Application-Independent Service Delivery

• US 20080275995A1
• Filed: 04/28/2008
• Published: 11/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Elevate Technologies Pty Limited
• Original Assignee: Elevate Technologies Pty Limited
• Inventors: Soliman, Hesham, Daley, Gregory Ian
• Granted Patent: US 8,667,156 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/230
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A service delivery platform that can support a number of different services is provided. A context regarding an application device is received by the service delivery platform. Applications executed on the service delivery platform use the context to optimize the delivery of information to application devices.

Claims

1. A service platform, comprising:

a plurality of modules that receive and process information from an application device;

a policy engine that receives the processed information from the plurality of modules and generates a context for the application device; and

a plurality of applications that employ the generated context to delivery services to the application device.

2. The service platform of claim 1, wherein the plurality of modules includes a location information module, a link state module, a device profile module or a user profile module.

3. The service platform of claim 2, wherein the location information module receives location information and information regarding a type of positioning system used to obtain the location information, tolerance of the location information and a topological location.

4. The service platform of claim 2, wherein the link state module emulates an entire path between the application device and the service platform as a single link and deduces characteristics of the link based on dynamic and static information deduced from the link'"'"'s throughput, delay and information sent from the application device about a type, quality and cost of the link.

5. The service platform of claim 2, wherein the device profile module receives information regarding the application device'"'"'s processing capacity, storage capacity, display type, power capacity, link layers supported by the application device and types of applications that the application device supports.

6. The service platform of claim 2, wherein the user profile module includes user information that is generic to all of the plurality of applications and user information specific to each of the plurality of applications.

7. The service platform of claim 1, further comprising a security module that controls access to the plurality of applications by the application device.

8. The service platform of claim 7, wherein the application device includes security credentials for authorizing the application device with the security module.

9. The service platform of claim 8, wherein the security credentials are the same security credentials that are used for authorization with a wireless macro network.

11. The service platform of claim 1, wherein the application device is coupled to the service platform via a gateway device.

12. The service platform of claim 11, wherein the gateway device is a wireless communication device.

13. The service platform of claim 1, wherein the application device includes a gateway device.

14. The service platform of claim 13, wherein the gateway device includes an application relay that receives information from the application device and optimizes the information for transmission to one of the applications of the service platform.

15. The service platform of claim 14, wherein the application relay receives an application identifier from the application device that includes information about the purpose of an application being executed on the application device, the application vendor, the application encoding mechanism, the application'"'"'s compression mechanism and the applications Quality of Service (QoS) requirements.

16. The service platform of claim 13, wherein the gateway device discovers the service platform using domain name server (DNS) protocol or dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP).

17. The service platform of claim 1, wherein when the policy engine determines, based on a topological location of the application device, that the application device is located in a visited network, the service platform notifies the application device of a service platform in the visited network, and the application device receives services from an application executing on the service platform in the visited network.

18. The service platform of claim 1, wherein when the policy engine determines, based on a decision of the policy engine or a user profile, that the application device is located in a visited network, the service platform notifies the application device of a service platform in the visited network, and the application device receives services from an application executing on the service platform in the visited network.

19. The service platform of claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of applications is a telemedicine, wellness or financial application.

10. The service platform 1, wherein the applications employ the context to select a particular data encoding, relevant content and estimated path quality.

20. A method of communicating information, the method comprising the acts of:

receiving information regarding an application device, the information including a location of the application device, a connection of the application device, a profile of the application device, and a profile of a user associated with the application device;

creating a context based on the received information; and

determining delivery parameters based on the context information; and

transmitting information from an application to the application device based on the delivery parameters.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

receiving information regarding a second application device, the information including a location of the application device, a connection of the application device, a profile of the application device, and a profile of a user associated with the application device;

creating a context based on the received information of the second application device; and

determining delivery parameters based on the context information; and

transmitting information from an application to the application device based on the delivery parameters.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the application device is coupled to the application via a gateway device.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the gateway device is a wireless communication device.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the application device includes a gateway device.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein application device is employed for a telemedicine, wellness or financial application.