Reporting the state of an apparatus to a remote computer

• US 8,055,758 B2
• Filed: 08/14/2006
• Issued: 11/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: PTC Inc.
• Original Assignee: Axeda (PTC Inc.)
• Inventors: Hansen, James R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu; Thong H
• Application Number:
  US11/503,638
• Publication Number:
  US 20070011295A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,912 Days
• Field of Search: 709/227, 709/230, 709/226, 700/19, 700/295
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3086 where the reporting involves the use of self describing data formats, i.e. metadata, markup languages, human readable formats
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

The state of an apparatus is reported to a remote computer using an embedded device in the apparatus. The embedded device detects the state, generates a message that reports the state using a self-describing computer language, and sends the message to the remote computer. The remote computer receives the message and extracts the state of the embedded device from the message.

Claims

1. A method performed by a device embedded in an apparatus to report a state of the apparatus to a remote computer, the method comprising:

detecting the state of the apparatus;

generating a message that reports the state of the apparatus to the remote computer, the message comprising a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) command, the message using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to report the state, and the message containing a code that is unique to the device or apparatus, wherein generating is performed periodically or in response to a deviation in the state; and

sending the message comprising the HTTP command to the remote computer, the HTTP command comprising a command that is configured to report the state of the apparatus using XML;

wherein the device is on an internal network and the remote computer is on an external network that is separate from the internal network, and wherein, as a result, the remote computer cannot communicate to the device to obtain the state of the apparatus; and

wherein the state of the apparatus comprises values of two or more variables associated with the apparatus, one or more of the variables being flagged if one or more of the variables corresponds to an error condition associated with the apparatus.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the state comprises reading variables periodically from storage locations associated with the apparatus.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the storage locations comprise register locations corresponding to hardware associated with the apparatus.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the deviation in the state.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining comprises comparing the state to a previous state of the apparatus.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein XML code in the message is generated by inserting one or more variables into a predefined template.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the message includes past states of the apparatus.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the HTTP command comprises a POST command.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the message comprises one or more of the following:

data identifying a type of the device, a common name for the device, a manufacturer of the device, a model name of the device, a model number of the device, a serial number of the device, and a universal unique identifier for the device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the state comprises both an error condition and a measurement associated with the apparatus that is not an error condition.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the message comprises an error condition history, the error condition history indicating error conditions in the apparatus over time.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising queuing the message in the device prior to sending the message, the message being sent following a failure condition in a system comprising the device and/or the apparatus.

13. One or more machine-readable media comprising instructions for execution by a device embedded in an apparatus to report a state of the apparatus to a remote computer, the instructions for causing the device to:

detect the state of the apparatus;

generate a message that reports the state of the apparatus to the remote computer, the message comprising a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) command, the message using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to report the state, the message containing a code that is unique to the device or apparatus, wherein generating is performed periodically or in response to a deviation in the state; and

send the message comprising the HTTP command to the remote computer, the HTTP command comprising a command that is configured to report the state of the apparatus using XML;

wherein the device is on an internal network and the remote computer is on an external network that is separate from the internal network, and wherein, as a result, the remote computer cannot communicate to the device to obtain the state of the apparatus; and

wherein the state of the apparatus comprises values of two or more variables associated with the apparatus, one or more of the variables being flagged if one or more of the variables corresponds to an error condition associated with the apparatus.

14. The one or more Non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein detecting the state comprises reading variables periodically from storage locations associated with the apparatus.

15. The one or more Non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 14, wherein the storage locations comprise register locations corresponding to hardware associated with the apparatus.

16. The one or more Non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 13, further comprising instructions that cause the device to:

determine the deviation in the state.

17. The one or more Non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 16, wherein determining comprises comparing the state to a previous state of the apparatus.

18. The one or more Non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein XML code in the message is generated by inserting one or more variables into a predefined template.

19. The one or more Non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein the HTTP command comprises a POST command.

20. The one or more Non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein the message comprises one or more of the following:

data identifying a type of the device, a common name for the device, a manufacturer of the device, a model name of the device, a model number of the device, a serial number of the device, and a universal unique identifier for the device.

21. The one or more Non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein the state comprises both an error condition and a measurement associated with the apparatus that is not an error condition.

22. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 13, wherein the message comprises an error condition history, the error condition history indicating error conditions in the apparatus over time.

23. The one or more machine-readable media of claim 13, further comprising instructions for causing the device to queue the message in the device prior to sending the message, the message being sent following a failure condition in a system comprising the device and/or the apparatus.

24. A device embedded in an apparatus for reporting a state of the apparatus to a remote computer, the device comprising circuitry configured to:

detect the state of the apparatus;

generate a message that reports the state of the apparatus to the remote computer, the message comprising a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) command, the message using eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to report the state, and the message containing a code that is unique to the device or apparatus, wherein generating is performed periodically or in response to a deviation in the state; and

send the message comprising the HTTP command to the remote computer, the HTTP command comprising a command that is configured to report the state of the apparatus using XML;

wherein the device is on an internal network and the remote computer is on an external network that is separate from the internal network, and wherein, as a result, the remote computer cannot communicate to the device to obtain the state of the apparatus; and

wherein the state of the apparatus comprises values of two or more variables associated with the apparatus, one or more of the variables being flagged if one or more of the variables corresponds to an error condition associated with the apparatus.

25. The device of claim 24, wherein detecting the state comprises reading variables periodically from storage locations associated with the apparatus;

wherein the circuitry is configured to determine if the state of the apparatus has changed;

wherein determining if the state of the apparatus has changed comprises comparing the state to a previous state of the apparatus.

26. The device of claim 24, wherein XML code in the message is generated by inserting one or more variables into a predefined template;

wherein the circuitry comprises (i) memory which stores executable instructions and one or more processing devices configured to execute the instructions, or one or more of an application-specific integrated circuit and a programmable gate array.

27. The device of claim 24, wherein the HTTP command comprises a POST command;

and

wherein the message comprises one or more of the following;

data identifying a type of the device, a common name for the device, a manufacturer of the device, a model name of the device, a model number of the device, a serial number of the device, and a universal unique identifier for the device.

28. The device of claim 24, wherein the message comprises an error condition history, the error condition history indicating error conditions in the apparatus over time.

29. The device of claim 24, further comprising queuing the message in the device prior to sending the message, the message being sent following a failure condition in a system comprising the device and/or the apparatus.