Question for Engineers/Techs: Emergency Network Load?

Not that I have much technical know how or anything, but couldnt the texts be sent out in groups. Instead of sending out all the messages at one time, they could be spaced out over a few minutes each.

Also, I don't know what kind of set up they have there but I know that on our North Campus here in Buffalo, Sprint coveres the campus with 3 different sites. This would siginificantly lower the load, wouldnt it?

 

GSM (non-wcdma) would get hit the hardest. On GSM text and data are seperated from the voice channels. SMS really does use much. If a system was flooded you would get a network error or message un-deliverable.

Most phones can be set up to resend messages that are in your outbox.

I cant speak for CDMA, being everything is spread out on the same spectrum you would think this would interfere with normal voice calling as well.

 

The easiest thing to do would be just to broadcast a SMS (text message) to everryone in all the cells in the area of the school (they do things like that with advertising, say if you walk into a shopping mall, they can brodcast a sms telling you about sales).

I don't think it would jam up the networks, since SMS are best effort and take up little bandwidth. Coordinating with Alltel, verizon, etc would take more time and energy. They would have to single out the cells that would be needed and then to configure it to be ready to launch it at a minutes notice.

But then what if someone decides to go on a shooting rampage at a shopping mall instead of the school? Then you'll need to coordinate a different set of cells.
I don't think you can always prepare for every unseen event. I think everyone is just overreacting and trying to blame each other as usual :loony:

 

SMS is sent on SDCCH, but you can "steal" voice channels if you want to have more space for SMS traffic. But you'd need to set that up some time in advance. But I don't think that would be necessary for broadcast SMS.

 

Huh? I don't understand your question. Probably because I don't know about how Alltel is set up. They run both GSM and CDMA? if so, they are 2 completely different systems that are not compatible with each other, and they would have to broadcast the message twice, once for GSM and once for CDMA.

Actually, now that I think about it, the broadcast SMS feature is initiated by the network itsself, and therefore shouldn't create any overloading, since the network is smart enough not to crash itsself. If all the subscribers in the network all suddenly sent a SMS at the same time, THAT would overload the network. Anyway, it's only a downlink signaling, and that happens all the time anyway. Your phone and the network are constantly signaling with each other to say the status of your phone in the network.

So really the main problem with this "emergency SMS" idea is coordinating with all the operators: 1) what cells is the emergency happening on? (ie: what cells cover the school area), and to 2) do it fast enough. Shooting rampages usually are over quickly, and by the time you coordinate and send the SMS, the carnage will probably be over by then. So this "Why didn't you send a sms to everyone in the area of the school warning of a shooter?" is really armchair quaterback stuff the day after the game. It sounds like a good idea, but in reality not practical.

 

Normally this is true, but this wasn't a normal situation and the other factor to look at is if the gunman is barracaded in the building, it would be a good idea to let people know & to stay away from the area.
I can see this being useful in a university situation to help warn people, but you bring up another scenario, what about in a mall or other large spread out area, are they going to want to set something up everywhere?

Maybe this is where the FEMA Emergency Alert SMS program would have worked, call 1 number and it can be sent to a specific area?

 

If nothing else comes out of the unfortunate events from Viriginia tech I think this will be a wake up call. First of all, as stated earlier, carriers can send out a single signal to entire cell to broadcast sms to all receivers, but I think the applications are much greater than is even thought of here. Imagine tornado warnings, evacuation orders, amber alerts, and quarantines from accidents all being pushed over the cellular band to everyone in the notification area. This is something that should already exist, the emergency broadcast system is designed to take over all broadcasted methods of communications (TV, Radio, etc,) however, people today aren't as likely to listen to the radio as they are to CD's, iPods, etc. The majority of people carry cellphones, however, which makes this a perfect medium for emergency communications of this level. I think the hardware and systems are pretty much all in place currently to enable this, the only thing lacking is software, and perhaps a special alert system on the phone, to make sure the user responds. But simply imagine the possibilities, say a tanker truck carrying toxic chemicals overturns somewhere and starts leaking (for sake of arguement we'll say the chemical produces highly toxic fumes) you have x minutes to evacuate the immmediate area and only x more to evacuate a radius, this could really save lives.

 

At least there is something similar to this for Amber Alerts. You can sign up for the alerts at wirelessamberalerts.com and designate an area that you want local alerts for. I have gotten alerts every time one has been issued.

 

Same, but imagine if it was specifically location based, ie. if I signed up and I was visiting another area that I would get that areas alerts. Things of that nature.