Coordinated resource sharing in machine-to-machine communication using a network-based group management and floor control mechanism

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9900172-B2
Application number	US-201414260038-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 23, 2014
Priority date	Apr 25, 2013
Publication date	Feb 20, 2018
Grant date	Feb 20, 2018

Abstract

In the network-based group management and floor control mechanism disclosed herein, a server may receive a request to occupy a shared IoT resource from a member device in an IoT device group and transmit a message granting the member IoT device permission to occupy the shared IoT resource based on one or more policies. For example, the granted permission may comprise a floor that blocks other IoT devices from accessing the shared IoT resource while the member IoT device holds the floor. Furthermore, the server may revoke the permission if the member IoT device fails to transmit a keep-alive message before a timeout period expires, a high-priority IoT device pre-empts the floor, and/or based on the policies. Alternatively, the server may make the shared IoT resource available if the member IoT device sends a message that voluntarily releases the floor.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for coordinated resource sharing among Internet of Things (IoT) devices, comprising:
identifying, at a server, a plurality of IoT devices that operate on a uniquely identified shared IoT resource connected to a personal IoT network, wherein the uniquely identified shared IoT resource comprises a consumable, physical commodity;
provisioning, at the server, an IoT device group having the plurality of IoT devices as members based at least in part on the plurality of IoT devices being configured to operate on the uniquely identified shared IoT resource, wherein the plurality of IoT devices in the IoT device group are configured to communicate peer-to-peer using a common messaging protocol;
receiving, at the server, a message requesting exclusive permission to occupy at least a portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource, the message received via a supervisor interface from a first IoT device among the plurality of IoT devices that are members of the IoT device group;
granting, to the first IoT device, the exclusive permission to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource according to a quota allocated to the first IoT device; and
transmitting, from the server to the first IoT device, a message indicating that the first IoT device has been granted the exclusive permission to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource according to the allocated quota, wherein the granted exclusive permission to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource is regulated such that the granted exclusive permission to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource is pre-empted in response to the first IoT device exceeding the quota allocated thereto.

2. The method recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting, from the server to the first IoT device, a message that revokes the granted exclusive permission to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource.

3. The method recited in claim 2 , wherein the message revoking the exclusive permission to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource is transmitted in response to one or more of a timeout period expiring without the server receiving a keep-alive message from the first IoT device, an IoT device with a higher priority than the first IoT device requesting access to the uniquely identified shared IoT resource, or based on one or more policies that regulate access to the uniquely identified shared IoT resource.

4. The method recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
making the uniquely identified shared IoT resource available in response to receiving a message from the first IoT device that releases the granted exclusive permission to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource.

5. The method recited in claim 1 , wherein the granted exclusive permission to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource comprises a floor that blocks other IoT devices from accessing the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource while the first IoT device holds the floor, and wherein the method further comprises:
queuing a message received from at least one of the other IoT devices that requests access to the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource that the first IoT device has been granted the exclusive permission to occupy while the first IoT device holds the floor.

6. The method recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
queuing the message from the first IoT device requesting the exclusive permission to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource in response to determining that one or more other IoT devices currently hold a floor to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource, wherein the server grants the first IoT device the exclusive permission to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource in response to the one or more other IoT devices no longer holding the floor to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource.

7. The method recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a contending message that requests access to the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource from a second IoT device among the plurality of IoT devices that are members of the IoT device group; and
determining whether to grant the exclusive permission to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource to the first IoT device or the second IoT device based on one or more policies.

8. The method recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
allocating a device-specific globally unique identifier (D_GUID) to each of the plurality of IoT devices that operate on the uniquely identified shared IoT resource in response to receiving a registration request from each respective IoT device;
allocating a group-specific globally unique identifier (G_GUID) to the IoT device group; and
associating the D_GUID allocated to each respective IoT device and the G_GUID allocated to the IoT device group with one or more attributes based on one or more contexts associated with each respective IoT device and further based on a resource-specific globally unique identifier (R_GUID) allocated to the uniquely identified shared IoT resource.

9. The method recited in claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving, at the server, a message that requests the R_GUID allocated to the uniquely identified shared IoT resource from the first IoT device;
selecting one or more uniquely identified shared IoT resources based on the one or more attributes associated with the D_GUID allocated to the first IoT device; and
transmitting a list that includes the R_GUID allocated to the one or more uniquely identified shared IoT resources to the first IoT device, wherein the first IoT device selects the R_GUID allocated to the uniquely identified shared IoT resource that the first IoT device has requested the exclusive permission to occupy from the transmitted list.

10. The method recited in claim 1 , wherein the message requesting the exclusive permission to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource indicates the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource that the first IoT device requests exclusive permission to occupy, and wherein the message indicating that the first IoT device has been granted the exclusive permission to occupy at least the portion of the uniquely identified shared IoT resource indicates the allocated quota to which the first IoT device has been granted the exclusive permission to occupy.

11. The method recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
maintaining statistics that relate to usage associated with the uniquely identified shared IoT resource.

12. An apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor configured to identify a plurality of Internet of Things (IoT) devices configured to operate on a uniquely identified shared IoT resource connected to a personal IoT network, wherein the uniquely identified shared IoT resource comprises a consumable, physical commodity, the at least one processor further configured to provision an IoT device group having the plurality of IoT devices as members based at least in part on the plurality of IoT devices being configured to operate on the uniquely identified shared IoT resource, wherein the plurality of IoT devices in the IoT device group are configured to communicate peer-to-peer using a common messaging protocol;
a receiver configured to receive a message requesting

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Goel Amit
• Shuman Mohammed Ataur Rahman
• Sharma Sandeep

Classifications

• H04L2012/2841

  Wireless · CPC title

• H04W84/18

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

• H04L67/16

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W4/005

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W72/00

  Local resource management · CPC title