SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTED PERSONAL DEVICE MANAGEMENT

• US 20100211679A1
• Filed: 02/11/2010
• Published: 08/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cluster Wireless LLC
• Original Assignee: Cluster Wireless LLC
• Inventors: Kumar, Prem Jothipragasam, O'Neil, Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 8,880,680 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor

Abstract

A personal device management server device comprises a processing device, first and second communication interfaces, and a memory. The first communication interface is coupled with the processing device and is arranged to communicate with a wireless communication network. The second communication interface is coupled with the processing device and is arranged to communicate with a client device. The memory is coupled with the processing device and arranged to store instructions comprising a personal device management system. The personal device management system is arranged to control allocation of one or more components of a communication service with the individual client device elements via the second communication interface.

Claims

1. A personal device management server device, comprising:

a processing device;

a first communication interface coupled with the processing device, the first communication interface arranged to communicate with a client device; and

a memory coupled with the processing device and arranged to store instructions comprising a personal device management system, the personal device management system arranged to control allocation of one or more components of a communication service with the client device via the first communication interface.

2. The personal device manager server device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a second communication interface coupled with the processing device, the second communication interface arranged to communicate with a wireless communication network.

3. The personal device management server device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the first communication interface is a cellular-based communication interface.

4. The personal device management server device as claimed in claim 2, the second communication interface is a wireless local area network interface and the first communication interface is a wireless wide area network interface.

5. The personal device management server device as claimed in claim 2, the second communication interface is a near field communication interface and the first communication interface is a wireless wide area network interface.

6. The personal device management server device as claimed in claim 5, wherein the near field communication interface comprises at least one of BLUETOOTH or RFID.

7. The personal device management server device as claimed in claim 2, the second communication interface is a near field communication interface and the first communication interface is a wireless local area network interface.

8. The personal device management server device as claimed in claim 2, the device arranged to simultaneously communicate with more than one client device, the server device arranged to communicate with a first client device using a different protocol of the second communication interface from an other protocol with which the server device is arranged to communicate with a second client device.

9. The personal device management server device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first communication interface is a near field communication interface.

10. The personal device management server device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the near field communication interface comprises at least one of BLUETOOTH or RFID.

11. The personal device management server device as claimed in claim 1, the first communication interface arranged to communicate with more than one client device.

12. The personal device management server device as claimed in claim 1, the server device sized to be transportable with one hand.

13. The personal device management server device as claimed in claim 1, the server device further comprising:

an input/output (I/O) device coupled with the processing device and for communicating with a user.

14. The personal device management server device as claimed in claim 1, the I/O device comprising a display for displaying information to a user.

15. A method of managing communication of one or more services with one or more client devices from a personal device management server device, the method comprising:

allocating one or more services of the personal device management server device to one or more client devices based on at least one of a user preference or a client device attribute.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, allocating comprises allocating one or more services of the personal device management server device to two or more client devices.

17. The method as claimed in claim 15, allocating comprises allocating two or more services of the personal device management server device to two or more client devices.

18. The method as claimed in claim 15, allocating comprises allocating one or more components of a service of the one or more services of the personal device management server device to one or more client devices.

19. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

registering one or more client devices with the personal device management server device.

20. The method as claimed in claim 19, wherein registering comprises at least one of validating or authenticating the one or more client devices with a corresponding validation or authentication server.

21. The method as claimed in claim 19, wherein registering comprises validating and authenticating the one or more client devices with a corresponding validation and authentication server.

22. The method as claimed in claim 19, the registering comprising:

storing one or more client device attributes at the personal device management server device.

23. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein the one or more client device attributes comprise at least one of a hardware attribute set or a service attribute set.

24. The method as claimed in claim 19, the registering comprising:

updating a service definition database with one or more client device service attributes at the personal device management server device.

25. The method as claimed in claim 19, the registering comprising:

registering client device hardware attributes with the personal device management server device; and

registering client device service attributes with the personal device management server device.

26. The method as claimed in claim 25, the registering client device service attributes comprises at least one of validating or authenticating one or more client device service attributes with a corresponding validation or authentication server.

27. The method as claimed in claim 25, the registering client device service attributes comprises validating and authenticating one or more client device service attributes with a corresponding validation and authentication server.

28. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

assigning ownership of a service of the one or more services to at least one of the personal device management server device or one or more client devices.

29. The method as claimed in claim 28, further comprising:

managing, by the device assigned ownership of the service, one or more hardware attributes of the device assigned ownership corresponding to hardware attributes related to the service.

30. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the assigning ownership comprises assigning ownership of one or more components of a service of the one or more services of the personal device management server device.

31. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

transmitting one or more attributes of the personal device management server device to at least one client device.

32. The method as claimed in claim 26, wherein the transmitted one or more attributes of the personal device management server device comprise at least one service attribute set of the personal device management server device.

33. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

receiving a user preference assigning a device priority to at least one of the one or more client devices.

34. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

receiving a service attribute set of at least one of the one or more client devices, and;

receiving a user preference assigning a service allocation priority to at least one service attribute of the at least one client device.

35. The method as claimed in claim 34, the allocating comprising:

allocating a service of the personal device management server device to a client device based on the service allocation priority.

36. The method as claimed in claim 34, further comprising:

receiving a user preference assigning a device priority to at least one of the one or more client devices, and;

allocating a service of the personal device management server device to a client device based on at least one of the service allocation priority or the device priority.

37. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

determining whether an other client device within a predetermined region of the personal device management server comprises one or more client device attributes to support at least one of the one or more services previously allocated to a client device, and;

re-allocating the at least one service of the one or more services from the previously allocated client device to the other client device based on at least one of the user preference or the client device attribute of the other client device.

38. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

determining whether an other client device within a predetermined region of the personal device management server comprises one or more client device attributes to support at least one of the one or more services previously allocated to a client device, and;

allocating a copy of the at least one service to the other client device based on at least one of the user preference or the client device attribute of the other client device and retaining the original service allocation to the previously allocated client device.

39. The method as claimed in claim 15, the allocating comprising:

determining one or more components of the one or more services, and;

allocating a service component of the determined one or more components to one or more client devices.

40. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

managing as a common pool, by the personal device management server device, resources of the personal device management server device and one or more of the one or more client devices.

41. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

managing, by the personal device management server device, a wake up schedule of one or more of the one or more client devices.

42. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

deferring, by the personal device management server device, allocation of a component of a service of the one or more services to one or more client devices until a client device having a device attribute corresponding to the component is in communication with the personal device management server device.

43. The method as claimed in claim 15, allocating comprises allocating two or more services of the personal device management server device to two or more client devices using two or more communication protocols via a single communication interface of the personal device management server device.

44. A memory or a computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method of claim 15.