System and method of Bluetooth pairing with a group of Bluetooth devices

• US 10,484,853 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2019
• Issued: 11/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Stripe, Inc.
• Original Assignee: BBPOS Limited
• Inventors: Lau, Chi Man, Tang, Tai Kwan Jimmy, Lo, Chi Wah
• Primary Examiner(s): Huang, Wen W
• Application Number:
  US16/390,961
• Publication Number:
  US 20190253858A1
• Time in Patent Office: 211 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A method for pairing a first Bluetooth device with an individual Bluetooth device address with a group of Bluetooth devices, said method comprising: assigning a group Bluetooth device address to each of said group of Bluetooth devices; the first Bluetooth device exchanging Bluetooth device addresses with a second Bluetooth device from said group of Bluetooth devices when said first Bluetooth device comes within communication range of said second Bluetooth device; establishing a link key; storing the group Bluetooth device address and the link key; the first Bluetooth device exchanging Bluetooth device addresses with a third Bluetooth device from said group of Bluetooth devices when said first Bluetooth device comes within communication range of said third Bluetooth device; recognizing the group Bluetooth device address assigned to the third Bluetooth device; and establishing a communications channel between said first Bluetooth device and said third Bluetooth device based on said link key.

Claims

1. A method for pairing a first Bluetooth device with a plurality of Bluetooth devices comprising a second and a third Bluetooth device, the method comprising:

configuring a second Bluetooth device to transmit a group Bluetooth address to the first Bluetooth device in response to the second Bluetooth device receiving a first device address from the first Bluetooth device,

wherein a link key is established based on said transmission;

configuring the second Bluetooth device to store the link key;

configuring a third Bluetooth device to transmit a group Bluetooth address to the first Bluetooth device in response to the third Bluetooth device receiving a first device address from the first Bluetooth device,

configuring the third Bluetooth device to establish a communications channel with the first Bluetooth device based on reception of said link key,

wherein said reception of the link key is based on recognition of the group Bluetooth address.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the second Bluetooth device and the third Bluetooth device are coupled via a network.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising configuring the second Bluetooth device to store the link key on a server.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the server comprises a database and the link key is stored in the database using the first device address as an index to the link key.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the link key expires after a predetermined period of time.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of devices comprises a fourth Bluetooth device coupled to the server via the network, said method further comprising

enabling transmission of a group Bluetooth address to the first Bluetooth device by the fourth Bluetooth device in response to the fourth Bluetooth device receiving a first device address from the first Bluetooth device;

and

enabling establishment of a communications channel between the first Bluetooth device and the fourth Bluetooth device based on the fourth Bluetooth device receiving the link key, and wherein

the fourth Bluetooth device receives the link key from either the first Bluetooth device or the server based on recognition of the group Bluetooth address.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the fourth Bluetooth device receives the link key from the first Bluetooth device when either the server or the network is overloaded.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising configuring the third Bluetooth device to receive the link key from the first Bluetooth device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said receiving of the link key by the third Bluetooth device occurs over an alternative communications channel separate from the communications channel.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the alternative communications channel is one of a

a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) channel,

a near field communications (NFC) channel or

a Wi-Fi channel.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling assignment of the group Bluetooth address to the plurality of Bluetooth devices.

12. A system to allow a first Bluetooth device to pair with a plurality of Bluetooth devices, wherein:

the plurality of devices comprises a second and a third Bluetooth device, wherein

the second Bluetooth device couples to the first Bluetooth device to

receive a first device address from the first Bluetooth device,

transmit a group Bluetooth address to the first Bluetooth device,

 

wherein a link key is established based on said transmission,

the second Bluetooth device stores the link key, and

the third Bluetooth device couples to the first Bluetooth device to receive the first device address from the first Bluetooth device, and transmit the group Bluetooth address to the first Bluetooth device,

the third Bluetooth device receives the link key based on recognition of the group Bluetooth address, wherein

a communications channel between the first Bluetooth device and the third Bluetooth device is established based on said receiving of the link key.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the second Bluetooth device stores the link key on a server coupled to the second Bluetooth device via a network.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein

the plurality of devices comprises a fourth Bluetooth device coupled to the server via the network;

the fourth Bluetooth device couples to the first Bluetooth device to

receive the first device address from the first Bluetooth device, and

transmit the group Bluetooth address to the first Bluetooth device; and

the fourth Bluetooth device receives the link key from either the first Bluetooth device or the server.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the fourth Bluetooth device receives the link key from the first Bluetooth device when either the server or the network is overloaded.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the second Bluetooth device is located in a first location;

the third Bluetooth device is located in one of

the first location,

a second location, and

a third location; and

the fourth Bluetooth device is located in one of

the first location,

the second location, and

the third location.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein the server comprises a database and the link key is stored in the database using the first device address as an index.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the link key expires after a predetermined period of time.

19. The system of claim 12 wherein the third Bluetooth device receives the link key from the first Bluetooth device over an alternative communications channel separate from the communications channel, and said receiving is based on security provided in an application layer.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the second Bluetooth device is located in a first location and the third Bluetooth device is located in either the first location or a second location.