Enabling communications between a controlling device and a network-controlled device via a network-connected device service over a mobile communications network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10939480-B2
Application number	US-201916377031-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 5, 2019
Priority date	Jun 7, 2016
Publication date	Mar 2, 2021
Grant date	Mar 2, 2021

Abstract

A network-connected device service receives a request to establish a communications session with a network-connected device. In response to the request, the service transmits a set of electronic messages to the network-connected device through an access point of the network-connected device to establish the communications session. The network-connected device service receives a notification from the network-connected device indicating whether the communications session has been established. If so, the service provides an indication to a controlling device that the session has been established. This enables the controlling device to submit commands executable by the network-connected device to the service, which provides the commands to the network-connected device through the access point.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving a request, in a form of a mobile communications network electronic message from a controlling device that can communicate with a network-connected device over a communications network, wherein the request is to establish a communications session between a network-connected device service and the network-connected device, and the request specifying a device identifier usable to identify one or more rules stored at the network-connected device service;
transmitting, based at least in part on the one or more rules corresponding to the device identifier, a first set of electronic messages from the controlling device to the network-connected device, via the network-connected device service;
receiving, from the network-connected device, a second set of electronic messages specifying that the communications session has been established;
transmitting a notification to the controlling device that indicates the second set of electronic messages; and
enabling communications between the controlling device and the network-connected device over the communications session, via the network-connected device service, wherein at least some of the communications between the controlling device and the network-connected device are processed based on the one or more rules corresponding to the device identifier.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
receiving, from the controlling device, one or more commands to be executed by the network-connected device;
providing, to the network-connected device, the one or more commands;
receiving, from the network-connected device, a third set of electronic messages over the communications session indicating whether the one or more commands were executed by the network-connected device; and
transmitting the third set of electronic messages to the controlling device.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein:
the one or more commands to be executed by the network-connected device are added to a message topic designated for the communications session; and
providing the one or more commands to the network-connected device includes transmitting an electronic message to the network-connected device to indicate that the one or more commands were added to the message topic to cause the network-connected device to obtain the one or more commands from the message topic.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of electronic messages are transmitted to the network-connected device through an access point of the network-connected device are Short Message Service messages.

5. A system, comprising:
one or more processors; and
memory including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:
receive a request, in a form of a mobile communications network electronic message from a controlling device that can communicate with a network-connected device over a communications network, wherein the request is to establish a communications session between the controlling device and the network-connected device;
identify one or more rules for establishing the communications session, the one or more rules being stored at a network-connected device service and the one or more rules specifying, at least in part, a protocol for communications with the network-connected device; and
transmit, based at least in part on the one or more rules, a set of electronic messages from the controlling device to the network-connected device and the network-connected device service to establish the communications session with the network-connected device.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the instructions further cause the system to:
receive, from the controlling device, one or more commands to be executed by the network-connected device; and
add the one or more commands to a message topic designated for the communications session to cause the network-connected device to:
obtain the one or more commands from the message topic; and
execute the one or more commands.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the instructions further cause the system to:
receive one or more messages from the network-connected device specifying whether the one or more commands were executed; and
add the one or more messages from the network-connected device to the message topic to enable the controlling device to obtain the one or more messages.

8. The system of claim 5 , wherein the instructions further cause the system to:
determine whether the communications session has been established with the network-connected device; and
if the communications session has been established, provide a notification indicating that the communications session has been established.

9. The system of claim 5 , wherein the one or more rules specify at least a registry location of a registry that specifies a device location of the network-connected device and an access point utilized by the network-connected device.

10. The system of claim 5 , wherein:
the request to establish the communications session with the network-connected device specifies an identifier of the network-connected device; and
the instructions further cause the system to utilize the identifier of the network-connected device to identify the one or more rules.

11. The system of claim 5 , wherein the set of electronic messages are transmitted to the network-connected device are Short Message Service messages.

12. The system of claim 5 , wherein the instructions further cause the system to:
receive, from the controlling device, a second request, the second request requesting data generated by the network-connected device;
transmit, over the communications session, a second set of electronic messages to the network-connected device, the second set of electronic messages including the second request;
receive, from the network-connected device, the data generated by the network-connected device; and
add the data generated by the network-connected device to a message topic to which the controlling device is subscribed to enable the controlling device to obtain the data generated by the network-connected device.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, as a result of being executed by one or more processors of a computer system, cause the computer system to at least:
receive a request, in a form of a mobile communications network electronic message from a controlling device that can communicate with a network-connected device over a communications network, wherein the request is to establish a communications session between the controlling device and the network-connected device;
identify one or more rules for establishing the communications session, the one or more rules being stored at a network-connected device service, and the one or more rules specifying, at least in part, a protocol for communications with the network-connected device;
transmit a set of electronic messages from the controlling device to the network-connected device, via the network-connected device service, to establish the communications session with the network-connected device;
receive a notification from the network-connected device indicating whether the communications session with the network-connected device has been established; and
enable communications between the controlling device and the network-connected device over the communications session, via the network-connected device service, wherein at least some of the communications between the controlling device and the network-c

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Roche Kyle Michael
• Yanacek David Craig

Classifications

• H04L67/125 Primary

  involving control of end-device applications over a network · CPC title

• H04W4/12

  Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements · CPC title

• H04W4/14

  Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD] · CPC title

• H04L65/1069

  Session establishment or de-establishment · CPC title

• H04W76/10 Primary

  Connection setup · CPC title