Method and system for wireless communication with machine-to-machine devices

• US 9,380,430 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2013
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sierra Wireless Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Sierra Wireless Incorporated
• Inventors: Vos, Gustav Gerald, Chitty, Jen T'ai, Mitchell, Andrew Hasley Watson, Guillemette, Philippe Frdric Jol Ren, Kavanaugh, Richard Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jay P
• Application Number:
  US13/918,303
• Publication Number:
  US 20130336111A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,110 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/08 Configuration management of networks or network elements address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/24 Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/08 Access restriction or access information delivery, e.g. discovery data delivery signalling during connection H04W76/00

Abstract

Approaches for managing machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless devices are disclosed. M2M devices may be managed using broadcast messages wirelessly transmitted from a server. M2M wireless devices may be configured to utilize service classes in order to implement network access policy control. Features include per-message or per-group security; randomized delays for acknowledgements and/or network access, optionally per group or network access rule; sequence numbers and/or retransmissions for QoS; pre-defined pathname shortcuts; network access rules based on time, congestion and network events; estimates of congestion at various nodes; spreading and/or maximum wait times; default or universal service classes; application data streams mapped to service classes; and offline triggering.

Claims

1. A method for managing machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless devices from a remote server, the method comprising:

configuring and controlling one or more M2M wireless devices at least in part using one or more broadcast messages transmitted over a wireless communication link; and

transmitting an acknowledgement from at least one of the M2M wireless devices in response to receipt of one of the broadcast messages, wherein said one of the broadcast messages contains a parameter for use by the at least one of the M2M wireless devices in randomizing timing of transmission of said acknowledgement.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more broadcast messages is configured to initiate configuration updates for the one or more M2M wireless devices.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising adjusting a level of security of said broadcast messages on a per message basis, based at least in part on security requirements from an application.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the parameter is configured based at least in part on current network conditions.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more M2M wireless devices is configured to store at least one shortcut parameter, and wherein a remote server stores a corresponding shortcut parameter, said shortcut parameter indicative of a shortened version of a full identifier, the full identifier usable for operation of the at least one M2M wireless device, and wherein at least one of the one or more broadcast messages includes one or both of:

an update to said shortcut parameter; and

an indication of whether the shortcut parameter currently stored by the at least one M2M wireless device matches the corresponding stored shortcut parameter.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more broadcast messages includes a random backoff parameter for configuration of the one or more M2M wireless devices, wherein the one or more M2M wireless devices are configured to wait for a random amount of time before initiating network access in response to a broadcast, wherein generation of said random amount of time is performed independently by each of the one or more M2M wireless devices and influenced by said random backoff parameter.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein M2M wireless devices are configured to transmit acknowledgements in response to receipt of every k^th broadcast messages addressed thereto, the method further comprising adjusting k based at least in part on requirements of an application involving at least some of the M2M wireless devices.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the broadcast messages are addressed to a group address defined in the broadcast message, and wherein a security mechanism is provided for the associated broadcast message, said security mechanism having security parameters specific to the group address.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising actively tracking locations of the M2M wireless devices by retaining a list of cell IDs visited during a predetermined time interval, said list limited to a maximum number of entries.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more broadcast messages is indicative of current network congestion levels.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining one or more regions in which at least one of the one or more M2M wireless devices are expected to be, and wherein transmitting said one of the broadcast messages comprises transmitting selectively in said determined one or more regions.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein determining said one or more regions comprises actively tracking locations of target M2M wireless devices.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising adjusting a quality of service level based at least in part on current network conditions, reliability requirements of an application communicating via the broadcast messages, or both, wherein said quality of service level affects reliability of transmission of said one or more broadcast messages.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein said quality of service level defines one or more of:

a number of times said broadcast messages are repeated; and

conditions under which said broadcast messages are repeated.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein said quality of service level defines whether M2M wireless devices are required to transmit acknowledgements in response to receiving said broadcast messages addressed thereto.

16. The method according to claim 1, further comprising transmitting an acknowledgement from at least one of the M2M wireless devices in response to receipt of one of the broadcast messages and determining an action to take based on receipt of acknowledgements from said at least one of the M2M wireless devices.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein transmission of said one of the broadcast messages is conditionally repeated based on a number of acknowledgements received by the remote server.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein transmission of said one of the broadcast messages is repeated if the number of acknowledgements is below a predetermined threshold.

19. The method according to claim 1, wherein the broadcast messages are encrypted, and wherein every k^th broadcast message contains a new nonce for use in decrypting a subsequent k broadcast messages, the method further comprising adjusting k based at least in part on current network conditions.

20. The method according to claim 1, further comprising including a message header in at least one of the broadcast messages, the message header indicative of which of the M2M wireless devices is being addressed, wherein each one of the M2M wireless devices in receipt of the at least one of the broadcast messages is configured to further process the at least one of the broadcast messages if and only if said one of the M2M wireless devices is being addressed,

wherein the message header comprises a group address specific to an application running commonly on plural M2M wireless devices.

23. The method according to claim 19, further comprising, upon determining that at least one of said M2M wireless devices has failed to transmit said acknowledgement, selecting between a broadcast communication option and a unicast communication option for retransmitting content of the broadcast message to said at least one of said M2M wireless devices, and retransmitting content of the broadcast message using the selected option.

21. A method for managing machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless devices from a remote server, the method comprising:

configuring and controlling one or more M2M wireless devices at least in part using one or more broadcast messages transmitted over a wireless communication link; and

transmitting an acknowledgement from at least one of the one or more M2M wireless devices in response to receipt of one of the broadcast messages, wherein said one of the broadcast messages contains a parameter for use by the at least one of one or more M2M wireless devices, said parameter indicative that the at least one of the one or more M2M wireless devices is to delay transmitting said acknowledgement until an earliest occurrence of;

expiry of a predetermined maximum amount of time; and

initiation of communication by an application operating on the at least one of the one or more M2M wireless devices.

22. A method for managing machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless devices from a remote server, the method comprising:

configuring and controlling one or more M2M wireless devices at least in part using one or more broadcast messages transmitted over a wireless communication link; and

selecting between a broadcast communication option and a unicast communication option, said selection based at least in part on an assessment or relative efficiency of the broadcast communication option and the unicast communication option,

wherein the broadcast communication option comprises communicating with the one or more M2M wireless devices using the one or more broadcast messages and wherein the unicast communication option comprises communicating with the one or more M2M wireless devices using one or more unicast messages.

24. A method for managing access to a wireless network by a machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless device, the method comprising:

defining a set of network access rules for potential use in governing network access operations performed by the M2M wireless device;

defining a set of service classes, wherein each service class is associated with a particular subset of the set of network access rules; and

upon receiving a request by an application running on the M2M wireless device for accessing the wireless network, determining a service class associated with the application, and accessing the network in accordance with the determined service class and the subset of network access rules associated with the determined service class;

wherein at least one of said network access rules is associated with a random back-off time parameter, wherein the M2M wireless device is configured to wait a random amount of time before performing network access operations, and wherein said random amount of time is determined based at least in part on the random back-off time parameter.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein the plurality of service classes includes a default service class, and wherein determining the service class comprises selecting the default service class when an association between the application and a particular one of the set of service classes is otherwise unspecified.

26. The method according to claim 24, wherein the plurality of service classes includes an override service class, wherein accessing the network is additionally performed in accordance with the subset of network access rules associated with the override service class.

27. The method according to claim 24, wherein at least one of said network access rules is associated with a maximum wait time parameter, wherein the M2M wireless device is configured to wait no longer than the maximum wait time before performing network access operations.

28. A system comprising a server and a plurality of machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless devices, wherein the server is communicatively coupled to the plurality of M2M devices at least in part via a broadcast wireless communication link, and wherein the M2M devices are configured and controlled via broadcast messages transmitted over the broadcast wireless communication link, and wherein the system is further configured to transmit an acknowledgement from at least one of the M2M wireless devices in response to receipt of one of the broadcast messages, wherein said one of the broadcast messages contains a parameter for use by the at least one of the M2M wireless devices in randomizing timing of transmission of said acknowledgement.

29. The system according to claim 28, further comprising an M2M access portal configured to determine said one or more regions comprises by actively tracking locations of target M2M wireless devices.

30. A machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless device comprising:

a memory comprising a set of network access rules for potential use in governing network access operations performed by the M2M wireless device, and a set of service classes, wherein each service class is associated with a particular subset of the set of network access rules; and

a network access module configured to;

receive a request by an application running on the M2M wireless device for accessing the wireless network;

determine a service class associated with the application; and

access the network in accordance with the determined service class and the subset of network access rules associated with the determined service class;

wherein at least one of said network access rules is associated with a random back-off time parameter, wherein the M2M wireless device is configured to wait a random amount of time before performing network access operations, and wherein said random amount of time is determined based at least in part on the random back-off time parameter.

31. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a computer program product configured for managing machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless devices from a remote server, the computer program product comprising code which, when loaded into memory and executed on an associated processor, is adapted to perform:

configuring and controlling one or more M2M wireless devices at least in part using one or more broadcast messages transmitted over a wireless communication link; and

transmitting an acknowledgement from at least one of the M2M wireless devices in response to receipt of one of the broadcast messages, wherein said one of the broadcast messages contains a parameter for use by the at least one of the M2M wireless devices in randomizing timing of transmission of said acknowledgement.

32. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising a computer program product configured for managing access to a wireless network by a machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless device, the computer program product comprising code which, when loaded into memory and executed on an associated processor, is adapted to perform:

defining a set of network access rules for potential use in governing network access operations performed by the M2M wireless device;

defining a set of service classes, wherein each service class is associated with a particular subset of the set of network access rules;

upon receiving a request by an application running on the M2M wireless device for accessing the wireless network, determining a service class associated with the application, and accessing the network in accordance with the determined service class and the subset of network access rules associated with the determined service class;

wherein at least one of said network access rules is associated with a random back-off time parameter, wherein the M2M wireless device is configured to wait a random amount of time before performing network access operations, and wherein said random amount of time is determined based at least in part on the random back-off time parameter.