii) determining that the particular subscriber unit is the only subscriber unit currently involved in responding to a non-interruptible incident type and receiving the authorization override instruction.

19. The network management computing device of claim 13, further configured to determine whether any one of the one or more subscriber units is currently involved in responding to an incident response by access active incident information stored at a services manager cache in the wireless core network.

20. The network management computing device of claim 13, further configured to determine whether any one of the one or more subscriber units is currently involved in responding to an incident response by transmitting an information request to a services manager computing device at each of one or more agency dispatch systems associated with one or more agencies being provided with wireless communications services by the RF communication system, and receiving a response from each services manager computing device indicative of whether any one of the one or more subscriber units associated with each respective agency dispatch system is currently involved in an incident and, if so, the type of incident.