Message delivery from a rail base station to a cellular user equipment application with message handling via a card operating system

By using logical IDs to filter and process cellular broadcast messages in cellular user equipment, the problem of insufficient messaging selectivity and coverage in the prior art is solved, and more efficient and accurate messaging is achieved.

CN119766312APending Publication Date: 2025-04-04GLOBAL STARLINK CO
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Patent Information

Application Number
CN202411905032.6
Authority / Receiving Office
CN · China
Patent Type
Applications(China)
Current Assignee / Owner
Priority Date
2021-05-17
Filing Date
2021-05-18
Publication Date
2025-04-04

AI Technical Summary

Technical Problem

The prior art has problems with selectivity and coverage in messaging from orbital base stations to cellular user equipment, resulting in insufficient selectivity and efficiency of message transmission.

Method used

By using logical IDs to filter and process cellular broadcast messages, the CB envelope processor in the SIM card matches the logical ID with the inclusion list, and only the target payload is passed to the corresponding application.

Benefits of technology

It realizes more selective and efficient messaging, ensuring that messages can reach the target user equipment more accurately, and reducing the risk of network congestion and missed messages.

✦ Generated by Eureka AI based on patent content.

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Abstract

The invention relates to message delivery from an orbital base station to a cellular user device application with message processing via a card operating system. An electronic user device comprises an inclusion list storage device with an electronically readable memory for storing an inclusion list indicating the logical IDs included. The device also has a security module app that receives a cellular broadcast message and extracts the logical ID therefrom. This processes a target cellular broadcast message embedded in the payload of the cellular broadcast message based on whether the logical ID of the target cellular broadcast message embedded in the payload of the cellular broadcast message is on the inclusion list. It then formats it for consumption by the electronic user device app that receives data via a data channel when available.
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Description

Description of the case

[0001] This application is a divisional application of the invention patent application with application date of May 18, 2021, application number 202180035974.1, and invention name “Message transmission from a rail base station to a cellular user equipment application with message processing via a card operating system”. Cross-reference to priority and related applications

[0002] This application is a non-provisional application of and claims the benefit and priority of: U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 026288, filed on May 18, 2020, entitled “Method for One-way Messaging using Cellular broadcast,” and U.S. Patent Application No. 17 / 332,826, filed on May 17, 2021, entitled “Messaging from an Orbital BaseStation to Cellular User Equipment Applications with Message Processing via Card Operation System.”

[0003] This article may reference the following applications:

[0004] 1) U.S. Non-Provisional Patent Application No. 15 / 857,073, filed on December 28, 2017, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Handling Communications between Spacecraft Operating in an Orbital Environment and Terrestrial Telecommunications Devices That Use Terrestrial Base Station Communications” (hereinafter referred to as “Speidel I”);

[0005] 2) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 465,945, filed on March 2, 2017, entitled “Method for Low-Cost and Low-Complexity Inter-Satellite Link Communications within a Satellite Constellation Network for Near Real-Time, Continuous, and Global Connectivity” (hereinafter “Speidel II”); and

[0006] 3) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62 / 490,298, entitled “Method for Communications between BaseStations Operating in an Orbital Environment and Ground-BasedTelecommunications Devices,” filed on April 26, 2017 (hereinafter “Speidel III”); and

[0007] 4) PCT Patent Application No. PCT / US2019 / 050030, entitled “Cellular Core Network and Radio Access Network Infrastructure and Management in Space,” filed on September 6, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as “Speidel IV”).

[0008] The entire disclosure of the above-mentioned application / patent is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth in this document. Technical Field

[0009] The present disclosure relates generally to broadcast messaging from orbital and / or terrestrial platforms to cellular user equipment applications, and more particularly to processing the broadcast messaging via a smart card runtime environment, such as may be implemented using a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card. Background Art

[0010] Mobile communications involve signals being sent between user equipment (UE) and a transceiver to carry voice and data communications, and possibly positioning features, which can provide an interface for the UE to communicate to and from other network resources (e.g., telecommunications networks, the Internet, etc.). A transceiver can be a component in a base transceiver station (BTS) that handles traffic from multiple transceivers. The BTS can also include antennas and encryption / decryption elements. The antennas can be selective antennas, where different UEs at different locations can communicate to their respective transceivers via different antennas of the BTS. The BTS can have wired, wireless, and / or optical channels to communicate with those other network resources. A BTS can support one or more transceivers, and a given base station for supporting mobile communications can have a base station controller (BSC) that controls one or more BTSs of the base station.

[0011] Examples of mobile stations include mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, and other devices equipped to communicate with a specific BTS. Although a mobile station (or more generally, a UE) is referred to herein by that name, it should be understood that the operations, functions, or characteristics of a mobile station may also be the operations, functions, or characteristics of a station that is effectively or functionally a mobile station but is currently non-mobile. In some examples, as an alternative, a mobile station may be considered to be a portable station that can be moved from one place to another but is fixed in operation, such as a laptop computer with several connected peripherals and a cellular connection, or a mobile station may be fixed, such as a cellular device embedded in an installed home security system. All that is required is that the mobile station is capable of or configured to communicate using a mobile communications infrastructure.

[0012] A UE receiving communications over a cellular telecommunication network or a railway telecommunication network (e.g., a railway telecommunication network with railway base stations that may appear like terrestrial base stations to the UE) may receive communications over such a network and may typically also transmit. The communications may be accomplished according to some agreed protocol such as 3GPP, GSM, LTE, 5G, etc.

[0013] The UE may use a unique identifier to identify itself and register itself with the telecommunications network, which will allow the telecommunications network to distribute messages to one specific UE based on the unique identifier. The telecommunications network may also be configured to send broadcast messages to selected base stations so that those selected base stations forward the broadcast messages to all UEs registered with those selected base stations. This may sometimes be under-inclusive and / or over-inclusive.

[0014] The UE may incorporate a subscriber identity module (SIM) card that runs a card operating system to perform security operations such as cryptographic operations, and operations for identifying and registering the host UE with the operator network. The SIM card may have the ability to hook into host UE events and operations, such as hooking into the event that the host UE initiates a voice call, a short message service (SMS) session, or a data session, and whenever the host UE initiates a voice call, an SMS session, or a data session, the SIM card performs some operations to verify that the owner of the UE has a valid carrier account. The host UE may have hooks for broadcast messages received by the UE host, so that some processing can be performed when a broadcast message is received, such as displaying the broadcast message on the UE display.

[0015] The SIM card can provide a secure, tamper-proof environment for cryptographic keys used by mobile network operators (MNOs) to authenticate individual subscribers to a network connection and to track the activities of these subscribers once they are on the network. In a typical configuration, the UE host device includes a SIM interface (e.g., a slot with an electrical connector) to the UE host, so that when the SIM card is inserted into the UE host device, the UE host can communicate with the SIM card, including the UE host processor sending data to the SIM card, causing the SIM card to execute programs in its secure environment, and receiving data from the SIM card. The programming of the SIM card can include the ability to hook into the UE programming so that notifications are sent to the SIM card when certain events are triggered.

[0016] The interaction between the host UE and its SIM card can be programmed using a SIM Application Toolkit (SAT), which provides a programmable interface for interacting with the UE to the SIM card based on software running on the SIM card. Therefore, the SIM card can execute program code provided to it by air transmission or programmed onto it during or after its manufacture to support functions other than handling user and network communication security. Alternatively, in one embodiment, the software can be provided directly by one or more applications on the UE host. For a UE so programmed, the UE can provide the SIM card with code to run in the security environment of the SIM card, thereby interfacing with internal resources on the SIM card and resources of the host UE. The capabilities of the SAT can be defined by protocols and standards such as the 3GPP TS11.14 standard and the 3GPP TS 31.111 standard.

[0017] The SIM card may be configured and distributed by the MNO using its cryptographic keys and any SIM applications pre-configured for distribution through its Point of Sale (POS) channels. The SIM card may be included with the UE device at the POS.

[0018] Some UEs can handle voice calls, data services, and messaging. An example of a messaging system is the SMS system used by many telecommunication networks. In the case of SMS messaging, the sender can be a subscriber using his own UE, or can be a network operator or its agent. In various telecommunication protocols, an SMS message can have a sender, a destination user identifier (e.g., a phone number) of the destination UE, and a message body. In the case where the telecommunication network knows the base station with which the destination UE has registered, the SMS message can be routed to the base station through the telecommunication network and sent to the destination UE. The telecommunication network may have to maintain a database containing which UE is registered where in order to route the SMS message appropriately. The telecommunication network can handle a large number of individually addressed SMS messages at the same time. SMS messages may involve personal communications, natural disasters, public safety alerts, network operator information, and other purposes.

[0019] Sending an alert using SMS may use a control channel of the telecommunication network that is otherwise used to establish a voice call and may cause network congestion. As a result, the SMS alert may not be received by the UE user in a timely manner.

[0020] Another method of message delivery is cellular broadcast. For cellular broadcast messages, the telecommunications network operator can prepare messages to support or obtain instructions to send messages from a third party, determine a set of base stations to receive cellular broadcast messages, send the cellular broadcast messages to those base stations, and then those base stations will send the cellular broadcast messages to each UE registered at the base station. When used for natural disaster and emergency situations (such as flood warnings, tsunamis, etc.), if the situation is local to an area that can be identified by the base station location and all interested UEs are registered with those base stations, the cellular broadcast message may happen to be received by the correct set of UEs. Problems of over-inclusion and under-inclusion may occur, such as UEs that are in the area affected by the emergency situation but happen not to be registered with the applicable base station.

[0021] In the event that the UE is not within the range of a terrestrial base station, it may receive messages via a rail base station configured to appear as a terrestrial base station to a conventional UE. An example is shown in Speidel I, for example.

[0022] A more selective and / or more inclusive messaging approach may be desired to more easily and / or more efficiently reach a target set of UEs. Summary of the invention

[0023] An electronic user device, comprising: an inclusion list storage device, which includes an electronically readable memory (inclusion list storage device), the inclusion list indicating included logical IDs; and a security module app, which receives a cellular broadcast message and extracts the logical ID therefrom. The security module app processes a target payload contained within the cellular broadcast message based on whether the logical ID embedded in the cellular broadcast message is on the inclusion list, and formats it for consumption by the electronic user device app receiving data via an available data channel.

[0024] A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which when executed by at least one processor of a computer system can cause the computer system to implement the above elements.

[0025] A carrier medium can carry data including a logical ID generated according to the method of this document, and can be used to provide an app with data received through a unidirectional link based on the logical ID.

[0026] This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that will be further described in the detailed description below. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. A more extensive presentation of features, details, utilities, and advantages of the surface computing method as defined in the claims is provided in the following written description of various embodiments of the present disclosure and shown in the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0027] Various embodiments according to the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0028] Figure 1 A telecommunications network involving orbital base stations and terrestrial user equipment (UE) according to an embodiment is shown.

[0029] Figure 2 An example of using a rail base station to connect a UE to an Internet-connected resource is shown according to an embodiment.

[0030] Figure 3 An example of conveying content to a UE via a cellular broadcast message according to an embodiment is shown.

[0031] Figure 4 The hardware and software that may be present in a UE and an accompanying SIM card according to an embodiment is shown.

[0032] Figure 5 Elements of a UE that may be involved in processing a signal received by the UE according to an embodiment are shown.

[0033] Figure 6Elements of a SIM card according to an embodiment are shown in more detail, including details of the use of the SIM Application Toolkit (SAT).

[0034] Figure 7 A first example message is shown that may be constructed in a data structure sent over a telecommunications network.

[0035] Figure 8 is a flow chart of a CB message processing method for a targeted cell broadcast message ("TCBM") according to an embodiment.

[0036] Fig. 9 An example of a TCBM message received and used by an app on a UE according to an embodiment is shown.

[0037] Fig.10 Examples of satellite coverage areas and resulting distance ranges within the satellite coverage areas are shown.

[0038] Fig.11 It is shown how different mobile stations can be assigned different carrier frequencies based on their land location distance, so that a ring method with varying ring diameters for different carrier frequencies can be used.

[0039] Fig.12 It is shown how the satellite coverage area can be subdivided into Doppler shift bands.

[0040] Fig.13 It is shown how the satellite coverage area can be subdivided into range rings, into Doppler shift bands, and into both range rings and Doppler shift bands.

[0041] Fig.14 Examples of range rings / Doppler shift cells of satellite coverage are shown.

[0042] Fig.15 Shows the Fig.14 An example of a range ring / Doppler shift cell assigned to a specific carrier frequency and Doppler shift block.

[0043] Fig.16 An example of selective messaging based on geographic location is shown in accordance with an embodiment.

[0044] Fig.17 Sending a TCBM using a single CB Message packet according to an embodiment is shown.

[0045] Fig.18 Sending TCBM using multiple CB message packets according to an embodiment is shown.

[0046] Fig.19 It is shown that a UE according to an embodiment obtains multiple TCBMs targeting different cells. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0047] In the following description, various embodiments will be described. For the purpose of explanation, specific configurations and details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will also be apparent to those skilled in the art that these embodiments may be practiced without the specific details. In addition, in order not to obscure the described embodiments, well-known features may be omitted or simplified.

[0048] The UE may be configured to receive messages via a telecommunications network. For example, a cellular phone may be configured to receive SMS messages, where the SMS messages are directed to a specific phone number or a specific subscriber identity module (also referred to as a "subscriber identification module" or "SIM card"), through which the telecommunications network may route the specific UE if the specific UE has registered with the network. The cellular phone may be configured to receive cellular broadcast messages. Various configurations may be specified by some telecommunications protocols such as 3GPP, GSM, CDMA, LTE, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, etc. and future developed protocols or descendants of the above protocols. The cellular broadcast message format and protocol may be implemented in accordance with one or more of these protocols. For example, WEA 3.0 is a protocol that may be used to send geo-targeted CB messages, and when implemented, the protocol may be used.

[0049] The UE may have the capability to execute UE applications (apps) with communication capabilities. For example, when the phone is within range of a cell tower and is able to establish a data channel with the cell tower, the phone app may be able to connect to the TCP / IP stack to send and receive data. Such an app may have functionality that operates independently of the communication capabilities and, therefore, may have some operations that can be performed without external communications and other operations that require external communications.

[0050] A cellular telephone may be configured to process SMS messages in one manner (such as displaying a notification on the cellular telephone display and emitting tones specific to SMS messaging) and to process cellular broadcast messages in another manner (such as displaying the message in a certain manner and emitting tones such as warning tones when a cellular broadcast message is received and processed). In some protocols, the maximum length of a cellular broadcast message is 1395 characters, including pages of up to 93 alphanumeric characters, and up to 15 pages per message. In other protocols, larger page sizes or more pages per message may be allowed. When sending a cellular broadcast message, the telecommunications network operator or server initiating the cellular broadcast message may select a set of base stations (e.g., cell towers) to receive the cellular broadcast message. The selection of cell towers may be based on covering an area affected by the emergency event, and then sending an alert message to every active and registered handheld mobile phone in that area.

[0051] Cell broadcast messages can be sent on different channels other than those used for voice and SMS communications, so as not to cause network congestion for voice and SMS communications, which may result from using the SMS method to send alerts (if a separate SMS message is created for each recipient UE, network congestion may occur), and as a result, the mobile phone user may not receive the SMS alert in a timely manner. Cell broadcast alerts can be delivered to mobile phone users within seconds. In addition, cellular broadcasts can be issued without the need for each receiving device to register with the network through which the message is issued (as is usually required in the case of SMS messages). With the cellular broadcast method, only a single message needs to be created and broadcast so that any UE listening on the network can receive the CB and process it.

[0052] Using SMS messaging to send alerts typically requires the mobile device to be registered with the mobile network so that the mobile network knows which base stations to use when communicating with a particular mobile device. Cellular broadcasting does not require the mobile device to be registered with the mobile network, which enables it to reach greater distances than typical SMS channels.

[0053] Cellular broadcast messages can be sent from the core network of a mobile network using an identifier or "message ID". Mobile phone users can make configuration changes on their phones (e.g., their UE) to indicate which alert messages to display, and those configurations can be selected among different IDs, so that one user can receive messages sent using one message ID, while another user can not. Some phones are pre-assigned specific message IDs for receiving cellular broadcasts. These message IDs can include message IDs assigned for hurricane, tornado, or flood warnings. Some message IDs are assigned for lost or kidnapped children (e.g., AMBER alerts), and others are assigned for large-scale transmission of government messages to the national population (e.g., presidential alerts). Telecommunications networks can maintain a list of a large number of message IDs that can be used in cellular broadcast channels, and various providers can agree on specific standards for message IDs. For example, there may be thousands of possible message IDs, but only about 100 are assigned for specific cellular broadcast content. In some agreements between networks, for example, message ID 4352 is used for earthquake warnings, 4353 is used for tsunami warnings, and 4370 is used for presidential alerts. Some message IDs may not be assigned for any cellular broadcast content, such as message IDs 0 to 999.

[0054] It may be useful to direct messages to a single UE, a group of UEs, or UEs (registered or not) in a particular geographic location. As explained herein, targeted cell broadcast messages ("TCBMs") may be used for these needs. With TCBMs, messages may be broadcast to many UEs, but a given UE is programmed to filter or ignore those messages that are not directed to that UE. This selectivity may be provided by a TCBM that includes a location ID, which may be embedded in the body of a cell broadcast message, so that the cell broadcast message may be sent through an infrastructure that is unknown to the TCBM embedded therein. The UE may be programmed with a filtering module that processes received cell broadcast messages, takes into account the location ID in which the TCBM is embedded, and either processes it further or discards it. At least in the case of orbital base stations, network-level filtering may also be provided by broadcasting using signal parameters (e.g., delay, Doppler shift, etc.) so that the target UE perceives the cell broadcast message as correct according to its agreed protocol, while the non-target UE perceives the cell broadcast message as noise or incorrect according to its agreed protocol.

[0055] Some message transmissions may be focused on specific geographic subsets of the satellite coverage area, for example, perhaps by deploying the delay and Doppler shift techniques of Speidel I, such that some messages are received in the target geographic area while appearing as non-compliant signals in other geographic areas and are therefore ignored or discarded by UEs outside the target geographic area.

[0056] Additionally, filtering can be performed at the network level by applying cellular broadcast messages only to certain beams deployed by the satellite, which can also implement the delay and Doppler shift techniques of Speidel I. A satellite base station may include multiple beams, each of which contributes an RF coverage area to a subset of a larger satellite field of view, which may have a more limited delay and Doppler profile extension relative to the larger satellite field of view. Additionally, these beams can allow for higher bandwidth communications, thereby allowing for greater message delivery density in the methods described herein.

[0057] Figure 1 A telecommunications network involving orbital base stations and terrestrial user equipment (UE) according to an embodiment is shown. As shown, on the surface 102 of the Earth (or other planets or celestial bodies for that matter), there are several UEs 104, which may be mobile or may be portable or fixed but function as UEs. These UEs 104 communicate with orbital BTSs 106 via BTS-UE links (e.g., links described in Speidel I). As shown, each BTS 106 has an orbital velocity relative to the surface 102 and a certain separation distance.

[0058] Figure 2 An example of using a rail base station to connect a UE to an Internet-connected resource is shown according to an embodiment. Figure 2 Shows Figure 1 206 , each device is configured and / or adapted to communicate with a terrestrial BTS, and in the event that the individual 202 desires to communicate with or access the Internet 208 and / or Internet-connected resources 210, these devices may do so via the BTS 206. Other examples of devices may be user-less interface devices, such as industrial or household devices that interact over a network (e.g., "Internet of Things" devices). Such devices may connect to a terrestrial base station when one is available.

[0059] Figure 3An example 300 of communicating content to UEs via cellular broadcast messages according to an embodiment is shown. As shown, content to be distributed to UEs is stored in storage 302 and provided to an ingestion server 304. A command and control center 306 may receive content from the ingestion server 304 and provide it to a content provider interface 310. A cellular broadcast entity (CBE) 312 receives data from the content provider interface 310 and provides it to a cellular broadcast center (CBC) 314, which in turn may construct cellular broadcast messages and communicate these messages to an uplink ground station 316, and provide these messages to an orbiting base station 320 in a proprietary or standard protocol. In some embodiments, the CBE and CBC are implemented in a command and control center and / or in other embodiments, they are implemented on a satellite.

[0060] Orbital base station 320 may transmit signals (e.g., those described in Speidel I) for reception by user equipment 322, possibly using conventional cellular broadcast protocols. Orbital base station 320 may transmit signals having specific delay characteristics and Doppler shifts to terrestrial user equipment, as explained in greater detail herein.

[0061] Figure 4 The hardware and software that may be present in a UE according to an embodiment are shown. As shown, a UE device 410 may include a user device with an inserted SIM card. The UE device 410 may include various software components 420, including a satellite ephemeris calculator, a cellular broadcast receiver, a cellular message payload processor, a satellite tractor, and a position calculator.

[0062] Figure 5 Elements of a UE that may be involved in processing signals received by the UE according to an embodiment are shown. As shown, the UE device 502 may include an antenna 504, a radio 506, and a data stream processor 508. The radio 506 may receive signals related to voice, data, and cellular broadcasts and communicate them to the data stream processor 508. The data stream processor 508 may communicate the voice signal to the voice processor 520, which in turn may communicate the voice signal to the speaker output 522 to be played to the user on the speaker 624.

[0063] The data stream processor 508 can communicate data signals to the TCP / IP stack 530, which can be used to communicate data to the app space 532 for communication to the various apps therein. When there is a cellular link carrying full point-to-point data traffic, apps consuming data from outside the UE device 502 can receive the data through a traditional data channel that may provide data through the internal TCP / IP stack of the UE device.

[0064] The SIM card 540 may insert a callback hook for the data stream processor 508 to provide event notifications to the SIM card 540. When the SIM card 540 is notified of an event such as an incoming call, an outgoing call, a cellular broadcast message, etc., it may provide the notification to the SIM apps 542, 544, a SIM password app 546 for performing security password operations, a SIM cellular broadcast (CB) app 548, which may detect incoming cellular broadcast messages according to conventional cellular broadcast protocols and output these messages to the display user interface 534 for display to the user on the display 536.

[0065] The SIM card 540 may also be configured with a novel cellular broadcast envelope processor 550 that may process received cellular broadcast messages and provide one-way data to apps in the app space on the UE 532, which may be useful when a full data channel is not available.

[0066] Figure 6 Elements of the SIM card 540 are shown in greater detail according to an embodiment, including details of the use of the SIM Application Toolkit (SAT).

[0067] Figure 7 A first example message is shown that may be constructed in a data structure sent over a telecommunications network. In the first example message format, a logical ID is included within a cellular broadcast message body to indicate a subset of destination UEs that will receive the message. In a second example message format (shown in another figure), the logical ID may be included in the message itself, but may also be used to distribute and direct messages based on signal characteristics. Given that certain signal characteristics (e.g., signal delays, frequency shifts, variations, etc.) may cause a cellular broadcast message to be correctly received by certain UEs (e.g., UEs within a predetermined geographic range) but incorrectly received by other UEs, such signal characteristics may be used with orbital base stations to filter, thereby providing a filtering effect.

[0068] like Figure 7 As shown, a standard cellular broadcast message may be broadcast by a rail base station as follows: The message has a sequence number, a message identifier, an indicator of a data encoding scheme, page parameters, and a cellular broadcast message payload. In some protocols, the cellular broadcast message payload includes up to 93 alphanumeric characters.

[0069] like Figure 7 As shown, the message can be represented by a data structure having the fields shown. The CB envelope processor (e.g., Figure 5The CB envelope processor 550 shown) can be configured to read the logical ID field of the message body and interpret it as a logical ID, and then filter the messages accordingly and / or forward them to the appropriate apps. The CB envelope processor may be configured with a lookup table that maps logical IDs to apps, a table of possible logical IDs to be processed, and / or a table of logical IDs to be ignored. The logical ID may correspond to a specific message type or to a predetermined group of recipients. As an example, there may be a weather forecast broadcast service using a specific message ID, a news broadcast service with another message ID, and a commercial broadcast service with another message ID. As shown, the logical ID can be selected from an alphabetical list of available logical IDs. In the example shown, one or N alphanumeric characters at the beginning of the cellular broadcast message are reserved for the logical ID. Assuming a 7-bit alphanumeric character, there may be 128 available logical IDs. In general, the logical ID occupies N 7-bit alphanumeric characters, allowing up to 2 7N possible logical IDs.

[0070] The filter module of the CB envelope processor 550 can read the inclusion and / or non-inclusion lists and process the received messages accordingly, passing messages that already include the logical ID and discarding messages that do not include the logical ID or are on the non-inclusion list. The list can be based on user selections and preferences. Thus, a subscriber can specify the logical IDs to which it subscribes.

[0071] The CB envelope processor 550 may read the messages contained and / or may receive as input. However, because such messages may be received via cellular broadcasts, the UE may receive these messages even if it is not registered with the base station and even if the UE is operating at the edge of the network where the signal level is too low for two-way communications but may have sufficient signal energy on the downlink for cellular broadcasts.

[0072] like Figure 7 As shown, the cellular broadcast message has a message ID. The CB envelope processor may also use the message ID. For example, the CB envelope processor may ignore messages whose message IDs have already been assigned to existing messaging services (e.g., emergency messaging, etc.). Those messages may be processed by the SIM SAT CB app, e.g. Figure 5 Shown is SIM SAT CB app 548. The specific message ID used for this filtering process may vary by country, region, state, etc. depending on what message IDs have been assigned for existing messaging services, and may correspond to message IDs assigned for commercial broadcast messaging.

[0073] Logical ID does not need to be Figure 7The CB Envelope Processor is not shown at the beginning of the Cell Broadcast Message Body, but may be at other locations in the message. Delimiters may be used to demarcate the Logical ID from the rest of the message body. Multiple Logical IDs may be used, and preferably the CB Envelope Processor is configured to understand the layout of the Cell Broadcast Message to accommodate Logical ID filtering. Some Logical IDs may be associated with topics (e.g., news, weather, advertising, etc.) or associated with groups of people.

[0074] The UE may run multiple CB envelope processors, each with a filtering module for filtering based on a logical ID, or multiple applications may use a common filtering module. Applications may include commercial applications and public safety applications. Commercial applications may include subscription-based alerts, such as news headlines, sports news, weather alerts, etc. Public safety applications may include the ability to notify users in remote and rural areas that help is on the way when they request help using personal locator beacons. Personal locator beacons may send SOS signals to rescue agencies, and in the event that rescue agencies are able to locate those users, they may send messages specific to the UE at that location to a messaging server, whether it is the person who triggered the SOS signal or someone nearby who may be able to provide help. Other applications may include one-way one-to-one messaging and one-way one-to-many messaging.

[0075] Utilizes a logical ID alphabet of N 7-bit alphanumeric characters for IDs up to 2 7N Logical IDs can be assigned to groups of millions of users. In any case, since the messages are broadcast and each UE determines which messages to process, the telecommunications network does not have to know where the UE is, and a reverse channel for two-way communication is not required.

[0076] In some embodiments, the UE is configured so that cellular messages with certain logical IDs will be abandoned with a specific logical ID, and the end user cannot change which messages are abandoned. This will allow essentially private messaging. For example, all CB envelope processors can store logical IDs from a set of exclusive logical IDs, where each exclusive logical ID is associated with a UE, user, or entity. For example, a range of logical IDs from "AAAAAAA" to "AA99999" can be designated as exclusive logical IDs, and one UE can be assigned the logical ID "AAR5e4D", while no other UE is assigned the logical ID. All UEs except one UE will abandon any message with the logical ID "AAR5e4D", so only one UE will present the message to its user, making this essentially private messaging via broadcast. In addition to having the UEs programmed to ignore messages that are not specifically targeted at them, the message body can also be encrypted so that even a rogue UE cannot easily read cellular broadcast messages targeted at others based on the logical ID. The logical ID and the corresponding encryption key may be stored at the server and used to encrypt messages at the server, and stored in the UE application or CB envelope processor and used there to decrypt messages.

[0077] Some logical IDs may be specific to a geographic region, for example, "GG45rXk" is a logical ID for a small part of the South Pacific. The CB envelope processor may consult the UE's location module (which may operate based on a GPS system) to determine the UE's location, and update the UE's inclusion list to include "GG45rXk" if the UE is within that small part of the South Pacific, and remove that location ID when the UE is outside that small part. In this way, geographically specific messages may be sent. Different logical IDs may be associated with different geographic regions. For example, the delivery of localized weather information via an orbiting base station with a large spot beam may utilize a geolocation ID such that a UE outside the geographic region (but within the spot beam) will ignore the message. Software in the UE may obtain the UE's GPS location and use that GPS location to dynamically "subscribe" to geographically relevant messages that may be broadcast from services to which it has subscribed (e.g., weather).

[0078] Of course, in the case where the local base station for a given UE or group of UEs is known and accessible, the server sending the cell broadcast message can also provide some filtering by sending the cell broadcast message to fewer than all possible base stations. As described, granularity at the individual user level can be achieved. This can reduce traffic requirements on other channels of the network deployment.

[0079] Some TCBMs may be filtered based on their message ID and / or logical ID. Messages may also be filtered geographically by having the transmitting orbital base station transmit CBs with a specific delay and / or a specific Doppler shift so that the message is correctly received by some UEs and not by others. Additionally, directional beams may be used to focus the signal energy so that the broadcast is received by specific target UEs at specific locations on the earth, while its amplitude is not high enough to be received by UEs outside of those locations.

[0080] With signal filtering, messages are sent from an orbital base station with signal characteristics such that reception outside a certain geographic area is expected to fail and thus operate as another filtering function. For example, an orbital base station may send a cellular broadcast message with a particular Doppler shift, with the result that UEs in front of the orbital location of the orbital base station will receive the signal within an understandable frequency range, but UEs behind the orbital location of the orbital base station will receive the signal with an unacceptably low frequency or unacceptably low signal energy and treat the transmission as an unrecoverable error, or not receive the signal at all (e.g., below the noise floor).

[0081] As shown in the figure, a multi-message cellular broadcast message can use a delimiter to delimit multiple TCBMs in a multi-message cellular broadcast message. Multi-message cellular broadcast messages can be used when bandwidth and / or time are limited. For example, an orbital base station may have a limited window to send messages in an overpass. Satellite overpass may be several minutes. Land base stations may be less restricted because they do not usually move, but they may be restricted by the movement of mobile phones through their coverage areas. If a cell tower broadcasts on multiple BCCH channels by allocating multiple PLMN IDs to the mobile network, it is possible to increase the number of messages sent. In this way, the UE can receive multiple TCBMs simultaneously. For example, if the UE can receive 100 TCBMs during an overpass, the UE will be able to receive 200 TCBMs by sending 2 TCBMs simultaneously on multiple BCCH channels.

[0082] Another method for adding messages can be done by concatenating messages one after another within the 15 page structure of a single individual broadcast. A single message plus its logical ID can be 93 characters or less, fitting neatly into a single page in a cellular broadcast message. In this case, a second message can be started directly thereafter, even allowing it to continue into the next cellular broadcast page. In this way, multiple TCBMs can be sent in a single cellular broadcast message, each with its own unique logical ID. The logic of how to transmit messages in groups within one cellular broadcast can be handled by logic at the application server and processed at the UE.

[0083] Figure 8 is a flow chart of a CB message processing method for a targeted cell broadcast message ("TCBM") according to an embodiment.

[0084] Fig. 9 An example of a TCBM message received and used by an app on a UE according to an embodiment is shown.

[0085] Fig.10 An example of a satellite footprint, a ring, and the resulting distance range of the ring of the satellite footprint is shown. Satellite 1002 will have a footprint covered in Fig.10 1004, which is shown from the side as coverage area 1004 and from above as coverage area 1006. The different cross-hatching in coverage area 1006 indicates different distance ranges between the surface and the BTS that form rings. In this example, there are seven rings, but there may be more or fewer rings as needed. In this example, the rings are labeled r0 to r6 and correspond to BTS-UE distance ranges (which may be pseudo-range ranges) of {500-534.4, 534.4-568.9, 568.9-603.3, 603.3-637.7, 637.7-672.1, 672.1-706.6, 706.6-741} (all in km). Each of these ranges happens to be slightly less than 35 km, which is a useful design choice as explained below. Other applications may use different design choices. In the initial signal exchange, such as a RACH procedure, the BTS-UE distance is determined and then the UE can be assigned to one of the rings in the satellite coverage area.

[0086] As explained below, UEs assigned to a particular one of the rings may all be assigned to one carrier frequency or carrier frequency block on which TDMA / FDMA frames are sent, or other approaches may be taken. In some embodiments, the rings may overlap so that a UE may be in more than one ring. For example, the first two rings may be 490-540 and 530-580, so a UE at 535 km from the BTS may be in either of the two rings.

[0087] Depending on the desired application, the orbital BTS may adjust its protocol and operation according to the following methods (1), (2), (3), (4), (5) and (6) or a combination of one or more of them: (1) timing advance method; (2) extended range method (using less than all available time slots and instead using unused time slots as guard bits); (3) ordered extended range method (using less than all available time slots and instead using unused time slots as guard bits, which are allocated between time slots, where time slots are assigned based on expected variable delays); (4) ring extended range method (moving timing so that the coverage area is a ring with an inner loop (not supported)); (5) multi-ring extended range method (similar to method (4), where multiple rings cover different distance ranges simultaneously and UEs are assigned to rings based on their BTS-UE distance); and (6) ordered channel ring allocation method (similar to method (5), where different rings are associated with different carrier frequencies and for one carrier frequency, method (3) is used to allocate time slots for UEs within the distance range of the ring).

[0088] Fig.11 It shows how different channels are assigned to different mobile stations based on their terrestrial location relative to the BTS, so that a ring method with varying ring diameters for different channels can be used. As shown, using the timing advance method (for a range of ~0 to 35 km) and the ordered channel ring allocation method can provide an additional range of about 241 km without exhausting the time slots. Using the ordered channel ring allocation method, the satellite coverage area is divided into Fig.10 The loops shown are each paired with a different carrier frequency. Each loop operates at a different synchronization offset.

[0089] As used herein, a channel may include one or more specific frequency divisions in a protocol, such as a set of carrier frequencies. Fig.11 The supported pseudorange range between the nearest and farthest potential targets is 241 km, which is divided into seven pseudorange range rings. This results in a coverage of about 34 km per ring, and the synchronization offset can be different for different rings assigned to a channel block or channel set. By making the offset from channel block to channel block less than about 35 km, full throughput is possible in each channel by eliminating the need for an additional time slot guard period, and then the timing advance itself is sufficient.

[0090] The RACH request burst can be used to determine the propagation distance of the signal from each UE. The BTS can use a broadcast channel (BCCH) to continuously or periodically inform the UE on the RACH which carrier frequency and time slot the BTS has assigned to that UE for the uplink. The BTS will know exactly when the UE will send its RACH burst and can count the number of bits between that time and the actual burst arrival time. By dividing this number of bits by the channel bit rate (270.83kbps for GSM), the BTS can calculate the round-trip propagation delay time. The BTS then calculates the propagation distance (or pseudorange) by dividing the speed of light by the round-trip propagation delay time. Based on the calculated pseudorange, each UE qualifies for assignment to a channel in a particular channel block. For example, in Fig.11 In the configuration shown, channels in channel block b0 are assigned to UEs whose calculated pseudoranges are between 500km and 534km; channels in channel block b1 are assigned to UEs whose measured pseudoranges from the on-orbit BTSs are between 534km and 568km. Fig.10 and Fig.11 The situation is similar for the other ranges shown.

[0091] The first channel block b0 has an uplink TDMA frame that is offset by the same amount from the transmit uplink frame, such as Fig.12 The subsequent channel block b1 has a frame that is offset by an additional ˜62 bits from the frame of channel block b0. Thereafter, the frame of each channel block has an additional offset of ˜62 bits compared to the previous channel block (i.e., channel block b i+1 The frame is from channel block b i The frame offset is an additional ~62 bits). With this configuration of 62 bits, various coverage loops are created, each ~34km, since each bit of the frame offset corresponds to approximately 555m, and each loop / channel block extends ~34km further than the previous one. By assigning various synchronization offsets, each channel block presents a different loop of coverage in space (and on the surface of the earth). When channel blocks are given synchronization offsets in 62-bit increments and the classical embodiment of GSM is used, full throughput can be achieved on each channel, and extended coverage can be achieved. This can be done without requiring modifications to the GSM UE. Fig.10 A top view of the range rings is shown in FIG. 1 . The channel blocks of each range ring are defined by a distinctive “range range”, Fig.10 In the legend to the left, the distance range is specified for this particular embodiment.

[0092] While the above method and its variations can provide maximum throughput for all channelized spectrum, the transmission frequency may be different on send and receive due to the relative motion of the BTS and UE. Doppler solutions can be used to account for the situation where there may be multiple UEs within a similar pseudorange from an on-orbit BTS that experience wide variations in perceived carrier frequency shift. For example, Fig.10 In , consider two UEs calculated to exist within the same ring / channel block b6, where one UE is located at the top tip of the coverage area covered by the satellite and the other UE is located at the bottom tip of the coverage area covered by the satellite.

[0093] exist Fig.10 In the figure, the satellite is located directly above the center of the coverage area indicated as channel block b0 (at the origin of the arrow) and is moving in the direction of the arrow labeled "Speed". The first UE in front of the satellite velocity vector will experience a positive Doppler shift in the received frequency, while the second UE behind the satellite velocity vector will experience a negative Doppler shift in the received frequency. If these UEs are assigned the same frequency, the satellite may receive signal burst frequencies from the UEs that are many kilohertz apart (up to 70kHz apart in the case of the 1800 / 1900 GSM bands). In addition, assigning adjacent channels to UEs that experience widely different Doppler shift environments may result in signal interference at the satellite.

[0094] Fig.12 A method is shown of how a satellite coverage area can be subdivided into Doppler shift bands for mitigating this problem. As shown, a satellite 1202 is assumed to be traveling at a speed relative to the Earth's surface 1204. Satellite coverage area 1206 is a view from the perspective of a satellite with the indicated speed. UEs in region 1210 of the satellite coverage area 1206 vector will experience a positive Doppler shift in the received frequency of the signal from satellite 1202, while UEs in region 1212 of the satellite coverage area 1206 vector will experience a negative Doppler shift in the received frequency of the signal from satellite 1202. The specific Doppler shift of the received frequency can be determined using simple geometry, and for a range of Doppler shifts, the satellite coverage area 1206 can be divided into strips defined by contour lines and contour line assignment values ​​1220 for their respective Doppler shifts.

[0095] In three-dimensional space, the Doppler shift at any point within the satellite coverage area can be calculated by the BTS or UE given sufficient information. One way to do this is to assume that all vectors are represented in the Earth-centered Earth-fixed (ECEF) coordinate frame. This is also called the Earth's rotating frame because it is a coordinate system that rotates in space as the Earth rotates around its axis of rotation. In this process, each vector is treated as a vector quantity with three component values, so that each component value in the vector represents a value along each dimension of the coordinate frame represented by the vector. These numbers can be stored in memory for manipulation by the processor.

[0096] if r BTS represents the satellite's position vector in ECEF coordinates, and r UE represents the position vector of the UE in the ECEF coordinates, then the position vector of the UE relative to the BTS will be r UE / BTS = r UE - r BTS . Similarly, if v BTS represents the satellite's velocity vector in ECEF coordinates, and v UE represents the velocity vector of UE in ECEF coordinates, then the velocity vector of BTS relative to UE is v BTS / UE = v BTS - v UE In order to calculate the Doppler shift, that is, the velocity component of the BTS relative to the UE v BTS / UE The position of the UE relative to the BTS r UE / BTS / || r UE / BTS The processor calculates the position by taking the magnitude in the direction (or unit vector) of || and then dividing it by the wavelength of the assigned carrier frequency wave. This can be done using the two vectors of interest v BTS / UE and r UE / BTS / || r UE / BTS || and can be written as in Equation 1 and possibly implemented in program code.

[0097] (Equation 1)

[0098] In Equation 1, D is the calculated Doppler shift and λ is the wavelength of the carrier frequency wave, which can be calculated as the carrier frequency divided by the speed of light.

[0099] As an example, consider a spacecraft operating at an altitude of 500 km in an equatorial orbit and just above the prime meridian at a particular moment in time (e.g., the lowest point relative to the satellite is exactly the intersection of the equator and the prime meridian). At the same particular moment in time, a fixed UE 1230 is located approximately at sea level below the spacecraft, but resting on the equator at 1 degree east longitude (e.g., the latitude and longitude position can be described as [0, 1]).

[0100] In this case, the satellite's ECEF position coordinates are approximately [6870km; 0km; 0km]. The spacecraft's velocity vector in a circular orbit at 500km is approximately perpendicular to the position vector and parallel to the equator (for an equatorial orbit). The magnitude of the velocity vector relative to the Earth's surface can be calculated as SQRT(mu_earth / (R_e + h)) – w_earth*(R_e+h) = 7.11km / s, where mu_earth is the Earth's gravitational constant (mu_earth = 398658.366km 3 / s 2 ), R_e is the radius of the Earth at the equator (R_e ~ 6370 km), w_earth is the angular velocity of the Earth's rotation (w_earth = 7.27*10 -5 radians / second), with h being the altitude of the satellite (h=500km in this example). Therefore, the ECEF velocity vector of the spacecraft is approximately [0km / s; 7.11km / s; 0km / s]. The ECEF position of a fixed UE at 0 degrees latitude and 1 degree east longitude is approximately [R_earth*cos(1°); R_earth*sin(1°); 0] = [6369 km; 111 km; 0]. Therefore, the ECEF position of this fixed UE relative to the spacecraft is [6369 km; 111 km; 0] - [6870 km; 0 km; 0 km] = [-501 km; 111 km; 0]. Therefore, the Doppler shift of the 1900 MHz signal received by this UE from the spacecraft will be as shown in Equations 2, 3, and 4.

[0101] (Equation 2)

[0102] (Equation 3)

[0103] (Equation 4)

[0104] As described above, the pseudorange can be calculated using the signal received by the BTS from the UE on the RACH. It can also be used to approximate the Doppler shift from the UE. Much like the BTS knows which time slot the RACH is on, it also knows which carrier frequency it is on. Therefore, when the BTS receives a RACH burst, it can measure the center of the burst frequency and calculate its offset (difference) from the expected center frequency on the RACH. This may or may not require the satellite BTS to listen over a wider range of frequencies on the RACH depending on the amount of Doppler shift experienced by the system.

[0105] exist Fig.12 In the figure, each dashed line defines the boundary of a Doppler shift band that is used to locate the potential Doppler shift of each channel so as to minimize interference. The curvature of the contour lines on the map is a result of the geometry of the communication link and the communication frequency.

[0106] Fig.13 It is shown how the satellite coverage area can be subdivided into range rings, into Doppler shift bands, and into both range rings and Doppler shift bands. As shown, the range of pseudoranges forms rings and the Doppler shift profiles form strips. By superimposing these into a grid (not necessarily an orthogonal or linear grid), the satellite coverage area 1302 is divided into grid cells defined by a first range value, a second range value, a first Doppler shift value, and a second Doppler shift value. Therefore, each of these grid cells corresponds to a combination of a pseudorange range and a Doppler shift range relative to an on-orbit BTS, and is a qualification condition for assigning a specific channel (or one of a specific set of channels) to a UE.

[0107] Additionally, the pseudorange range and Doppler shift range can also be divided into discrete RF beams from a satellite that can host multiple antennas or multiple elements arranged in a single phased array capable of generating multiple beams. By dividing the pseudorange band and Doppler shift range into unique beams where multiple beams cover the aggregate satellite field of view, higher throughput and frequency / channel reuse can be achieved.

[0108] It should be noted that while the satellite coverage areas shown here are circular in nature, this is not required. Depending on which antennas are used on the satellite and how they are configured, the coverage area may be more square or elliptical in shape. A non-circular coverage area may provide the advantage that it may increase or decrease the spread of the propagation delay and / or Doppler shift environment within the coverage area. Various antenna technologies may be used, such as a single antenna beam, multiple highly directional antenna beams, large phased arrays capable of beamforming, a large number of antennas, and / or some combination thereof.

[0109] The grid represents a combination of pseudorange ranges and Doppler shift ranges corresponding to the qualification of the pseudorange and Doppler shift channel blocks. It is assumed that the above grid cells are symmetric about the satellite velocity vector. This means that each grid cell that deviates from the centerline of the satellite coverage area has a "twin" grid cell on the opposite side of the satellite coverage area. The term "twin" grid cell is used because the two grid cells share a "bucket" that is logically associated with the pseudorange range and Doppler shift range (i.e., the logical assignment of a UE to a bucket is based on whether the UE's pseudorange is within the pseudorange range assigned to the bucket and whether the UE's Doppler shift is within the Doppler shift range assigned to the bucket), because the UEs in the two grid cells operate with similar pseudoranges and Doppler shifts.

[0110] When demodulating downlink signals, some protocols may be more resilient to Doppler shifts, while others may be less resilient. In some devices or some protocols, a frequency shift of 2.5kHz may be the Doppler shift threshold. However, even some low-end cellular phones may be able to demodulate BCCH signals at up to 20kHz offset from what would normally be the center carrier frequency of the channel. This may involve interaction between the BTS and the UE on the FCCH (Frequency Correction Channel), which is another broadcast channel used by the UE to synchronize its local clock with the BTS. This synchronization is essentially the information required by the phone to then demodulate the BCCH and other downlink channels. Therefore, Doppler shift bands larger than the exemplary 5kHz band used in the above example may be used. For example, the buckets may be adjusted and stretched to accommodate a larger range of Doppler shifts: up to at least 20kHz in either direction. In practice, this may avoid the need for Doppler shift bucketing when the satellite footprint is small enough that the highest Doppler shift case is less than 20kHz. This may not be true for other protocols (e.g., NB-IoT) that use much smaller signal bandwidths. NB-IoT also has other differences, such as the multiple access protocol is the LTE NB-IoT protocol and the limited distance is 40km (which will be exceeded by the base station to mobile station distance).

[0111] Fig.14 An example of a range ring / Doppler shift cell of a satellite coverage area is shown. The intersection of the pseudo-range ring and the Doppler shift band forms a coverage area grid. Channels can be assigned to the grid cells, range rings / Doppler shift cells.

[0112] Fig.15 Shows the Fig.14An example of a range loop / Doppler shift cell assigned to a specific carrier frequency and Doppler shift block. A logical channel block may be associated with one or more carrier frequencies and / or one or more time slots on a TDMA frame using these carrier frequencies. Fig.14 , channels are shown with arbitrary channel labels, in this case from 1 to 70. Their labels happen to be in order from bottom to top, i.e., from the most negative Doppler shift to the most positive Doppler shift. Channels 1 to 70 may correspond to channels assigned to each of the 8 time slots in a frame using 8 carrier frequencies and the 6 time slots in a frame for one or more carrier frequencies.

[0113] Fig.14 The figure shows how the grid cells of the satellite footprint are assigned channel numbers. Only the left side of the footprint is shown to be numbered, but it should be understood that the twin cells on the right are also assigned those channel numbers. Fig.15 The channel allocation table in FIG. 1 shows a channel allocation scheme in which each channel number is associated with a Doppler shift block (from D0 to D1) corresponding to a Doppler frequency shift band. 13 ) and channel blocks (from b0 to b6), are assigned or allocated Doppler shift blocks (from D0 to D6) corresponding to Doppler frequency shift bands. 13 ) and channel blocks (from b0 to b6). Note that in other embodiments, the number of channels may vary depending on how the pseudoranges and Doppler shifts are bucketed for the UEs. Multiple channels may be assigned to a grid cell. Fig.14 and Fig.15 In the example of , for simplicity, each grid cell is assigned a channel number. Since the grid cells are symmetric about the satellite velocity vector, only half of the grid cells are filled with channel assignments. In a practical implementation, the unfilled grid cells are assigned the same channel numbers as the grid cells on the opposite side to it in the contour map. This is because although the symmetric grid cells exist in different physical locations on the contour map (and in the real world), they represent the same qualification parameters in terms of pseudorange and Doppler shift from the on-orbit BTS.

[0114] Fig.15 The table in is the channel assignment matrix that the on-orbit BTS will use to determine how to assign channels to UEs, and will assign channels in a way that adjacent numbers are assigned adjacent carrier frequencies. When a signal burst is received on the RACH, the calculated Doppler shift and the calculated pseudorange estimate are used to determine which channel should be assigned to the UE by finding the appropriate grid cell and looking up the UE's channel number from the table. In this example, instead of each channel block ( Fig.15The columns in the table have the same number of channels actually in use or available, since not every channel block corresponds to a pseudorange that may experience the full range of Doppler shifts. The BTS stores a copy of this table and may have different versions of it for use when assigning channel numbers on a grid cell basis.

[0115] Fig.16 An example of selective messaging based on geographic location according to an embodiment is shown, in which a weather forecast is sent to a geographically targeted UE. The orbital base station can broadcast the information content via the use of the Cell Broadcast (CB) [3GPP TS23.041] protocol. The CB envelope processor will note the incoming CB after UE reception, check the message identifier to determine whether the CB is a TCBM it should process, determine the relevant app based on the logical ID, and send the TCBM payload to the appropriate app to process the TCBM payload.

[0116] Smartphone operating systems allow a subset of the communication APIs to be generally available to all third-party developed applications. Although some communication APIs are considered available only on a privileged basis for specific developers and applications, this is generally determined by the OS provider and / or UE OEM. Although CB was originally intended as a general broadcast mechanism, it has been dominantly used for emergency event notifications, and therefore, the CB API is generally only accessible via this privileged mode access.

[0117] In these cases, in order for applications on the UE to gain access to CBs originating from the mobile network, various solutions can be implemented, including developing a SAT application such as a CB envelope processor on the resident SIM of the UE. Because the SAT application on the SIM is considered a secure application, it can operate as an effective privileged mode application. The SAT application can register with the UE to receive notifications of any incoming CB events received by the UE.

[0118] When the SAT application receives a notification of a CB, it can request that the CB message be provided to the SAT application on the SIM. When the CB message is obtained, the SAT application can then determine from the CB header information whether the CB is intended for use by any app installed on the UE. The SAT application can then strip the CB payload (message information content), perform any precursor decoding and verification, and then push the content up to the UE via a defined proactive command set (3GPP in TS11.14 and TS31.111), thereby making the content available to relevant applications via existing open APIs and notification methods to registered apps, which can then process the information and present it to the user via the app's user interface.

[0119] The SAT application runtime environment can also provide a basic text and menu-driven user interface for the UE. Therefore, if the UE OS does not provide support for third-party applications, the CB content will be displayed to the user by extending the SAT application to provide the relevant user interface (UI).

[0120] Fig.17 The use of a single CB message packet to send TCBMs according to an embodiment is shown.As shown, a geographically targeted CB message sent using a single CB message through an orbital base station coverage area 1702 covering multiple polygons 1702 can reach all user devices located anywhere within a particular polygon.

[0121] Fig.18 Sending TCBM using multiple CB message packets according to an embodiment is shown.Geographically targeted CB messages cascaded over two or more CB messages can reach larger polygons.

[0122] Fig.19 It is shown that a UE according to an embodiment obtains multiple TCBMs targeted to different cells.As shown, the UE has the capability to receive multiple geographically targeted CB messages within a specific spot beam.

[0123] The operations of the processes described herein may be performed in any suitable order, unless otherwise specified herein or clearly contradictory to the context. The processes described herein (or variations and / or combinations thereof) may be performed under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions, and may be implemented as codes (e.g., executable instructions, one or more computer programs, or one or more applications) that are executed together on one or more processors, implemented by hardware, or a combination thereof. The code may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium, for example, in the form of a computer program including a plurality of instructions that may be executed by one or more processors. The computer-readable storage medium may be non-transitory. The code may also be carried by a temporary computer-readable medium (e.g., a transmission medium in the form of a signal sent over a network).

[0124] Unless expressly stated otherwise or clearly contradicted by context, conjunctions (e.g., phrases of the form "at least one of A, B, and C" or "at least one of A, B, and C") should be understood, based on the context of normal usage, to mean that an item, clause, etc. may be A or B or C, or any non-empty subset of the set of A and B and C. For example, in the illustrative example of a set having three members, the conjunction phrases "at least one of A, B, and C" and "at least one of A, B, and C" refer to any of the following sets: {A}, {B}, {C}, {A, B}, {A, C}, {B, C}, {A, B, C}. Thus, such conjunctions are generally not intended to imply that certain embodiments require that at least one of A, at least one of B, and at least one of C each be present.

[0125] The use of examples (or exemplary language (e.g., "such as") provided herein) is intended only to better illustrate embodiments of the invention and does not limit the scope of the invention unless otherwise stated. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element is essential to the practice of the invention.

[0126] In the foregoing specification, embodiments of the present invention have been described with reference to numerous specific details, which may vary from implementation to implementation. Therefore, the description and drawings are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. The sole and exclusive indicator of the scope of the invention and the applicant's intention of the scope of the invention is the text and equivalent range of the set of claims issued from this application, in the specific form in which such claims are issued, including any subsequent amendments.

[0127] After reading this disclosure, those of ordinary skill in the art may envision other embodiments. In other embodiments, combinations or sub-combinations of the invention disclosed above may be advantageously performed. For illustrative purposes, example arrangements of components are shown, and combinations, additions, rearrangements, etc. are contemplated in alternative embodiments of the present invention. Therefore, although the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that many modifications are possible.

[0128] For example, the processes described herein may be implemented using hardware components, software components, and / or any combination thereof. Accordingly, the description and drawings are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. However, it will be apparent that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the claims, and the invention is intended to cover all modifications and equivalents within the scope of the appended claims.

[0129] All references, including publications, patent applications, and patents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein.

Claims

1. An electronic user device comprising: an inclusion list storage device including an electronically readable memory for storing an inclusion list, the inclusion list indicating the included logical IDs; A security module app receives a cellular broadcast message and extracts a logical ID therefrom, processes a target cellular broadcast message embedded in the payload of the cellular broadcast message based on whether the logical ID of the target cellular broadcast message is on the inclusion list, and formats it for consumption by an electronic user device app that receives data via a data channel when available.

2. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by at least one processor of a computer system, cause the computer system to perform the method of claim 1.

3. A computer-readable medium carrying instructions which, when executed by at least one processor of a computer system, cause the computer system to perform the method of claim 1.

4. A computer system comprising: one or more processors; as well as A storage medium storing instructions, which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to implement the method of claim 1.

5. A carrier medium carrying data, the data comprising a logical ID generated by the method according to claim 1.

Citation Information

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