CONVERGED FAMILY NETWORK USAGE INSIGHTS AND ACTIONS

• US 20160344873A1
• Filed: 05/21/2015
• Published: 11/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Bham, Ahmed A., Myers, Kurt, Jenzeh, Lisa
• Granted Patent: US 10,412,232 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/0793 Network aspects, e.g. central monitoring of transmission parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1414 in real-time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1439 time-based
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1457 using an account
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1471 splitting of costs
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/41 Billing record details, i.e. parameters, identifiers, structure of call data record [CDR]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/44 Augmented, consolidated or itemized billing statement or bill presentation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/70 Administration or customization aspects; Counter-checking correct charges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/72 by the user
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/765 Linked or grouped accounts, e.g. of users or devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/7652 shared by users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/866 a predetermined or undetermined destination, e.g. notifying a prepaid accounting server of a successful delivery of a service
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/887 limit per user or user related number

Abstract

A system receives, from an account holder, a customized selection of notification methods and notification conditions associated with notifying an account holder about a first family member'"'"'s network activity, wherein the first family member'"'"'s network activity includes a first device'"'"'s activity in a first network and a second device'"'"'s activity in a second network, and wherein the second network is a different network than the first network. The system monitors multiple first types of network activity of the first device in the first network, and monitors multiple second types of network activity of the second device in the second network. The system provides notifications to the account holder based on the customized selection of notification methods and notification conditions and based on the monitored first types of the network activity of the first device and the monitored second types of the network activity of the second device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a network device from an account holder, a first customized selection of multiple different first types of network activity to monitor for first devices connected to, and active via, a first network;

receiving, at the network device from the account holder, a second customized selection of multiple different second types of network activity to monitor for second devices connected to, and active via, a second network, wherein the second network is a different network than the first network;

monitoring, at the network device, the multiple first types of network activity in the first network;

monitoring, at the network device, the multiple second types of network activity in the second network; and

performing at least one of;

a) notifying the account holder of one of the multiple first types of network activity by one of the first devices in the first network, or

b) applying an action, limitation or restriction to one of the second devices in the second network based on the monitoring of the multiple second types of network activity.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing at least one of;

a) notifying the account holder of one of the multiple second types of network activity by one of the second devices in the second network, or

b) applying an action, limitation or restriction to one of the first devices in the first network based on the monitoring of the multiple first types of network activity.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the network device from the account holder, an identification of a first family member of the account holder; and

receiving, at the network device from the account holder, an identification of the first devices as being associated with the first family member, wherein the first family member is a user of the first devices.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, at the network device from the account holder, an identification of a second family member of the account holder; and

receiving, at the network device from the account holder, an identification of the second devices as being associated with the second family member, wherein the second family member is a user of the second devices.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network comprises an optical fiber network and wherein the second network comprises a cellular network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing comprises performing both of:

a) notifying the account holder of one of the multiple first types of network activity by one of the first devices in the first network, and

b) applying an action, limitation or restriction to one of the second devices in the second network based on the monitoring of the multiple second types of network activity.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

a) notifying the account holder of one of the multiple second types of network activity by one of the second devices in the second network, and

b) applying an action, limitation or restriction to one of the first devices in the first network based on the monitoring of the multiple first types of network activity.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the multiple first types of network activity comprise at least two of the following:

a) time or data usage per device of the first devices,

b) time or data usage of the first family member,

c) sites visited by the first family member,

d) applications accessed by the first family member,

e) content or television programming accessed by the first family member, or

f) attempts by the first family member to access blocked or flagged websites.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the time or data usage per device of the first devices comprises a data or time usage total per device for a certain period of time, and wherein the time or data usage of the first family member comprises a data or time usage total for the first family member for the certain period of time.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the action, limitation or restriction comprises at least one of:

locking the one of the second devices to prevent device usage,

applying a time of day or week usage restriction,

applying content filtering by age, group or category,

applying network connectivity restrictions,

applying texting restrictions, or

applying call restrictions.

11. A system, comprising:

one or more network devices comprising;

a communication interface configured to;

receive, from an account holder, a first customized selection of one or more first actions, limitations or restrictions to apply to at least one first device connected to a first network, wherein the one or more first actions, limitations or restrictions comprise a first subset of actions, limitations or restrictions selected by the account holder from a set of actions, limitations or restrictions, and

receive, from the account holder, a second customized selection of one or more second actions, limitations or restrictions to apply to at least one second device connected to a second network, wherein the one or more second actions, limitations or restrictions comprise a second subset of actions, limitations or restrictions selected by the account holder from the set of actions, limitations or restrictions; and

a processing unit configured to;

monitor multiple first types of network activity engaged in by the at least one first device in the first network,

monitor multiple second types of network activity engaged in by the at least one second device in the second network,

cause at least one of the one or more first actions, limitations, or restrictions to be applied to the at least one first device based on the monitoring of the multiple first types of network activity, and

cause at least one of the one or more second actions, limitations, or restrictions to be applied to the at least one second device based on the monitoring of the multiple second types of network activity.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the at least one first device comprises multiple first devices that are associated with, and used by, a first member of the account holder'"'"'s family and wherein the at least one second device comprises multiple second devices that are associated with, and used by, a second member of the account holder'"'"'s family.

13. The system claim 12, wherein the multiple first types of network activity comprise at least two of the following:

a) time or data usage per device of the at least one first device,

b) time or data usage of the first family member,

c) sites visited by the first family member,

d) applications accessed by the first family member,

e) content or television programming accessed by the first family member, or

f) attempts by the first family member to access blocked or flagged websites.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the first network comprises a fiber optic network and wherein the second network comprises a cellular network.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the first customized selection of one or more actions, limitations or restrictions include one or more of the following:

locking the one of the second devices to prevent device usage,

applying a time of day or week usage restriction,

applying content filtering by age, group or category,

applying network connectivity restrictions,

applying texting restrictions, or

applying call restrictions.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions executable by at least one processor, the computer-readable medium comprising instructions for:

receiving, from an account holder, a customized selection of notification methods and notification conditions associated with notifying an account holder about a first family member'"'"'s network activity, wherein the first family member'"'"'s network activity includes a first device'"'"'s activity in a first network and a second device'"'"'s activity in a second network, and wherein the second network is a different network than the first network;

monitoring multiple first types of network activity of the first device in the first network;

monitoring multiple second types of network activity of the second device in the second network; and

providing notifications to the account holder based on the customized selection of notification methods and notification conditions and based on the monitored first types of the network activity of the first device and the monitored second types of the network activity of the second device.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the first network comprises a fiber optic network and wherein the second network comprises a cellular network.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein receiving the customized selection of notification methods and notification conditions includes:

receiving, from the account holder, a first customized selection of notification conditions and notification methods associated with notifying the account holder about the first device'"'"'s activity in the first network; and

receiving, from the account holder, a second customized selection of notification conditions and notification methods associated with notifying the account holder about the second device'"'"'s activity in the second network,

wherein providing notifications to the account holder is further based on the first and second customized selection of notification conditions and notification methods.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the notification conditions comprise one or more of:

activity during certain hours,

new network devices being added or detected,

attempts to access blocked or flagged content, or

exceeding time limit or data usage thresholds of network or device usage; and

wherein the notification methods comprise automatic push notifications or pull notifications.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the automatic push notifications comprise email, text, or application notifications and wherein the pull notifications comprise web portal notifications.