Maintenance of wireless devices by electronic devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12170892-B2
Application number	US-202318332503-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 9, 2023
Priority date	Aug 28, 2020
Publication date	Dec 17, 2024
Grant date	Dec 17, 2024

Abstract

The presence of a wireless device and/or accessory that cannot maintain an independent network connection can be detected by network connected wireless devices and the location of the detected device and/or accessory can be reported to a device location service. As the wireless devices and/or accessories do not have independent network connections, periodic maintenance is performed on those devices by nearby owner devices to which the wireless devices and/or accessories are paired or associated. Described herein are systems, methods, and associated devices to maintain a locatable wireless device by a set of multiple owner devices for that wireless device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method on an electronic device, the method comprising:
upon expiration of a maintenance timeout period, retrieving a wireless advertisement packet that was received from a wireless device, wherein the maintenance timeout period corresponds to a period of time to check for unmaintained wireless devices; and
in response to determining that a status field of the received wireless advertisement packet indicates that a maintenance operation needs to be performed:
establishing a wireless connection with the wireless device; and
sending a request to the wireless device to perform the maintenance operation, wherein the maintenance operation comprises a reset of a counter on the wireless device associated with a timeout period for the wireless device to switch broadcast modes.

2. The method as in claim 1 , further comprising:
retrieving the wireless advertisement packet from a scan buffer; and
accessing the status field of the wireless advertisement packet to determine whether the maintenance operation needs to be performed.

3. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the wireless advertisement packet type is associated with a first broadcast mode.

4. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the wireless connection is established using cryptographic material associated with a key rotation period.

5. The method as in claim 1 , further comprising:
resetting a timer at the wireless device; and
checking the wireless device for an error log.

6. The method as in claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting a location estimate for the wireless device.

7. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the electronic device is in a low power mode.

8. A data processing system on a wireless device comprising:
a memory device; and
one or more processors to execute instructions stored in the memory device, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to perform operations to:
upon expiration of a maintenance timeout period, retrieve a wireless advertisement packet that was received from a wireless device, wherein the maintenance timeout period corresponds to a period of time to check for unmaintained wireless devices; and
in response to a determination that a status field of the received wireless advertisement packet indicates that a maintenance operation needs to be performed:
establish a wireless connection with the wireless device; and
send a request to the wireless device to perform the maintenance operation, wherein the maintenance operation comprises a reset of a counter on the wireless device associated with a timeout period for the wireless device to switch broadcast modes.

9. The data processing system as in claim 8 , the one or more processors to perform operations to:
retrieve the wireless advertisement packet from a scan buffer; and
access the status field of the wireless advertisement packet to determine whether the maintenance operation needs to be performed.

10. The data processing system as in claim 8 , wherein the wireless advertisement packet type is associated with a first broadcast mode.

11. The data processing system as in claim 8 , wherein the wireless connection is established using cryptographic material associated with a key rotation period.

12. The data processing system as in claim 8 , the one or more processors to perform operations to:
reset a timer at the wireless device; and
check the wireless device for an error log.

13. The data processing system as in claim 8 , the one or more processors to perform operations to:
transmit a location estimate for the wireless device.

14. The data processing system as in claim 8 , wherein the electronic device is in a low power mode.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions to cause one or more processors of a wireless device to perform operations comprising:
upon expiration of a maintenance timeout period, retrieving a wireless advertisement packet that was received from a wireless device, wherein the maintenance timeout period corresponds to a period of time to check for unmaintained wireless devices; and
in response to determining that a status field of the received wireless advertisement packet indicates that a maintenance operation needs to be performed:
establishing a wireless connection with the wireless device; and
sending a request to the wireless device to perform the maintenance operation, wherein the maintenance operation comprises a reset of a counter on the wireless device associated with a timeout period for the wireless device to switch broadcast modes.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , the operations further comprising:
retrieving the wireless advertisement packet from a scan buffer; and
accessing the status field of the wireless advertisement packet to determine whether the maintenance operation needs to be performed.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the wireless advertisement packet type is associated with a first broadcast mode.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the wireless connection is established using cryptographic material associated with a key rotation period.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , the operations further comprising: transmitting a location estimate for the wireless device.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Victa Kenneth U
• Detwiler Benjamin A
• Nilakantan Nikhil
• Wheeler Todd
• Mayor Robert W
• Ledvina Brent M
• Erdmann Iv E Thomas
• Hariharan Sriram

Classifications

• H04W4/029

  Location-based management or tracking services · CPC title

• H04W4/06

  Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services · CPC title

• H04W8/005

  Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals · CPC title

• H04W12/61

  Time-dependent · CPC title

• H04W12/041

  Key generation or derivation · CPC title