Device management system and device management command scheduling method thereof

• US 20060026228A1
• Filed: 07/08/2005
• Published: 02/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Te-Hyun
• Granted Patent: US 7,752,296 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests

Abstract

A device management system and device management scheduling method thereof, in which a server transmits to a client a scheduling context including a device management command and a schedule for the performing of the device management command, and the client generates a device management tree using the device management scheduling context, performs the command when a specific scheduling condition is satisfied, and, if necessary, reports the command performance result to the server, whereby the server performs a device management such as requesting a command to be performed under a specific condition, dynamically varying the scheduling condition, and the like.

Claims

1. A device management scheduling method in a device management system in which a server performs a device management with a client through device management protocols, the method comprising:

transferring a scheduling context from the server to the client;

generating a device management tree using the transferred scheduling context and establishing a device management scheduling, by the client; and

performing the device management scheduling by the client according to a command performing condition of the established device management scheduling.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a device management tree using a new scheduling context transferred from the server, and thereafter varying the device management scheduling.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising selectively reporting to the server a performance result of the device management scheduling by the client according to status report gating information within the generated device management tree.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising requesting the client to delete the pre-established device management scheduling by the server.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduling context includes a device management command and scheduling information associated with the performing of the command, and has an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) document format.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduling context is transferred together with an add command, an automic command, and a UI (User Interface) alert command.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the scheduling context includes:

an information element for a command performing condition;

an information element for scheduled device management commands;

an information element for a user interface; and

an information element for a status report gating.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the information element for the command performing condition is composed of at least one or more simple scheduling elements, and the simple scheduling element is composed of one or more unit scheduling elements.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the unit scheduling element includes:

a duration element for defining a specific time value or time range;

a period element for defining the time period; and

a threshold element for defining a scheduling basis related to an inner state or information of the device management client.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of establishing the device management scheduling comprises:

certifying validity of the transferred device management scheduling context; and

generating at least one or more device management scheduling sub-trees using the corresponding scheduling context when the scheduling context is completely certified.

11. The method of claim 10, the device management scheduling sub-tree includes:

a Sched_x node;

a SchedId node;

a Condition node;

a Commands node;

a UserInter node; and

a Gating node,

wherein the x is an integer (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . ).

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the Sched_x node denotes each device management scheduling, and the SchedId node denotes an identifier of the device management scheduling context.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the Condition node denotes a condition in which the scheduled device management command is performed, and the Commands node denotes the scheduled device management commands.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the UserInter node denotes whether user confirmation should be received regarding the corresponding command when the command performing condition is satisfied, and the Gating node denotes whether the performance result of the DM command is to be reported to the DM server.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the device management scheduling sub-tree further includes a device management Mgmtsvr node denoting a server address to which the command performance result is reported.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the device refers to user equipment such as terminals, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), notebook PCs, desktop PCs, and the like.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of performing the device management scheduling comprises:

reading command performing condition information of the scheduling context, and checking whether the command performing condition is satisfied;

performing user confirmation according to information of a user interface when the command performing condition is satisfied; and

performing the device management commands corresponding to the command performing condition when the user confirmation is received.

18. A device management system comprising:

a server for generating and transmitting a device management scheduling context including a device management command and a schedule for the performing of the device management command; and

a client for generating a device management scheduling by generating a device management tree using the transmitted device management scheduling context, and performing the device management scheduling according to a command performing condition of the generated device management scheduling.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the server transmits a new scheduling context to the client so as to request the client to vary the device management scheduling, and transmits a device management delete command so as to request the client to delete the pre-installed device management scheduling context.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the client selectively reports to the server the performance result of the device management scheduling according to status report gating information of the device management scheduling.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the scheduling context has an extensible Markup Language (XML) document format, and is transferred together with an add command, an automic command, and a UI alert command.

22. The system of claim 18, wherein the scheduling context includes:

an information element for a command performing condition;

an information element for scheduled device management commands;

an information element for a user interface; and

an information element for a status report gating.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the information element for the command performing condition is composed of at least one or more simple scheduling elements, and the simple scheduling element is composed of one or more unit scheduling elements.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the unit scheduling element includes:

a duration element for defining a specific time value or time range;

a period element for defining the time period; and

a threshold element for defining a scheduling basis related to an inner state or information of the device management client.

25. The system of claim 18, wherein the client certifies validity of the transferred scheduling context to thereafter generates a device management scheduling sub-tree, thereby establishing the device management scheduling.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the device management scheduling sub-tree includes:

a Sched_x node;

a SchedId node;

a Condition node;

a Commands node;

a UserInter node; and

a Gating node, wherein the x is an integer (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . ).

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the Sched_x node denotes each device management scheduling, and the SchedId node denotes an identifier of the device management scheduling context.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the Condition node denotes a condition in which the scheduled device management command is performed, and the Commands node denotes the scheduled device management commands.

29. The system of claim 26, wherein the UserInter node denotes whether user confirmation should be received regarding the corresponding command when the command performing condition is satisfied, and the Gating node denotes whether the performance result of the DM command is to be reported to the DM server.

30. The system of claim 26, wherein the device management scheduling sub-tree further includes a device management Mgmtsvr node denoting a server address to which the command performance result is reported.

31. The system of claim 18, wherein the server comprises:

a function unit for generating the device management scheduling context and requesting the client to establish or vary the device management scheduling;

a function unit for transmitting a delete management command to the client and requesting the client to delete the device management scheduling; and

a function unit for processing the status report of the device management scheduling having reported by the client.

32. The system of claim 18, wherein the client comprises:

a command processing module for generating a device management session with the server and thereafter receiving the scheduling context from the server; and

a scheduling module for generating the device management tree using the scheduling context delivered from the command processing module, notifying the satisfaction of the command performing condition to the command processing module when the command performing condition is satisfied, so as to perform the corresponding device management command, and receiving a processing result of the device management command from the command processing module to thus selectively report the result to the server.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the command processing module includes:

a function unit for transferring the scheduling context from the server to the scheduling module;

a function unit for performing the corresponding scheduled command according to the notification of the scheduling module, and transferring the performance result of the corresponding command to the scheduling module; and

a function unit for transferring to the server the scheduling context status report transferred from the scheduling module on the basis of the command performance result.

34. The system of claim 18, wherein the scheduling module includes:

a first function unit for generating a device management scheduling sub-tree using the scheduling context transferred from the server;

a second function unit for reading a scheduled command performing condition (i.e., a condition performing a command) of the device management scheduling sub-tree and thus continuously checking the state that the command performing condition is satisfied;

a third function unit for requesting the command performing function unit of the command scheduling module to perform the device management command when the command performing condition is satisfied;

a fourth function unit for determining whether the server should be reported on the command performance result of the command performing function unit according to a gating node value of the device management scheduling sub-tree;

a fifth function unit for reporting to the server the performance result of the command transferred from the fourth function unit or the checked result of the command performing condition by the second function unit; and

a sixth function unit for deleting the pre-established device management scheduling sub-tree according to a device management scheduling delete command requested from the server.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the second function unit performs a user confirmation process, if required, according to information of the user interface of the device management scheduling sub-tree.

36. The system of claim 34, the fifth function unit reports the command performance result to another server using information of the device management server nodes of the device management scheduling sub-tree.

37. A device management scheduling method in a terminal which performs a device management with a server using device management protocols after establishing a device management session with the server, the method comprising:

receiving a scheduling context from the server;

generating a device management scheduling sub-tree using the received scheduling context;

performing a device management command according to information of a command performing condition of the generated device management scheduling sub-tree; and

selectively reporting the performance result of the device management command to the server according to status report gating information of the device management scheduling sub-tree.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising receiving a new scheduling context from the server and thereafter varying the device management scheduling sub-tree.

39. The method of claim 37, further comprising receiving the device management command from the server and thereafter deleting the established device management scheduling sub-tree.

40. The method of claim 37, wherein the scheduling context includes a device management command and scheduling information associated with the performing of the command, and has an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) document format.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the scheduling context includes:

an information element for a command performing condition;

an information element for scheduled device management commands;

an information element for a user interface; and

an information element for a status report gating.

42. The method of claim 40, wherein the device management scheduling sub-tree includes:

a Sched_x node;

a SchedId node;

a Condition node;

a Commands node;

a UserInter node; and

a Gating node,

wherein the x is an integer (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . ).

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the Sched_x node denotes each device management scheduling, and the SchedId node denotes an identifier of the device management scheduling context.

44. The method of claim 42, wherein the Condition node denotes a condition in which the scheduled device management command is performed, and the Commands node denotes the scheduled device management commands.

45. The method of claim 42, wherein the UserInter node denotes whether user confirmation should be received regarding the corresponding command when the command performing condition is satisfied, and the Gating node denotes whether the performance result of the DM command is to be reported to the DM server.

46. The method of claim 42, wherein the device management scheduling sub-tree further includes a device management Mgmtsvr node denoting a server address to which the command performance result is reported.

47. A mobile communications terminal comprising:

a command processing module for generating a device management session with a server and receiving a scheduling context from the server; and

a scheduling module for establishing a device management scheduling by generating a device management tree using the scheduling context transferred by the command processing module, notifying a satisfaction of a command performing condition to the command performing module when the command performing condition of the established device management scheduling is satisfied, so as to perform the scheduled device management command, and receiving the processing result of the device management command from the command processing module to thus selectively report the result to the server.

48. The terminal of claim 47, wherein the command processing module includes:

a function unit for transferring the scheduling context from the server to the scheduling module;

a function unit for performing the corresponding scheduled command according to the notification of the scheduling module, and transferring the performance result of the corresponding command to the scheduling module; and

a function unit for transferring to the server the scheduling context status report transferred from the scheduling module on the basis of the command performance result.

49. The terminal of claim 47, wherein the scheduling module includes:

a first function unit for generating a device management scheduling sub-tree using the scheduling context transferred from the server;

a second function unit for reading a scheduled command performing condition (i.e., a condition performing a command) of the device management scheduling sub-tree and thus continuously checking the state that the command performing condition is satisfied;

a third function unit for requesting the command performing function unit of the command scheduling module to perform the device management command when the command performing condition is satisfied;

a fourth function unit for determining whether the server should be reported on the command performance result of the command performing function unit according to a gating node value of the device management scheduling sub-tree;

a fifth function unit for reporting to the server the performance result of the command transferred from the fourth function unit or the checked result of the command performing condition by the second function unit; and

a sixth function unit for deleting the pre-established device management scheduling sub-tree according to a device management scheduling delete command requested from the server.

50. The terminal of claim 49, wherein the second function unit performs a user confirmation process, if required, according to information of the user interface of the device management scheduling sub-tree.

51. The terminal of claim 49, the fifth function unit reports the command performance result to another server using information of the device management server nodes of the device management scheduling sub-tree.

52. The terminal of claim 49, wherein the device management scheduling sub-tree includes:

a Sched_x node;

a SchedId node;

a Condition node;

a Commands node;

a UserInter node; and

a Gating node,

wherein the x is an integer (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, . . . ).

53. The terminal of claim 52, wherein the Sched_x node denotes each device management scheduling, and the SchedId node denotes an identifier of the device management scheduling context.

54. The terminal of claim 52, wherein the Condition node denotes a condition in which the scheduled device management command is performed, and the Commands node denotes the scheduled device management commands.

55. The terminal of claim 52, wherein the UserInter node denotes whether user confirmation should be received regarding the corresponding command when the command performing condition is satisfied, and the Gating node denotes whether the performance result of the DM command is to be reported to the DM server.

56. The terminal of claim 52, wherein the device management scheduling sub-tree further includes a device management Mgmtsvr node denoting a server address to which the command performance result is reported.