Network-assisted fabric pairing

• US 9,590,976 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2014
• Issued: 03/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2014
• Status: Expired

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Logue, Jay D., Stebbins, Andrew William, Tinkoff, Roger Loren
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, ELLEN C
• Application Number:
  US14/582,062
• Publication Number:
  US 20160105424A1
• Time in Patent Office: 805 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0886 Fully automatic configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0876 based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• 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 67/12 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 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/04 Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/50 Secure pairing of devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Systems and methods for joining a device to a fabric using an assisting device include an indication to add a joining device to a fabric. If the joining device supports network-assisted fabric pairing, a first connection is established between a commissioning device and the assisting device. The assisting device also connects to a joining device. Through the assisting device, the commissioning device and the joining device establish a communication channel over which fabric credentials may be sent.

Claims

1. A method for joining a device to a fabric, comprising:

receiving an indication to add a joining device to a fabric;

determining whether the joining device supports network-assisted fabric pairing; and

if the joining device supports network-assisted fabric pairing;

establishing a first secure communication channel with an assisting device, wherein the assisting device is configured to assist the joining device in joining the fabric;

in response to receiving the indication to add the joining device to the fabric, instructing the assisting device to place a local area network in a joinable mode from a non-joinable mode;

establishing a second secure communication channel as a tunneled connection that extends to the joining device through the assisting device from a commissioning device, wherein the commissioning device is configured to manage joining of devices to the fabric on which the electronic device resides; and

sending fabric credentials for the fabric to be joined by the joining device via the second secure communication channel.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising obtaining the fabric credentials from the assisting device for the fabric to be joined through the first secure communication channel before sending the fabric credentials to the joining device via the second secure communication channel if the joining device supports network-assisted fabric pairing.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

obtaining local area network credentials from the assisting device for the local area network on which the assisting device resides; and

sending the local area network credentials to the joining device via the second secure communication channel.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

authenticating to a remote service using account information; and

receiving, from the remote service, authentication credentials including a fabric authentication token, wherein establishing the second secure communication channel comprises establishing a secure connection with the assisting device using the received fabric authentication token and a Certificate Authenticated Session Establishment (CASE) protocol.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receive a device identifier for the joining device;

determining whether the device identifier is valid; and

if the device identifier is not valid, stopping the joining device from being network-assisted fabric paired.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein receiving the device identifier comprises receiving a code located on the joining device, and wherein determining whether the device identifier is valid comprises:

determining whether the device identifier comprises a valid check digit;

or

determining whether the device identifier comprises a value expected for the device identifier.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein determining whether the joining device supports network-assisted fabric pairing comprises:

receiving an indication of a device type for the joining device;

determining whether the device type supports network-assisted fabric-pairing;

receiving an indication of a software version running on the joining device; and

determining whether the software version supports network-assisted fabric pairing.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein receiving an indication of the device type for the joining device comprises:

receiving an explicit selection of a device type for the joining device;

or

determining a device type for the joining device from the device identifier of the joining device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the local area network comprises an 802.15.4 network, and the establishing the first secure communication channel comprises establishing a connection via an 802.11 network, and the tunneled connection extends through portions of the 802.15.4 network and the 802.11 network.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the tunneled connection provides communication from the commissioning device to the joining device since the commissioning device and the joining device do not communicate over a common network type during joining the joining device to the fabric.

11. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing instructions, which when executed, are configured to cause a processor to:

receive an indication to add a joining device to a fabric;

connect to an assisting device through a first local area network, wherein the assisting device is configured to assist the joining device in joining to a fabric on which the assisting device resides;

instruct the assisting device to connect to the joining device and to assist the joining device in joining the fabric by enabling a tunneled connection to the joining device from a commissioning device through the assisting device, wherein the commissioning device is configured to manage joining of devices to the fabric;

in response to receiving the indication to add the joining device to the fabric, instructing the assisting device to place a second local area network in a joinable mode from a non-joinable mode; and

securely connecting to the joining device through the assisting device using the tunneled connection, wherein the connection to the joining device comprises a first portion to the assisting device that passes through the first local area network and a second portion between the assisting device and the joining device via the second local area network; and

send fabric credentials for the fabric to be joined by the joining device via the tunneled connection.

12. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the processor to:

determine if the fabric exists;

if the fabric does not exist cancel the fabric joining and send an indication of failure of joining a fabric by indicating that a fabric is to be created; and

if the fabric exists, select an appropriate assisting device to assist in joining the joining device to the fabric.

13. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein selecting the appropriate assisting device comprises:

determining if any potential assisting devices are not sleepy devices, wherein sleepy devices periodically enter a low power state, and potential assisting devices are devices which have the capability of serving as an assisting device in joining the joining device to the fabric; and

if any potential assisting devices are not sleepy devices, using a not sleepy device of the not sleepy devices as the assisting device.

14. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein selecting the appropriate assisting device comprises:

if all the potential assisting devices are sleepy devices, determining if any of the potential assisting devices may be remotely awoken from the low-power state;

if any of the potential assisting devices may be remotely awoken from the low-power state, using a remotely-awakeable potential assisting device as the assisting device in joining the joining device to the fabric;

if none of the potential assisting devices may be remotely awoken, instructing manual wakening of any assisting device of the potential assisting devices.

15. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the processor to obtain the fabric credentials from the assisting device for the fabric to be joined through the first local area network, and wherein the first local area network comprises an 802.15.4 network and the second local area network comprises an 802.11 network.

16. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein instructing the assisting device to place the place the second local area network in a joinable mode comprises instructing the assisting device to monitor for connections via an unsecured port on the second local area network.

17. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the processor to:

before securely connecting to the joining device, cause the joining device to be awakened by instructing a user to manually awaken the joining device; and

authenticating the joining device using a pairing code that corresponds to the device identifier.

18. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions are configured to cause the processor to:

determine if the joining device has capability to join the first local area network;

after securely connecting to the joining device, send credentials for the first local area network; and

if receiving a notice of failure to join from the joining device, resending the credentials or sending another set of credentials to the joining device.

19. An electronic device comprising:

a first network interface configured to couple to a first local area network having a first local area network type;

a second network interface configured to couple to a second local area network having a second local area network type;

memory;

a processor configured to;

establish a first connection with a commissioning device over the first local area network, wherein the commissioning device is configured to manage joining of devices to a fabric on which the electronic device resides;

receive instructions from the commissioning device to assist in joining a joining device to the fabric;

in response to receiving to assist in joining the joining device to the fabric, placing the second local area network in a joinable mode from a non-joinable mode;

connect to the joining device via the second local area network; and

facilitate a secure tunnel that extends through the electronic device between the joining device and the commissioning device through which fabric credentials are sent to enable the joining device to join the fabric.

20. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein connecting to the joining device comprises monitor for communications through an unsecured port on the second network interface, wherein the first local area network type comprises 802.15.4.

21. The electronic device of claim 19, wherein facilitating the secure tunnel comprises:

receiving a first set of communications from the commissioning device via the first local area network and forwarding the first set of communications to the joining device via the second local area network;

receiving a second set of communications from the joining device via the second local area network and forwarding the second set of communications to the commissioning device via the first local area network, wherein the first and second set of communications are encrypted using session keys negotiated between the commissioning device and the joining device.