Providing Manageability To An Electronic Device That Supports Location Limited Manageability Functionality

• US 20100332639A1
• Filed: 10/31/2008
• Published: 12/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Diaz, Osvaldo, Abu-Samaha, Mamoun
• Application Number:
  US12/866,933
• Publication Number:
  US 20100332639A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• 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 41/0273 using web services for network management, e.g. simple object access protocol [SOAP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

A request for a first function is detected 420. The first function is associated with a first device management protocol. A mapping 140 between a device location agnostic device management entity 110'"'"'s functions and a device location limited device management entity 130'"'"'s functions is accessed 430. The mapping 140 is used to translate 440 from the first function to a second function. The second function is associated with a device management protocol that is different from the first electronic device management protocol. The second function is used to provide 450 manageability to the electronic device 200B.

Claims

1. A method of providing manageability to an electronic device 200B that supports location limited manageability functionality, the method comprising:

detecting 420 a request for a first function, which is associated with a first device management protocol;

accessing 430 a mapping 140 between a device location agnostic device management entity 110'"'"'s functions, which are associated with a device location agnostic device management protocol that is used for communicating with a first set of electronic devices regardless of the location of the first set of electronic devices, and a device location limited device management entity 130 130'"'"'s functions, which are associated with a device location limited device management protocol that is only capable of communicating with a second set of electronic devices when the second set of electronic devices are in a particular location;

translating 440, based on the mapping 140, the first function to a second function, which is associated with a device management protocol that is different from the first electronic device management protocol; and

providing 450 manageability to the electronic device 200B using the second function.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the detecting 420 of the request for the first function further comprises detecting the request for a device location limited device management entity 130'"'"'s function, which is associated with device location limited device management protocol; and

the translating 440 based on the mapping 140 further comprises translating based on the mapping 140 of the first function to the second function, which is a device location agnostic device management entity 110'"'"'s function and is associated with a device location agnostic protocol.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the detecting 420 of the request for the first function further comprises detecting request of a device location agnostic device management entity 110'"'"'s function, which is associated with device location agnostic device management protocol; and

the translating 440 based on the mapping 140 further comprises translating based on the mapping 140 of the first function to the second function, which is a device location limited device management entity 130'"'"'s function and is associated with a device location limited protocol.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the mapping 140 is a first mapping 280 and wherein the method further comprises:

accessing 430 a second mapping 230 between the device location agnostic device management entity 240'"'"'s functions, which are associated with the device location agnostic device management protocol that is used for communicating with the first set of electronic devices regardless of where the first set of electronic devices are located, and the device location limited device management entity 210'"'"'s functions, which are supported by the electronic device 200B and are associated with the device location limited device management protocol that cannot be used for communicating with the second set of electronic devices regardless of where the second set of electronic devices are located; and

translating 440 based on the second mapping 230 the second function to a third function, which is associated with a device management protocol that is different from the first device management protocol associated with the second function.

5. An apparatus for providing manageability to an electronic device 200B that supports location limited manageability functionality, the apparatus comprising:

a function-request-detector 310 configured for detecting 420 a request for a first function;

a mapping-between-device-location-agnostic-functions-and-device-location-limited-functions-accessor 320 configured for accessing 430 a mapping 140 between device location agnostic device management entity 110'"'"'s functions, which are associated with a device location agnostic device management protocol that is used for communicating with a first set of electronic devices regardless of where the first set of electronic devices are located, and a device location limited device management entity 130'"'"'s functions, which are associated with a device location limited device management protocol that restricts the location of a second set of electronic devices in order to communicate with the second set of electronic devices;

a translator-between-device-location-agnostic-functions-and-device-location-limited-functions 330 configured for translating 440 the first function to a second function based on the mapping 140; and

a manageability-provider 340 configured for providing 450 manageability to the electronic device 200B based on the second function.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the device location agnostic device management entity 110 is an Open Mobile Alliance Device Management (OMA-DM) capable entity.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the device location limited device management entity 130 is an entity selected from a group consisting of a Web Services Management (WSMAN) capable entity, a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) capable entity, a Technical Requirement-069 (TR-069) capable entity, and a Technical Requirement-111 (TR-111) capable entity.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the electronic device 200B is a mobile device and the apparatus 300 provides manageability for the mobile device regardless of where the mobile device is located.

9. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the electronic device 200B is behind a firewall and the apparatus 300 provides manageability for the electronic device 200B by communicating with an entity 110 that is not behind the firewall.

10. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the electronic device 200B is behind a network address translation table (NAT) and the apparatus 300 provides manageability for the electronic device 200B by communicating with an entity 110 that is not behind the NAT.

11. A computer-usable medium having computer-readable program code stored thereon for causing a computer system to perform a method of providing manageability to an electronic device 200B that supports location limited manageability functionality, the method comprising:

detecting 420 a request for a first function, which is associated with a first device management protocol;

accessing 430 a mapping 140 between a device location agnostic device management entity 110'"'"'s functions, which are associated with a device location agnostic device management protocol that is used for communicating with a first set of electronic devices regardless of where the first set of electronic devices are located, and a device location limited device management entity 130'"'"'s functions, which are associated with a device location limited device management protocol that restricts the location of a second set of devices in order to communicate with the second set of devices;

translating 440 the first function to a second function, which is associated with a second device management protocol that is different from the first device management protocol, based on the mapping 140; and

providing 450 manageability to the electronic device 200B using the second function.

12. The computer usable medium of claim 11, wherein the computer-readable program code embodied therein causes a computer system to perform the method, and wherein:

the detecting 420 of the request for the first function further comprises detecting the request of a device location limited device management entity 130'"'"'s function, which is associated with device location limited device management protocol; and

the translating 440 based on the mapping 140 further comprises translating based on the mapping 140 the first function to the second function, which is a device location agnostic device management entity 110'"'"'s function and is associated with a device location agnostic protocol.

13. The computer usable medium of claim 11, wherein the computer-readable program code embodied therein causes a computer system to perform the method, and wherein:

the detecting 420 of the request for the function further comprises detecting the request for a device location agnostic device management entity 110'"'"'s function, which is associated with device location agnostic device management protocol; and

the translating 440 based on the mapping 140 further comprises translating based on the mapping 140 the first function to the second function, which is a device location limited device management entity 130'"'"'s function and is associated with a device location limited protocol.

14. The computer usable medium of claim 11, wherein the computer-readable program code embodied therein causes a computer system to perform the method, and wherein the mapping 140 is a first mapping 280 and wherein the method further comprises:

accessing 430 a second mapping 230 between the device location agnostic device management entity 240'"'"'s functions, which are associated with the device location agnostic device management protocol that is used for communicating with the first set of electronic devices regardless of where the first set of electronic devices are located, and the device location limited device management entity 210'"'"'s functions, which are supported by the electronic device and are associated with the device location limited device management protocol that cannot be used for communicating with the second set of electronic devices regardless of where the second set of electronic devices are located; and

translating 440 based on the second mapping 230 the second function to a third function, which is associated with a device management protocol that is different from the first device management protocol associated with the second function.

15. The computer usable medium of claim 11, wherein the computer-readable program code embodied therein causes a computer system to perform the method, and wherein the electronic device 200B is a mobile device and the method further comprises:

providing manageability to the mobile device regardless of where the mobile device is located.