Wide area emergency alert and response system using hybrid networks

Methods of issuing an emergency alert in a geographical area serviced by a Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) satellite and a terrestrial Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) base station are provided. A method includes receiving a first emergency alert message from the MSS satellite by a user equipment in the geographical area using a first radio frequency band, and receiving a second emergency alert message from the terrestrial BWA base station by the user equipment in the geographical area using a second radio frequency band. Related devices and systems are provided.

BACKGROUND

Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) systems tend to have a limited geographical coverage and tend to primarily cover areas of high demand for services. Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) has difficulty covering urban and suburban areas due to shadowing and/or obstruction from man-made structures. MSS systems also have difficulty providing in-building coverage. The limitations of BWA systems and MSS systems may be particularly notable in cases of emergencies or disasters.

SUMMARY

Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method for issuing an emergency alert in a geographical area serviced by a MSS satellite and a terrestrial BWA base station. The method includes receiving a first emergency alert message from the MSS satellite by a user equipment in the geographical area using a first radio frequency band, and receiving a second emergency alert message from the terrestrial BWA base station by the user equipment in the geographical area using a second radio frequency band.

According to some embodiments, the second radio frequency band may be non-overlapping with the first radio frequency band. In some embodiments, the first radio frequency band may overlap the second radio frequency band. The first radio frequency band may be associated with a first blanking interval that does not overlap in time with a second blanking interval associated with the second radio frequency band. The first emergency alert message may be received from the MSS satellite during the second blanking interval. the second emergency alert message may be received from the terrestrial BWA base station during the first blanking interval.

According to some embodiments, the first radio frequency band may overlap the second radio frequency band. The first radio frequency band may be associated with a first frequency guard band that does not overlap in frequency with a second frequency guard band associated with the second radio frequency band. the first emergency alert message may be received from the MSS satellite in the second frequency guard band. The second emergency alert message may be received from the terrestrial BWA base station in the first frequency guard band.

According to some embodiments, the method may include responding to the first emergency alert message and/or the second emergency alert message by the user equipment with an indication of whether emergency assistance is needed. The indication may provide a request for the emergency assistance responsive to a lack of a user interaction responsive to the first emergency alert message and/or the second emergency alert message. The indication may be provided when a user of the user equipment has not accessed the user equipment in a threshold period of time.

Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method of providing emergency alerts to one or more user equipments in a geographical area serviced by a MSS satellite and a terrestrial BWA base station. The method includes transmitting a first emergency alert message from the MSS satellite in a radio frequency band, transmitting a second emergency alert message from the terrestrial BWA base station in the radio frequency band, and generating a request for emergency services in the geographical area of the one or more user equipments.

According to some embodiments, the method may include receiving at least one of a first response message from a first user equipment of the one or more user equipments or a second response message from the first user equipment. The first response message may be responsive to the first emergency alert message and the second response message is responsive to the second emergency alert message. The first response message or the second response message may include a request for emergency assistance indicating that a user of the first user equipment has not accessed the user equipment in a threshold period of time. The threshold period of time may be configurable by the user of the first user equipment. The request for emergency services may be generated responsive to lack of receipt of one or more acknowledgment messages corresponding to the one or more user equipments within a timeout interval. The MSS satellite may generate the request for emergency services responsive to not receiving a first response to the first emergency alert message. The terrestrial BWA base station may generate the request for emergency services responsive to not receiving a second response to the second emergency alert message.

Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method of handling emergency alerts from a MSS satellite and a terrestrial BWA base station in a user equipment. The method includes receiving a first emergency alert message from the MSS satellite or a second emergency alert message from the terrestrial BWA base station, determining whether a user of the user equipment has not accessed the user equipment in a threshold period of time, and transmitting a first response message to the MSS satellite responsive to the first emergency alert message or a second response message to the terrestrial BWA base station responsive to the second emergency alert message. The first response message or the second response message may include a request for emergency assistance responsive to the determining whether the user of the user equipment has not accessed the user equipment in a threshold period of time.

Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method of providing emergency alerts. The method includes receiving, by a terrestrial BWA base station from a MSS satellite, an indication of an emergency event, and transmitting, by the terrestrial BWA base station, an emergency alert message to a user equipment, responsive to the receiving the indication of the emergency event from the MSS satellite.

According to some embodiments, the terrestrial BWA base station may be configured to relay the indication of the emergency event received from the MSS satellite to the user equipment in the emergency alert message. The method may include determining that emergency assistance is needed by a user of the user equipment. Determining that emergency assistance is needed by the user of the user equipment may include determining that emergency assistance is needed by the user of the user equipment, responsive to lack of receipt of an acknowledgment message from the user equipment within a timeout interval. Determining that emergency assistance is needed by the user may be performed by the terrestrial BWA base station. The terrestrial BWA base station may receive the indication of an emergency event from the MSS satellite after the terrestrial BWA base station loses communication with a control station of a terrestrial BWA network associated with the terrestrial BWA base station and before restoration of the communication with the control station.

It is noted that aspects of the inventive concepts described with respect to one embodiment, may be incorporated in a different embodiment although not specifically described relative thereto. That is, all embodiments and/or features of any embodiment can be combined in any way and/or combination. Other operations according to any of the embodiments described herein may also be performed. These and other aspects of the inventive concepts are described in detail in the specification set forth below.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In a case of disaster or emergency, it may be desirable to provide a ubiquitous and/or broad geographical coverage. Here we provide a method and associated devices that simultaneously use BWA and MSS to provide ubiquitous coverage with added reliability in certain areas. An emergency center (EC) may send an emergency/alert message to a satellite ground station (GS) and the BWA system. This emergency/alert message may be transmitted over a wired link, a wireless link, and/or a connection via a cloud network.

FIG. 1illustrates a MSS network that coexists with a BWA network. Various links ofFIG. 1include:105—Feeder links between the ground station and satellite160—MSS links from satellite to UE (both up and down links)195—MSS links to UE (also covered by BWA)170—BWA link to UE (also covered by MSS)175—BWA link to UE190—Data link between EC and BWA115—Data link between EC and GS185—Data link between EC and Cloud180—Link between BWA and cloud165—Link between satellite and BWA network

MSS signals may have difficulty providing in-building coverage whereas a BWA network may experience network congestion as well as weather-related signal deterioration. The BWA network and the MSS network may be used in conjunction with one another to improve the reliability of alert messages reaching devices in areas covered by both networks. The terrestrial BWA base station may provide communication using various protocols such as cellular, 3G, 4G, LTE, or 5G communication protocols.

Connected devices embedded in the BWA and MSS networks, also referred to as embedded devices, may be capable of responding to alert messages received from a base station. Messages sent from a base station such as a BWA base station to connected devices, such as a user equipment (UE), may trigger a feedback message or response message from the UE to the base station.

A user may be requested to respond to an alert message received at the UE. In some embodiments, a crowd sourcing concept related to handling of alert messages may be used. For example, one or more UEs may automatically respond to the base station upon receipt of the alert message. The responses to the alert messages may be indicative of the density of users in a geographical area affected by an emergency and assist a network operator in making decisions regarding the dispatch of emergency assistance such as ambulances, firetrucks, etc. For example, a high concentration of responses to alert messages from a particular geographic area may trigger dispatching a higher number of ambulances and/or firetrucks to that particular geographical area.

In cases of emergencies such as natural disasters, the UE may be separated from the user. Upon receipt of an alert message, the UE may determine that the user is not able to respond to confirm receipt of the alert based on a period of user inactivity. This may occur in cases of injury, entrapment, panic, unconsciousness, or death of a user resulting from a natural disaster. If the user is not able to respond, the UE may automatically confirm receipt and/or send a request for assistance for the user. The period of user inactivity may be based on a threshold period of time in which the user has not accessed the phone, or may be based on a time period since the activity and/or event that triggered the alert. For example, if a tornado touches down in a geographical area, the time period of user inactivity may be the time since the tornado touched down. If the user does not access the connected device upon receipt of the alert, the connected device may make a request to Emergency Services for assistance for the user. In some embodiments, the connected device may respond to the alert automatically from a software stack that runs on the application for handling alert messages. The software stack running on the alert application of one or more devices may automatically acknowledge receipt of alert messages such that a network operator is aware that one or more devices in the geographical area related to the alert messages are receiving the alert messages.

A connected device may be connected and/or in communication to both the MSS system and the BWA system. The connected device may be co-located with BWA base stations to send the emergency/alert message and/or related acknowledgement messages directly to the BWA base station/stations. The ground station may send an emergency/alert message to the MSS system, which in turn will send the emergency/alert message to connected devices. The BWA base stations may pass on the emergency/alert message to the connected devices. Alert messages may be ordered and/or prioritized by the BWA base station based on various parameters such as importance, severity of threat, agency of origination of the message, etc.

The BWA system may prioritize which of the BWA system or the MSS system it will use for directing the emergency/alert message, depending on parameters such as signal strength and/or network capacity. In some embodiments, a satellite receiver may be co-located with the BWA base station. The satellite receiver may receive an alert message from the satellite and retransmit the alert message to the connected devices through the BWA network. The BWA backhaul and/or wireless connections may be used for the retransmission. In some embodiments, a cloud network may be used to transport messages from the EC to the BWA network. The cloud network may be used instead of a dedicated backhaul network to provide multiple potential routings to the BWA network, which may improve reliability over the dedicated backhaul network.

In some embodiments, an alert message may be transmitted to connected devices using both the BWA network and the MSS network. Using both networks may improve reliability of the connected devices receiving the alert message if the BWA network and/or the MSS network experience interference and/or weak signal strength.

Additionally, in cases where the BWA network and the MSS network use the same radio frequency spectrum for communications in an overlapped geographical area, the BWA network and the MSS network may be configured to use different portions of the radio spectrum to improve reliability of the alert messages reaching the connected devices. In some embodiments, the BWA network and the MSS network may use the same sections of the radio spectrum but have different blanking intervals or guard bands which may allow the BWA network and the MSS network to transmit alert messages without interference from each other. In other words, the blanking intervals or guard bands for the BWA network and the MSS network may be non-overlapping in order to provide dedicated access to the same portion of the radio spectrum to each of the BWA and MSS networks at various times. This strategy circumvents interference between the BWA network and the MSS network that are using the same radio frequency spectrum.

Referring again toFIG. 1, a satellite110of the MSS network may communicate with a satellite ground station130via feeder link105. The satellite110may communicate with BWA base station120using link165. For example, the BWA base station120may have a co-located satellite receiver that communicates with the satellite110via link165. The satellite110may communicate with a UE135in a satellite coverage area136using MSS link160. The satellite110may communicate with UE145that is in a BWA and a MSS coverage area146. Satellite110may communicate with BWA base station120. BWA base station120may communicate with UE125that is in a BWA coverage area126using BWA link175. The BWA base station120may communicate with UE145using BWA link170. A data link190may provide communication for emergency messages between the EC140and the BWA base station120. In some embodiments, the EC140may communicate via data link185to a cloud based network150that communicates using data link180to BWA base station120. The satellite ground station130may communicate with the EC140using data link115.

FIG. 2is a flowchart of operations for issuing an emergency alert in a geographical area serviced by the MSS satellite110and the terrestrial BWA base station120ofFIG. 1. Referring toFIG. 2, a first emergency alert message from the MSS satellite110may be received by a UE in the geographical area using a first radio frequency band, at block210. A second emergency alert message from the terrestrial BWA base station120may be received by the UE in the geographical area using a second radio frequency band, at block220. The first and second emergency alert messages are alerts related to a same event or disaster and may occur in close time proximity to one another, such as within minutes and hours of one another. The second radio frequency band may be non-overlapping with the first radio frequency band. In some embodiments, the first radio frequency band may overlap the second radio frequency band. In some embodiments, the first radio frequency band may be associated with a first blanking interval that does not overlap in time with a second blanking interval associated with the second radio frequency band. The first emergency alert message may be received from the MSS satellite110during the second blanking interval. The second emergency alert message may be received from the terrestrial BWA base station120during the first blanking interval. According to some embodiments, the first radio frequency band may overlap the second radio frequency band. The first radio frequency band may be associated with a first frequency guard band that does not overlap in frequency with a second frequency guard band associated with the second radio frequency band. The first emergency alert message may be received from the MSS satellite110in the second frequency guard band. The second emergency alert message may be received from the terrestrial BWA base station120in the first frequency guard band. Since the first emergency alert message from the MSS satellite110is in a guard band during which the terrestrial BWA base station120does not transmit, the terrestrial BWA base station120does not interfere with the first emergency alert message from the MSS satellite110, even though same frequencies may be used by both the terrestrial BWA base station120and the MSS satellite110.

FIG. 3is a flowchart of operations for issuing an emergency alert in a geographical area serviced by the MSS satellite110and the terrestrial BWA base station120ofFIG. 1. Referring toFIG. 3, the UE may respond to the first emergency alert message and/or the second emergency alert message with an indication of whether emergency assistance is needed, at block310. The indication may provide a request for the emergency assistance responsive to a lack of a user interaction responsive to the first emergency alert message and/or the second emergency alert message. The indication may be provided by the UE automatically, when a user of the UE has not accessed the UE in a threshold period of time.

FIG. 4is a flowchart of operations for providing emergency alerts to UEs in a geographical area serviced by the MSS satellite110and the terrestrial BWA base station120ofFIG. 1. Referring toFIG. 4, a first emergency alert message may be transmitted from the MSS satellite110in a radio frequency band, at block410. A second emergency alert message may be transmitted from the terrestrial BWA base station120in the radio frequency band, at block420. A request for emergency services in the geographical area of the UEs may be generated, at block430. The request for emergency services may be initiated by the Emergency Center upon determining that a threshold or predetermined number of UEs are in the geographical area affected by an emergency event. The request for emergency services may be based on the number of UEs in the geographical area that have not sent a user acknowledgement.

FIG. 5is a flowchart of operations for providing emergency alerts to UEs in a geographical area serviced by the MSS satellite110and the terrestrial BWA base station120ofFIG. 1. Referring toFIG. 5, a first response message from a first UE of the one or more UEs or a second response message from the first UE may be received, at block510. The first response message may be responsive to the first emergency alert message and the second response message is responsive to the second emergency alert message. The first response message or the second response message may include a request for emergency assistance indicating that a user of the first UE has not accessed the UE in a threshold period of time. The threshold period of time may be configurable by the user of the first UE. The request for emergency services may be generated responsive to lack of receipt by MSS satellite110and/or the terrestrial BWA base station120of one or more acknowledgment messages corresponding to the one or more UEs within a timeout interval. The MSS satellite110may generate the request for emergency services responsive to not receiving a first response to the first emergency alert message. The terrestrial BWA base station120may generate the request for emergency services responsive to not receiving a second response to the second emergency alert message.

FIG. 6is a flowchart of operations for handling emergency alerts from MSS satellite110and the terrestrial BWA base station120ofFIG. 1in a UE. Referring toFIG. 6, a first emergency alert message from the MSS satellite110or a second emergency alert message from the terrestrial BWA base station120may be received, at block610. It may be determined that a user of the UE has not accessed the UE in a threshold period of time, at block620. A first response message may be transmitted to the MSS satellite110responsive to the first emergency alert message or a second response message may be transmitted to the terrestrial BWA base station120responsive to the second emergency alert message, at block630. The first response message or the second response message may include a request for emergency assistance responsive to determining that the user of the UE has not accessed the UE in a threshold period of time.

FIG. 7is a flowchart of operations for providing emergency alerts. Referring toFIG. 7, a terrestrial BWA base station may receive an indication of an emergency event from a MSS satellite, at block710. The terrestrial BWA base station may transmit an emergency alert message to a UE, responsive to receiving the indication of the emergency event from the MSS satellite, at block720. For example, a satellite receiver at the terrestrial BWA base station may receive the indication of the emergency event and may serve as a repeater to send this indication to UEs in the geographical area that the terrestrial BWA base station is serving.

FIGS. 8 and 9are flowcharts of operations for providing emergency alerts. A terrestrial BWA base station may be configured to relay an indication of an emergency event received from a MSS satellite to a UE in the emergency alert message. A determination that emergency assistance is needed by a user of the UE may be made, at block810. A lack of receipt of an acknowledgment to an emergency alert message may be determined, at block910. The determination that emergency assistance is needed by the user of the UE may be made responsive to lack of receipt or absence of an acknowledgment message from the UE within a timeout interval, at block920. Determining that emergency assistance is needed by the user may be performed by the terrestrial BWA base station. The terrestrial BWA base station may lose communication with a control station and/or Emergency Center of a terrestrial BWA network but may receive the indication of an emergency event from the MSS satellite and proceed to notify UEs.

FIGS. 10 to 12are devices that are configured to perform the operations described in the flowcharts ofFIGS. 2 to 9. Referring toFIG. 10, electronic device1000, such as a UE described according to various embodiments herein, may include a network interface1020, a processor circuit1002, a transceiver1030that may have an antenna1040for wireless communication, and a memory circuit1010that stores computer readable program code1012. The processor or processor circuit1002may include one or more data processing circuits, such as a general purpose and/or special purpose processor, e.g., microprocessor and/or digital signal processor, which may be collocated or distributed across one or more networks. The processor circuit1002is configured to execute the computer readable program code1012in the memory1010to perform any of the operations and methods described herein as being performed by the UE. A wireless interface may be coupled to the processor circuit1002and may communicate with a terrestrial BWA base station, a MSS satellite, and/or other external network entity, directly or indirectly.

Referring toFIG. 11, electronic device1100, such as a terrestrial BWA base station described herein, may include a network interface1120, a processor circuit1102, a transceiver1130that may have an antenna1140for wireless communication, and a memory circuit1110that stores computer readable program code1112. For example, the transceiver circuit1130may be connected to a cellular antenna, or a 3G, 4G, LTE, or 5G antenna. The processor or processor circuit1102may include one or more data processing circuits, such as a general purpose and/or special purpose processor, e.g., microprocessor and/or digital signal processor, which may be collocated or distributed across one or more networks. The processor circuit1102is configured to execute the computer readable program code1112in the memory1110to perform any of the operations and methods described herein as being performed by the electronic device1100such as the terrestrial BWA base station. A wireless interface may be coupled to the processor circuit1102and may communicate with a UE, MSS satellite, and/or other external network entity, directly or indirectly.

Referring toFIG. 12, electronic device1200, such as a MSS satellite described herein, may include a network interface1220, a processor circuit1202, a transceiver1230that may have an antenna1240for wireless communication, and a memory circuit1210that stores computer readable program code1212. The processor or processor circuit1202may include one or more data processing circuits, such as a general purpose and/or special purpose processor, e.g., microprocessor and/or digital signal processor, which may be collocated or distributed across one or more networks. The processor circuit1202is configured to execute the computer readable program code1212in the memory1210to perform any of the operations and methods described herein as being performed by the electronic device1200such as the MSS satellite. A wireless interface may be coupled to the processor circuit1202and may communicate with a UE, terrestrial BWA base station, and/or other external network entity, directly or indirectly.

Further Definitions and Embodiments

As used herein, the terms “comprise”, “comprising”, “comprises”, “include”, “including”, “includes”, “have”, “has”, “having”, or variants thereof are open-ended, and include one or more stated features, integers, elements, steps, components or functions but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, elements, steps, components, functions or groups thereof.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer and/or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer and/or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions/acts specified in the block diagrams and/or flowchart block or blocks. Accordingly, embodiments of the present disclosure may be embodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) that runs on a processor such as a digital signal processor, which may collectively be referred to as “circuitry,” “a module” or variants thereof.

Many different embodiments have been disclosed herein, in connection with the above description and the drawings. It will be understood that it would be unduly repetitious and obfuscating to literally describe and illustrate every combination and subcombination of these embodiments. Accordingly, the present specification, including the drawings, shall be construed to constitute a complete written description of various example combinations and subcombinations of embodiments and of the manner and process of making and using them, and shall support claims to any such combination or subcombination. Many variations and modifications can be made to the embodiments without substantially departing from the principles described herein. All such variations and modifications are intended to be included herein within the scope.