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Method and apparatus for efficient and deterministic group alerting

DC
  • US 7,969,959 B2
  • Filed: 12/16/2005
  • Issued: 06/28/2011
  • 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 each recipient an assigned primary identifying address and one or more group addresses that are shared with selected ones of the other recipients;

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

    transmitting a communication to the network client comprising group information relating to the selected group address, the group information comprising at least one of the number of the recipients having the selected group address and the identifying addresses of the recipients having the selected group address;

    broadcasting the message to the selected group address via a wireless network;

    receiving acknowledgment responses from the recipients sharing the selected group address via the wireless network in response to the message, the acknowledgement responses each comprising recipient identifying information and at least one of an indication of successful receipt of the message and an indication that the message was read by the recipient that transmitted the corresponding acknowledgement response;

    providing the acknowledgment responses to the network client; and

    storing, for each recipient having the selected group address, the respective recipient identifying information for each recipient and a corresponding message alert status indicator indicating at least one of the message has been received by that recipient, and the message has been sent but not yet received by that recipient, depending on when that recipient transmitted its corresponding acknowledgement response;

    wherein message alert status for each of the recipients in the group corresponding to the selected group address is determined, including at least identifying which of the recipients received the message and which of the recipients have not yet received the message, using the stored message alert status indicator.

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