WIRELESS DEVICE CUSTOMIZATION RESOURCES

• US 20150245215A1
• Filed: 02/24/2015
• Published: 08/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Semtech Corporation
• Original Assignee: Sierra Wireless Incorporated
• Inventors: MURPHY, Kelly Mathew, Chitty, Jen T'ai, Jiang, Alex, BLAZEK, Zeljko, Mitchell, Andrew Hasley Watson
• Granted Patent: US 9,894,523 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/606 by securing the transmission between two devices or processes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/03 Indexing scheme relating to G06F21/50, monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5072 Grid computing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/084 using delegated authorisation, e.g. open authorisation [OAuth] protocol
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/086 using security domains
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

The present invention provides methods, systems and computer program products for facilitating loading, configuration and interaction of modular applications and/or modular components of an application on wireless devices such as M2M terminals. Modular elements may be connected to each other based on a system of permissions which determines which elements are permitted to access given services offered by other elements. Once connected, modular elements may communicate directly via a standardized interface

Claims

1. A method for facilitating operation of a wireless terminal device having plural code components installed thereon, the method comprising:

a) providing, by the wireless device, a directory for use by the code components to advertise services offered thereby and to request access to said advertised services;

b) upon receiving a request for access by a first code component to a first advertised service of said advertised services, determining, by the wireless device, whether said first code component is granted a permission to access said first advertised service; and

c) upon determining that said first code component is granted said permission, directly communicatively coupling, by the wireless device, the first code component to a second code component offering said first advertised service, wherein the first and second code components utilize a standardized communication interface for facilitating said direct communicative coupling.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first code component is written in a different programming language than the second code component.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first code component and the second code component form parts of a single program application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first code component and the second code component correspond to two different interacting program applications.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first component is associated with a first sandbox environment and the second component is associated with a second sandbox environment separate from the first sandbox environment.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first component is associated with a first sandbox environment and the second component is associated with a second sandbox environment, and wherein the first sandbox environment is embedded within the second sandbox environment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first component and the second component is associated with a sandbox environment, the method further comprising creating a file system as part of the sandbox environment, wherein the files system is a TMPFS file system or a RAMFS file system.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising bind mounting a predetermined set of files within the file system, said predetermined set of files configured to support operation of said at least one of the first component and the second component.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether said first code component is granted the permission to access said first advertised service comprises automatically determining whether the first code component and the second code component were generated using compatible API file versions.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising including a first hash value with the first code component and including a second hash value with the second code component, the first hash value generated from an API file used to generate the first code component, the second hash value generated from an API file used to generate the second code component, and wherein determining whether the first code component and the second code component were generated using compatible API file versions comprises comparing the first hash value with the second hash value.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first code component is associated with a first User ID and the second code component is associated with a second User ID, the method further comprising identifying the first code component using the first User ID and identifying the second code component using the second User ID.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein directly communicatively coupling the first code component to the second code component comprises creating a linked pair of file descriptors for facilitating message passing, and providing a first one of the pair of file descriptors to the first code component and providing a second one or the pair of file descriptors to the second code component.

13. A wireless terminal device, comprising:

a) a memory having an operating system and plural code components installed thereon;

b) a service directory installed in said memory for use by the code components to advertise services offered thereby and to request access to said advertised services;

c) a supervisory module installed in said memory and configured, upon receiving a request for access by a first code component to a first advertised service of said advertised services, to determine whether said first code component is granted a permission to access said first advertised service, the supervisory module further configured, upon determining that said first code component is granted said permission, to directly communicatively couple the first code component to a second code component offering said first advertised service, wherein the first and second code components utilize a standardized communication interface for facilitating said direct communicative coupling.

14. The wireless terminal device of claim 13, wherein the first code component is written in a different programming language than the second code component.

15. The wireless terminal device of claim 13, wherein the first code component and the second code component form parts of a single program application.

16. The wireless terminal device of claim 13, wherein the first code component and the second code component correspond to two different interacting program applications.

17. The wireless terminal device of claim 13, wherein the first component is associated with a first sandbox environment and the second component is associated with a second sandbox environment separate from the first sandbox environment.

18. The wireless terminal device of claim 13, wherein the first component is associated with a first sandbox environment and the second component is associated with a second sandbox environment, and wherein the first sandbox environment is embedded within the second sandbox environment or vice-versa.

19. The wireless terminal device of claim 13, wherein at least one of the first component and the second component is associated with a sandbox environment, the wireless terminal device further configured to create a file system as part of the sandbox environment, wherein the file system is a TMPFS file system or a RAMFS file system.

20. The wireless terminal device of claim 19, further comprising bind mounting a predetermined set of files within the file system, said predetermined set of files configured to support operation of said at least one of the first component and the second component.

21. The wireless terminal device of claim 13, wherein determining whether said first code component is granted the permission to access said first advertised service comprises automatically determining whether the first code component and the second code component were generated using compatible API file versions.

22. The wireless terminal device of claim 21, further comprising including a first hash value with the first code component and including a second hash value with the second code component, the first hash value generated from an API file used to generate the first code component, the second hash value generated from an API file used to generate the second code component, and wherein determining whether the first code component and the second code component were generated using compatible API file versions comprises comparing the first hash value with the second hash value.

23. The wireless terminal device of claim 13, wherein the first code component is associated with a first User ID and the second code component is associated with a second User ID, the wireless terminal device further configured to identify the first code component using the first User ID and to identify the second code component using the second User ID.

24. The wireless terminal device of claim 13, wherein directly communicatively coupling the first code component to the second code component comprises creating a linked pair of file descriptors for facilitating message passing, and providing a first one of the pair of file descriptors to the first code component and providing a second one or the pair of file descriptors to the second code component.

25. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon statements and instructions for execution by a computer for performing operations for facilitating operation of a wireless terminal device having plural code components installed thereon, the operations comprising:

a) providing, by the wireless device, a directory for use by the code components to advertise services offered thereby and to request access to said advertised services;

b) upon receiving a request for access by a first code component to a first advertised service of said advertised services, determining, by the wireless device, whether said first code component is granted a permission to access said first advertised service; and

c) upon determining that said first code component is granted said permission, directly communicatively coupling, by the wireless device, the first code component to a second code component offering said first advertised service, wherein the first and second code components utilize a standardized communication interface for facilitating said direct communicative coupling.