System and method for monitoring and maintaining a wireless device

• US 20060277408A1
• Filed: 06/03/2005
• Published: 12/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Good Technology Incorporated (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Bhat, Sathyanarayana Pattavayal, Badami, Vinay Shashikumar, Tse, Benson Wei-Ming
• Granted Patent: US 7,970,386 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/173
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A system is disclosed in which a wireless device is monitored and maintained over a network. One embodiment of the system comprises a wireless device including: a service to maintain data objects, provide messaging capability, and provide data access capability on behalf of a user of the wireless device; and a rules engine communicatively coupled to the service to execute a set of rules transmitted to the wireless device from a server, the set of rules to instruct the rules engine to gather information related to the wireless device and to take action on the wireless device based on the gathered information.

Claims

1. A wireless device, comprising:

a service to maintain data objects, provide messaging capability, and provide data access capability on behalf of a user of the wireless device; and

a rules engine communicatively coupled to the service to execute a set of rules transmitted to the wireless device from a server, the set of rules to instruct the rules engine to gather information related to the wireless device and to take action on the wireless device based on the gathered information.

2. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the information related to the wireless device includes at least one of:

applications installed on the device, applications not installed on the device, battery status, operating system characteristics, peripherals installed on the device, operating system version, memory characteristics, application licensing restrictions and expiry, code signature and certification validation of applications, application usage patterns, device hardware characteristics, device operating characteristics, peripherals on the device, and SMS functionality.

3. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein to take action on the wireless device further comprises performing at least one of:

warning a user of the wireless device, locking the wireless device, phoning a set of numbers, intiating software downloads and upgrades, alerting a corporate network monitor of the device, shutting down one or more applications on the device, shutting down the wireless device, modifying critical data on the wireless device, and erasing critical data on the wireless device.

4. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the set of rules comprises at least one of:

an extensible markup language (XML) file, native script, executable module.

5. The wireless device of claim 4, wherein the set of rules is accessed through a uniform resource language (URL) pointer to a resource containing the set of rules.

6. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the rules engine is to execute the set of rules at predetermined time intervals.

7. The wireless device of claim 1, wherein the service receives the set of rules from the server and transmits the set of rules to the rules engine for execution.

8. A system, comprising:

a server communicatively coupled to a network; and

an administrator coupled to the server configured to provide a set of rules to a wireless device, the set of rules to instruct the wireless device to;

gather information related to the wireless device; and

take action based on the gathered information.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the information related to the wireless device includes at least one of:

applications installed on the device, applications not installed on the device, battery status, operating system characteristics, peripherals installed on the device, operating system version, memory characteristics, application licensing restrictions and expiry, code signature and certification validation of applications, application usage patterns, device hardware characteristics, device operating characteristics, peripherals on the device, and SMS functionality.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein to take action on the wireless device further comprises performing at least one of:

warning a user of the wireless device, locking the wireless device, phoning a set of numbers, initiating software downloads and upgrades, alerting a corporate network monitor of the device, shutting down one or more applications on the device, shutting down the wireless device, modifying critical data on the wireless device, and erasing critical data on the wireless device.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the administrator further comprises a corporate policy editor to update the set of rules according to one or more corporate policies.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more corporate policies includes at least one of:

allowing pre-determined applications to exists on the wireless device, maintaining pre-determined settings in the applications on the wireless device, ensuring applications on the wireless device are a pre-determined version, and preventing pre-determined peripherals from associating with the wireless device.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the administrator is to synchronize one or more updates to the set of rules with a set of rules on the wireless device.

14. A method, comprising:

receiving a set of rules at a wireless device;

executing the set of rules to gather information related to the wireless device; and

performing an action on the wireless device based on the gathered information.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising verifying authenticity of the set of rules.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the information related to the wireless device includes at least one of:

applications installed on the device, applications not installed on the device, battery status, operating system characteristics, peripherals installed on the device, operating system version, memory characteristics, application licensing restrictions and expiry, code signature and certification validation of applications, application usage patterns, device hardware characteristics, device operating characteristics, peripherals on the device, and SMS functionality.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving a set of rules further comprises checking with a server that maintains the set of rules for an updated version of the set of rules.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein receiving a set of rules further comprises receiving the set of rules from a server that maintains the set of rules.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the action includes at least one of:

warning a user of the wireless device, locking the wireless device, phoning a set of numbers, initiating software downloads and upgrades, alerting a corporate network monitor of the device, shutting down one or more applications on the device, shutting down the wireless device, modifying critical data on the wireless device, and erasing critical data on the wireless device.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the executing the set of rules occurs at predetermined time intervals.