Method and apparatus for cloud-based peripheral device assignment for pairing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024259814-A1
Application number	US-202318104067-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 31, 2023
Priority date	Jan 31, 2023
Publication date	Aug 1, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

An information handling system includes a hardware processor and a memory device, the processor executing code instructions of an automatic peripheral device (PD) pairing management system pairing agent to receive and store a temporary key and peripheral device identification data (PD ID) associated with a peripheral device assigned to the information handling system from a backend management server via secure wireless link. In response to a pairing query from the assigned peripheral device including a sent PD ID, the automatic PD pairing management system pairing agent determines that the received PD ID matches the stored PD ID and verifies BT pairing with the peripheral device is authorized by determining that the temporary key received from the backend management server matches a peripheral device temporary key stored at the peripheral device before establishing a Bluetooth® wireless link between the peripheral device and the information handling system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An information handling system operating as a backend management server comprising:
a hardware processor; a memory device; a power management unit (PMU) to provide power to the processor and memory device; the hardware processor to execute computer readable program code of an automatic peripheral device pairing management system pairing agent to receive device identification data including peripheral device identifications (PD IDs) associated with a plurality of peripheral devices from a manufacturer of a peripheral device; the hardware processor establishing temporary key and device identification data to be associated with each of a plurality of peripheral devices based on a pairing assignment of each of the plurality of peripheral devices with one of a plurality of backend coupled information handling systems within an enterprise, where the temporary key and device identification data includes a PD ID and a corresponding temporary key for the peripheral device; a network interface device sending instructions with a wireless adapter to each of the plurality of backend coupled information handling systems to store temporary key and device identification data associated with the peripheral device assigned to each of the plurality of backend coupled information handling systems, the temporary key and device identification data stored as a unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI) variable in a UEFI memory device accessible at the backend coupled information handling system; and the network interface device sending instructions to each of the plurality of backend coupled information handling systems to pair the peripheral devices assigned with each of the plurality of backend coupled information handling systems using the temporary key and device identification data assigned to the backend coupled information handling system.

2 . The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the instructions sent to each of the plurality of backend coupled information handling systems includes data describing peripheral device verification requirements that require the temporary key and device identification data match peripheral device temporary key and device identification data stored on and provided by the peripheral device.

3 . The information handling system of claim 1 further comprising:
the hardware processor generates the temporary key for pairing to the assigned peripheral device to the backend coupled information handling system via a hash function with a serial number of the associated peripheral device used as seed data into the hash function, where the serial number is part of the device identification data.

4 . The information handling system of claim 1 further comprising:
the temporary key and device identification data associated with each of the peripheral devices in a plurality of peripheral devices is assigned to a group of the backend coupled information handling systems and includes the temporary key and device identification data of each of the plurality of peripheral devices available to each of the backend coupled information handling systems in the group of backend coupled information handling systems to pair with any of the plurality of peripheral devices when any of the plurality of peripheral devices provides received signal strength indicator (RSSI) above a RSSI threshold level.

5 . The information handling system of claim 1 wherein sending the temporary key and device identification data associated with a plurality of peripheral devices by the backend management server includes transmitting the temporary key and device identification data via an encrypted communication channel.

6 . The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the device identification data including PD IDs associated with each of the plurality of peripheral devices is received from the manufacturer of the peripheral device via a secure transport layer security encrypted channel.

7 . The information handling system of claim 1 wherein sending instructions to each of the plurality of backend coupled information handling systems to store temporary key and device identification data associated with the peripheral device assigned to each of the backend coupled information handling systems includes sending the temporary key and device identification data via a secure transport layer security encrypted channel between the backend management server and the backend coupled information handling systems.

8 . A backend coupled information handling system comprising:
a hardware processor; a memory device; a power management unit (PMU) to provide power to the processor and memory device; the hardware processor to execute computer readable program code of an automatic peripheral device pairing management system pairing agent to receive temporary key and device identification data associated with a peripheral device from a backend management server, the backend management server establishing the temporary key and device identification data to be associated with the peripheral device for the assignment to the backend coupled information handling system; a memory device accessible by the hardware processor storing the temporary key and device identification data associated with the peripheral device assigned to the backend coupled information handling system; and a wireless adapter establishing an out-of-band (OOB) Bluetooth (BT) communication with the peripheral device to respond to a pairing query from the peripheral device to the backend coupled information handling system when a peripheral device identification (PD ID) is matched with the stored device identification data; and the hardware processor to determine when the temporary key matches with a peripheral device temporary key stored at the peripheral device assigned to the backend coupled information handling system to initiate a BT wireless link between the backend coupled information handling system and the assigned peripheral device.

9 . The backend coupled information handling system claim 8 further comprising:
the wireless adapter establishing the OOB BT communication with the peripheral device includes receiving a peripheral device identification (PD ID) provided by the peripheral device that matches a PD ID provided with the stored device identification data at the backend coupled information handling system from the backend server.

10 . The backend coupled information handling system of claim 8 further comprising:
the temporary key and device identification data includes the temporary key created at the backend server via a hash function with a serial number of the peripheral device used as seed data into a hash function to generate the temporary key, where the temporary key stored in a memory in the peripheral device.

11 . The backend coupled information handling system of claim 10 further comprising:
the temporary key and device identification data associated with the peripheral device includes a signal strength indicator (RSSI) threshold that, when a measured RSSI is determined to be above the RSSI threshold level from the peripheral device, the peripheral device is then operatively coupled to the information handling system via the OOB BT communication.

12 . The backend coupled information handling system of claim 8 wherein establishing the OOB BT communication with the peripheral device includes using an extended BT broadcast wireless communication channel to detect, from the peripheral device, a broadcasted pairing query and peripheral device identification (PD ID) received from the peripheral device.

13 . The backend coupled information ha

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Boyapalle Anantha K
• Wong Kai Leong
• Grobelny Nicholas D

Classifications

• H04W84/18

  Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks · CPC title

• H04W12/50 Primary

  Secure pairing of devices · CPC title

• H04W12/037 Primary

  of the control plane, e.g. signalling traffic · CPC title

• H04W76/14

  Direct-mode setup · CPC title