System and method for handling a power outage

A method in a wireless communication controller for responding to a power outage, the method comprising:

• receiving, at the wireless communication controller, in a transmission slot an initial power outage indicator from a served device out of several devices being served, use of the transmission slot having been selected by the served device according to a non-uniform probability distribution function, the transmission slot having been selected by the served device according to a time to live of the served device;
• allocating a network resource to the served device;
• transmitting an allocation of the network resource to the served device;
• and
• receiving a subsequent power outage indicator via the allocated network resource.

A device comprising:

• a processor configured to detect a power outage, and to select a transmission slot from a plurality of transmission slots in order to report the power outage to a communications controller, the transmission slot selected according to a non-uniform probability distribution function, the non-uniform probability distribution function is monotonic with time after the power outage, wherein the transmission slot is selected according to a time to live for the device;
• and
• a transmitter operatively coupled to the processor, the transmitter configured to transmit an initial power outage indicator to the communications controller in the transmission slot selected;
• and
• a receiver operatively coupled to the processor, the receiver configured to receive an allocation of a network resource from the communications controller, and wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit a subsequent power outage indicator to the communications controller using the network resource.

A communications controller comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive in a transmission slot an initial power outage indicator from a served device out of several devices being served, use of the transmission slot having been selected by the served device according to a non-uniform probability distribution function, the transmission slot having been selected according to a time to live for the served device, wherein the receiver is configured to receive a subsequent power outage indicator, via an allocation of a network resource;
• a processor operatively coupled to the receiver, the processor configured to allocate the network resource to the served device;
• and
• a transmitter operatively coupled to the processor, the transmitter configured to transmit the allocation of the network resource to the served device.