Alcatel-Lucent BMC
BROADCAST MESSAGE CENTER | RELEASE 2.0
The Alcatel-Lucent Broadcast Message Center (BMC) application supports message broadcasts to mobile devices
in a specified geographic area. The Alcatel-Lucent BMC supports broadcast of government emergency alerts
as well as commercial message broadcasts.
Government emergency
alerting service
The use of cell broadcast technology
to deliver emergency alerts has been
widely accepted due to its reliable
message delivery during emergencies
and wide usage of mobile phones.
Parallel projects are being conducted
in the U.S. (Commercial Mobile Alert
Service [CMAS]), Japan (Earth and
Tsunami Warning System [ETWS]), and
within the EU (Integrating Communi­
cations For Enhanced Environmental
Risk Management and Citizens Safety
[CHORIST]). The Alcatel-Lucent BMC
has been designed to serve as a
Commercial Mobile Alert Gateway in
carrier networks. It is compliant with
emergency service standard require­
ments (e.g., CMAS requirements
in the U.S.) and also meets country-
specific emergency requirements.
The current release (Release 2.0)
supports full compliance with CMAS
specifications. Due to its flexible
design, the BMC can be offered as
a complete solution for countries
interested in geographical coverage
of government alerts.
Commercial broadcast service
Alcatel-Lucent BMC Release 2.0
supports commercial message broadcast
for applications such as information
messages, security alerts, enterprise
level message broadcasts, mobile
advertising. The Alcatel-Lucent BMC
provides a broadcaster web portal
for broadcast message management.
The access control mechanism is
implemented to provide a virtual
operational environment to multiple
independent broadcasters. The
broadcasters can be enterprise IT
administrators, campaign managers,
retailers/businesses, and individuals
with a need to broadcast messages
to a specified target delivery area.
Commercial message broadcast will
be targeted to specific broadcast
areas identified with a user-friendly
name. Such areas can be defined to
have a geographic shape (polygon)
associated with them or could be
mapped to specific broadcast zones,
containing a group of cells/sectors,
within the service provider network.
The Alcatel-Lucent BMC can be
configured to allow a broadcaster
to use a specific set of broadcast
target areas for message broadcast.
Depending on the broadcaster’s scope
of operation, such broad­cast areas
could be specific local areas, regional
areas, or entire PLMN of the mobile
service provider.
Alcatel-Lucent BMC Release 2.0 supports
the generation of CDR/billing records
for commercial broadcast service. As
per the BMC roadmap, BMC 3.0 will
support the ATIS standard CBE-CBC
interface, which will allow broadcast Features Benefits
capability for external content
aggregators. • Supports delivery of broadcast mes­ • Complies with CDMA, UMTS and
sages (emergency or commercial) to GSM standards for cell broadcast
The business model for the commercial a large geographic area (defined by and all relevant emergency alerting
broadcast application is primarily geographic shapes or broadcast zones) standards
supported by revenue from advertis­ • Enables delivery of alerts based on • Leverages Alcatel-Lucent’s extensive
ers, interest groups, and enterprises static (pre-populated) or dynamic interoperability experience with
that are interested in the broadcast (using circles and polygons) alerting other network elements — Short
of messages to mobile users in the • Translates geo-target areas to network Message Service Center (SMSC),
target delivery area. The revenue and nodes/elements (MSC, RNC, BSC, cell, MSCs, BSCs, RNCs
business generated by the message cell sector and broadcast zones) • Offers CDR/billing records for
broadcast applications benefit all commercial broadcast service
• Retransmits alerts, updates alerts,
entities involved in the value chain.
and cancels alerts • Proven end-to-end solution certified
The carrier can generate new revenue
• Displays status of active alerts on in Alcatel-Lucent laboratories
using the Alcatel-Lucent BMC to
broadcast a geographically targeted the dynamic web portal • Standardized ATCA chassis offers a
commercial broadcast. • Establishes a secure interface to scalable solution for multiple appli­
alerting gateway (IPSec) cations and future growth with:
Release 2.0 of the BMC supports three • Validates message content ¬ Carrier-grade reliability
delivery technologies: • Complies with major standards: ¬ Improved manageability and
• Code Division Multiple Access CDMA (IS-41/IS-824/IS-637), UMTS serviceability
(CDMA) network with interfaces to (3GPP 25.419) and GSM (3GPP 23.041) ¬ Lower power consumption
Mobile Switching Centers (MSCs) • Supports geo-diverse deployment ¬ Reduced equipment footprint
• Universal Mobile Telecommunica­ and Network Equipment Building ¬ Remote management and support
tions System (UMTS) network Standards (NEBS) • Future-ready platform that can sup­
with interfaces to Radio Network • Built on the Alcatel-Lucent IMS port all future cell broadcast-based
Controllers (RNCs) Application Server (IAS) platform and multimedia-based commercial
• Global System for Mobile Communi­ using an Advanced Telecommuni­ broadcast services
cations (GSM) network with interfaces cations Computing Architecture
to Base Station Controllers (BSCs) (ATCA) v2 chassis

Figure 1. Alcatel-Lucent BMC network architecture

Advertisers and interest groups Federal, state and local agencies

• Commercial and emergency broadcast
Common message generation
alerting protocol • Authentication and validation of
broadcast messages
Aggregation Commercial Alert gateway Alert gateway • Maintain service provider profiles
gateway broadcast • Multiple alert gateways in government domain
(Release 3.0) web portal
XML XML
Government/commercial domain
Carrier domain

• Mated-pair BMC supports external

BMC BMC gateway function
Data replication
CMSP gateway CMSP gateway • Single point of entry for broadcast messages
in carrier network
MC CBC MC CBC • Gateway for message delivery to CDMA and
GSM/UMTS networks

IS-824, IS-637 3GPP 23.041 3GPP 25.419

SMDPP CBS-BSC lu-BC

MSC BSC RNC

Cell site BTS NodeB

CDMA handsets GSM handsets UMTS terminals

CDMA network GSM network UMTS network

2 Alcatel-Lucent Broadcast Message Center | Release 2.0 | Data Sheet

Technical specifications
Configuration
• Can be deployed as a standalone system,
or a pair of BMC nodes
• Can be deployed in a geo-redundant
mated-pair configuration
Hardware
• Built on the Alcatel-Lucent IAS platform
• Standards-compliant PICMG 3.0 ATCA chassis
and blades support up to 12 application blades
in addition to the LAN switches and shelf
manager cards; two shelf manager cards in
dedicated slots provide monitoring and alarm
notifications for the chassis power supplies,
fans, LAN switch blades, and application blades
• Add-on servers, switches and routers (Sun
Netra 5220 servers, LAN switches, Cisco routers
etc) are supported in the IAS cabinet to meet
customer network and interface requirements
LAN switches
• Two Malban switches provide Layer 2 switching
and external connectivity (up to three external
WANs connected to Malbans are supported by
the platform)
• LAN switch blades provide 1 Gb/s Ethernet
ports for external LAN connectivity
Application blades
Four Rouzic application blades
• Two blades running I/O handlers, pilot functions,
agents and connectivity to external WAN
• Two blades running MySQL cluster with two
disks each
Software
• Runs as an application on the Alcatel-Lucent
IAS Application Server, which provides common
middleware and operations, administration
and maintenance (OA&M) infrastructure for
a number of applications from Alcatel-Lucent;
in addition, for GSM networks, the application
supporting BSC interfaces runs on Sun Netra
T5220 servers
• Developed using an application development
framework provided by the Alcatel-Lucent IAS
Application Server platform
• LAN switch blades and application blades run
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Network interfaces
• Three basic categories of traffic use external
networks for transport:
¬ OAM&P
¬ Communication with alert gateways in the
government domain
¬ Communication with Mobile Switching Network
infrastructure such as BSC, RNC and MSC
• Supports up to three external network interfaces
to meet the needs of service providers who have
separate IP networks for separate categories of
IP traffic
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