Method, system and device for automatically configuring a communications network

• US 9,363,709 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2003
• Issued: 06/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samrat Vasisht
• Original Assignee: Samrat Vasisht
• Inventors: Vasisht, Samrat
• Primary Examiner(s): Mirza, Adnan
• Application Number:
  US10/740,762
• Publication Number:
  US 20040133689A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,551 Days
• Field of Search: 709/220, 709/228
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2805 Home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2836 Protocol conversion between an external network and a home network controlling appliance services of a home automation network from a device located outside the home and the home network H04L12/2818; protocol conversion H04L69/08; adaptation of digital video signals for transport over a specific home network H04N7/24
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2843 Mains power line
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2845 Telephone line
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2849 Audio/video appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0803 Configuration setting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0859 by keeping history of different configuration generations or by rolling back to previous configuration versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0883 Semiautomatic configuration, e.g. proposals from system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0886 Fully automatic configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5061 Pools of addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/162 at the data link layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/18 Negotiating wireless communication parameters

Abstract

A system, method, device, and computer program product for configuring a communications network for a user, including assigning a network identifier to a communications network of a user, the network identifier being unique to an instantiation of the communications network; and automatically generating a plurality of unique network configuration settings for one or more network devices of the communications network based on the network identifier.

Claims

1. An electronic device-implemented method for configuring a communications network, the method comprising:

providing, at an electronic device having an interface for communicating with the communications network, a network identifier (NID) that identifies the communications network, the NID comprising a set of characters assigned to a specific instantiation of the communications network;

receiving a request that a node device be configured for use in the communications network;

inputting the NID to one or more algorithms or equations;

using the one or more algorithms or equations, applying the NID to generate values for a plurality of parameters describing a configuration for the node device, wherein the values are automatically generated from the NID; and

forwarding the values derived from the NID to the node device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters comprise at least one of TCP/IP settings, Media Access Control (MAC) settings, Physical Layer (PHY) settings, and LAN protocol settings.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the parameters comprise LAN protocol settings and the LAN protocol settings comprise a power line networking protocol, a phone line networking protocol, a coaxial cable networking protocol, a fiber optic cable networking protocol, and a twisted pair wire networking protocol.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the parameters comprise LAN protocol settings and the LAN protocol settings comprise an 802.11x protocol.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising setting at least one of Network Name parameters, SSID parameters, WEP parameters, and WPA parameters based on the LAN protocol settings.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the NID represents a plurality of network attributes in a single character set, wherein the network configuration manager interprets the NID and implements the network attributes.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the NID uniquely identifies the communications network using a set of characters uniquely assigned to a specific instantiation of the communications network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the NID probabilistically identifies the communications network.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein generation of the plurality of parameters is repeatable such that the electronic device generates the same parameter each time the parameter is generated using a specific NID.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the plurality parameters further uses predetermined network settings for the node device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration manager uses the NID to limit the size of the home network.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters are written to a memory of the node device.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device is a network gateway device for connecting two different communication networks.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the two different communication networks are a WAN communications network and a LAN communications network.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration of the node device is compatible to a set of configuration settings that are active on a second device in the communications network.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring the node device using the configuration.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the parameters in the configuration of the node device is received from a second device in the communications network.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the parameters in the configuration of the node device is a TCP/IP networking setting.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising setting an allowable subnet mask for the communications network based on the TCP/IP networking setting.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising generating one or more static IP addresses, and issuing one of the static IP addresses to the device based on a serialized number or alphabetical sequence association, such that the static IP addresses are compliant with the TCP/IP networking setting.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring networking between the communications network and a service provider based on one or more of the generated parameters.

40. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic device and the node device are the same device such that the node device is configured independently.

22. A nontransitory electronic device readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the processors to:

provide, at an electronic device having an interface for communicating with a communications network, a network identifier (NID) that identifies the communications network, the NID comprising a set of characters assigned to a specific instantiation of the communications network;

receive a request that a node device be configured for use in the communications network;

input the NID to one or more algorithms or equations;

using the one or more algorithms or equations, apply the NID to generate

values for a plurality of parameters describing a configuration for the node device, wherein the values are automatically generated from the NID; and

write the plurality of parameters to a memory of the node device.

23. The storage medium of claim 22, wherein the plurality of parameters comprise at least one of TCP/IP settings, Media Access Control (MAC) settings, Physical Layer (PHY) settings, and LAN protocol settings.

24. The storage medium of claim 23, wherein the parameters comprise LAN protocol settings and the LAN protocol settings comprise a power line networking protocol, a phone line networking protocol, a coaxial cable networking protocol, a fiber optic cable networking protocol, and a twisted pair wire networking protocol.

25. The storage medium of claim 23, wherein the parameters comprise LAN protocol settings and the LAN protocol settings comprise an 802.11x protocol.

26. The storage medium of claim 25, further comprising setting at least one of Network Name parameters, SSID parameters, WEP parameters, and WPA parameters based on the LAN protocol settings.

27. The storage medium of claim 22, wherein the NID represents a plurality of network attributes in a single character set, wherein the electronic device interprets the NID and implements the network attributes.

28. The storage medium of claim 22, wherein the configuration of the node device is compatible to a set of configuration settings that are active on a second device in the communications network.

29. The storage medium of claim 22, further comprising instructions for configuring the node device using the configuration.

30. The storage medium of claim 22, wherein at least one of the parameters in the configuration of the node device is received from a second device in the communications network.

31. The storage medium of claim 22, wherein at least one of the parameters in the configuration of the device is a TCP/IP networking setting.

32. The storage medium of claim 22, further comprising instructions for configuring networking between the communications network and a service provider based on one or more of the generated parameters.

41. The storage medium of claim 22, wherein the electronic device and the node device are the same device such that the node device is configured independently.

33. A computer-implemented method for configuring a gateway in a communications network, the method comprising:

inputting a network identifier (NID) to one or more algorithms or equations, the NID identifying the communications network and comprising a set of characters assigned to a specific instantiation of the communications network;

using the one or more algorithms or equations, applying the NID to generate a plurality of parameters describing a configuration for the gateway, wherein the plurality of parameters are each automatically generated from a network identifier (NID), the creating of the parameters being performed in response to a request to configure the gateway and the applying the NID being performed by a network configuration manager running on a node device;

establishing a connection between the node device and the gateway;

uploading, using the network configuration manager, the configuration to the gateway;

changing settings on the node device to one or more LAN settings predicated by the network configuration manager;

receiving, from the gateway, one or more network settings at the node device; and

writing the network settings to a memory of the node device.

34. A computer-implemented method for configuring a node device in a communications network, the method comprising:

detecting a network interface controller (NIC) that is active on the node device;

inputting a network identifier (NID) to one or more algorithms or equations, the NID identifying the communications network and comprising a set of characters assigned to a specific instantiation of the communications network;

using the one or more algorithms or equations, applying the NID to generate, using a network configuration manager, a plurality of parameters describing a configuration for the NIC, wherein the plurality of parameters are automatically generated from a network identifier (NID), the creating of the parameters being performed in response to a request to configure the NIC;

writing the generated configuration parameters to a memory of the node device; and

configuring, using the network configuration manager, the NIC using the generated configuration parameters.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein detecting an NIC comprises detecting a plurality of NICs that are active on the node device, and further comprising receiving a selection of an NIC from among the plurality of NICs to be configured.

36. A computer-implemented method for configuring a node device in a communications network, the method comprising:

defining a network identifier (NID) unique to an instantiation of the local area network and for authenticating a node device having an interface for connection with the local area network;

inputting the NID to one or more algorithms or equations;

using the one or more algorithms or equations, applying the NID to generate

a plurality of data link layer parameters required for authenticating the node device, wherein a value of each of the plurality of data link parameters is automatically generated from the NID; and

configuring the node device by applying the generated data link layer parameters using a configuration manager for establishing a secure data link layer communication between the node device and the local area network, wherein configuring the node device comprises writing the data link layer parameters to a memory of the node device.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the plurality of data link layer parameters include Media Access Control (MAC) settings.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein the plurality of data link layer parameters include Network Name parameters, SSID parameters, WEP parameters, and WPA parameters.

39. The method of claim 36, wherein the node device is authenticated by a gateway connected to the local area network.