System and method for providing network support services and premises gateway support infrastructure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11381414-B2
Application number	US-202016817905-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2020
Priority date	Dec 29, 2006
Publication date	Jul 5, 2022
Grant date	Jul 5, 2022

Abstract

A service management system communicates via wide area network with gateway devices located at respective user premises. The service management system remotely manages delivery of application services, which can be voice controlled, by a gateway, e.g. by selectively activating/deactivating service logic modules in the gateway. The service management system also may selectively provide secure communications and exchange of information among gateway devices and among associated endpoint devices. An exemplary service management system includes a router connected to the network and one or more computer platforms, for implementing management functions. Examples of the functions include a connection manager for controlling system communications with the gateway devices, an authentication manager for authenticating each gateway device and controlling the connection manager and a subscription manager for managing applications services and/or features offered by the gateway devices. A service manager, controlled by the subscription manager, distributes service specific configuration data to authenticated gateway devices.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An endpoint device manager for operation at a user premises with at least a first endpoint device and a second endpoint device, the endpoint device manager comprising:
a network interface that enables communication with one or more remote systems;
at least one connection configured to wirelessly communicate, via a local wireless network, with the first endpoint device and/or the second endpoint device;
at least one processor; and
one or more memories coupled to the at least one processor and having programming that causes the endpoint device manager to perform operations including:
receiving at least first information and at least second information from the first endpoint device;
reporting the received first information for viewing via a mobile device;
managing one or more device automation functions of at least one of the first or second endpoint devices based on at least the second received information; and
managing one or more programming updates by receiving programming via the network interface and sending the received programming to at least one of the first or second endpoint devices that implements the programming.

2. The endpoint device manager of claim 1 , wherein the operations further include providing access, to the first information, for the one or more remote systems.

3. The endpoint device manager of claim 1 , wherein the operations further include causing the received first information to be sent for delivery to the one or more remote systems to enable viewing of at least a portion of the first information on the second endpoint device connected to the local wireless network after endpoint authentication of the second endpoint device.

4. The endpoint device manager of claim 1 , wherein the operations further include sending the first information for delivery to the one or more remote systems to enable viewing of at least a portion of the first information via the mobile device.

5. The endpoint device manager of claim 1 , wherein the operations further include managing one or more services from a third-party service provider to control operation of the first endpoint device and/or second endpoint device.

6. The endpoint device manager of claim 1 , wherein the network interface provides communication with a router device.

7. The endpoint device manager of claim 1 , wherein the operations further include enabling the endpoint device manager to be remotely managed by the one or more remote systems.

8. The endpoint device manager of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise storing the first received information in flash memory.

9. The endpoint device manager of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise storing the received programming in one or more of: a hard drive, flash memory, or RAM or another operational memory.

10. The endpoint device manager of claim 1 ,
wherein the managing the one or more device automation functions is in response to one or more voice controls; and
wherein the one or more voice controls are enacted according to functionality provided by the received programming.

11. The endpoint device manager of claim 1 , wherein the managing the one or more device automation functions of at least one of the first or second endpoint devices includes coordinating information exchange among the first and second endpoint devices.

12. The endpoint device manager of claim 1 , wherein the managing the one or more device automation functions includes allocating device resources, of the endpoint device manager, including one or more of application memory and/or storage memory.

13. The endpoint device manager of claim 1 ,
wherein the managing the one or more programming updates includes receiving the programming based on a registry, managed by a system external to the endpoint device manager, that records endpoint devices and/or services registered in relation to the endpoint device manager; and
wherein the programming is selected for delivery to the endpoint device manager based on the registry.

14. The endpoint device manager of claim 1 , wherein the managing the one or more programming updates includes receiving the programming based on a registry that records endpoint devices and/or services registered in relation to the endpoint device manager.

15. The endpoint device manager of claim 1 , wherein the managing the one or more programming updates includes receiving the programming based on a registry that records the firmware version of endpoint devices registered in relation to the endpoint device manager.

16. A device manager for operation at a premises, comprising:
at least one processor; and
one or more memories coupled to the at least one processor and containing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the device manager to perform operations including:
connecting, via a local wireless network, with multiple endpoint devices to provide information related to at least one of device availability, information quality, or resource utilization in relation to at least one of the multiple endpoint devices, wherein the at least one of the multiple endpoint devices is configured to be controlled by a mobile device;
receiving program modules for a first of the multiple endpoint devices;
sending, via the at least one local wireless network, at least one of the received program modules to the first of the multiple endpoint devices;
receiving information from the first of the multiple endpoint devices that is implementing the at least one of the received program modules;
causing the information to be sent from the device manager to a remote computing device; and
enabling viewing of status data related to the first of the multiple endpoint devices via the mobile device, wherein the status data is provided in a user interface, on the mobile device, for management of one or more of the multiple endpoint devices.

17. The device manager of claim 16 , wherein the local wireless network is a mesh wireless network.

18. The device manager of claim 16 , wherein the operations further include:
generating one or more reports based on event data from the first of the multiple endpoint devices; and
providing the one or more reports to the mobile device.

19. The device manager of claim 16 , wherein the operations further include communicating, via a wide area network, with the remote computing device, which is located external to the premises.

20. The device manager of claim 16 , wherein the device manager is operable to provide parental controls including at least URL filtering.

21. The device manager of claim 16 , wherein the program modules include a firmware update.

22. The device manager of claim 16 , wherein the received program modules are a programming update and wherein the first of the multiple endpoint devices is implementing the received program modules by having installed the programming update.

23. The device manager of claim 16 , wherein the management of one or more of the multiple endpoint devices is accomplished via:
encrypted communication between the device manager and the first endpoint device; and
requiring authentication, at the mobile device, prior to allowing access to operations and/or data from the first endpoint device.

24. The device manager of claim 16 , wherein connecting with at least one of the multiple endpoint devices includes retrieving and installing, in the device manager, one or more modules compris

Assignees

• Kip Prod P1 Lp

Inventors

• Ansari Amir
• Cowgill George A
• Nicholls Leon A
• Ramayya Jude P
• Masina Ramprakash
• Mcquarters Alvin R
• Raissyan Atousa

Classifications

• H04L63/0876

  based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint · CPC title

• G06Q30/04 Primary

  Billing or invoicing · CPC title

• H04L12/2807 Primary

  Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network (arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50) · CPC title

• H04L65/1108

  Web based protocols, e.g. webRTC · CPC title

• H04L47/83

  based on usage prediction · CPC title