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Method and apparatus for efficient and deterministic group alerting

DC
  • US 9,699,637 B1
  • Filed: 03/10/2017
  • Issued: 07/04/2017
  • Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2004
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of alerting a group of recipients over a wireless network, each recipient comprising a mobile device capable of transmitting and receiving data, the method comprising the steps of:

  • storing for at least some of the recipients corresponding recipient identifiers;

    storing one or more group identifiers corresponding to one or more groups of recipients that are shared with selected ones of the recipients;

    receiving a communication from a network client requesting transmission of a message to recipients sharing a selected one of the group identifiers;

    transmitting a communication to the network client, the communication comprising group information relating to the selected one of the group identifiers, the group information comprising at least one of;

    (a) a count of those of the recipients having the selected one of the group identifiers and (b) the recipient identifiers of those of the recipients having the selected one of the group identifiers;

    transmitting the message to those of the recipients having the selected one of the group identifiers via a wireless network;

    receiving acknowledgment responses from at least one of those of the recipients having the selected one of the group identifiers via the wireless network in response to each respective recipient'"'"'s receipt of the message, the acknowledgement responses each comprising recipient identifying information and an indication of successful receipt of the message;

    providing the acknowledgment responses to the network client; and

    storing, for those recipients having the selected one of the group identifiers, the respective recipient identifying information for each respective recipient and a corresponding message alert status indicator indicating at least one of (a) receipt of the message by the respective recipient or (b) that the message has been sent, but not received by the respective recipient;

    wherein message alert status for those recipients having the selected one of the group identifiers is determined, including at least identifying which of those recipients having the selected one of the group identifiers received the message and which of those recipients having the selected one of the group identifiers have not yet received the message, using the stored message alert status indicator of each respective recipient having the selected one of the group identifiers.

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