INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT) SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SELECTING A SECONDARY COMMUNICATION CHANNEL

• US 20180116004A1
• Filed: 10/21/2016
• Published: 04/26/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Afero, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Afero, Inc.
• Inventors: Britt, Joe, Zimmerman, Scott, Sewerynek, Stephen, Aiuto, Chris, Finkelstein, Lucas
• Granted Patent: US 10,178,579 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/0263 involving mapping traffic to individual bearers or channels, e.g. traffic flow template [TFT]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/125 using a measured number of retransmissions as a link metric
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/18 Management of setup rejection or failure

Abstract

An IoT system and method for selecting a secondary communication channel. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: one or more primary communication interfaces to establish a connection between an Internet of Things (IoT) device and an IoT service over one or more primary communication channels; one or more secondary communication interfaces to establish a connection between the IoT device and the IoT service over one or more secondary communication channels; a communication interface selection module to determine whether a primary threshold related to connection attempts over the one or more primary communication channels has been reached; in response to detecting that the primary threshold has been reached, the communication interface selection module to attempt to establish a connection between the IoT device and the IoT service over one of the secondary communication channels; the secondary communication interface to exchange data between the IoT device and the IoT service over the secondary communication channel.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

attempting to establish a connection between an Internet of Things (IoT) device and an IoT service over one or more primary communication channels;

determining whether a primary threshold related to connection attempts over the one or more primary communication channels has been reached;

in response to detecting that the primary threshold has been reached, attempting to establish a connection between the IoT device and the IoT service over a secondary communication channel; and

exchanging data between the IoT device and the IoT service using the secondary communication channel.

2. The method as in claim 1 wherein the primary threshold comprises a specified amount of time or number of attempts to connect over the primary communication channel.

3. The method as in claim 1 wherein if the primary threshold has not been reached, then reattempting to connect over the primary communication channel.

4. The method as in claim 1 wherein the secondary communication channel comprises a satellite communication channel.

5. The method as in claim 4 wherein the one or more primary communication channels include a Bluetooth Low Energy channel, a WiFi channel, and/or a Cellular channel.

6. The method as in claim 1 wherein the data exchanged between the IoT device and the IoT service comprises location data indicating a current location of the IoT device.

7. The method as in claim 6 wherein the location data comprises Global Positioning System (GPS) data.

16. The machine-readable medium as in claim 1 wherein the primary threshold comprises a specified amount of time or number of attempts to connect over the primary communication channel.

8. An apparatus comprising:

one or more primary communication interfaces to establish a connection between an Internet of Things (IoT) device and an IoT service over one or more primary communication channels;

one or more secondary communication interfaces to establish a connection between the IoT device and the IoT service over one or more secondary communication channels;

a communication interface selection module to determine whether a primary threshold related to connection attempts over the one or more primary communication channels has been reached;

in response to detecting that the primary threshold has been reached, the communication interface selection module to attempt to establish a connection between the IoT device and the IoT service over one of the secondary communication channels; and

the secondary communication interface to exchange data between the IoT device and the IoT service over the secondary communication channel.

9. The apparatus as in claim 8 wherein the primary threshold comprises a specified amount of time or number of attempts to connect over the primary communication channel.

10. The apparatus as in claim 8 wherein if the primary threshold has not been reached, then reattempting to connect over the primary communication channel.

11. The apparatus as in claim 8 wherein the secondary communication interface comprises a satellite transceiver and the secondary communication channel comprises a satellite communication channel.

12. The apparatus as in claim 11 wherein the one or more primary communication channels include a Bluetooth Low Energy channel, a WiFi channel, and/or a Cellular channel.

13. The apparatus as in claim 8 wherein the data exchanged between the IoT device and the IoT service comprises location data indicating a current location of the IoT device.

14. The apparatus as in claim 13 wherein the location data comprises Global Positioning System (GPS) data.

15. A machine-readable medium having program code stored thereon which, when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform the operations of:

attempting to establish a connection between an Internet of Things (IoT) device and an IoT service over one or more primary communication channels;

determining whether a primary threshold related to connection attempts over the one or more primary communication channels has been reached;

in response to detecting that the primary threshold has been reached, attempting to establish a connection between the IoT device and the IoT service over a secondary communication channel; and

exchanging data between the IoT device and the IoT service using the secondary communication channel.

17. The machine-readable medium as in claim 15 wherein if the primary threshold has not been reached, then reattempting to connect over the primary communication channel.

18. The machine-readable medium as in claim 15 wherein the secondary communication channel comprises a satellite communication channel.

19. The machine-readable medium as in claim 18 wherein the one or more primary communication channels include a Bluetooth Low Energy channel, a WiFi channel, and/or a Cellular channel.

20. The machine-readable medium as in claim 15 wherein the data exchanged between the IoT device and the IoT service comprises location data indicating a current location of the IoT device.

21. The machine-readable medium as in claim 20 wherein the location data comprises Global Positioning System (GPS) data.