METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SPECIFYING, APPLYING AND EXTENDING APPLICATION RELATED ASPECTS THROUGH POLICIES, RULES AND/OR TRIGGERS

• US 20090157805A1
• Filed: 12/12/2008
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: SHENFIELD, Michael, MARTIN-COCHER, Gaelle Christine, MCCOLGAN, Brian Edward Anthony
• Granted Patent: US 8,255,482 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel

Abstract

A method and system for the creation of aspects from a service or application, the method defining related service aspects; inserting or encapsulating service aspects as named aspects into an abstraction layer in an execution environment; and associating the named aspects with logic in the abstraction layer to support application or service function points.

Claims

1. A method of enabling a context aware mechanism in an execution environment, the method comprising:

defining aspects that at least one application employs, an aspect being an application level abstraction relevant to a source or service;

associating at least one of rules and triggers against said aspects from the defining step; and

associating policies with a context at a point in an application lifecycle, said policies being used as a basis for evaluating rules within the context aware mechanism,

wherein said aspects, rules and policies enable said at least one application to abstract functionality to the context aware mechanism.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the context aware mechanism is a server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the rules can be extended or combined with other rules.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the context aware mechanism relates to one or more of presence, location or a generic context.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the triggers can be combined with rules.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the rules and triggers are defined using a Policy Expression Language (PEL).

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the Policy Expression Language is within an Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Policy Evaluation Enforcement and Management (PEEM).

8. The method of claim 1, wherein rules are defined using a web services business process execution language.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the web services business process execution language is WSBPEL 2.0.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of overwriting or extending policies, the overwriting or extending step being performed by an associated service or client of an associated service

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the policies are used to establish a portion of the context.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the policies utilize Open Mobile Alliance and are defined using a Policy Expression Language (PEL).

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the Policy Expression Language is within an Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Policy Evaluation Enforcement and Management (PEEM).

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the policies include base policy types and settings, said base policy types and setting being defined utilizing an extensible mark-up language schema.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the policies include policy values, said policy values being defined utilizing extensible mark-up language.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein a plurality of policies applicable to push-to-talk over cellular alert, dynamic content delivery, or mobile advertisement service are established.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the policies resolve based on factors specified in a common policy ruleset.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein a policy is matched to a service identifier through a datatype, an XML namespace, an Open Mobile Alliance service description values as defined by OMNA (Open Mobile Naming Authority).

19. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one policy of the policies is matched to a user or a group or sphere.

20. A context aware mechanism comprising:

aspects, said aspects being application level abstractions related to a context;

rules and triggers providing a sequence of steps or logic employed to compute aspects; and

policies associated with a context at a point in an application lifecycle, said policies being used as a basis for evaluating rules within the context aware mechanism,

wherein said aspects, rules and policies enable at least one client to abstract functionality to the context aware mechanism.

21. The context aware mechanism of claim 20, wherein the context aware mechanism is a server.

22. The context aware mechanism of claim 20, wherein said rules are extended or combined with other rules.

23. The context aware mechanism of claim 20, wherein the context aware mechanism relates to one of or a combination of presence, location or a generic platform.

24. The context aware mechanism of claim 20, wherein the triggers are combined with rules.

25. The context aware mechanism of claim 20, further adapted to overwriting said policies.

26. The context aware mechanism of claim 20, wherein at least one utilized policy is defined by a Policy Expression Language (PEL) within an Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Policy Evaluation Enforcement and Management (PEEM).

27. The context aware mechanism of claim 20, wherein at least one policy includes base policy types and settings, said base policy types and setting being defined utilizing an extensible mark-up language schema.

28. The context aware mechanism of claim 20, wherein at least one policy includes policy values, said policy values being defined utilizing extensible mark-up language.

29. The context aware mechanism of claim 28, wherein a plurality of policies applicable to a push-to-talk over cellular alert, mobile advertisement, network address book or dynamic content delivery service are established.

30. The context aware mechanism of claim 20, wherein the policies resolve based on factors specified in a common policy ruleset.

31. The context aware mechanism of claim 20, wherein a policy is matched to a service identifier through a datatype, an XML namespace, an Open Mobile Alliance service description values as defined by OMNA (Open Mobile Naming Authority).

32. The context aware mechanism of claim 20, wherein a policy is matched to a user or a group or sphere.