Method and apparatus for provisioning a communications client on a host device

• US 8,051,149 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2009
• Issued: 11/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Hodgson, John S., Emery, Jeffrey K., Plestid, Thomas Leonard Trevor
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, PHUOC H
• Application Number:
  US12/575,229
• Publication Number:
  US 20100077062A1
• Time in Patent Office: 755 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/220, 709/227, 709/228
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/18 Service support devices; Network management devices

Abstract

An apparatus for provisioning a data communications client on a host communications device, the host communications device adapted to operate on a communications network, the apparatus comprising: a first data store adapted to store variant configuration information; a second data store adapted to store provisioning information; a provisioning module adapted to select the provisioning information stored in said second data store as a function of the variant configuration information stored in said first data store and apply the selected provisioning information to provision the data communications client; and a user interface interacting with said provisioning module to enable a user of the host communications device to provision the data communications client.

Claims

1. A host communications device certified for operation on a wireless communications network, the device comprising:

a host-independent data communications client;

an abstraction layer for communication between the certified host communications device and the host independent communications client;

at least one data store for storing variant configuration information and provisioning information; and

a provisioning application and configuration application on said host-independent communications client, the provisioning application and configuration application configured to select the provisioning information stored in said at least one data store as a function of the variant configuration information and apply the selected provisioning information to provision the host-independent data communications client utilizing said abstraction layer.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the variant configuration information includes a parameter selected from the group consisting of a device variant parameter, a lock parameter, and a default language parameter.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein at least one portion of the variant configuration information is read-only.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the variant configuration information includes a current variant.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the variant configuration information includes a change flag.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the provisioning configuration information includes text that appears in the data communications client during a first time start of the host communications device.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the provisioning configuration information includes data communications client provisioning configuration information.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the data communications client provisioning information is set by the manufacturer of the data communications client.

9. The device of claim 7, wherein the data communications client provisioning information is set by the operator of the communications network.

10. The device of claim 7, wherein at least one data store is further configured to read information to control application functionality of the data communications client.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein at least one data store is further configured to store the information to control application functionality of the data communications client.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the first data store is further configured to set a change service flag.

13. The device as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one data store data store is configured to store read-only operator settings.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the data communications client retrieves the read-only operator settings from at least one data store.

15. The device of claim 1, further comprising a notification module to notify the host communications device of changes at the data communications client.

16. A method for provisioning a host-independent data communications client on a host communications device certified to operate on a wireless communications network, the method comprising the steps of:

storing variant configuration information and provisioning information in at least one data store on said host communications device;

selecting, from the data communications client through an abstraction layer, the provisioning information stored in at least one data store data store as a function of the variant configuration information; and

applying, through the abstraction layer, the selected provisioning information to provision the data communications client.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said variant configuration information is also applied to native host applications.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises clearing said data communications client of data using a clear data store prior to said applying step.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises clearing data from host native applications on said host communications device using a clear data store prior to said applying step.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein said storing provisioning information step is performed during a manufacturing process.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein said storing provisioning information step is performed during a configuration process.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the applying step for host native applications is performed based on a command received from said data communications client at said native host applications.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein the applying step for host native applications is performed based on a listener module finding a change in provisioning on said data communications client and alerting said native host applications.

24. The method of claim 16, wherein the storing variant configuration information at first data store step further stores information to control application functionality of the data communications client.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising the step of setting a change service flag at the first data store.