Dynamic tracking of reporting of cellular service outage and method of operation of the same
Embodiments are directed to systems and methods for dynamically sensing and calculating the time remaining until a report of an interruption in cellular communications within specific areas must be made to an entity. Various regulations by different entities, whether the FCC, city, or state public safety organizations require reporting of cell phone outages according to their respective operational needs. The present embodiment provides techniques for dynamically calculating the time period remaining before reporting of an outage must be provided to a particular entity. A method is provided for receiving into the system the parameters for the regulation under consideration and an area of interest to be considered. The system will retrieve data from the various databases to determine whether or not the cellular service complies with the regulation under consideration. Calculations are dynamically made over time to determine if reporting under the regulation is needed.
1 . A method of dynamically tracking a cellular service outage within a selected area, the method comprising:
receiving a selection of an area of interest from an operator;
displaying identification data of the area of interest to the operator;
outputting operational state data that includes a number of cellular subscribers, cell tower systems, and public safety answering points within the area of interest;
determining an average number of subscribers per cell tower within the area of interest based on the operational state data;
receiving an indication of a number of non-operating cell tower systems within the area of interest over a first time period;
calculating a first value for an amount of time remaining until potentially affected user time within the area of interest exceeds an affected user threshold time based on a number of non-operating cell tower systems and an average number of subscribers per cell tower within the area of interest;
receiving an indication of non-operating cell tower systems within the area of interest over a second time period;
calculating a second value for the amount of time remaining until the potentially affected user time within the area of interest exceeds the affected user threshold time; and
reporting a cellular outage in the area of interest in response to:
a sum of the first and second time periods exceeding a first time period threshold, and
the potentially affected user time being above the affected user threshold time.
2 . The method of claim 1 wherein receiving an indication of the number of non-operating cell tower systems within the area of interest over the first time period includes:
receiving a report from a cell tower operational tracking database.
3 . The method of claim 2 wherein the cell tower operational tracking database is a separate database from a first database.
4 . The method of claim 3 further including:
inputting, by an operator, the number of non-operating cell tower systems within the area of interest over the first time period into the first database.
5 . The method of claim 3 further including:
inputting, directly by a software data transfer, without assistance from an operator, the number of non-operating cell tower systems within the area of interest over the first time period into the first database.
6 . The method of claim 1 further including:
identifying each cell tower system that provides cellular service to a first public safety answering point within the area of interest; and
reporting a local safety outage to the first public safety answering point in response to all cell tower systems that provide service to the first public safety answering point being out of service for a time period exceeding a second time period threshold.
7 . The method of claim 6 wherein the first time period threshold and the second time period threshold are the same amount of time.
8 . The method of claim 6 wherein the second time period threshold is shorter than the first time period threshold.
9 . The method of claim 1 further including:
inputting, by an operator, into a first database the value of the first time period after receiving an indication of the number of non-operating cell tower systems within the area of interest during the first time period and prior to calculating the first value for the amount of time remaining until the potentially affected user time within the area of interest exceeds the affected user threshold time.
10 . The method of claim 1 further including:
after an outage time period has passed, terminating the first time period and starting the second time period based on a software flag, without input by an operator.
11 . The method of claim 1 further including:
requesting to receive an indication of non-operating cell tower systems within the area of interest over the second time period and concluding the first time period in response to the amount of time remaining being less than an alert threshold of time.
12 . A method of dynamically tracking time remaining before a report must be made of a cellular service outage within a selected area, the method comprising:
receiving a selection of an area of interest;
outputting operational state data of a first number of cell tower systems within the area of interest at a first time;
receiving an indication of a first outage reporting time based on a first set of conditions occurring within the area of interest during a first time period;
outputting operational state data of a second number of cell tower systems within the area of interest at a second time;
receiving an indication of a second outage reporting time based on a second set of conditions occurring within the area of interest during a second time period after the first time period;
calculating an amount of time remaining until a report is to be made of an outage occurring, wherein the amount of time remaining is calculated based on a combination of the first set of conditions and the second set of conditions; and
reporting the outage in the area of interest in response to the amount of time remaining requiring a report.
13 . The method of claim 12 wherein the first set of conditions includes a number of public safety answering points within the area of interest.
14 . The method of claim 12 further including:
requesting to obtain operational state data of the number of cell tower systems within the area of interest at the second time in response to the amount of time remaining being less than a threshold amount of time.
15 . The method of claim 12 further including:
requesting to obtain operational state data of the number of cell tower systems within the area of interest at the second time in response to the number of cell tower systems in operation having changed by a threshold amount.
16 . The method of claim 15 wherein the threshold amount is a percent of cell tower systems that have transitioned from non-operational to being operational.
17 . The method of claim 12 further including:
obtaining a number of cellular subscribers within the area of interest at the first time as one of the conditions in the first set of conditions.
18 . A method of dynamically tracking time remaining before a report must be made of a cellular service outage within a selected area, the method comprising:
receiving a selection of an area of interest;
outputting operational state data of a first number of cell tower systems within the area of interest at a first time;
receiving an indication of a first outage reporting time based on a first set of conditions occurring within the area of interest during a first time period;
outputting operational state data of a second number of cell tower systems within the area of interest at a second time, wherein the operational state data of the second number of cell tower systems within the area of interest at the second time is obtained in response to a number of cell tower systems in operation having changed by a threshold amount, wherein the threshold amount is a percent of cell tower systems that have transitioned from non-operational to being operational;
receiving an indication of a second outage reporting time based on a second set of conditions occurring within the area of interest during a second time period after the first time period; and
calculating an amount of time remaining until a report is to be made of an outage occurring, wherein the amount of time remaining is calculated based on a combination of the first set of conditions and the second set of conditions.
19 . The method of claim 18 further including:
reporting the outage in the area of interest in response to the amount of time remaining requiring a report.
20 . The method of claim 18 further including:
requesting to obtain operational state data of the number of cell tower systems within the area of interest at the second time in response to the amount of time remaining being less than a threshold amount of time.