Distributed peripheral device management system

• US 8,380,889 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2011
• Issued: 02/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oki Data Americas Incorporated (OKI Electric Industry Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Oki Data Americas Incorporated (OKI Electric Industry Company Limited)
• Inventors: Sretenovic, Dragan
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsai, Henry
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wong, Titus
• Application Number:
  US13/076,677
• Publication Number:
  US 20110246679A1
• Time in Patent Office: 691 Days
• Field of Search: 710/15
• US Class Current: 710/15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2141 Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1219 with regard to consumables, e.g. ink, toner, paper
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1239 Restricting the usage of resources, e.g. usage or user levels, credit limit, consumables, special fonts
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1273 Print job history, e.g. logging, accounting, tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1285 Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server

Abstract

A method for controlling the use of a plurality of peripheral devices by a user is disclosed. The method includes assigning access rights to a user for access to individual ones of the peripheral devices, and quotas to each user for the use of the peripheral devices over a predetermined period. The system collects the use of each one of the peripheral devices by each user and totals the use by each user of the peripheral devices over the predetermined period. The method prevents a user from using the peripheral devices when the user exceeds the user'"'"'s quota. The method also prevents a user from using peripheral devices to which the user has not been granted access rights.

Claims

1. A method for controlling by a manager server, use by a user of a peripheral device, said peripheral device being one of a plurality of peripheral devices which are directly connected to the manager server via a network or are connected to the manager server via a workstation which is connected to the manager server via the network, the method comprising the steps of:

periodically receiving in the manager server, accounting data specific to the user from each one of the peripheral devices for which the user has access rights, wherein each of the peripheral devices for which the user has access rights generates the accounting data specific to the user and periodically transmits the generated accounting data specific to the user to the manager server without receiving a request from the manager server, said manager server totaling the accounting data received from each of the peripheral devices to determine a usage by the user of the peripheral devices for a predetermined time period;

storing in the manager server, account information specific to the user, the account information including at least one of a quota for the user to use a peripheral device, one or more services of the peripheral device for the predetermined period, the usage of the user for the predetermined time period, and permissions to use one or more of the services of the peripheral device; and

periodically transmitting by the manager server to a workstation at which the user has logged-in, the account information specific to the user, wherein the periodic transmitting is performed without the manager server receiving a request for the account information specific to the user from the workstation at which the user has logged-in;

wherein if the account information received by the workstation at which the user has logged in indicates that the user'"'"'s usage exceeds the user'"'"'s quota at the time that the user'"'"'s account information is received by the workstation, print queues of the workstation at which the user has logged-in are paused for the balance of the predetermined time period or any pending jobs in the print queue are deleted from the print queue.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the accounting data received in the manager server from each of the peripheral devices depends on an embedded accounting of each respective peripheral device and comprises either counter data, log data or no data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the accounting data received in the manager server further includes data received from the workstation at which the user has logged-in over the predetermined time period about the workstation printer queues and print logs.

4. The method of claim 1, further including the step of the manager server totaling the accounting data received from each of the peripheral devices and the data received from each workstation at which the user has logged-in over the predetermined time period to determine the usage of the peripheral devices by the user over the predetermined time period.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the quota is unique to the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the quota is at least a number of printed mono pages or a number of printed color pages.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of peripheral devices includes any combination of printers, scanners, copiers, fax machines and multifunctional peripheral devices.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the access rights for the user are granted by assigning the user to one or more user groups, and assigning individual ones of the peripheral devices to one or more of the user groups.

9. A method for controlling by a manager server, use of a plurality of peripheral devices by a user logged-in at a workstation, said workstation including one or more print queues, said manager server, workstation and peripheral devices being operatively connected on a network, the method comprising the steps of:

storing in the manager server, account information specific to the user, the account information including an account identifier and permissions for the user to use one or more of the services of the peripheral devices;

periodically transmitting the user'"'"'s account information from the manager server to each of the peripheral devices to which the user has been granted access rights, the transmitting being performed without the manager server receiving a request for the user'"'"'s account information from the respective peripheral devices; and

configuring each print queue included in the workstation with the user'"'"'s account identifier such that each job initiated by the user to one or more of the plurality of peripheral devices includes the account identifier;

wherein, when a job initiated by the user from the workstation is received by one or more of the peripheral devices, each respective peripheral device compares the account identifier included in the job with the user'"'"'s account information stored in the respective peripheral device, and if the account information associated with the account identifier provides for access to the respective peripheral device and for the requested service, the job is performed by the respective peripheral device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each print queue is configured at the time the user logs in at the workstation.

11. The method of claim 9, further including the step of assigning a print identifier to the user and configuring each print queue included in the workstation with the user'"'"'s print identifier such that each job initiated by the user to one or more of the plurality of peripheral devices includes the print identifier.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the access rights for the user are granted by assigning the user to one or more user groups, and assigning individual ones of the peripheral devices to one or more of the user groups.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of peripheral devices includes any combination of printers, scanners, copiers, fax machines and multifunctional peripheral devices.

14. A workstation for use by a user to transmit a job to a peripheral device, said peripheral device being one of a plurality of peripheral devices, the workstation comprising:

one or more print queues configured to temporarily store one or more jobs destined to be transmitted to the peripheral device; and

an agent configured to periodically receive, from a manager server, without the workstation transmitting a request to the manager server, (i) a quota for the user to use the plurality of peripheral devices during a predetermined time period, and (ii) a usage of the user indicating the use by the user of the peripheral devices in the predetermined time period, wherein the usage of the user is based on each of the peripheral devices for which the user has access rights generating accounting data specific to the user and transmitting it to the manager server, wherein if the usage of the user exceeds the quota of the user during the predetermined time period, the agent at least one of (i) notifies the user that the quota is exceeded and (ii) prevents the one or more jobs stored in the one or more print queues from being transmitted,

wherein the agent further receives an account identifier of the user from the manager server when the user logs in at the workstation and configures each print queue with the user'"'"'s account identifier, and

if the user'"'"'s usage exceeds the user'"'"'s quota at the time that the user'"'"'s account identifier is received by the workstation, the print queues of the workstation at which the user has logged-in are paused for the balance of the predetermined time period or any pending jobs in the print queues are deleted from the print queues, and

if the user'"'"'s quota is not exceeded, the account identifier in each job initiated by the user from the workstation and received by the one or more of the peripheral devices is compared with the account identifiers stored in each respective peripheral device, and if the account information associated with the account identifier provides for access to the respective peripheral device and for the requested service, the job is performed by the respective peripheral device.

15. The workstation of claim 14, wherein the agent provides the user with the quota and the usage when the user logs in at the workstation and periodically thereafter.

16. The workstation of claim 14, wherein the one or more jobs are prevented from being transmitted by pausing the job queue or deleting the one or more jobs from the print queues.

17. The workstation of claim 14, wherein the peripheral device is locally connected to the workstation, and the agent periodically retrieves the use by the user of the locally connected peripheral device, and periodically transmits the use by the user of the locally connected peripheral device to the manager server.

18. A method for controlling by a manager server, use of a peripheral device by a user logged-in at one of a plurality of workstations connected to the manager server via a network, each workstation including one or more print queues, said peripheral device being one of a plurality of peripheral devices which are directly connected to the manager server via the network, or are connected to the manager server via the workstation at which the user has logged-in, the method comprising the steps of:

periodically receiving in the manager server, accounting data specific to the user from each one of the peripheral devices for which the user has access rights, wherein each of the peripheral devices for which the user has access rights generates the accounting data specific to the user and periodically transmits the generated accounting data specific to the user to the manager server without receiving a request from the manager server, and accounting data received from each workstation at which the user has logged-in, said manager server totaling the accounting data from the peripheral devices and each workstation at which the user has logged-in are totaled over a predetermined time period to determine a usage by the user of the peripheral devices for the predetermined time period;

storing in the manager server, account information specific to the user, the account information including at least one of an account identifier, a quota for the user to use the peripheral device, one or more services of the peripheral device for the predetermined time period, the usage of the user for the predetermined time period, and permissions to use one or more of the services of the peripheral device;

periodically transmitting the user'"'"'s account information from the manager server to the workstation at which the user has logged-in and to each of the peripheral devices to which the user has been granted access rights, wherein the periodic transmitting is performed without the manager server receiving a request for the user'"'"'s account information from the workstation at which the user has logged-in; and

configuring each print queue included in the workstation with the user'"'"'s account identifier at the time that the user logs in at the workstation, such that each job initiated by the user to one or more of the plurality of peripheral devices includes the account identifier;

wherein if the account information received by the workstation at which the user has logged in indicates that the user'"'"'s usage exceeds the user'"'"'s quota at the time that the user'"'"'s account information is received by the workstation, the print queues of the workstation at which the user has logged-in are paused for the balance of the predetermined time period or any pending jobs in the print queues are deleted from the print queues, and

if the user'"'"'s quota is not exceeded, the account identifier in each job initiated by the user from the workstation and received by the one or more of the peripheral devices is compared with the account identifiers stored in each respective peripheral device, and if the account information associated with the account identifier provides for access to the respective peripheral device and for the requested service, the job is performed by the respective peripheral device.