System transmitting unsolicited and unconfirmed computing platform service information to wireless devices

• US 7,483,952 B2
• Filed: 09/10/2003
• Issued: 01/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Pering, Trevor A., Want, Roy, Light, John J., Sundararajan, Muralidharan
• Primary Examiner(s): LUU, LE HIEN
• Application Number:
  US10/659,632
• Publication Number:
  US 20050055421A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,966 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/218, 709/223, 709/250, 709/207, 709/219, 455/414.1, 717/140, 706/47, 340/573.1
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

An apparatus and a system, as well as a method and article, may operate to receive solicited or unsolicited computing platform service information associated with services offered by a plurality of service points in a range area, store some portion of the received information, and periodically transmit, with or without confirmation, some portion of the stored information to one or more potential subscribers.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving computing platform service information associated with a plurality of services offered by a plurality of service points;

storing at least a portion of the computing platform service information; and

periodically transmitting, without solicitation and confirmation, some of the computing platform service information to at least one potential subscriber to the plurality of services.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that at least one service included in the plurality of services is no longer available.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining that the at least one service is no longer available further comprises:

determining that the at least one service does not respond to a polling query.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein determining that the at least one service is no longer available further comprises:

determining that the at least one service does not respond within a selected timeout period.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

discovering that a new service offered by one of the plurality of service points is currently available.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

providing a direction to the new service.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

discovering that a new service offered by an additional service point not included in the plurality of service points is currently available.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of services comprise at least two of:

a network connection service, a printer service, a display service, a storage service, an inventory service, a game service, an interactive customer service, a query service, or an advertising service.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein periodically transmitting occurs at a single physical location.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of service points are located in a range area.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

monitoring the range area to detect a plurality of broadcasting service points.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

monitoring the range area to detect at least one wireless service broker.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the range area comprises a first range area, further comprising:

receiving computing platform service information associated with at least one service offered by at least a subset of a plurality of service points located in a second range area from a single wireless service broker.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at least some of the computing platform service information from a wireless service broker.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing platform service information includes an extensible markup language device description.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said some of the computing platform service information includes sufficient information to access at least one of the plurality of services directly.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of services is offered by a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) node.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing platform service information comprises at least one attribute associated with the plurality of services.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one attribute is selected from at least one of a range, a signal strength, and a location.

20. An article comprising a tangible computer-readable storage medium containing computer-executable instructions stored therein which, when executed, result in a computer performing:

receiving computing platform service information associated with a plurality of services offered by a plurality of service points;

storing at least a portion of the computing platform service information; and

periodically transmitting, without solicitation and confirmation, some of the computing platform service information to at least one potential subscriber to the plurality of services.

21. The article of claim 20, wherein periodically transmitting, without solicitation and confirmation, further comprises:

transmitting, without solicitation and confirmation, said some of the computing platform service information at intervals of less than about every five minutes.

22. The article of claim 20, wherein receiving computing platform service information further comprises:

running a process, in a network, to receive the computing platform service information.

23. The article of claim 20, wherein executing the computer-executable instructions results in the computer performing:

selecting said some of the computing platform service information according to a policy.

24. The article of claim 23, wherein the policy is associated with at least one of a pecuniary relationship, an ownership relationship, a security relationship, and a device type.

25. The article of claim 20, wherein the computing platform service information comprises at least one attribute associated with at least one of the plurality of services.

26. The article of claim 25, wherein the at least one attribute is selected from at least one of a range, a signal strength, and a location.

27. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory module to store computing platform service information associated with a plurality of services offered by a plurality of service points in a range area; and

a transmission module, coupled to the memory module, to periodically transmit without solicitation and confirmation some of the computing platform service information to at least one potential subscriber to the plurality of services.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, further comprising:

a reception module to receive the computing platform service information.

29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the reception module comprises a software module to execute in a network.

30. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the plurality of service points are located in a range area defined by a network router count.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, wherein the network router count comprises a time-to-live count of about 1 to about 3.

32. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the plurality of service points are located in a range area defined by a reception range of a wireless reception module coupled to the memory module.

33. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the transmission module is to provide a direction to at least one of the plurality of service points if the at least one potential subscriber indicates the at least one of the plurality of service points is not within a useful range of the at least one potential subscriber.

34. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the computing platform service information comprises at least one attribute associated with the plurality of services.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the at least one attribute is selected from at least one of a range, a signal strength, and a location.

36. A system, comprising:

a memory module to store computing platform service information associated with a plurality of services offered by a plurality of service points in a range area;

a transmission module, coupled to the memory module, to transmit without solicitation and confirmation some of the computing platform service information to at least one potential subscriber to the plurality of services; and

an omnidirectional antenna coupled to the transmission module.

37. The system of claim 36, further comprising:

a reception module, coupled to the omnidirectional antenna, to receive the computing platform service information.

38. The system of claim 36, wherein said some of the computing platform service information is selected according to a policy.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the policy specifies a service type.

40. The system of claim 36, further comprising:

a wireless service broker to receive said some of the computing platform service information from the transmission module.

41. The system of claim 36, wherein the computing platform service information comprises at least one attribute associated with the plurality of services.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the at least one attribute is selected from at least one of a range, a signal strength, and a location.