Providing internet access through a property monitoring system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9886839-B2
Application number	US-201615069833-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 14, 2016
Priority date	Mar 12, 2015
Publication date	Feb 6, 2018
Grant date	Feb 6, 2018

Abstract

Methods and systems, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for providing internet access through a control panel of an alarm system, the method including establishing, by a control panel of an alarm system in a property, a first connection to an alarm system monitoring server across a cellular network, determining that a known source of internet within the property is not available, in response to determining that the known source of internet within the property is not available, establishing, by the control panel, a second connection to the internet across the cellular network, providing internet access to one or more devices in the property through the second connection, determining that the known source of internet within the property is available, and in response to determining that the known source of internet within the property is available, terminating, by the control panel, the second connection.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
establishing, by a control panel of an alarm system in a property, a first connection to an alarm system monitoring server over a cellular network;
determining that a network speed associated with the network access point within the property is below a threshold network speed;
in response to determining that the network speed associated with the network access point within the property is below the threshold network speed, establishing, by the control panel, a second connection to a wide area network over the cellular network;
configuring, by the control panel, an alternative network access point within the property to enable one or more devices within the property to establish communications with the wide area network over the cellular network;
determining that the network access point within the property is available; and
in response to determining that the network access point within the property is available, terminating, by the control panel, the second connection.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein establishing a first connection to an alarm system monitoring server comprises establishing a private connection over the cellular network to the alarm system monitoring server.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein establishing a second connection to the wide area network over the cellular network comprises establishing a public connection to one or more public servers.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the control panel of the alarm system comprises Wi-Fi access hardware and establishing a second connection to the wide area network over the cellular network comprises providing access to the wide area network using the Wi-Fi access hardware.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the control panel of the alarm system is in data communication with Wi-Fi access hardware that is located in a physically separate device, and establishing a second connection to the one or more public servers comprises providing access to the wide area network using the Wi-Fi access hardware.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing access to the wide area network to the one or more devices in the property through the second connection comprises providing access to the wide area network to a known internet access point in the property.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving communications at the control panel of the alarm system;
classifying the received communications based on communication type
based on the classification, determining which of the first connection or second connection to transmit the communications through;
determining an order in which to transmit the communications;
in response to determining which of the first connection or second connection to transmit the communications through and the order in which to transmit the communications, transmitting the communications through the determined connections in the determined order.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein determining which of the first connection or second connection to transmit the communications through comprises implementing an algorithm that is pre-programmed in the control panel of the alarm system.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein determining an order in which to transmit the communications comprises:
for each communication, assigning a weight to the communication based on at least the determined first or second connection in which the communication is to be transmitted through;
ranking the weighted communications to determine an order in which to transmit the communications.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein determining which of the first connection or second connection to transmit the communications through comprises selecting the first connection and throttling the second connection.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein throttling the second connection comprises disabling the second connection.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending requests for wide area network access status at regular predetermined intervals of time to network access point within the property.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining that a network access point within the property is not available comprises determining that the internet access point of the network access point has not responded to the requests for wide area network access status within a predetermined amount of time.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining that the network access point within the property is available comprises determining that the network access point has responded to the requests for wide area network access status within a predetermined amount of time.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising notifying the one or more devices in the property that wide area network access is no longer available through the second connection.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising establishing, by the control panel of the alarm system in the property, a third connection to central station server, wherein the third connection is a public connection.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the control panel is a client of the network access point within the property.

18. the method of claim 1 , further comprising:
obtaining data indicated one or more user-specified configurations for the control panel;
generating one or more configurations rules that cause the control panel to establish the second connection to the wide area network over the cellular network based on the one or more user-specified configurations for the control panel.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining an occurrence of an event at the property that causes the network access point within the property is not be available;
determining an event type associated with the event; and
wherein the second connection to the wide area network is established based at least on the determined event type associated with the event.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more devices within the property are separate from the alarm system in the property.

21. A system comprising:
one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
establishing, by a control panel of an alarm system in a property, a first connection to an alarm system monitoring server over a cellular network;
determining that a network speed associated with the network access point within the property is below a threshold network speed;
in response to determining that the network speed associated with the network access point within the property is below the threshold network speed, establishing, by the control panel, a second connection to a wide area network over the cellular network;
configuring, by the control panel, an alternative network access point within the property to enable one or more devices within the property to establish communications with the wide area network over the cellular network;
determining that the network access point within the property is available; and
in response to determining that the network access point within the property is available, terminating, by the control panel, the second connection.

22. A computer-readable medium storing software comprising instructions executable by one or more computers which, upon such execution, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
establishing, b

Assignees

• Alarm Com Inc

Inventors

• Martin Jean Paul

Classifications

• G08B25/08

  using communication transmission lines {(G08B13/19658, G08B21/0286, G08B25/016 take precedence)} · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• G08B25/004 Primary

  Alarm propagated along alternative communication path or using alternative communication medium according to a hierarchy of available ways to communicate, e.g. if Wi-Fi® not available use GSM · CPC title