Machine-to-machine (“M2M”) platform systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9094777-B2
Application number	US-201213680472-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 19, 2012
Priority date	Nov 19, 2012
Publication date	Jul 28, 2015
Grant date	Jul 28, 2015

Abstract

Exemplary machine-to-machine (“M2M”) systems and methods are disclosed herein. An exemplary method includes an M2M platform system operating an M2M platform in accordance with a functionality set of the M2M platform, receiving data representative of an update to the functionality set of the M2M platform, and seamlessly transitioning, based on the data representative of the update and during runtime operation of the M2M platform, from the operating of the M2M platform in accordance with the functionality set of the M2M platform to operating the M2M platform in accordance with an updated functionality set of the M2M platform. Corresponding systems and methods are also disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
maintaining, by a machine-to-machine (“M2M”) platform management system, configuration data for a set of platform services associated with an M2M platform, the M2M platform configured to operate in accordance with the set of platform services and the configuration data;
receiving, by the M2M platform management system, data representative of an update to the configuration data for the set of platform services; and
dynamically updating, by the M2M platform management system based on the data representative of the update to the configuration data and during runtime operation of the M2M platform, the configuration data to seamlessly transition the M2M platform from operating in accordance with the configuration data to operating in accordance with the updated configuration data,
wherein
the set of platform services are configured to provide functionality of the M2M platform and comprise one or more applications running on one or more server devices operated by a provider of the M2M platform, the one or more server devices communicatively connected to one or more M2M client devices associated with one or more in-field customer assets,
the set of platform services comprises a configuration management platform service implementing the M2M platform management system and maintaining the configuration data for use by one or more other platform services included in the set of platform services,
the dynamic updating of the configuration data comprises the configuration management platform service applying the updated configuration data only to the configuration data maintained by the configuration management platform service and maintaining the updated configuration data for use by the one or more other platform services included in the set of platform services, and
each of the one or more other platform services is configured to use the updated configuration data maintained only by the configuration management platform service in a performance of a platform function that is specific to each of the one or more other platform services.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
maintaining, by the machine-to-machine (“M2M”) platform management system, platform service data representative of the set of platform services associated with the M2M platform;
receiving, by the M2M platform management system, data representative of an update to the set of platform services; and
dynamically updating, by the M2M platform management system based on the data representative of the update to the set of platform services and during the runtime operation of the M2M platform, the platform service data to seamlessly transition the M2M platform from operating in accordance with the set of platform services to operating in accordance with an updated set of platform services.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the dynamically updating of the platform service data comprises at least one of adding a new platform service to the set of platform services, modifying a platform service included in the set of platform services, and removing a platform service included in the set of platform services from the set of platform services.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
maintaining, by the machine-to-machine (“M2M”) platform management system, platform messaging architecture data representative of a platform messaging architecture associated with the M2M platform;
receiving, by the M2M platform management system, data representative of an update to the platform messaging architecture; and
dynamically updating, by the M2M platform management system based on the data representative of the update to the platform messaging architecture and during the runtime operation of the M2M platform, the platform messaging architecture data to seamlessly transition the M2M platform from operating in accordance with the platform messaging architecture to operating in accordance with an updated platform messaging architecture.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the seamless transition does not interrupt the runtime operation of the M2M platform.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dynamic updating of the configuration data comprises modifying routing logic configured to govern how platform messages are routed between one or more platform services included in the set of platform services.

7. The method of claim 1 , embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more server devices are further communicatively connected to a customer computing device configured to communicate with the one or more M2M client devices by way of the M2M platform.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the set of platform services includes one or more platform services configured to provide functionality for external communications by the one or more server devices with the customer computing device and the one or more M2M client devices.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more platform services configured to provide functionality for external communications include:
an M2M client gateway service configured to provide functionality for communications between the one or more server devices and the one or more M2M client devices; and
a customer interface service configured to provide functionality for communications between the one or more server devices and the customer computing device.

11. A method comprising:
operating, by a machine-to-machine (“M2M”) platform system, an M2M platform in accordance with a set of platform services and configuration data for the set of platform services;
receiving, by the M2M platform system, data representative of an update to the set of platform services and the configuration data for the set of platform services; and
seamlessly transitioning, by the M2M platform system based on the data representative of the update and during runtime operation of the M2M platform, from the operating of the M2M platform in accordance with the set of platform services and the configuration data for the set of platform services to operating the M2M platform in accordance with an updated set of platform services and updated configuration data for the updated set of platform services,
wherein:
the set of platform services are configured to provide functionality of the M2M platform and comprise one or more applications running on one or more server devices operated by an operator of the M2M platform, the one or more server devices communicatively connected to one or more M2M client devices associated with one or more in-field customer assets,
the set of platform services comprises a configuration management platform service maintaining the configuration data for use by the set of platform services,
the seamlessly transitioning comprises updating only the configuration data maintained by the configuration management platform service for use by the set of platform services based on the data representative of the update to create the updated configuration data for the updated set of platform services, and
each platform service included in the updated set of platform services is configured to use the updated configuration data maintained only by the configuration management platform service in a performance of a platform function that is specific to each platform service included in the updated set of platform services.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the seamlessly transitioning further comprises:
updating the set of platform services based on the data representative of the update to the set of platform services to create the updated set of platform servi

Assignees

• Verizon Patent & Licensing Inc

Inventors

• Umapathy Mohanraj
• Tran Phan Anh
• Geltner David

Classifications

• H04W4/005 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L41/0813

  characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings · CPC title

• H04W4/70 Primary

  Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC] · CPC title