Systems, methods, and apparatus to configure embedded devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9722864-B2
Application number	US-201514752524-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2015
Priority date	Jun 26, 2015
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

Systems, methods, and apparatus to configure embedded devices are described. An example apparatus includes a network interface to communicatively couple the apparatus with a network, an antenna to receive a radio frequency signal including 1) configuration data and 2) power, a memory coupled to the antenna to receive the power and to store the configuration data, a network configurer to retrieve the configuration data from the memory and to configure the network interface based on the retrieved data, and a power source other than the antenna to provide power to the memory and the network configurer during operation of the network configurer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a network interface to communicatively couple the apparatus with a network;
an antenna to receive a radio frequency signal including 1) configuration data and 2) power;
a memory coupled to the antenna to receive the power and to store the configuration data;
a network configurer to retrieve the configuration data from the memory and to configure the network interface based on the retrieved configuration data;
a power source other than the antenna to provide power to the memory and the network configurer during operation of the network configurer;
a radio frequency communicator to communicate, via the antenna, with a computing device different from the apparatus to transmit a device identifier of the apparatus to the computing device, to receive the configuration data, and to store the configuration data in the memory while powered via the antenna prior to deployment; and
a backend communicator to, after deployment of the apparatus, transmit the device identifier to a backend server via the network for comparison with the device identifier communicated by the radio frequency communicator.

2. An apparatus as defined in claim 1 , further including a second memory to store a network configuration generated by the network configurer based on the configuration data.

3. An apparatus as defined in claim 2 , wherein the backend communicator is further to store configuration information received from the backend server in the second memory of the apparatus.

4. An apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein the radio frequency communicator operates according to a short range wireless communication protocol.

5. An apparatus as defined in claim 4 , wherein the short range wireless communication protocol is near field communication.

6. An apparatus as defined in claim 1 , wherein the configuration data is encrypted and the network configurer is to decrypt the configuration data prior to configuring the network interface.

7. A method for configuring an embedded device, the method comprising:
during a first time period:
powering a memory using a radio frequency signal received by an antenna of the embedded device;
transmitting a device identifier of the embedded device to a computing device different from the embedded device;
storing configuration data received from the computing device by the antenna;

during a second time period, after the first time period:
powering the memory using a power source other than the antenna;
retrieving the configuration data from the memory; and
configuring a network interface of the embedded device based on the configuration data for communication on a network; and
transmitting the device identifier to a backend server via the network for comparison with the device identifier transmitted during the first time period.

8. A method as defined in claim 7 , further storing a network configuration generated by the network configurer in a second memory of the embedded device.

9. A method as defined in claim 8 , further including communicating with the backend server via the network interface based on the configuration data.

10. A method as defined in claim 9 , further including storing configuration information received from the backend server in the second memory of the embedded device.

11. A method as defined in claim 7 , wherein the configuration data is encrypted and further including decrypting the configuration data prior to configuring the network interface.

12. A method as defined in claim 7 , further comprising, in response to transmitting the device identifier to the backend server via the network, receiving, via the network, a signed certificate for use by the embedded device.

13. A method as defined in claim 7 , wherein transmitting the device identifier includes:
generating a certificate signing request including the device identifier; and
transmitting the certificate signing request to the backend server.

14. A tangible computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to:
during a first time period:
power a memory using a radio frequency signal received by an antenna of an embedded device;
transmit a device identifier of the embedded device to a computing device different from the embedded device;
store configuration data received from the computing device by the antenna;

during a second time period, after the first time period:
power the memory using a power source other than the antenna;
retrieve the configuration data from the memory;
configure a network interface of the embedded device based on the configuration data for communication on a network; and

transmit the device identifier to a backend server via the network for comparison with the device identifier transmitted during the first time period.

15. A tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 14 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to store a network configuration generated by the network configurer in a second memory of the embedded device.

16. A tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 15 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to communicate with the backend server via the network interface based on the configuration data.

17. A tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 16 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to store configuration information received from the backend server in the second memory of the embedded device.

18. A tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 14 , wherein the configuration data is encrypted and wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to decrypt the configuration data prior to configuring the network interface.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Hou Zhaorong
• Hunt Bryan
• Beale Michael
• Novick David O
• Carrizo Carlos
• Illikkal Rameshkumar G
• Sundaravaradan Srinivas
• Casares Francisco M
• Baldwin Mark P
• Surya Krishna

Classifications

• H04L12/10

  Current supply arrangements · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04L41/0856

  by backing up or archiving configuration information · CPC title

• H04W4/50

  Service provisioning or reconfiguring · CPC title

• H04L67/34

  involving the movement of software or configuration parameters  (network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416) · CPC title