Managing internet of things collection having different capabilities

• US 10,175,666 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2015
• Issued: 01/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Baez, Jon A., Freed, Andrew R., Joshi, Niraj P., Yapi, Jack P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Von Buhr, M. N.
• Application Number:
  US14/928,752
• Publication Number:
  US 20170123389A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,166 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2816 Controlling appliance services of a home automation network by calling their functionalities arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station; in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities

Abstract

A method and system are provided. The method includes determining, by a processor-based capability determining element, different capabilities of each of different devices connected through one or more networks. The different capabilities include communication capabilities and manageability capabilities. The method further includes classifying, by the processor-based capability determining element, the different devices according to capability maturity rankings supported by the different capabilities to provide maturity-based capability classifications for the different devices. The capability maturity rankings are based on capability maturity criteria. The method also includes dynamically managing, by a controller, operations of the different devices in accordance with the maturity-based capability classifications.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

determining, by a processor-based capability determining element, different capabilities of each of different devices connected through one or more networks, the different capabilities including communication capabilities, security capabilities, and manageability capabilities;

classifying, by the processor-based capability determining element, the different devices according to capability maturity rankings supported by the different capabilities to provide maturity-based capability classifications for the different devices, the capability maturity rankings (i) based on capability maturity criteria and (ii) representing various degrees of controllability of various user operable features inherent in the different devices; and

dynamically managing, by a controller, operations of the different devices in accordance with the maturity-based capability classifications.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically discovering the different devices using a plurality of scanners, each of the plurality of scanners configured to perform scanning using a respective different ones of a plurality of communication protocols.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the method automatically enables and utilizes a given one of the plurality of communication protocols that has a most amount of capabilities relative to other ones of the plurality of communication protocols and that is common to the different devices.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein for at least some of the different devices, the most given one of the plurality of communication protocols is one of many available communication protocols capable of being enabled and utilized.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the capability maturity criteria comprises connectivity criteria, security criteria, configuration access criteria, intrusion detection criteria, and controllability criteria.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the controllability criteria relates to accessibility of device specific capabilities.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the connectivity criteria comprises communication protocols that include Ethernet, Bluetooth, WiFi, Radio Frequency, Radio Frequency Identification, Near Field Communication, Web Services Distributed Management, Simple Network Management Protocol, Wireless Local Area Network protocols, and infrared.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said classifying step comprises generating a device capability model that specifies specific device capabilities, device capability types, generic device capability usages, and specific device capability usage examples for each of the different devices.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said dynamically managing step comprises enabling at least one of the different devices to control one or more other ones of the different devices, based on a capability specified in the device capability model.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the capability maturity rankings is computed as a respective weighted average of device capabilities comprising (i) enabled device connectivity, (ii) secure communication, (iii) enabled device configuration for both read and write settings, and (iv) controllable and upgradeable, and wherein the capability maturity rankings are displayed, by a display device, to a user in a form of a table that indicates remote management capabilities of the different devices, exemplary power management capabilities of the different devices, and the maturity rankings for remote management and power management capabilities of the different devices.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein said dynamically executing step comprises executing an action path that comprises a plurality of actions that are executed by respective ones of the different devices in descending order of the corresponding capability maturity rankings used to classify the respective ones of the different devices.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the capability maturity rankings indicate various degrees of controllability selected from the group consisting of a limited controllability, an intermediate controllability, and a full controllability.

13. A computer program product for device management, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

determining, by a processor-based capability determining element, different capabilities of each of different devices connected through one or more networks, the different capabilities including communication capabilities, security capabilities, and manageability capabilities;

classifying, by the processor-based capability determining element, the different devices according to capability maturity rankings supported by the different capabilities to provide maturity-based capability classifications for the different devices, the capability maturity rankings based on (i) capability maturity criteria and (ii) representing various degrees of controllability of various user operable features inherent in the different devices; and

dynamically managing, by a controller, operations of the different devices in accordance with the maturity-based capability classifications.

14. A system, comprising:

a processor-based capability determining element for

determining different capabilities of each of different devices connected through one or more networks, the different capabilities including communication capabilities, security capabilities, and manageability capabilities, and

classifying the different devices according to capability maturity rankings supported by the different capabilities to provide maturity-based capability classifications for the different devices, the capability maturity rankings based on (i) capability maturity criteria and (ii) representing various degrees of controllability of various user operable features inherent in the different devices; and

a controller for dynamically managing operations of the different devices in accordance with the maturity-based capability classifications.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a plurality of scanners for automatically discovering the different devices by using different ones of a plurality of communication protocols.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the controller automatically enables and utilizes a given one of the plurality of communication protocols that has a most amount of capabilities relative to other ones of the plurality of communication protocols and that is common to the different devices.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein for at least some of the different devices, the most given one of the plurality of communication protocols is one of many available communication protocols capable of being enabled and utilized.

18. The system of claim 14, further comprising at least one communication element for obtaining, from at least some of the devices, information from which the different capabilities of each of the different devices can be determined by the processor-based capability determination element.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the capability maturity criteria comprises connectivity criteria, security criteria, configuration access criteria, intrusion detection criteria, and controllability criteria.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the processor-based capability determining element classifies the different capabilities by generating a device capability model that specifies specific device capabilities, device capability types, generic device capability usages, and specific device capability usage examples for each of the different devices.