Everbridge, the global leader in critical event management (CEM), announced that the company received a revolutionary new patent related to its world-class Public Warning system. The patent pertains to technology focused on hybrid population alerting systems and intelligent sending of messages in public mobile networks.
The new patent entitled “Intelligent Messaging-Channel Selection and Related Features For Alert Systems” covers functionality around efficient and optimized sending of mass notifications to the public, and the automatic selection of channels to be used, to ensure emergency notifications are sent to as many hyper-targeted populations, whether resident or traveler, as fast as possible, leaving no one behind during a crisis.
“Through the strategic combination of leading technologies in the industry, we are yielding intellectual property that would otherwise not have been possible,” said Imad Mouline, Chief Technology Officer at Everbridge, referring to Everbridge’s 2018 acquisition of UMS and 2020 acquisition of one2many. “This patent represents a key part of our strategy to continue to offer the next-generation of public warning technology. Everbridge enables governments and entire countries to leverage a single platform to communicate during all stages of a crisis, and to all stakeholders, by leveraging automation that ensures the right communications channels are used for the right purposes, leaving no one behind in an emergency.”
When executing large-scale population alerting, some channels will have better reach but can be slower and result in the need for more time to get all notifications delivered. Other channels might reach a smaller percentage of the population but can disseminate an alert extremely fast.
The methodology described in the new Everbridge patent will automatically make a decision on which dissemination channel to use, based on the individual use case, the real-time status of the communication networks, and various demographic and technical characteristics of the intended recipients.
The Everbridge Public Warning platform will select whether to use SMS or Cell Broadcast, or when to use a hybrid model of each, to reach the right segment of the population, in the right area, at the right time.
The patent also describes estimation algorithms to calculate the time it will take to send out all messages with the different channels available in the system (based on dissemination channel technology, what generation of mobile network used, and congestion measurements).
In some cases, for example, a system based on the methodology in this patent, will start sending messages on one dissemination channel, and then later automatically switch to other channels for ‘whole area’ or to ‘certain mobile cell towers’ in an area in order to maximize reach.
Read the full announcement here.
