LTE Can Be Used To Disseminate Early Earthquake Warnings, ATIS Says

ATIS said Tuesday it has completed a feasibility study of how the commercial cellular network may be used to disseminate early earthquake warnings as part of the proposed California Earthquake Early Warning System. “The goal of this work is to identify possible methods to harness today's advanced cellular technologies to deliver time-sensitive Early Earthquake Warning (EEW) notifications to the public,” ATIS said in a news release. “ATIS' study evaluates techniques to distribute EEW notifications to mobile devices via the cellular network in coordination with the California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN).” ATIS found a wireless EEW notification is “a viable concept designed within the constraints of the cellular wireless networks.” ATIS also proposed an architecture for the broadcast of time-sensitive EEW notifications using capabilities in the LTE broadcast channel. “The study advises against solutions using traditional SMS or push data services, which would not deliver effective and timely early warnings, but instead would swamp the network and slow message delivery,” ATIS said.