Registering client computing devices for online communication sessions

• US 8,948,797 B2
• Filed: 04/10/2013
• Issued: 02/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Mathias, Arun, Santamaria, Justin, Wood, Justin, Abuan, Joe, Brown, Jeremy, Gates, Patrick, Klahn, Matthew, Vyrros, Andrew H., Thomas, Braden, Yao, Drew
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, CONGVAN
• Application Number:
  US13/860,370
• Publication Number:
  US 20130231146A1
• Time in Patent Office: 664 Days
• Field of Search: 455/466, 455/406, 455/411, 455/412.1, 455/412.2, 455/414.1, 713/151, 713/155, 713/159, 713/168, 713/171, 713/172, 713/176
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/234 for tracking messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1073 Registration or de-registration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1089 by adding media; by removing media
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4061 Push-to services, e.g. push-to-talk or push-to-video
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0057 Services where the data services network provides a telephone service in addition or as an alternative, e.g. for backup purposes, to the telephone service provided by the telephone services network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]

Abstract

Registering a client computing device for online communication sessions. A registration server receives a message that has a push token that is unique to the client computing device and a phone number of the client computing device from an SMS (Short Message Service) transit device, which received an SMS message having the push token from the client computing device and determined the phone number of the client computing device from that SMS message. The registration server associates the push token and the phone number and stores it in a registration data store, which is used for inviting users for online communication sessions.

Claims

1. A method for registering a client computing device for online communication sessions, comprising:

receiving a message, the message including a device specific identifying token that is unique to the client computing device and a phone number of the client computing device, from an SMS (short message service) transit device that received an SMS message having the identifying token from the client computing device, the SMS transit device having determined the phone number of the client computing device using the identifying token, the identifying token containing information to allow a push notification service to locate and transmit push notification messages to the client computing device;

generating an association between the identifying token and the phone number to uniquely identify the device in an online communication session network; and

storing the association in an online communication session registration data store.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the message from the SMS transit device was transmitted in response to the client computing device powering on and automatically transmitting the SMS message having the identifying token of the client computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the association between the device specific identifying token and the phone number to an online communication session invitation service to be used when transmitting online communication session invites to the client computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to associating the device specific identifying token and the phone number, performing the following:

generating a signature based on a device specific identifying token and the phone number;

transmitting a message including the signature, the identifying token, and the phone number to the SMS transit device for delivery to the client computing device;

receiving a message having the signature, identifying token, and the phone number from the client computing device; and

validating the identifying token and phone number received from the client computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the SMS transit device is an SMS gateway or an SMS aggregator.

6. A registration server to register multiple client computing devices for an online communication session, the registration server comprising:

an SMS (short message service) transit interface, to receive a registration request message from an SMS transit device that receives SMS messages from multiple client computing devices, each registration request message including;

a device specific identifying token that is unique to a client computing device of the multiple client computing devices and contains information to allow a push notification service to locate and transmit push notification messages to the client computing device, and a phone number of the client computing device, the phone number determined by the SMS transit device; and

an association module, to generate an association between the device specific identifying tokens and phone numbers, the association to uniquely identify the client computing device in an online communication session network, and to store the association in a registration data store.

7. The registration server of claim 6, further comprising:

a signature generation module to generate a signature for each device specific identifying token and phone number data pair received from the SMS transit device, the SMS transit device receiving registration response messages from the SMS transit interface of the registration server;

a client device interface, to receive registration validation request messages from client devices, each registration validation request message including the signature for each data pair received from the SMS transit device; and

a validation module to validate a pair for a client computing device using the signature, prior to the generation of an association between the data pair.

8. The registration server of claim 6, wherein the SMS transit device is an SMS gateway or an SMS aggregator.

9. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, when executed by a processor, will cause said processor to perform operations for registering a client computing device for online communication sessions, the operations comprising:

receiving a message, the message including a device specific identifying token that is unique to the client computing device and contains information that allows a push notification service to locate and transmit push notification messages to the client computing device, and a phone number of the client computing device, from an SMS (short message service) transit device that received an SMS message having the identifying token from the client computing device, the SMS transit device having determined the phone number of the client computing device using the identifying token;

generating an association between the identifying token and the phone number, to uniquely identify the device in an online communication session network; and

storing the association in an online communication session registration data store.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the message from the SMS transit device was transmitted in response to the client computing device powering on and automatically transmitting the SMS message having the identifying token of the client computing device.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising providing the association to an online communication session invitation service to be used when transmitting online communication session invites to the client computing device.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

generating a signature based on a data pair, the data pair including an the identifying token and the phone number of a client computing device;

transmitting a message including the signature to the SMS transit device for delivery to the client computing device;

receiving a message form the client computing device, the message having the data pair and the signature based on the data pair; and

validating the data pair received from the client computing device using the signature based on the data pair.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the SMS transit device is an SMS gateway or an SMS aggregator.

14. An online communication session registration system, comprising:

a registration server, to associate a data pair including a device specific token that is unique to a client computing device, each identifying token to uniquely identify the client computing device and allow a push notification service to locate and transmit push notification messages to the client computing device, and a phone number associated with the client computing device, wherein the registration server stores the data pair in an online communication session registration data store; and

an SMS (short message service) transit device to receive SMS messages from multiple client computing devices, the messages having identifying tokens of the client computing devices, wherein the SMS transit device determines phone numbers of the client computing devices from the SMS messages, and wherein the SMS transit device further transmits identifying token and phone number pairs to the registration server.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the registration server further generates a signature for each identifying token and phone number data pair received from the SMS transit device and transmits messages to the SMS transit device having a signature, device specific identifying token, and phone number for a client computing device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the SMS transit device further transmits SMS messages to the client computing devices, each message having a signature generated by the registration server and a phone number for that client computing device.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the registration server further receives messages from client computing devices, each message including a signature, phone number, and device specific identifying token;

and wherein the registration server further validates the identifying tokens and phone number pairs received from the client computing devices based on the signature received from the client computing device and the signature generated by the registration server.