Method and apparatus for efficient and deterministic group alerting
DCFirst Claim
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.
5 Assignments
Litigations
1 Petition
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method are provided for reliable, wireless group alerting in a system having a database, switch, wireless network, and a plurality of intelligent mobile receivers, and preferably employing a modified two-way paging based on ReFLEX™ protocol information service (IS) messages and a novel ALOHA command for multicast acknowledgement from mobile receivers. An encrypted message is broadcast to a group address and received by a selected number of the mobile receivers. The network replies to the sender with detailed information about the individual members in the alert group. Each of the mobile receivers in the group then acknowledges the common message back to the system, decrypts the message, displays it to the user, and allows the user to respond. The system employs centralized management to simplify the roles of the mobile users and administrators, minimizing configuration and operational human errors that would otherwise result in confusion or lost messages.
44 Citations
46 Claims
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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:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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19. 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:
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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 addresses, 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 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; and providing the acknowledgment responses to the network client to determine message alert status for each of the recipients in the group corresponding to the selected group address including at least identifying which of the recipients received the message and which of the recipients have not yet received the message; wherein the storing step further comprises the steps of maintaining a database for storing data relating to the recipients, the groups and the memberships of recipients to various ones of the groups; and performing wireless configuration transactions to synchronize the memories of respective ones of the recipients with the database; and wherein the database and the memories comprise carbon copy flags to define functional aspects for each of the recipients with respect to different groups, and further comprising the steps of setting the carbon copy flags of selected ones of the recipients in a selected group to a first setting to allow them to respond to a message transmitted to the group address of the selected group; and setting the carbon copy flags of the remaining ones of the recipients in the selected group to a second setting to prevent them from responding to a message transmitted to the group address of the selected group.
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30. An apparatus for alerting a group of recipients over a wireless network, each recipient comprising a mobile device having a two-way wireless communication function, the apparatus comprising:
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at least one of a memory device and an interface to an external memory device for 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; a network client interface for receiving a communication from a network client requesting wireless transmission of a message to recipients sharing a selected one of the group addresses; a wireless communication network interface for communicating with the recipients via a wireless communication network; and a processing device connected to the memory device, the network client interface and the wireless communication network interface, the processing device being programmed to transmit a communication to the network client comprising group information relating to the selected group addresses, 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, broadcast the message to the selected group address via the wireless communication network and the wireless communication network interface, receive acknowledgment responses from the recipients sharing the selected group address via the wireless communication network in response to the message, the acknowledgement responses each comprising 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, store, for each recipient having the selected group address, a recipient identifier 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, and provide at least one of the acknowledgment responses and the stored message alert status indicator for each of the recipients to the network client to determine message alert status for each of the recipients in the group corresponding to the selected group address including at least identifying which of the recipients received the message and which of the recipients have not yet received the message. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38)
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37. An apparatus for alerting a group of recipients over a wireless network, each recipient comprising a mobile device having a two-way wireless communication function, the apparatus comprising:
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at least one of a memory device and an interface to an external memory device for 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; a network client interface for receiving a communication from a network client requesting wireless transmission of a message to recipients sharing a selected one of the group addresses; a wireless communication network interface for communicating with the recipients via a wireless communication network; and a processing device connected to the memory device, the network client interface and the wireless communication network interface, the processing device being programmed to transmit a communication to the network client comprising group information relating to the selected group addresses, 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, broadcast the message to the selected group address via the wireless communication network and the wireless communication network interface, receive acknowledgment responses from the recipients sharing the selected group address via the wireless communication network in response to the message, the acknowledgement responses each comprising 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, provide the acknowledgment responses to the network client to determine message alert status for each of the recipients in the group corresponding to the selected group address including at least identifying which of the recipients received the message and which of the recipients have not yet received the message, store in at least one of the memory device and the external memory device data relating to the recipients, the groups and the memberships of recipients to various ones of the groups, and perform wireless configuration transactions to synchronize the memories of respective ones of the recipients with the data in the at least one of the memory device and the external memory device; wherein the memories and the at least one of the memory device and the external memory device comprise carbon copy flags to define functional aspects for each of the recipients with respect to different groups, and wherein the processing device is further programmed to set the carbon copy flags of selected ones of the recipients in a selected group to a first setting to allow them to respond to a message transmitted to the group address of the selected group, and set the carbon copy flags of the remaining ones of the recipients in the selected group to a second setting to prevent them from responding to a message transmitted to the group address of the selected group.
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39. A mobile device having a two-way wireless communication function for receiving and processing group alerts directed to a group of recipients over a wireless network, the mobile device comprising:
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a memory device for storing an assigned primary identifying address for its corresponding recipient and one or more group addresses that are shared with selected ones of the other recipients; a wireless communication network interface for communicating with a switch via a wireless communication network to receive messages and to transmit responses to the switch; and a processing device connected to the memory device and the wireless communication network interface, the processing device being programmed to receive a message broadcast by the switch to a selected group address via the wireless communication network, to determine if it shares the selected group address, and to transmit an acknowledgment response to the switch via the wireless communication network in response to the message if it shares the selected group address, the acknowledgement response comprising at least one of an indication of successful receipt of the message and an indication that the message was read by the recipient to facilitate determination of message alert status for recipient including at least identifying whether or not the recipient received the message; wherein the processing device is programmed to provide recipient identifying and status information in a response to the message, and the status information comprises at least one of confirmation that the message was displayed at the mobile device, and confirmation that the response was one of multiple choices for responses provided in the message; and wherein the processing device is programmed to configure the mobile device to be a listen-only group member of a selected group address for receiving the message sent to the selected group address but not transmitting the acknowledgment response to the switch in response to the message. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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Specification