Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G08—SIGNALLING
  • G08B—SIGNALLING OR CALLING SYSTEMS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; ALARM SYSTEMS
  • G08B27/00—Alarm systems in which the alarm condition is signalled from a central station to a plurality of substations
  • G08B27/006—Alarm systems in which the alarm condition is signalled from a central station to a plurality of substations with transmission via telephone network
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W72/00—Local resource management
  • H04W72/30—Resource management for broadcast services
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
  • H04W4/06—Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
  • H04W4/90—Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W76/00—Connection management
  • H04W76/50—Connection management for emergency connections
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W88/00—Devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations or access point devices
  • H04W88/18—Service support devices; Network management devices
  • H04W88/184—Messaging devices, e.g. message centre

Definitions

• the invention relates to cell broadcast messaging.
• the invention addresses this problem.
• a broadcast controller for transmitting messages to mobile network cells for broadcast, wherein the controller:
• the controller delays broadcast of a non-emergency message for a time period after broadcast of the emergency message.
• said time period is configurable.
• the controller determines the time period according to duration of the emergency message.
• the controller determines that a message is an emergency message according to an indicator in a field of the message.
• the controller determines that a message is an emergency message according to a channel selected for transmission of the message.
• a kernel of the CBC determines if a message is an emergency message.
• the controller is a Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service controller.
• the invention also provides, in a mobile network having a broadcast controller and cells for controlling broadcast of messages to mobile devices in cells, a method including the steps of the broadcast controller:
• determining if a message for broadcast is an emergency message if an emergency message, deteraiining which cells of the mobile network are to be used to broadcast the emergency message, and
• the controller determines that a message is an emergency message according to an indicator in a field of the message.
• said tune period is configurable.
• the controller determines the time period according to duration of the emergency message.
• the invention also provides a computer readable medium comprising software code for implementing the steps of any method defined above when executing on a digital computer.
• Fig. H a diagram illustrating a cell broadcast (CB) system
• Fig. 2 is a block diagram of an individual CBC of the system
• a cell broadcast system 1 comprises a Cell Broadcast Centre (CBC) 2, Base Station Controllers (BSCs) and Radio Network Controllers, RNCs 3, and broadcast cells 4.
• the CBC 2 comprises a GIS (Geographic Information System) server 5, a CBE (Cell Broadcast Entity) interface 6, a kernel 7 linked to a database 8, and a cell controller 9.
• GIS Geographic Information System
• CBE Cell Broadcast Entity
• a message that is submitted to the CBC 2 over the CBE interface 6 consists of the message body and some parameters, such as schedule and requested area of broadcast. From the area description in the message, the GIS Server 5 determines which cells 4 are inside the requested area of broadcast or have coverage in the requested area of broadcast, and therefore need to broadcast the message.
• the kernel 7 defines messages for each BSC 3 that controls the cells 4 in question. When the time comes to broadcast the message, the kernel 7 sends the messages to the appropriate cell controllers 9, which serve as an interface between the CBC 2 and the BSCs and RNCs 3. The BSCs and RNCs 3 forward the message to the appropriate cells 4.
• the database 8 is used for storage of the messages and the cell data.
• the system proceeds in a manner different from the conventional method.
• the CBC 2 determines that a message has an emergency status by monitoring a field for indicating such status.
• emergency status may be determined according to the channel selected for transmission of the message.
• Another alternative is to use a redundant channel intended for a different purpose.
• the CBE interface 6 instructs the GIS server 5 to determine which cells 4 need to broadcast the message.
• the kernel 7 sends a reset message through the cell controller 9 to all of the cells 4 involved. This effectively means that these cells are now empty of messages.
• the configurable period during which no new message will be broadcast is a pre-fixed time period configured in the CBC (e.g. the kernel 7). In another embodiment, this can be dynamically determined according to the duration (validity period) of the emergency message.
• the CBC 2 will start synchronizing the affected cells again with the content of the database and resume message broadcasting (giving due consideration to original message attributes including original message duration).
• the method 10 is as follows in more detail. 11 - A message is submitted to the CBC at the CBE interface 6 (can be a normal message or an emergency message).
• the GIS server 5 determines which cells shall broadcast the message from the area information contained in the message.
• the CBC waits till the start-time of the message has arrived during which time the message is held in the database 8.
• the kernel 7 checks if the message is an emergency message.
• the kernel 7 checks in the database 8 if an emergency message is currently being broadcast. If it is, the CBC holds back the new message.
• the cell controller 9 forwards the message to the network.
• the network takes care of broadcasting.
• the kernel 7 will reset all the cells 4 in the area where the emergency message is to be broadcast.
• the kernel 7 forwards the emergency message through the cell controller to the network.
• the network takes care of broadcasting.
• the emergency message contains the area definition and selecting all cells covering this area is functionality of a CBC. Without the reset, it would be required to check the CBC database 8 for messages that run or are scheduled to run in all cells that define the area, or retrieve this information from each cell individually. This is a more complicated and time-consuming approach.
• the invention is not limited to the embodiments described but may be varied in construction and detail. While the invention is described in the context of a CBC, it may equally apply to a different message broadcast protocol.
• An example is the Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS), which provides for broadcasting multimedia content.
• MBMS Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service

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• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Emergency Management (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

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• 2006
  • 2006-10-04 WO PCT/IE2006/000108 patent/WO2007039890A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2006-10-04 EP EP06796050A patent/EP1941751A1/de not_active Withdrawn

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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