MODALITY-CENTRIC MASS NOTIFICATION SYSTEM

• US 20140378082A1
• Filed: 06/25/2013
• Published: 12/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Schweiz AG (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Schweiz AG (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Ros, Johannes P., Wienands, Christoph
• Granted Patent: US 10,136,276 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/404.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A Modality-centric Mass Notification System (“Modality-centric MNS system”) for notifying a plurality of recipients of an Emergency Event is disclosed. The Modality-centric MNS system may include a Mass Notification System (“MNS”) Notification Engine, modality corridor (“MoCo”) dispatcher, and a plurality of modality corridors, wherein each modality corridor of the plurality of modality corridors establishes, for signal communication, a signal path from a plurality of signal paths, between the MNS Notification Engine and a recipient of the plurality of recipients. The MNS Notification Engine is configured to manage MNS Incidents and Notifications and the MoCo dispatcher is configured to select a first modality corridor from the plurality of modality corridors to establish a first signal path from the MNS Notification Engine.

Claims

1. A Modality-centric Mass Notification System (“

Modality-centric MNS system”

) for notifying a plurality of recipients of an Emergency Event, wherein the Modality-centric MNS system is in signal communication with a Mass Notification System (“

MNS”

) Notification Engine, wherein the MNS Notification Engine is configured to manage MNS Incidents and Notifications, the Modality-centric MNS system comprising;

a modality corridor (“

MoCo”

) dispatcher in signal communication with the MNS Notification Engine; and

a plurality of modality corridors,

wherein each modality corridor of the plurality of modality corridors, is in signal communication with the MoCo dispatcher,

wherein each modality corridor of the plurality of modality corridors establishes, for signal communication, a signal path from a plurality of signal paths, between the MNS Notification Engine and a recipient of the plurality of recipients, and

wherein the MoCo dispatcher is configured to select a first modality corridor from the plurality of modality corridors to establish a first signal path from the MNS Notification Engine to the recipient.

2. The Modality-centric MNS system of claim 1, wherein the first modality corridor includes a MoCo handler is in signal communication with the MoCo dispatcher, wherein the MoCo handler is configured to deliver Notifications from the MoCo dispatcher to the plurality of recipients via a plurality of delivery paths.

3. The Modality-centric MNS system of claim 2, wherein the MNS Notification Engine includes

logic configured to manage a plurality of MNS Incidents and a plurality of Notifications;

and

a user interface (“

UI”

) that allows an MNS User to interface with the MNS Notification Engine.

4. The Modality-centric MNS system of claim 3, wherein the MNS User is a System Operator, wherein the System Operator is a System User for operating the Modality-centric MNS system during the Emergency Event.

5. The Modality-centric MNS system of claim 3,

wherein the recipient includes at least one MNS end-device capable of receiving outbound Notifications from the MNS Notification Engine and sending inbound Notifications to the MNS Notification Engine, and

wherein the at least one MNS end-device is capable of conveying the received outbound Notifications to a recipient user corresponding to the at least one MNS end-device.

6. The Modality-centric MNS system of claim 5,

wherein the MNS Notification Engine includes logic configured to manage a plurality of MNS Incidents and a plurality of Notifications,

wherein the logic configured to manage MNS Incidents and Notifications includes logic configured as an incident template,

wherein the logic configured as an incident template includes logic configured as an incident template content,

wherein the logic configured as incident template content includes at least one set of logic configured as a launch group,

wherein the at least one set of logic configured as a launch group includes logic configured as a notification template,

wherein the logic configured as a notification template includes data structures configured to hold pre-configured information about the plurality of Notifications, and

wherein the logic configured as a notification template is included in logic configured as a Notification Template Hierarchy.

7. The Modality-centric MNS system of claim 6, wherein the logic configured as a notification template includes logic configured as a Message Template, logic configured as a Live Announcement Template, or both.

8. The Modality-centric MNS system of claim 7,

wherein the logic configured as a Message Template includes a data structure configured to hold pre-configured details of a Message and

wherein the logic configured as a Live Announcement Template includes a data structure configured to hold pre-configured details of a Live Announcement.

9. The Modality-centric MNS system of claim 8,

wherein an MNS Incident, of the plurality of MNS Incidents, includes a plurality of MNS Incident states,

wherein the logic configured as a launch group includes a plurality of Notification Templates, and

wherein the launch group is configured to launch the plurality of Notification Templates simultaneously during an MNS Incident state of the plurality of MNS Incident states.

10. The Modality-centric MNS system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of MNS

Incident states includes states selected from the group consisting of an active state, suspended state, suspending state, cancelled state, cancelling state, completed state, and closed state.

11. A Modality-centric Mass Notification System (“

MNS”

) in signal communication with a Recipient via a plurality of modality corridors, the Modality-centric MNS comprising;

a Modality Corridor (“

MoCo”

) Dispatcher in signal communication with a MNS Notification Engine and the Recipient; and

a MoCo Handler in signal communication with the MoCo Dispatcher and the Recipient wherein the MoCo Handler includes logic configured to establish a signal path from the MoCo Dispatcher to the Recipient through the modality corridor.

12. The Modality-centric MNS of claim 11, wherein the MoCo Dispatcher includes

logic configured to receive a Notification signal from the MNS Notification Engine, wherein the Notification signal is intended to be delivered to the Recipient,

logic configured to resolve the Recipient into one or more MNS End-Points and one or more MNS Modalities for each MNS End-Point, wherein each MNS End-Point includes an MNS End-Point Address,

logic configured to transform the Notification signal into an addressed Notification signal, wherein the addressed Notification signal is a combination of the Notification signal with the MNS End-Point Address and the MNS Modality, and

logic configured to determine a modality corridor, from the plurality of Modality Corridors, for use in delivering the addressed Notification signal to the Recipient.

13. The Modality-centric MNS of claim 12, further including a database in signal communication with the MoCo Dispatcher, wherein the database includes the MNS End-Point Address.

14. The Modality-centric MNS of claim 13, wherein the MoCo Handler includes a Delivery Path Router.

15. The Modality-centric MNS of claim 13, wherein the Recipient is system end-device, recipient user, recipient group, or recipient location.

16. A method for transmitting Notifications of a Modality-centric Mass Notification System (“

Modality-centric MNS system”

) to a Recipient via a plurality of modality corridors, the method comprising;

receiving a Notification signal from the MNS Notification Engine, wherein the Notification signal is intended to be delivered to the Recipient;

resolving the Recipient into one or more MNS End-Points and one or more MNS Modalities for each MNS End-Point, wherein each MNS End-Point includes an MNS End-Point Address;

transforming the Notification signal into an addressed Notification signal, wherein the addressed Notification signal is a combination of the Notification signal with the MNS End-Point Address and the MNS Modality;

determining a modality corridor, from the plurality of Modality Corridors, for use in delivering the addressed Notification signal to the Recipient;

establishing a signal path to the Recipient through the modality corridor; and

transmitting the addressed Notification signal to the Recipient via the modality corridor.

17. The method of claim 16, further including receiving the MNS End-point Address from a database.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein establishing a signal path to the Recipient includes establishing a signal path within the modality corridor utilizing a delivery path router.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the Recipient is system end-device, recipient user, recipient group, or recipient location.