Proximity application discovery and provisioning

• US 10,419,907 B2
• Filed: 09/02/2014
• Issued: 09/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Redding, Brian, Linsky, Joel Benjamin
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Thanh C
• Application Number:
  US14/474,367
• Publication Number:
  US 20140370879A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,841 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42178 by downloading data to substation equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Methods, non-transitory processor-readable storage media, systems, and devices for provisioning devices associated with wireless identity transmitters. An embodiment method performed by a proximity broadcast receiver may include operations for receiving a broadcast message including a secure identifier from a wireless identity transmitter, transmitting to a central server a sighting message that includes the secure identifier and an identity of the proximity broadcast receiver, receiving from the central server a return message that includes identification information related to the received broadcast message and that is authorized to be distributed to the proximity broadcast receiver based on data stored on the central server, and provisioning a device associated with the received broadcast message based on the identification information from the received return message. The method may also include identifying a software source from the received return message, requesting the software from the identified software source, and installing the received software.

Claims

1. A method for a proximity broadcast receiver to provision devices associated with wireless identity transmitters, comprising:

receiving a broadcast message including a secure identifier from a wireless identity transmitter;

transmitting to a central server a sighting message that includes the secure identifier and an identity of the proximity broadcast receiver;

receiving from the central server a return message that includes identification information related to the received broadcast message and that is authorized to be distributed to the proximity broadcast receiver based on data stored on the central server; and

provisioning a device associated with the received broadcast message based on the identification information from the received return message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification information includes one or more of credentials for accessing the device and information indicating required functionalities for provisioning the device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the required functionalities include one or more of installed software and an activated radio, and

wherein the information indicating the required functionalities includes one or more of a uniform resource identifier (URI) and instructions to be performed by the proximity broadcast receiver.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining whether the proximity broadcast receiver is configured with the required functionalities for provisioning the device; and

configuring the proximity broadcast receiver with the required functionalities in response to determining that the proximity broadcast receiver is not configured with the required functionalities for provisioning the device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein configuring the proximity broadcast receiver with the required functionalities in response to determining that the proximity broadcast receiver is not configured with the required functionalities comprises:

identifying a software source from the received return message;

transmitting, to the identified software source, a request for software indicated by the received return message;

receiving the software from the identified software source; and

installing the received software.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising configuring the installed software based on the identification information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the received return message includes configuration data for the provisioned device, and

the method further comprising transmitting the configuration data to the provisioned device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein;

the received broadcast message is one of a plurality of broadcast messages received by the proximity broadcast receiver from a plurality of nearby wireless identity transmitters; and

the method further comprises displaying a plurality of functionalities in response to receiving the plurality of broadcast messages from the plurality of nearby wireless identity transmitters.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the central server a request for additional authentication; and

transmitting to the central server an authentication message including a personal identification number (PIN),

wherein receiving from the central server the return message that includes the identification information comprises receiving from the central server the return message that includes the identification information in response to transmitting the authentication message.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the proximity broadcast receiver is a smartphone;

the provisioned device is one of an appliance and a router; and

the wireless identity transmitter is the provisioned device.

11. A method for a central server to control provisioning of devices associated with wireless identity transmitters, comprising:

receiving, by the central server from a proximity broadcast receiver, a sighting message that includes a secure identifier of a wireless identity transmitter;

determining whether the proximity broadcast receiver is authorized to receive identification information for provisioning a device associated with the wireless identity transmitter based on stored profile information corresponding to the secure identifier and the proximity broadcast receiver in response to receiving the sighting message; and

transmitting a return message including the identification information for provisioning the device in response to determining that the proximity broadcast receiver is authorized to receive the identification information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the identification information includes at least one of an instruction, a script, a command, a URI, and a code for causing the proximity broadcast receiver to obtain software related to the device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the identification information includes credentials related to the device, wherein the credentials include at least one of a username and a password.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

transmitting an authorization request to a user device associated with the device in response to determining that the proximity broadcast receiver is not authorized to receive the identification information for provisioning the device;

determining whether an authorization approval is received from the user device in response to transmitting the authorization request; and

transmitting the return message including the identification information for provisioning the device in response to determining that the authorization approval is received from the user device.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

transmitting to the proximity broadcast receiver an authentication request;

receiving a response message in response to transmitting the authentication request; and

determining whether a user of the proximity broadcast receiver is authenticated based on the received response message,

wherein transmitting the return message including the identification information for provisioning the device in response to determining that the proximity broadcast receiver is authorized to receive the identification information comprises transmitting the return message including the identification information for provisioning the device in response to determining that the proximity broadcast receiver is authorized to receive the identification information and in response to determining that the user of the proximity broadcast receiver is authenticated based on the received response message.

16. A computing device, comprising:

a processor configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations comprising;

receiving a broadcast message including a secure identifier from a wireless identity transmitter;

transmitting, to a central server, a sighting message that includes the secure identifier and an identity of the computing device;

receiving, from the central server, a return message that includes identification information related to the received broadcast message and that is authorized to be distributed to the computing device based on data stored on the central server; and

provisioning a device associated with the received broadcast message based on the identification information from the received return message.

17. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the identification information includes one or more of credentials for accessing the device and information indicating required functionalities for provisioning the device.

18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the required functionalities include one or more of installed software and an activated radio, and

wherein the information indicating the required functionalities includes one or more of a uniform resource identifier (URI) and instructions to be performed by the computing device.

19. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising:

determining whether the computing device is configured with the required functionalities for provisioning the device; and

configuring the computing device with the required functionalities in response to determining that the computing device is not configured with the required functionalities.

20. The computing device of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that configuring the computing device with the required functionalities in response to determining that the computing device is not configured with the required functionalities comprises:

identifying a software source from the received return message;

transmitting, to the identified software source, a request for software indicated by the received return message;

receiving the software from the identified software source; and

installing the received software.

21. The computing device of claim 20, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising configuring the installed software based on the identification information.

22. The computing device of claim 16, wherein;

the received broadcast message is one of a plurality of broadcast messages received by the computing device from a plurality of nearby wireless identity transmitters; and

wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising displaying a plurality of functionalities in response to receiving the plurality of broadcast messages from the plurality of nearby wireless identity transmitters.

23. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising:

receiving, from the central server, a request for additional authentication; and

transmitting, to the central server, an authentication message including a personal identification number (PIN), and

wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that receiving, from the central server, the return message that includes the identification information comprises receiving from the central server the return message that includes the identification information in response to transmitting the authentication message.

24. The computing device of claim 19, wherein:

the computing device is a smartphone;

the provisioned device is one of an appliance and a router; and

the wireless identity transmitter is the provisioned device.

25. A computing device, comprising:

a processor configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a proximity broadcast receiver, a sighting message that includes a secure identifier of a wireless identity transmitter;

determining whether the proximity broadcast receiver is authorized to receive identification information for provisioning a device associated with the wireless identity transmitter based on stored profile information corresponding to the secure identifier and the proximity broadcast receiver in response to receiving the sighting message; and

transmitting a return message including the identification information for provisioning the device in response to determining that the proximity broadcast receiver is authorized to receive the identification information.

26. The computing device of claim 25, wherein the identification information includes at least one of an instruction, a script, a command, a URI, and a code for causing the proximity broadcast receiver to obtain software related to the device.

27. The computing device of claim 25, wherein the identification information includes credentials related to the device, wherein the credentials include at least one of a username and a password.

28. The computing device of claim 25, wherein the return message includes configuration data to be transmitted by the proximity broadcast receiver to the device.

29. The computing device of claim 25, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising:

transmitting an authorization request to a user device associated with the device in response to determining that the proximity broadcast receiver is not authorized to receive the identification information for provisioning the device;

determining whether an authorization approval is received from the user device in response to transmitting the authorization request; and

transmitting the return message including the identification information for provisioning the device in response to determining that the authorization approval is received from the user device.