REMOTE ACCESS TO A CUSTOMER HOME NETWORK

• US 20090086688A1
• Filed: 10/01/2007
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Services Organization Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Jia, Lujun, Phuah, Vincent, KVACHE, Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 8,635,300 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2812 describing content present in a home automation network, e.g. audio video content retrieval from the Internet G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1026 at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1063 Application servers providing network services systems providing special services to telephonic subscribers H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1094 Inter-user-equipment sessions transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/40 Support for services or applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/105 PBS [Private Base Station] network H04W84/12 - H04W84/16 take precedence

Abstract

A wireless application server may receive, from a wireless device, information identifying an application residing on a network device in a home network. The wireless application server may further cause a connection to be established to the application and transfer traffic between the application and the wireless device.

Claims

1. A method performed by a service provider network, the method comprising:

receiving a session initiation request from a handheld device for access to a customer home network;

creating a list of applications that are available on devices within the customer home network by accessing the customer home network;

receiving identification of an application in the list of applications;

establishing a connection to the identified application; and

transferring traffic between the identified application and the handheld device.

2. The method of claim 1, where the session initiation request includes a telephone number associated with the handheld device, and

where the method further comprises:

obtaining, using the telephone number, a list of identifiers associated with applications and an identifier associated with a gateway device located in the customer home network.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

retrieving, for each application identifier in the list of application identifiers, an application profile that includes information relating to the application with which the application identifier is associated.

4. The method of claim 3, where the information relating to the application includes at least one of information relating to an Internet Protocol core protocol, a port number of the gateway device that the application uses, or information relating to a transport protocol.

5. The method of claim 1, where creating a list of applications includes:

attempting to connect to each application of a plurality of applications associated with the customer home network,

determining that an application is available when a connection can be established to the application, and

storing applications of the plurality of applications determined to be available in the list of applications.

6. The method of claim 1, where transferring traffic between the identified application and the handheld device includes:

converting traffic from the application from a first protocol to a second protocol.

7. The method of claim 1, where transferring traffic between the identified application and the handheld device includes:

converting traffic from the application from a first data format to a second data format.

8. The method of claim 1, where transferring traffic between the identified application and the handheld device includes:

transferring traffic between the service provider network and the handheld device over an Internet.

9. A system comprising:

a first server to;

receive, from a handheld device, identification information for a user,

create a user record in a user database in response to receiving the identification information,

obtain an identifier for a gateway device that is associated with a home network of the user using the identification information, and

transfer the obtained identifier for the gateway device; and

a second server to;

receive the identifier for the gateway device,

send a TR-069-compliant request for information relating to devices in the home network to the gateway device using the identifier for the gateway device,

receive, in response to sending the TR-069-compliant request, a TR-069-compliant response from the gateway device that includes the information relating to devices in the home network, and

transfer the information relating to devices in the home network to the first server,

where the first server stores at least a portion of the information relating to devices in the home network in the user record in the user database.

10. The system of claim 9, where the first server further stores the identifier for the gateway device in the user record.

11. The system of claim 9, where the TR-069-compliant request causes the gateway device to perform Universal Plug and Play discovery and description procedures.

12. The system of claim 9, where the first server is further configured to:

subscribe for notifications relating to the identifier for the gateway device.

13. The system of claim 12, where the second server is further configured to:

receive a change notification from the gateway device, the change notification indicating at least one of information associated with a new device that has joined the home network, information associated with a device that has left the home network, or information relating to a configuration change of a device in the home network, and

automatically transfer the change notification to the first server based on the subscription.

14. The system of claim 13, where the first server is further configured to:

update the user record in the user database in response to receiving the change notification.

15. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a third server to;

establish a session between a remote device associated with the user and an application within the home network using the user record.

16. A system comprising:

a first database to associate a first identifier for a user, a second identifier for a gateway device in a home network associated with the user, and a device table that associates devices in the home network with third identifiers for applications that reside on the devices;

a second database to store a profile for each application in the device table; and

one or more servers to;

receive the first identifier from a wireless device,

obtain the second identifier and the third identifiers from the first database using the first identifier,

obtain the profiles from the second database using the third identifiers,

obtain a network address for the gateway device using the second identifier,

create a list of available applications using the network address and the profile associated with the application, and

provide the list of available applications to the wireless device.

17. The system of claim 16, where, when creating a list of available applications, the one or more servers:

attempt to connect to each application of the applications that reside on the devices;

determine that an application is available when a connection can be established to the application; and

store applications determined to be available in the list of available applications.

18. The system of claim 16, where the one or more servers are further configured to:

receive information from the wireless device identifying a selected application in the list of available applications;

establish a connection to the selected application in response to receiving the information identifying the selected application; and

transfer traffic between the wireless device and the selected application.

19. The system of claim 18, where, when transferring traffic, the one or more servers are further configured to at least one of:

convert a first protocol to a second protocol, or

convert data from a first format to a second format.

20. The system of claim 18 where, when establishing the connection, the one or more servers are configured to:

send a TR-069 request to the gateway device to open a port on the gateway device associated with the selected application, and

where the one or more servers are further configured to;

send a TR-069 request to the gateway device to close the port when a different application is selected or a session timer expires.

21. A wireless application server comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor to execute the instructions to;

receive, from a wireless device, information identifying an application residing on a network device in a home network,

cause a connection to be established to the application, and

transfer traffic between the application and the wireless device.

22. The wireless application server of claim 21, where, when transferring traffic between the application and the wireless device, the processor is configured to:

convert a first protocol to a second protocol.

23. The wireless application server of claim 21, where, when transferring traffic between the application and the wireless device, the processor is configured to:

convert data from a first format to a second format.

24. The wireless application server of claim 21, where the processor is further configured to:

receive an electronic mail message address or a multimedia messaging service address and a path to a file on the network device,

retrieve the file from the network device,

compose a message using the retrieved file, and

submit the message to a simple mail transfer protocol server for delivery to the received electronic mail message address or multimedia messaging service address.

25. The system of claim 24, where the processor receives the electronic mail message address or multimedia messaging service address and a path to a file on the network device from the wireless device.