The Cell Broadcast story

lduboeuf · 8 Jun 2022, 19:40

Hi all, trying to work on the Cell-Broadcast feature.
I'm writing here just as a shared note...

First step could be to implement only Emergency Alerts.

That would need a persistent Notification if possible with a specific sound ( see https://forums.ubports.com/topic/7794/cell-broadcast-story-ui/8), a notification in the messaging indicator and a way to read it later.

We should also have a toggle in settings to enable/disable the feature.
I know some country are even making the option mandatory.
Question here: Should that option be in notification category or in cellular related things ?

As that behaviour is almost like a classic sms, i'm planning to use the current Telepathy Framework by just doing some tweaks ( define a constant sender, MessageType of ChannelTextMessageTypeNotice ).
~~Define a fake Contact that have the "warning" as the avatar so that it can be recognized in the messaging-app and popups/notifications.~~
We are lucky to have already the phone part, Ofono expose a Dbus interface for CellBroadcast ( not tested yet )

The work will involve work in telepathy-ofono, telephony-service, history-service (not sure)) , system-settings, gsettings-ubuntu-touch-schemas for the alert sound ).

telepathy-ofono: Takes inputs from ofono cellbroadcast signals ( https://github.com/ubports/ofono/blob/xenial/doc/cell-broadcast-api.txt ). Currently there are notifications for the ETWS system (EmergencyBroadcast signal) and another for all other channels (IncomingBroadcast).
My idea here is to merge the 2 signals and send toward Telepathy a TextMessage with the sender identified as "x-ofono-cellbroadcast", the Subject as the channel topic, type of message of ChannelTextMessageTypeNotice, and the body of the alert in text property.

telephony-service: Listen to Telepathy incoming TextMessage, when message == ChannelTextMessageTypeNotice, sender is "x-cellbroadcast-alert" , and according to Subject, we should display a notification with the corresponding sound.
Different levels of warning are here dependent of the Subject.
The alert is also displayed in the message indicator, and a way to open messaging app to see it again.

history-service: Listen to Telepathy incoming TextMessage ans stores the alert as a message ( message could be of type MessageTypeInformation)

messaging-app: The alerts are gathered into a Thread, the notification icon could be the "broadcast icon", and messages can be styled differently according to their Subject ( channel ).

system-settings: Subscribe to channels, toggles to the different type of broadcast

e.g on Android:

Issue reference: The issue: https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/141

Spec IETSI: https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_ts/102900_102999/102900/01.03.01_60/ts_102900v010301p.pdf
Spec 3GPP: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/23_series/23.041/ ( last one - see 9.4.1.2.2 Message Identifier for the channel list)

android constants: https://github.com/aosp-mirror/platform_frameworks_base/blob/c5d02da0f6553a00da6b0d833b67d3bbe87341e0/telephony/java/com/android/internal/telephony/gsm/SmsCbConstants.java

Help needed for the UX part:
https://forums.ubports.com/topic/7794/cell-broadcast-story-ui/8

~~Currenlty Xenial telepathy-ofono uses a libofono-qt version which does not include the Cellbroadcast API => See with Team~~

The test procedure is written here ( see "Test" section) : https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/2003

Lakotaubp · 9 Jun 2022, 08:54

@lduboeuf My first though is Notification. When implemented this would be hard coded into the OS, is that right. So in effect is all ready on and working. The emergency messages are a form of notification so keeping that part easy to find and use makes Notification seem the right place for users to naturally start and look.
This is only my initial thought lets see how it pans out.

lduboeuf · 8 Jul 2022, 08:14

Feature integration summary here:
https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/2003

kristatos · 20 Jul 2022, 07:38

Hi @lduboeuf ,
first of all thanks for your work on Cell Broadcast.
Here in Germany there will be a nationwide test of alert-systems including Cell Broadcast on 08 December 2022. Is there any hope to see this feature in UT until December so that we can test it under real conditions?

lduboeuf · 20 Jul 2022, 21:03

@kristatos Hopefully it will be integrated in UT before December.
This is now in the Ubports team hands.
I can guarantee that all UT components are ready to handle Cell Broadcast messages. But there is still an unknow part which is hard to test without a real situation.

kristatos · 21 Jul 2022, 08:23

@lduboeuf Ok, that's sounds great. I think it will be good to have this feature before December, so that we can test under real conditions. I have two phones with UT for testing that.

kristatos · 12 Sept 2022, 20:25

@lduboeuf Hi, there is nothing on the OTA-24 page related to CB. Is there something we can do to help landing this in the next OTA (if it's not already to late)? I think we won't see OTA-25 before December or even this year. I think it would be good to test it under real conditions.

lduboeuf · 13 Sept 2022, 07:26

@kristatos said in The Cell Broadcast story:

@lduboeuf Hi, there is nothing on the OTA-24 page related to CB. Is there something we can do to help landing this in the next OTA (if it's not already to late)? I think we won't see OTA-25 before December or even this year. I think it would be good to test it under real conditions.

Hi,
No, this will not be for OTA-24 unfortunately. Already too many things in this OTA.
Hope the team can review my work soon after.

lduboeuf · 14 Sept 2022, 09:23

@kristatos Even if CellBroadcast didn't get into an OTA, the feature is testable if you are in devel channel: (see test section )

https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/2003

kristatos · 15 Sept 2022, 15:22

@lduboeuf Ok, then maybe I'll test with my E4.5, the Volla is my daily

kristatos · 21 Nov 2022, 08:31

@lduboeuf Hi, when I understand it correctly in the last QA, CB is also testable without being on devel channel. Is that correct? Is the test procedure in your link still up-to-date? If not, can you please make an instruction how to enable CB and which log-files you are interested in? I think it's easier for everybody who wants to help in testing/providing log-files on 08 December in Germany.

lduboeuf · 21 Nov 2022, 09:29

@kristatos said in The Cell Broadcast story:

@lduboeuf Hi, when I understand it correctly in the last QA, CB is also testable without being on devel channel. Is that correct? Is the test procedure in your link still up-to-date? If not, can you please make an instruction how to enable CB and which log-files you are interested in? I think it's easier for everybody who wants to help in testing/providing log-files on 08 December in Germany.

Cell Broadcast should be testable when on RC too, but i need to make sure before if any update needs to be done. After OTA-24 is published, i will check again and publish here the test procedure

lduboeuf · 4 Dec 2022, 17:00

Hello all,

The test procedure is written here ( see "Test" section) : https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/2003 ~~and only supported on Xenial~~.
Note that a Focal test is available too

kristatos · 4 Dec 2022, 17:00

@lduboeuf Hi, today I switched my E4.5 to RC and followed the instructions from your test procedure (install three PR for legacy devices and set the CB-properties). The PR's seems to be installed, but when I want to subscribe to the CB-channels an error occured:

lduboeuf · 4 Dec 2022, 17:13

@kristatos said in The Cell Broadcast story:

@lduboeuf Hi, today I switched my E4.5 to RC and followed the instructions from your test procedure (install three PR for legacy devices and set the CB-properties). The PR's seems to be installed, but when I want to subscribe to the CB-channels an error occured:

Just in case, do you have an active SIM in your phone ?

kristatos · 4 Dec 2022, 17:51

@lduboeuf Yes I have switched my SIM from my Volla into the E4.5 and I can make calls with it.

lduboeuf · 4 Dec 2022, 18:03

@kristatos said in The Cell Broadcast story:

@lduboeuf Yes I have switched my SIM from my Volla into the E4.5 and I can make calls with it.

humm , if you updated ofono as in the procedure and rebooted, it should be good.
What does running /usr/share/ofono/scripts/list-modems outputs ?

you should see something like
[ril_0]
Interfaces = .... org.ofono.CellBroadcast

you could also have a [ril_1] section if you inserted your sim card in the 2nd slot. In that case please adapt the subscribtion command with /ril_1

kristatos · 4 Dec 2022, 18:40

@lduboeuf said in The Cell Broadcast story:

Interfaces = .... org.ofono.CellBroadcast

No, not for ril_0 nor for ril_1

Could it be that the patch wasn't applied successfully because there were no SIM-crads inside the device at this time?

lduboeuf · 4 Dec 2022, 19:16

@kristatos said in The Cell Broadcast story:

@lduboeuf said in The Cell Broadcast story:

Interfaces = .... org.ofono.CellBroadcast

No, not for ril_0 nor for ril_1

Could it be that the patch wasn't applied successfully because there were no SIM-crads inside the device at this time?

No it should be fine without.
To be sure what is the result of
dpkg -l | grep ofono

lduboeuf · 4 Dec 2022, 20:20

@kristatos Just tested on my BQ4.5 and i have the same issue...

Will have a look tomorrow, but i doubt we are going to investigate hours on a device that will not be Focal ready.
Can't you test on your Volla 22 ? ( note that you can reinstall UT on it after all patches without issues )

That is weird because i have tested on BQ4.5 before as well on Nexus5, XperiaX and Pixel3a. And the BQ is the only one not activating CellBroadcast