AUTOMATIC IOT DEVICE SOCIAL NETWORK EXPANSION

• US 20140244768A1
• Filed: 02/21/2014
• Published: 08/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: SHUMAN, Mohammed Ataur Rahman, GOEL, Amit, SHARMA, Sandeep, GUPTA, Binita, AGGARWAL, Ashutosh
• Granted Patent: US 9,847,961 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

The disclosure generally relates to Internet of Things (IoT) device social networking, and in particular to an IoT device publish-subscribe messaging model and automatic IoT device social network expansion. For example, IoT devices from different networks may publish status data that relates to certain topics, wherein the published status updates may be managed in a distributed manner at each IoT network. Furthermore, IoT devices interested in published data can subscribe to data relating to certain topics, which may be used to dynamically adjust actions that the subscribing IoT devices may take. Furthermore, IoT devices can employ common social networking capabilities (e.g., refer, follow, like, publish, subscribe, etc.) to interact with other IoT devices and find relevant information from other IoT devices that can be used to improve performance and effectiveness.

Claims

1. A method for Internet of Things (IoT) social networking, comprising:

registering a new IoT device on a home IoT network having at least one trusted IoT device;

receiving a referral to one or more relevant IoT devices from the at least one trusted IoT device, wherein the at least one trusted IoT device provides the referral to the new IoT device based one or more attributes associated with the new IoT device in response to the new IoT device registering on the home IoT network; and

subscribing to messages published from the one or more relevant IoT devices.

2. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more relevant IoT devices are located in one or more of the home IoT network, an external IoT network directly connected to the home IoT network, or an external IoT network indirectly connected to the home IoT network through one or more intermediate networks.

3. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the messages published from the one or more relevant IoT devices, wherein the new IoT device receives the published messages from the one or more relevant IoT devices or from a manager IoT device that routes the published messages to subscribing IoT devices within the home IoT network.

4. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising:

publishing one or more messages associated with one or more topics that are relevant to the one or more attributes associated with the new IoT device, wherein the new IoT device publishes the messages using a local interface or a remote interface associated with a manager IoT device that routes the published messages to subscribing IoT devices within the home IoT network and external IoT networks.

5. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising:

determining the one or more relevant IoT devices based on a correlation between the one or more attributes associated with the new IoT device and topics associated with the messages published from the one or more relevant IoT devices.

6. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising:

discovering one or more additional IoT devices having a friend relationship with the one or more relevant IoT devices; and

subscribing to messages published from the one or more additional IoT devices.

7. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising:

discovering one or more additional IoT devices that publish messages associated with one or more topics that are relevant to a current or planned state associated with the new IoT device; and

subscribing to messages published from the one or more additional IoT devices.

8. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising:

adjusting one or more actions associated with the new IoT device based on the messages published from the one or more relevant IoT devices.

9. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising:

referring one or more additional IoT devices registered on the home IoT network to the new IoT device based on a correlation between the one or more attributes associated with the new IoT device and one or more attributes associated with the one or more additional IoT devices; and

publishing one or more messages associated with one or more topics that are relevant to the one or more attributes associated with the new IoT device, wherein the one or more additional IoT devices referred to the new IoT device subscribe to and receive the one or more messages published from the new IoT device.

10. The method recited in claim 9, further comprising:

unsubscribing from the messages published from the relevant IoT devices;

identifying one or more of the additional IoT devices referred to the new IoT device that are subscribed to the messages published from the relevant IoT devices; and

recommending that the identified one or more additional IoT devices unsubscribe from the messages published from the relevant IoT devices.

11. An apparatus, comprising:

means for registering on a home Internet of Things (IoT) network having at least one trusted IoT device;

means for receiving a referral to one or more relevant IoT devices from the at least one trusted IoT device, wherein the at least one trusted IoT device provides the referral based one or more attributes associated with the apparatus in response to the apparatus registering on the home IoT network; and

means for subscribing to messages published from the one or more relevant IoT devices.

12. The apparatus recited in claim 11, further comprising:

means for receiving the published messages from one or more of the relevant IoT devices or a manager IoT device that routes the published messages to subscribing IoT devices within the home IoT network; and

means for adjusting one or more actions based on the messages published from the one or more relevant IoT devices.

13. The apparatus recited in claim 11, further comprising:

means for publishing one or more messages associated with one or more topics that are relevant to the one or more attributes.

14. The apparatus recited in claim 11, further comprising:

means for determining the one or more relevant IoT devices based on a correlation between the one or more attributes and topics associated with the messages published from the one or more relevant IoT devices.

15. The apparatus recited in claim 11, further comprising:

means for discovering one or more additional IoT devices having a friend relationship with the one or more relevant IoT devices; and

means for subscribing to messages published from the one or more additional IoT devices.

16. The apparatus recited in claim 11, further comprising:

means for discovering one or more additional IoT devices that publish messages associated with one or more topics that are relevant to a current or planned state;

means for subscribing to messages published from the one or more additional IoT devices.

17. The apparatus recited in claim 11, further comprising:

means for referring one or more additional IoT devices registered on the home IoT network to the apparatus based on a correlation between the one or more attributes associated with the apparatus and one or more attributes associated with the one or more additional IoT devices; and

means for publishing one or more messages associated with one or more topics that are relevant to the one or more attributes associated with the apparatus, wherein the one or more additional IoT devices referred to the apparatus subscribe to and receive the one or more messages published from the apparatus.

18. The apparatus recited in claim 17, further comprising:

means for unsubscribing from the messages published from the relevant IoT devices;

means for identifying one or more of the referred additional IoT devices that are subscribed to the messages published from the relevant IoT devices; and

means for recommending that the identified one or more additional IoT devices unsubscribe from the messages published from the relevant IoT devices.

19. An Internet of Things (IoT) device, comprising:

a communication interface configured to communicate with at least one trusted IoT device on a home IoT network during a process to register the IoT device on the home IoT network; and

one or more processors configured to receive a referral to one or more relevant IoT devices from the at least one trusted IoT device and subscribe to messages published from the one or more relevant IoT devices, wherein the at least one trusted IoT device provides the referral based one or more attributes associated with the IoT device and in response to the IoT device registering on the home IoT network.

20. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions recorded thereon, wherein executing the computer-executable instructions on an Internet of Things (IoT) device causes the IoT device to:

communicate with at least one trusted IoT device on a home IoT network during a process to register the IoT device on the home IoT network;

receive a referral to one or more relevant IoT devices from the at least one trusted IoT device, wherein the at least one trusted IoT device provides the referral to the IoT device based one or more attributes associated with the IoT device and in response to the IoT device registering on the home IoT network; and

subscribe to messages published from the one or more relevant IoT devices.