REGISTERING CLIENT COMPUTING DEVICES FOR ONLINE COMMUNICATION SESSIONS

• US 20110250909A1
• Filed: 09/20/2010
• Published: 10/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Abuan, Joe, Santamaria, Justin, Yao, Drew, Thomas, Braden, Wood, Justin, Vyrros, Andrew H., Brown, Jeremy, Gates, Patrick, Klahn, Matthew, Mathias, Arun
• Granted Patent: US 8,423,058 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1089 by adding media; by removing media
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4061 Push-to services, e.g. push-to-talk or push-to-video
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0057 Services where the data services network provides a telephone service in addition or as an alternative, e.g. for backup purposes, to the telephone service provided by the telephone services network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

Registering a client computing device for online communication sessions. A registration server receives a message that has a push token that is unique to the client computing device and a phone number of the client computing device from an SMS (Short Message Service) transit device, which received an SMS message having the push token from the client computing device and determined the phone number of the client computing device from that SMS message. The registration server associates the push token and the phone number and stores it in a registration data store, which is used for inviting users for online communication sessions.

Claims

1. A method for registering a client computing device for online communication sessions, comprising:

receiving a message, having a push token that is unique to the client computing device and a phone number of that client computing device, from an SMS (short message service) transit device that received an SMS message having the push token from the client computing device and that determined the phone number of the client computing device;

associating the push token and the phone number; and

storing the association.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the message from the SMS transit device was transmitted in response to the client computing device powering on and automatically transmitting the SMS message having the push token of the client computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the push token uniquely identifies the client computing device and contains information that allows a push notification service to locate and transmit push notification messages to the client computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the association between the push token and the phone number to an online communication session invitation service to be used when transmitting online communication session invites to the client computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to associating the push token and the phone number, performing the following:

generating a signature based on one or more of the push token and the phone number;

transmitting a message including the signature, push token, and the phone number to the SMS transit device for delivery to the client computing device;

receiving a message having the signature, push token, and the phone number from the client computing device; and

validating the push token and phone number received from the client computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the SMS transit device is an SMS gateway or an SMS aggregator.

7. A registration server to register client computing devices for online communication sessions, comprising:

an SMS (short message service) transit interface to receive registration request messages from an SMS transit device that receives SMS messages from client computing devices, each registration request message including a push token that is unique to a client computing device and a phone number of that computing device determined by the SMS transit device; and

an association module to associate push tokens and phone numbers and store the associated push tokens and phone numbers in an online communication session registration data store.

8. The registration server of claim 7, wherein a push token uniquely identifies a client computing device and contains information that allows a push notification service to locate and transmit push notification messages to that client computing device.

9. The registration server of claim 7, further comprising:

a signature generation module to generate a signature for each push token and phone number pair received from the SMS transit device; and

wherein the SMS transit interface to transmit registration response messages to the SMS transit device, each registration response message including a signature, push token, and phone number for a client computing device;

a client device interface to receive registration validation request messages from client devices, each registration validation request message including a signature, push token, and phone number of a client computing device; and

a validation module to validate push tokens and phone numbers for client computing devices prior to storing them in the online communication session registration data store.

10. The registration server of claim 7, wherein the SMS transit device is an SMS gateway or an SMS aggregator.

11. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, when executed by a processor, will cause said processor to perform operations for registering a client computing device for online communication sessions, the operations comprising:

receiving a message, having a push token that is unique to the client computing device and a phone number of that client computing device, from an SMS (short message service) transit device that received an SMS message having the push token from the client computing device and that determined the phone number of the client computing device;

associating the push token and the phone number; and

storing the association.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the message from the SMS transit device was transmitted in response to the client computing device powering on and automatically transmitting the SMS message having the push token of the client computing device.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the push token uniquely identifies the client computing device and contains information that allows a push notification service to locate and transmit push notification messages to the client computing device.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising providing the association between the push token and the phone number to an online communication session invitation service to be used when transmitting online communication session invites to the client computing device.

15. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 11, further comprising, prior to associating the push token and the phone number, performing the following:

generating a signature based on one or more of the push token and the phone number;

transmitting a message including the signature, push token, and the phone number to the SMS transit device for delivery to the client computing device;

receiving a message having the signature, push token, and the phone number from the client computing device; and

validating the push token and phone number received from the client computing device.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the SMS transit device is an SMS gateway or an SMS aggregator.

17. An online communication session registration system, comprising:

an SMS (short message service) transit device that receives SMS messages from client computing devices having push tokens of the client computing devices and determines phone numbers of the client computing devices from the SMS messages, the SMS transit device further transmits push token and phone number pairs to a registration server; and

the registration server associates push token and phone number pairs and stores the associated push tokens and phone numbers in an online communication session registration data store.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein each push token uniquely identifies a client computing device and contains information that allows a push notification service to locate and transmit push notification messages to that client computing device.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the registration server further generates a signature for each push token and phone number pair received from the SMS transit device and transmits messages to the SMS transit device having a signature, push token, and phone number for a client computing device.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the SMS transit device further transmits SMS messages to the client computing devices, each message having a signature generated by the registration server and a phone number for that client computing device.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the registration server further receives messages from client computing devices, each message including a signature, phone number, and push token;

and wherein the registration server further validates the push tokens and phone number pairs received from the client computing devices based on the signature received from the client computing device and the signature generated y the registration server.