Device registration mechanism

• US 7,149,792 B1
• Filed: 11/20/2000
• Issued: 12/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: PTC Inc.
• Original Assignee: Axeda (PTC Inc.)
• Inventors: Hansen, James R., Calder, Dale E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wiley, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): DENNISON, JERRY B
• Application Number:
  US09/716,717
• Time in Patent Office: 2,213 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/220, 709/223, 709/250, 395/200.1
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/00 Systems for electrical power generation, transmission, distribution or end-user application management characterised by the use of communication or information technologies, or communication or information technology specific aspects supporting them

Abstract

An automated device recordation and registration process for automatically registering, on a remote computer, an embedded device is described. The registration process includes a feature detection process for detecting feature information associated with a device to be registered. A transmission process transmits the feature information to a remote computer at a known address using a self-describing computer language. A registration process registers the device by storing the feature information on the remote computer.

Claims

1. A method to register a device with a remote computer, the method comprising:

communicating with the remote computer each time the device powers-up; and

making a determination, each time the device powers-up, as to whether to proceed with registration based on communication with the remote computer, wherein the determination is made based on correctness of registration information stored on the remote computer for the device and currency of the registration information;

wherein, if the determination is not to proceed with registration, the method further comprises aborting registration for a current power-up of the device;

wherein, if the determination is to proceed with registration, for the current power-up of the device the method further comprises;

obtaining feature information stored for the device, the feature information comprising information that is specific to an instance of the device, the feature information comprising an address of the remote computer and a physical location of the device, the address comprising a known address that is stored prior to installation of the device in a system; and

registering the device with the remote computer by transmitting the feature information to the remote computer at the known address using eXtensible Markup Language (XML); and

wherein the method is performed automatically without manual intervention.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the known address corresponds to a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the known address corresponds to a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) address.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information comprises a device type and a device instance.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the device type comprises a model number of the device and the device instance comprises a serial number of the device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote computer comprises a database for storing the feature information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote computer resides on a distributed computing network and the feature information is transmitted to the remote computer via the distributed computing network.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the distributed computing network comprises the Internet.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the device is connected to the distributed computing network via a direct network connection.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the device is connected to the distributed computing network via a dial-up network connection.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the device is connected to the distributed computing network via a wireless network connection.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the device stores embedded software which controls the device, the embedded software having a first version identifier.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the database stores a software update having a second version identifier, the software update comprising a different version of the embedded software.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising comparing the first version identifier to the second version identifier to determine if the embedded software needs to be updated.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising updating the embedded software using the software update if it is determined that the embedded software needs to be updated.

16. The method of claim 6, wherein the feature information comprises system information concerning ownership and configuration of the device.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising configuring the system information via a system information interface.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the device comprises a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) device web server and the system information interface comprises a software application residing on the device web server, and the method further comprises:

editing the system information by accessing the system information interface via a remote web client.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

transmitting the system information to the remote computer using XML.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein making the determination comprises comparing system information on the remote computer to system information on the device to determine if the database on the remote computer needs to be updated with the system information on the device.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising updating system information in the database with the system information from the device.

22. The method of claim 6, wherein the device comprises a device web client and the remote computer comprises a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) remote web server.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the remote computer comprises application logic to interface the remote web server and the database.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the device web client transmits the feature information from the device to the remote web server, and the application logic transmits the feature information from the remote web server to the database.

25. The method of claim 6, wherein the device comprises a device mail client and the remote computer comprises a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) remote mail server.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the remote computer comprises application logic to interface the remote mail server and the database.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the device mail client transmits the feature information from the device to the remote mail server, and the application logic transmits the feature information from the remote mail server to the database.

28. One or more machine-readable media that store instructions that are executed to register a device with a remote computer, the instructions to:

communicate with the remote computer each time the device powers-up; and

make a determination, each time the device powers-up, as to whether to proceed with registration based on communication with the remote computer, wherein the determination is made based on correctness of registration information stored on the remote computer for the device and currency of the registration information;

if the determination is not to proceed with registration, to abort registration for a current power-up of the device; and

if the determination is to proceed with registration, to perform the following actions for the current power-up of the device;

obtain feature information stored for the device, the feature information comprising information that is specific to an instance of the device, the feature information comprising an address of the remote computer and a physical location of the device, the address comprising a known address that is stored prior to installation of the device in a system; and

register the device with the remote computer by transmitting the feature information to the remote computer at the known address using eXtensible Markup Language (XML);

wherein obtaining and registering are performed automatically when the instructions are executed and without manual intervention.

29. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 28, wherein the known address corresponds to a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

30. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 28, wherein the known address corresponds to a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) address.

31. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 28, wherein the feature information comprises a device type and a device instance.

32. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 28, wherein the feature information comprises system information concerning ownership and configuration of the device.

33. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 32, further comprising instructions that cause the device to receive the system information.

34. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 33, further comprising instructions to:

transmit the system information to the remote computer using XML.

35. A device that registers with a remote computer, the device comprising a processing device that executes instructions to:

communicate with the remote computer each time the device powers-up; and

make a determination, each time the device powers-up, as to whether to proceed with registration based on communication with the remote computer, wherein the determination is made based on correctness of registration information stored on the remote computer for the device and currency of the registration information;

if the determination is not to proceed with registration, to abort registration for a current power-up of the device; and

if the determination is to proceed with registration, to perform the following actions for the current power-up of the device;

obtain feature information stored for the device, the feature information comprising information that is specific to an instance of the device, the feature information comprising an address of the remote computer and a physical location of the remote computer, the address comprising a known address that is stored prior to installation of the device in a system; and

register the device with the remote computer by transmitting the feature information to a remote computer at the known address using eXtensible Markup Language (XML);

wherein obtaining and registering are performed automatically when the instructions are executed by the processor without manual intervention.

36. The device of claim 35, wherein the known address corresponds to a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

37. The device of claim 35, wherein the known address corresponds to a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) address.

38. The device of claim 35, wherein the information comprises a device type and a device instance.

39. The device of claim 38, wherein the device type comprises a model number of the device and the device instance comprises a serial number of the device.

40. The device of claim 35, wherein the feature information comprises system information concerning ownership and configuration of the device.

41. The device of claim 40, wherein the processing device executes instructions to receive the system information.

42. The device of claim 41, wherein the processing device executes instructions to:

transmit the system information to the remote computer using XML.