Method and apparatus for efficient and deterministic group alerting

摘要

Systems and methods are provided for reliable, wireless group messaging or alerting in a system having a database, switch, wireless network, and a plurality of intelligent mobile receivers. A message is broadcast to and received by a selected group of the mobile receivers. The network replies to the sender with detailed information about the individual members in the group. Each of the mobile receivers in the group can acknowledge the group message back to the system such as when the message is received, when the message is read, and a response when sent. The system employs centralized management to provide the sender with response information of the mobile receivers.

主权项

1. A method of alerting a group of recipients over a wireless network, each recipient capable of transmitting and receiving data, the method comprising the steps of:
storing for at least some of the recipients 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 those of the recipients sharing a selected one of the group addresses; transmitting a communication to the network client, the communication comprising group information relating to the selected one of the group addresses, the group information comprising at least one of: (a) a count of those of the recipients having the one of the group addresses, and (b) the primary identifying addresses of said those of the recipients having the selected one of the group addresses; broadcasting the message to the selected one of the group addresses via a wireless network, wherein the message specifies one or more actions to be taken by each recipient having the selected one of the group addresses; receiving acknowledgment responses from respective ones of the recipients sharing the selected one of the group addresses via the wireless network in response to each respective recipient's receipt of the message, the acknowledgement responses each comprising recipient identifying information and an indication of successful receipt of the message; providing the acknowledgment responses to the network client; and storing, for each recipient having the selected one of the group addresses, respective recipient identifying information for each respective recipient and a corresponding message alert status indicator indicating at least one of receipt of the message by the respective recipient, or transmission of the message to, but not receipt of the message by, the respective recipient;wherein message alert status for each of the recipients having the selected one of the group addresses is determined, including at least identifying which of the recipients having the selected one of the group addresses received the message and which of the recipients having the selected one of the group addresses have not yet received the message, using the stored message alert status indicator of each respective recipient having the selected one of the group addresses.