Systems and methods for establishing a connection between an appliance and a home energy management device

• US 9,294,469 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2013
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Haier US Appliance Solutions, Inc. DBA GE Appliances (Haier Group Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Lee, Dong Hun, Shin, Dong Soo, Nolan, Kevin Farrelly
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran, Baotram
• Application Number:
  US13/934,340
• Publication Number:
  US 20150013001A1
• Time in Patent Office: 993 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263

Abstract

The present disclosure provides systems and methods for establishing a connection between an appliance and a home energy management device. Upon being prompted by a user, the home energy management device can create a private network for a limited period of time. Then, upon also being prompted by the user, an appliance can request to join the private network. If the appliance satisfies any required security criteria, the home energy management device can securely provide local area network access data to the appliance over the private network. After receiving such access data, the appliance can connect to the wireless local area network and establish a secure connection with the home energy management device via a router of the local area network. In one implementation, both the home energy management device and the appliance can be prompted by the user by simply pressing a button or other user-operable selector.

Claims

1. An appliance comprising:

a processor;

a memory; and

a network interface;

wherein the appliance is configured to connect to a local area network by performing operations, the operations comprising;

prior to connecting to the local area network, connecting to a private network created by a home energy management device, the private network being created by generating a service set identifier and broadcasting the service set identifier for a predetermined period of time, wherein connecting to the private network created by the home energy management device comprises providing a security certificate to the home energy management device, the security certificate having been stored in the memory of the appliance;

receiving access data from the home energy management device over the private network, the access data comprising a local area network service set identifier and a local area network passcode required for connection to the local area network, and device information concerning the home energy management device, wherein the device information comprises one or more of a device internet protocol (IP) address, a device installation code, or a device software version;

terminating the connection with the private network;

using the access data to connect to the local area network; and

responsive to connecting to the local area network, establishing a connection with the home energy management device over the local area network by;

sending via a router of the local area network a request to connect to the home energy management device; and

receiving via the router connection establishment data from the home energy management device.

2. The appliance of claim 1, further comprising a user-operable selector that, when operated by a user, prompts the appliance to initiate the operations for connecting to the local area network.

3. The appliance of claim 1, wherein connecting to the private network created by the home energy management device comprises:

detecting the private network created by the home energy management device based on an indicator included in a service set identifier of the private network; and

requesting to connect to the private network.

4. The appliance of claim 1, wherein using the access data to connect to the local area network comprises:

identifying the local area network based on the local area network service set identifier;

sending to a router a request to connect to the local area network, the request including the local area network passcode; and

establishing via the router a connection to the local area network.

5. The appliance of claim 1, wherein:

the access data received from the home energy management device includes device information concerning the home energy management device; and

the appliance is further configured to use the device information as a seed for a security code included in the request to connect to the home energy management device sent via the router.

6. A home energy management device comprising:

a processor;

a memory; and

a network interface;

wherein the home energy management device is configured to perform operations, the operations comprising;

creating a private network by;

determining whether a second network currently exists, the second network employing the same communication standard as the private network;

generating a service set identifier for the private network when the second network does not exist; and

broadcasting the service set identifier of the private network for a predetermined period of time;

receiving from an appliance a request to connect to the private network, the request to connect to the private network received from the appliance including a security certificate;

allowing the appliance to connect to the private network when the security certificate is validated;

transmitting to the appliance over the private network access data providing information required for access to a local area network, the access data comprising a local area network service set identifier, a local area network passcode, and device information concerning the home energy management device, wherein the device information comprises one or more of a device internet protocol (IP) address, a device installation code, or a device software version;

terminating the private network at the expiration of the predetermined period of time;

receiving via a router of the local area network a request from the appliance to connect to the home energy management device; and

sending via the router connection establishment data to the appliance.

7. The home energy management device of claim 6, further comprising a user-operable selector that, when operated by a user, prompts the home energy management device to create the private network.

8. The home energy management device of claim 6, wherein creating a private network further comprises providing a notification to a user when the second network exists.

9. The home energy management device of claim 6, wherein creating a private network comprises generating a service set identifier for the private network using a time seeded key generator.

10. The home energy management device of claim 6, being further configured to establish a connection with the appliance over the local area network, wherein the device information concerning the home energy management device is used as a seed for a security exchange between the home energy management device and the appliance that occurs over the local area network.

11. The home energy management device of claim 6, being further configured to perform further operations comprising:

establishing a connection with the appliance over the local area network; and

storing information identifying the appliance in the memory such that the home energy management device can reestablish the connection with the appliance over the local area network in the event of a network reset or failure recovery.

12. The home energy management device of claim 6, wherein the home energy management device comprises a mobile computing device implementing a home energy management application.

13. A method for connecting an appliance to a home energy management device, the method comprising:

receiving, at the home energy management device, a first user prompt;

responsive to the first user prompt, creating a temporary private network for a predetermined period of time using the home energy management device;

receiving, at the appliance, a second user prompt;

responsive to the second user prompt, sending from the appliance to the home energy management device a first request to join the private network, the first request to join the private network including an appliance security certificate;

establishing a first connection between the appliance and the home energy management device over the private network;

sending from the home energy management device to the appliance over the private network access data providing information for connecting to a local area network, the access data comprising a local area network service set identifier, a local area network passcode, and device information concerning the home energy management device, wherein the device information comprises one or more of a device internet protocol (IP) address, a device installation code, or a device software version;

terminating the private network at the expiration of the predetermined period of time;

sending from the appliance to a router a second request to connect to the local area network, the second request including at least a portion of the access data and a security code generated based at least in part on the access data; and

establishing a second connection between the appliance and the home energy management device over the local area network, wherein establishing the second connection comprises performing at least one security routine to validate the security code.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein:

establishing the second connection comprises performing at least one security routine in which the one or more of the device IP address, the device installation code, or the device software version comprises a setup seed.