PUSH NOTIFICATION SERVICE

• US 20100227632A1
• Filed: 06/05/2009
• Published: 09/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Bell, Kris M., Bleau, Darryl N., Davey, Jeffrey T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,064,896 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/64 Self-signed certificates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/043 using or handling presence information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• 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: H04L 9/3263 involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements

Abstract

Gateway devices maintain presence information for various mobile devices. Each gateway is associated with a zone and manages presence information only for mobile devices associated with that zone. Courier devices back-propagate presence information for the mobile devices to respective gateways based at least on the respective zone associated with each mobile device. The gateways and couriers are dynamically configured such that messages can be pushed from a provider application to a mobile device via any gateway and any courier.

Claims

1. A mobile device, comprising:

a processor to determine a courier for connecting to the mobile device;

a memory to store a token, wherein the token is a combination of a unique identifier for the mobile device and a zone identifier and wherein the zone identifier is received from the courier in response to connecting with the courier;

a transmitter to transmit the token to a provider application; and

a receiver to receive a message from the provider application via at least one gateway and a courier based at least in part on the token;

2. The mobile device claim 1, wherein the zone identifier is received from the courier only during an initial courier connection.

3. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the message from the provider application is a push message.

4. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor further comprises a connection module to randomly assign the courier for connecting to the mobile device.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor further comprises a connection module to assign the courier based on geographic location.

6. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor further comprises an encryption module to encrypt the token.

7. A system, comprising:

a plurality of gateways, each gateway associated with a zone and each gateway to maintain presence information for mobile devices associated with the zone;

a plurality of couriers to back-propagate presence information for the mobile devices to respective gateways based at least on the respective zone associated with each mobile device; and

wherein the gateways and couriers are dynamically configured such that messages can be pushed from a provider application to a mobile device via any gateway and any courier.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein each gateway is dynamically associated with a zone.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein a courier can back-propagate presence information for mobile devices associated with different zones.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein each gateway comprises a forwarding module to determine whether to forward a push message received from a provider application to a courier having a connection to a destination mobile device or to route the push message to another gateway for forwarding to a courier having a connection to a destination mobile device.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the forwarding module comprises a routing table for routing the push message to another gateway.

12. A method, comprising:

dynamically receiving, at a first gateway device, presence information for mobile devices from respective couriers connected to the mobile devices, wherein the presence information for each mobile device includes a token comprised of a unique device identifier and a fixed zone identifier;

receiving a message at the first gateway device from a provider application, the message including a mobile device token;

routing the message to a second gateway device if the fixed zone identifier in the mobile device token does not match a zone currently associated with the first gateway device; and

forwarding the message to a courier device currently connected to the mobile device associated with the mobile device token if the fixed zone identifier in the mobile device token matches the zone currently associated with the first gateway device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the message, when forwarded to a courier device, is forwarded based on a mapping of unique device identifiers to courier devices, the mapping back-propagated by the courier device currently connected to the mobile device.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving the message at the first gateway further comprises decrypting the mobile device token to determine the unique device identifier and the fixed zone identifier.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving updated presence information for the mobile device from a different courier, the updated presence information identifying the different courier as being connected to the mobile device;

receiving a subsequent message at the first gateway device, the subsequent message including the mobile device token; and

forwarding the subsequent message based on the mobile device token to the different courier device connected to the mobile device associated with the mobile device token if the fixed zone identifier in the mobile device token matches the zone currently associated with the first gateway device.

16. A method, comprising:

establishing a connection between a mobile device and a courier device;

receiving a zone identifier from the courier device;

storing a token, wherein the token is a combination of a unique identifier for the mobile device and the zone identifier;

transmitting the token to a provider application; and

receiving a message from the provider application via a path including at least one gateway and a courier, the path determined based at least in part on the token.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving the message comprises receiving a push message.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein storing the token comprises:

encrypting the token via an encryption algorithm; and

storing the encrypted token.

19. A computer readable storage medium containing instructions, that when executed, cause a computer to:

dynamically receive, at a first gateway device, presence information for mobile devices from respective couriers connected to the mobile devices, wherein the presence information for each mobile device includes a token comprised of a unique device identifier and a fixed zone identifier;

receive a message at the first gateway device from a provider application, the message including a mobile device token;

route the message to a second gateway device if the fixed zone identifier in the mobile device token does not match a zone currently associated with the first gateway device; and

forward the message based on the mobile device token to a courier device connected to the mobile device associated with the mobile device token if the fixed zone identifier in the mobile device token matches the zone currently associated with the first gateway device.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the instructions that cause the message to be forwarded to a courier device comprise further instructions that cause the message to be forwarded based on a mapping of unique device identifiers to courier devices, the mapping back-propagated by the courier device currently connected to the mobile device.

21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein receiving the message at the first gateway further comprises decrypting the mobile device token to determine the unique device identifier and the fixed zone identifier.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, comprising further instructions that cause the machine to:

receive updated presence information for the mobile device from a different courier, the updated presence information identifying the different courier as being connected to the mobile device;

receive a subsequent message at the first gateway device, the subsequent message including the mobile device token; and

forward the subsequent message based on the mobile device token to the different courier device connected to the mobile device associated with the mobile device token if the fixed zone identifier in the mobile device token matches the zone currently associated with the first gateway device.

23. A computer readable storage medium containing instructions, that when executed, cause a computer to:

establish a connection between a mobile device and a courier device;

receive a zone identifier from the courier device;

store a token, wherein the token is a combination of a unique identifier for the mobile device and the zone identifier;

transmit the token to a provider application; and

receive a message from the provider application via a path including at least one gateway and a courier, the path determined based at least in part on the token.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the instructions to receive the message comprise further instructions that cause the computer to receive a push message.

25. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the instructions to store the token comprise further instructions that cause the computer to:

encrypt the token via an encryption algorithm; and

store the encrypted token.

26. A system, comprising:

means for pushing messages from a provider application to mobile devices via any path through at least one gateway device and a single courier device, the means for pushing messages including

means for dynamically partitioning the system into zones;

means for assigning a zone to each mobile device;

means for routing a message received from a provider application to a gateway device based on a zone identified in the message, the zone associated with a particular mobile device;

means for forwarding the message to a courier device known to be currently connected to the particular mobile device based at least in part on presence information back-propagated from the courier device to the gateway device; and

means for forwarding the message from the courier device to the particular mobile device.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the system is scalable to support hundreds of millions of mobile devices.