Secured Remote Management of a Home Network

• US 20110125898A1
• Filed: 01/22/2010
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Velusamy, Senthil Kumar, Hodroj, Samir M., Hassan, Omar
• Granted Patent: US 8,874,741 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2834 Switching of information between an external network and a home network access arrangements H04L12/2856
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4641 Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0272 Virtual private networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

A home router and remote service provider configured to establish a network tunnel and utilize the network tunnel to remotely manage the home router are disclosed herein. The home router and remote service provider may also utilize the network tunnel to remotely manage at least one other device that is locally connected or coupled to the home router.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

establishing a network tunnel between a home router and a remote service provider; and

utilizing the network tunnel to remotely manage the home router and at least one other device that is locally connected to the home router or locally coupled to the home router.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote managing includes at least one of repairing, maintaining, updating, configuring, provisioning, or analytics.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising utilizing the network tunnel to access a user interface of the home router or of the at least one other device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising initiating the network tunnel by sending a request from the home router to the remote service provider.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising performing the initiating in response to receiving an activation of a control associated with the home router.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising performing the initiating in response to receiving a message from the remote service provider.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising performing the initiating in response to interaction with a user interface.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the network tunnel is an IPSec tunnel and is associated with a virtual private network (VPN) between the home router and the remote service provider.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the establishing further comprises assigning, by a VPN server associated with the remote service provider, a Internet Protocol (IP) address to the home router.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one other device is one of a personal computer, a tablet computer, a personal digital assistant, a telecommunication device, a media player, a television, a digital video recorder, a game device, or a camera.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the home router and the at least one other device comprise a home network.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the home router is accessible over a network via a modem connected to the home router and is associated with a public IP address.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the modem serves as an edge-device for the home network.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending one or both of a status report or a schema with home network information from the home router to the remote service provider.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising terminating the network tunnel after a pre-determined idle time or in response to receiving a termination command from the remote server.

17. The home router of claim 15, wherein the control is one of a physical push-button disposed on the home router or a soft key of a graphic user interface of the home router.

18. The home router of claim 15, wherein the command or data for management include at least one of a repair, an update, a configuration, maintenance, provisioning, or analytics.

16. A home router comprising:

a processor;

a control coupled to the processor for initiating a network tunnel between the home router and a remote service provider; and

a plurality of executable instructions coupled to the control and operated by the processor to configure the home router to perform operations including;

initiating the network tunnel with the remote service provider in response to an activation of the control;

establishing the network tunnel between the home router and the remote service provider; and

receiving via the network tunnel at least one of commands or data for management of the home router.

19. An article of manufacture comprising:

a storage medium; and

a plurality of computer-readable instructions stored on the storage medium and configured to program one or more servers of a remote service provider to perform operations including;

causing a home router to initiate a network tunnel with one of the servers by sending a message to the home router instructing the home router to initiate the network tunnel;

establishing a network tunnel between the home router and the one of the servers; and

utilizing the network tunnel to access a user interface of the home router or to manage the home router.

20. The article of claim 19, wherein the network tunnel is an IPSec tunnel and is associated with a VPN between the home router and the one of the servers.