[EAS] Fwd: [ChicagolandSkywarn] WEA Enabled Phones to Receive Emergency Messages

[Mike Benonis]

Glad to see this is finally rolling out.  We have talked about so-called "mass text" in the research world for a long time now and it's finally starting to see the light of day.  In theory, these messages can be targeted down to the cell or even sector level (at least in GSM-based systems) though it is not clear how the providers have actually implemented the system.

I wonder if there is a protocol for us folks involved in the EAS system to receive test messages to ensure our devices will work with this system.  Do the major providers have a point of contact that media can work with?

Mike

Best regards,

Mike Benonis
Transmitter Engineer, WUVT-FM
Graduate Assistant, Wireless @ VT
KI4RIX

On 16 May 2012, at 10:28 , Mike McCarthy wrote:

> I'll concur with Ed on the capacity and addressing issue.  It won't take 
> a lot of bandwidth at each site for a mass blast.  Think of it as a 
> broadcast to all handsets on that cellsite or MTSO. Much like the EAS 
> preamble for an EAN, the phones in totality would receive a display-all 
> code message header and a one shot UDP type text blast. 1-5KB and that's 
> it. All phones alerted before the real traffic of the event starts.
> 
> I will say again that even after the IPAWS filtering, I can see agencies 
> sending high priority messages, including AMBER alerts, which in 
> totality will drive the public to a mode of 
> passivity/yawn/ho-hum/doesn't impact me mindset. Particularly items 
> which have no relevance to a given geo-area, such as an AMBER situation 
> originated from the other end of the state.  This is an inherent problem 
> with the political boundaries present and how they're incorporated into 
> emergency messaging. Emergencies are more often than not intensely local.
> 
> Society has largely grown past what are now merely lines drawn on a map 
> covering many disparate locations. And what has relevance in one area 
> has zero in another.  But because things operate under unified state 
> systems, the item must be carried all over.  Which if IPAWS doesn't 
> filter by geography tighter than a whole state for state wide messages 
> will be a major contributor to it's ultimate failure.
> 
> MM