Method and apparatus for efficient and deterministic group alerting

An apparatus for alerting a group of recipients over a wireless network, each recipient comprising a mobile device having a two-way wireless communication function, the apparatus comprising:

• at least one of a memory device and an interface to an external memory device for storing for each recipient an assigned primary identifying address and one or more group addresses that are shared with selected ones of the other recipients;
• a network client interface for receiving a communication from a network client requesting wireless transmission of a message to recipients sharing a selected one of the group addresses;
• a wireless communication network interface for communicating with the recipients via a wireless communication network;
• and
• a processing device connected to the memory device, the network client interface and the wireless communication network interface, the processing device being programmed to
• transmit a communication to the network client comprising group information relating to the selected group addresses, the group information comprising at least one of the number of the recipients having the selected group address and the identifying addresses of the recipients having the selected group address,
• broadcast the message to the selected group address via the wireless communication network and the wireless communication network interface,
• receive acknowledgment responses from the recipients sharing the selected group address via the wireless communication network, and
• provide the acknowledgment responses to the network client.

A mobile device having a two-way wireless communication function for receiving and processing group alerts directed to a group of recipients over a wireless network, the mobile device comprising:

• a memory device for storing an assigned primary identifying address for its corresponding recipient and one or more group addresses that are shared with selected ones of the other recipients;
• a wireless communication network interface for communicating with a switch via a wireless communication network to receive messages therefore and to transmit responses to the switch;
• and
• a processing device connected to the memory device and the wireless communication network interface, the processing device being programmed to receive a message broadcast by the switch to a selected group address via the wireless communication network, to determine if it shares the selected group address, and to transmit an acknowledgment response to the switch via the wireless communication network if it shares the selected group address.