Near field communication automatic self-provisioning

• US 9,326,091 B2
• Filed: 12/03/2013
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Donnellan, Kevin, Khalid, Mohammad Raheel, Kim, Ji Hoon, Chen, Zhengfang
• Primary Examiner(s): Bilodeau, David
• Application Number:
  US14/095,458
• Publication Number:
  US 20150156601A1
• Time in Patent Office: 875 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/24 Inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/48 Transceivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/35 Protecting application or service provisioning, e.g. securing SIM application provisioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup

Abstract

Examples are disclosed that facilitate using a mobile device to provision of a connectable device to a user account. The disclosed examples provide for provisioning a connected device by a mobile device that uses a near field communication (NFC) transceiver in the mobile device to obtain information identifying a connectable device. The information identifying the connectable device is obtained from a NFC transponder associated with the connectable device. The mobile device processor accesses user account-related information to retrieve user authenticating information. The user authenticating information and the information identifying the connectable device is transmitted via a wireless communication transceiver to a provisioning server for provisioning the connectable device in a network. A confirmation of the provisioning of the connectable device to the user account associated with the mobile device is presented in a user interface element of the mobile device.

Claims

1. A mobile device, comprising:

at least one user interface element;

a wireless communication transceiver;

a storage device;

a near field communication (NFC) transceiver; and

a processor coupled to the at least one user interface element, the wireless communication transceiver and the NFC transceiver,

wherein the processor is configured to control the mobile device to perform functions, including functions to;

obtain, via the NFC transceiver, provisioning information related to a connectable device;

retrieve information identifying the connectable device from the obtained provisioning information;

transmit to a provisioning server the information identifying the connectable device and information related to a user account;

receive a signal from the provisioning server confirming the connectable device is provisioned to the user account; and

receive, based on the connectable device being provisioned, services comprising at least one of cellular communication services, data sharing services, navigation services, content delivery services, or digital media services.

2. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to control the mobile device to perform functions, including functions to:

retrieve the information related to the user account from the storage device.

3. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to control the mobile device to perform functions, including functions to:

present in the at least one user interface element a prompt for inputting the information related to the user account.

4. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to control the mobile device to perform functions, including functions to:

establish, via the wireless communication transceiver, a communication session with the provisioning server using an address of a provisioning server retrieved from the provisioning information.

5. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to control the mobile device to perform functions, including functions to:

in response to obtaining the provisioning information related to the connectable device via the NFC transceiver, launch a provisioning application; and

present in the at least one user interface element a prompt requesting user account information based on execution of the provisioning application.

6. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the obtained provisioning information includes a device identifier of the connectable device.

7. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the obtained provisioning information includes a subscriber identification module (SIM) number of the connectable device.

8. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is provisioned to the user account in a network.

9. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to control the mobile device to perform functions, including functions to:

in response to receiving an authentication request from the provisioning server, present a prompt, in the at least one user interface element, requesting a user to input a security feature associated with the user account; and

transmit the inputted response to the provisioning server.

10. The mobile device of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is provisioned in a network and the processor is further configured to control the mobile device to perform functions, including functions to:

present, via the at least one user interface element, a user interface for receiving inputs to associate the connectable device to the provisioned mobile device;

in response to receiving inputs associating the connectable device to the provisioned mobile device, modify user account settings stored in the provisioned mobile device to indicate the association of the connectable device to the provisioned mobile device and the user account; and

transmit the modified user account settings to the provisioning server.

11. A method, comprising:

obtaining, via a near field communication (NFC) transceiver in a mobile device, provisioning information related to a connectable device from an NFC transponder associated with the connectable device;

in response to obtaining the provisioning information, establishing, via a wireless communication transceiver in the mobile device, a communication session with a provisioning server;

transmitting, via the communication session with the provisioning server, information obtained from the provisioning information that identifies the connectable device and information related to a user account;

presenting, in a user interface element of the mobile device, a confirmation of the provisioning of the connectable device to the user account; and

receiving, based on the provisioning of the connectable device, services that comprise at least one of cellular communications services, data sharing services, navigation services, content delivery services, or digital media services.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

launching a provisioning application on the mobile device that interacts with the provisioning server.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

presenting, via the user interface element of the mobile device, a prompt for a user to input a secure identification prior to establishing the communication session with the provisioning server.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the transmitted connectable device identifying information includes a device hardware identification or a device subscriber identification module identifier.

15. A method, comprising:

obtaining, by a mobile device processor via a near field communication (NFC) transceiver of a mobile device, information identifying a connectable device;

in response to obtaining the identifying information, accessing user account-related information by the mobile device processor;

transmitting user authenticating information retrieved from the accessed user account-related information and the information identifying the connectable device, via a wireless communication transceiver, to a provisioning server for provisioning the connectable device in a network;

presenting, in a user interface element of the mobile device, a confirmation of the provisioning of the connectable device to the user account associated with the mobile device; and

receiving, based on the mobile device being provisioned, services comprising at least cellular communications services, data sharing services, navigation services, content delivery services, or digital media services.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the mobile device is provisioned to the user account, and accessing user account-related information comprises:

retrieving the user account-related information from a data storage accessible by the mobile device.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein accessing user account-related information comprises:

presenting a user input prompt via the user interface element of the mobile device requesting user account information.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the user authenticating information is an identifier associated with the user account.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the user authenticating information is a user account number.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

in response to obtaining the identifying information, launching by the mobile device processor a provisioning application that interacts with the provisioning server.