Method and apparatus for distributed control of an interfacing-device network

• US 9,183,163 B2
• Filed: 01/08/2013
• Issued: 11/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ubiquiti Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. (Ubiquiti Inc.)
• Inventors: Frei, Randall W., Cheng, Linker, Pera, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Quang N
• Application Number:
  US13/736,859
• Publication Number:
  US 20140006605A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,036 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/203, 709/217, 709/219, 709/223
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/10 Program control for peripheral devices G06F13/14 - G06F13/42 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/01 characterised by the transmission medium
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/281 indicating a format for calling an appliance service function in a home automation network for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/024 using relational databases for representation of network management data, e.g. managing via structured query language [SQL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/256 NAT traversal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2575 using address mapping retrieval, e.g. simple traversal of user datagram protocol through session traversal utilities for NAT [STUN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5061 Pools of addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 : involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 : Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 : Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 : Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 : Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/10 : Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A local controller maintains a local database which stores information associated with a set of interfacing devices of a local-area network. The local database can include a database mirror for a remote database, of a remote controller, that stores information for a set of provisioned interfacing devices. During normal operation, a remote controller hosting the remote database can have primary control of interfacing devices within the local area network and/or other network domains, and the local controller maintains the local database to include at least a subset of the remote database. However, when the local controller determines that the remote controller has gone offline, the local controller can obtain primary control of interfacing devices within the local area network.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

maintaining, by a first network controller, a first database which stores information associated with a first set of interfacing devices of a local-area network, wherein the first database includes a database mirror for a subset of a second database of a second network controller which has primary control of a second set of provisioned interfacing devices of a wide-area network, wherein a respective interfacing device obtains sensor data from one or more attached physical devices, and wherein a respective physical device includes a sensor for measuring one or more physical attributes; and

responsive to determining that the second network controller that hosts the second database for the provisioned interfacing devices of the wide-area network has gone offline, configuring the first network controller to obtain primary control of the first set of interfacing devices of the local-area network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the first network controller to obtain primary control of the local area network involves enabling the first network controller to:

monitor interfacing devices of the local area network;

reconfigure an interfacing device of the local area network; and

control an interfacing device of the local area network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first network controller is not configured to add an interfacing device to the second set of provisioned interfacing devices, or to remove an interfacing device from the second set of provisioned interfacing devices.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the first network controller to obtain primary control of the local area network involves determining that the first database is synchronized with a latest version of the second database.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein responsive to determining that the first database and the second database are synchronized, configuring the first network controller to obtain primary control of the local area network involves:

enabling the first controller to add a new interfacing device to the second set of provisioned interfacing devices; and

enabling the first controller to remove an interfacing device from the second set of provisioned interfacing devices.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to determining that a second network controller that hosts the second database has come online, configuring the first network controller to rescind primary control of the local area network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the first network controller to rescind primary control of the local area network involves synchronizing the first database with the second database.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first controller or the second controller includes one or more of:

a computing device within the local-area network;

a computing device accessible via a wide-area network; and

a computer cluster accessible via a wide-area network.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

maintaining a first database which stores information associated with a first set of interfacing devices of a local-area network, wherein the first database includes a database mirror for a subset of a second database of a second network controller which has primary control of a second set of provisioned interfacing devices of a wide-area network, wherein a respective interfacing device obtains sensor data from one or more attached physical devices, and wherein a respective physical device includes a sensor for measuring one or more physical attributes; and

responsive to determining that the second network controller that hosts the second database for the provisioned interfacing devices of the wide-area network has gone offline, configuring the first network controller to obtain primary control of the first set of interfacing devices of the local-area network.

10. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein configuring the first network controller to obtain primary control of the local area network involves enabling the first network controller to:

monitor interfacing devices of the local area network;

reconfigure an interfacing device of the local area network; and

control an interfacing device of the local area network.

11. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the first network controller is not configured to add an interfacing device to the second set of provisioned interfacing devices, or to remove an interfacing device from the second set of provisioned interfacing devices.

12. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein configuring the first network controller to obtain primary control of the local area network involves determining that the first database is synchronized with a latest version of the second database.

13. The storage medium of claim 12, wherein responsive to determining that the first database and the second database are synchronized, configuring the first network controller to obtain primary control of the local area network involves:

enabling the first controller to add a new interfacing device to the second set of provisioned interfacing devices; and

enabling the first controller to remove an interfacing device from the second set of provisioned interfacing devices.

14. The storage medium of claim 9, further comprising:

responsive to determining that a second network controller that hosts the second database has come online, configuring the first network controller to rescind primary control of the local area network.

15. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein configuring the first network controller to rescind primary control of the local area network involves synchronizing the first database with the second database.

16. The storage medium of claim 9, wherein the first controller or the second controller includes one or more of:

a computing device within the local-area network;

a computing device accessible via a wide-area network; and

a computer cluster accessible via a wide-area network.

17. An apparatus, comprising:

a first network controller;

a database-managing module to maintain a first database which stores information associated with a first set of interfacing devices of a local-area network; and

a network-management module to;

communicate with a second network controller that has primary control of a second set of provisioned interfacing devices of a wide-area network, and hosts a second database that stores information for the second set of provisioned interfacing devices, wherein a respective interfacing device obtains sensor data from one or more attached physical devices, and wherein a respective physical device includes a sensor for measuring one or more physical attributes;

responsive to determining that the second network controller for the second set of provisioned interfacing devices of the wide-area network has gone offline, configure the first network controller to obtain primary control of the first set of interfacing devices of the local-area network; and

responsive to determining that the second network controller has come online, configure the database-managing module to manage the first database to mirror at least a subset of the second database.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein while managing the set of interfacing devices of a local area network, the first network controller is configured to:

monitor interfacing devices of the local area network;

reconfigure an interfacing device of the local area network; and

control an interfacing device of the local area network.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the first network controller is not configured to add an interfacing device to the second set of provisioned interfacing devices, and is not configured to remove an interfacing device from the second set of provisioned interfacing devices.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the network-management module is further configured to determine whether the first database is synchronized with a latest version of the second database.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein if the first database and the second database are synchronized, while the first network controller manages the set of interfacing devices of the local area network, the first network controller is further configured to:

add a new interfacing device to the second set of provisioned interfacing devices; and

remove an interfacing device from the second set of provisioned interfacing devices.

22. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein responsive to the network-management module determining that the second network controller has come online, the first network controller is further configured to stop managing the set of interfacing devices of the local area network.

23. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein responsive to the network-management module determining that the second network controller has come online, the first database-management module is further configured to synchronize the first database with the second database.

24. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the first network controller or the second network controller includes one or more of:

a computing device within the local-area network;

a computing device accessible via a wide-area network; and

a computer cluster accessible via a wide-area network.