Embedded communication in message based transports

• US 10,194,284 B2
• Filed: 09/12/2012
• Issued: 01/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digi International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Digi International Inc.
• Inventors: Dirstine, Adam D., Popp, Christopher Glen
• Primary Examiner(s): Hussain, Tauqir
• Application Number:
  US13/612,404
• Publication Number:
  US 20140074946A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,330 Days
• Field of Search: 370358, 719314, 709206-207, 709224
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

Systems and methods for utilizing unused space in expensive message based communication to embed messages from a sender device to a receiver device to maximize payload usage over a potentially fee-based messaging service. One or more machine-to-machine messages may be embedded in unutilized transport space when other communications, that may potentially be delivered over a fee-based network, are initiated at a device. The machine-to-machine message and other communications may be extracted from a combined message package at a receiving device and processed as if they were independently transported. Machine-to-machine messages may be segmented and embedded across multiple unrelated communication packages and later reassembled.

Claims

1. A method for embedded communication between devices comprising:

queuing a machine-to-machine message in a queue at a first device;

receiving, at the first device, a user-initiated command to transmit a communication message to a second device, wherein the communication message is structured according to a particular device messaging protocol, wherein the device messaging protocol defines a procedure to create a message packet of a specific structure or format;

determining an available first payload within the communication message for the machine-to-machine message, wherein the available first payload has a size that is a function of the communication message'"'"'s size;

rendering the machine-to-machine message distinguishable from the communication message by the second device by structuring the machine-to-machine message independently of the particular device messaging protocol;

loading a first portion of the distinguishable machine-to-machine message into the available first payload of the communication message to form a package;

queuing a second portion of the distinguishable machine-to-machine message at a first position in the queue; and

transmitting the package to the second device wherein the distinguishable machine-to-machine message includes a second payload that includes at least one of;

information about a device, the information having been captured without user intervention; and

information about an action to be, or that has been, performed by a device, the information having been captured without user intervention.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the queue includes a plurality of machine-to-machine messages, and wherein loading includes selecting one of the plurality of machine-to-machine messages from the queue.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein selecting one of the plurality of machine-to-machine messages from the queue includes comparing a machine-to-machine message size to the available payload.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

compressing the machine-to-machine message.

5. The method of claim 4, comprising:

compressing the communication message prior to determining the available payload.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein loading the first portion of the machine-to-machine message into the available first payload includes dividing the machine-to-machine message into the first portion and the second portion, and embedding the first portion in the available first payload.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is a client device, and the second device is a server.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is a server, and the second device is a client device.

9. An embedded communication system comprising:

a first device coupled to a network;

a second device coupled to the network, wherein one of the first and second devices is configured to communicate with the other device over the network by embedding messages in a communication;

wherein the embedding includes;

queuing a machine-to-machine message in a queue;

receiving a command to transmit a communication message to the other device, wherein the communication message is structured according to a particular device messaging protocol, wherein the device messaging protocol defines a procedure to create a message packet of a specific structure or format;

determining an available first payload within the communication message, wherein the available first payload is a function of a size of the communication message;

encoding the machine-to-machine message to be distinguishable from the communication message by the other device at least by structuring the machine-to-machine message independently of the particular device messaging protocol;

loading a first portion of the distinguishable machine-to-machine message into the available first payload to form a package;

queuing a second portion of the distinguishable machine-to-machine message at a first position in the queue; and

transmitting the package to the other device;

wherein the machine-to-machine message comprises a second payload that includes at least one of;

information about a device, the information having been captured without user intervention; and

information about an action to be, or that has been, performed by a device, the information having been captured without user intervention.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the embedding includes:

selecting one of the plurality of machine-to-machine messages from the queue based on a determined size of the available first payload.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the embedding includes:

compressing the machine-to-machine message.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the embedding includes:

compressing the communication message prior to determining the available first payload.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein loading the machine-to-machine message into the available first payload includes dividing the machine-to-machine message into the first portion and the second portion.

14. A tangible computer readable non-transitory medium comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to:

queue a machine-to-machine message in a queue at a first device;

receive a user-initiated command at the first device to transmit a communication message to a second device, wherein the communication message is structured according to a particular device messaging protocol that defines a procedure to create a message packet of a specific structure or format;

determine an available first payload within the communication message for the machine-to-machine message, wherein the available first payload has a size that is a function of the communication message'"'"'s size;

render the machine-to-machine message distinguishable from the communication message by the second device by creating the machine-to-machine message independently of the procedure defined by the particular device messaging protocol;

load a first portion of the machine-to-machine message into the available first payload to form a package;

queue a second portion of the machine-to-machine message at a first position of the queue; and

transmit the package to the second device;

wherein the machine-to-machine message comprises a second payload that includes at least one of;

information about a device, the information having been captured without user intervention; and

information about an action to be, or that has been, performed by a device, the information having been captured without user intervention.

15. The tangible computer readable non-transitory medium of claim 14, wherein the plurality of instructions comprise:

selecting one of a plurality of machine-to-machine messages from the queue based on a determined size of the available first payload.

16. The tangible computer readable non-transitory medium of claim 14, wherein the plurality of instructions comprise:

compressing the machine-to-machine message.

17. The tangible computer readable non-transitory medium of claim 16, wherein the plurality of instructions comprise:

compressing the communication message prior to determining the available first payload.

18. The tangible computer readable non-transitory medium of claim 14, wherein loading the first portion of the machine-to-machine message into the available first payload includes dividing the machine-to-machine message into the first portion and the second portion, and embedding the first portion in the available first payload.