Apparatus and method for transferring network access information of smart household appliances

• US 9,596,097 B2
• Filed: 09/01/2014
• Issued: 03/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Flower Works Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Choi, Jaeduck, Kim, Sungho, Kim, Sinkyu
• Primary Examiner(s): Traore, Fatoumata
• Assistant Examiner(s): LE, KHOI V
• Application Number:
  US14/474,223
• Publication Number:
  US 20150312230A1
• Time in Patent Office: 925 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2898 Subscriber equipments DSL modems H04M11/062; cable modems H04L12/2801
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2514 between local and global IP addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2517 using port numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2575 using address mapping retrieval, e.g. simple traversal of user datagram protocol through session traversal utilities for NAT [STUN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5014 using dynamic host configuration protocol [DHCP] or bootstrap protocol [BOOTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5076 Update or notification mechanisms, e.g. DynDNS

Abstract

An apparatus and method for transferring network access information of smart household appliances are provided. The apparatus includes a detection unit for detecting whether a public IP address of an external interface of an indoor IP sharer has changed. An extraction unit is configured to, if the public IP address of the external interface has changed, extract network access information of a smart household appliance connected to an internal interface of the indoor IP sharer, the network access information being updated together with change in the public IP address. An encryption and generation unit encrypts the network access information using a pre-stored encryption key, and generates data to be transmitted to a smart grid service provider server using the encrypted information and an ID of a customer user. A transmission unit transmits the data generated by the encryption and generation unit to the smart grid service provider server.

Claims

1. An apparatus for transferring network access information of smart household appliances, comprising:

one or more units, executed by a processor, using algorithm, which when executed, causes the processor to perform the one or more units, the units comprising,

a detection unit for detecting whether a public Internet Protocol (IP) address of an external interface of an indoor IP sharer has changed;

in response to detection of change of the public IP address of the external interface of the indoor IP sharer, an extraction unit for extracting network access information of a smart household appliance connected to an internal interface of the indoor IP sharer via a network, the extracted network access information being updated according to the change of the public IP address;

an encryption and generation unit for encrypting the network access information of the smart household appliance, the encrypted network access information comprising the change of the public IP address, and the network access information being extracted by the extraction unit using a pre-stored encryption key, and generating data to be transmitted to a smart grid service provider server using the encrypted information and an identifier (ID) of a customer user; and

a transmission unit for transmitting the data generated by the encryption and generation unit to the smart grid service provider server, wherein the transmission unit is configured to, in response to detection of a destination address of the data generated by the encryption and generation unit set to the smart grid service provider server, transmit the data using an anonymous routing technique.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the network access information of the smart household appliance includes an IP address and a port address of an external interface of the smart household appliance and an identification (ID) of the smart household appliance.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the public IP address of the external interface of the indoor IP sharer is changed by a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (CHCP).

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the network access information of the smart household appliance connected to the internal interface of the indoor IP sharer is changed via Network Address Translation (NAT).

5. An apparatus for transferring network access information of smart household appliances, comprising:

one or more units, executed by a processor, using algorithm, which when executed, causes the processor to perform the one or more units, the units comprising,

in response to receipt of data, a registration detection unit for checking whether encrypted network access information of a smart household appliance is included in the received data, and in response to detection of the encrypted network access information of the smart household appliance included in the data, the data being determined as data to be registered;

in response to detection of the data determined as data to be registered, a storage unit for storing the encrypted network access information of the smart household appliance from the data;

a request detection unit for detecting whether the data is data corresponding to a request transmitted from the smart mobile terminal, the request for requesting network access information of a smart household appliance;

in response to detection of the request by the request detection unit, a search and generation unit for searching the storage unit for encrypted network access information of a smart household appliance corresponding to the request, and generating data that is transmittable to the smart mobile terminal, the data being generated according to the encrypted network access information of the smart household appliance that has been searched; and

a transmission unit for transmitting the data generated by the search and generation unit to the smart mobile terminal.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the encrypted network access information of the smart household appliance includes an IP address and a port address of an external interface of the smart household appliance and an ID of the smart household appliance.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the smart mobile terminal comprises a decryption unit for receiving the data from the transmission unit and decrypting the data using a pre-stored encryption key.

8. A computer-implemented method for transferring network access information of smart household appliances, comprising:

encrypting, by an indoor IP sharer, network access information of a smart household appliance using an encryption key, the encrypted network access information comprising change information of the public IP address;

generating, by the indoor IP sharer, data to be transmitted to a smart grid service provider server, the generated data being generated using the encrypted network access information and an identification (ID) of a user;

transmitting, by the indoor IP sharer, the generated data to the smart grid service provider server;

receiving and storing, by the smart grid service provider server, the user ID and the encrypted network access information of the smart household appliance;

generating, by a smart mobile terminal, a message requesting the encrypted network access information of the smart household appliance, and sending, by the smart mobile terminal1 the requested message to the smart grid service provider server; and

in response to receipt of the requested message, generating, by the smart grid service provider server, a response message according to the encrypted network access information of the smart household appliance, the response message corresponding to the requested message, and

sending, by the smart grid service provider server, the response message to the smart mobile terminal, transmitting the generated data to the smart grid service provider server comprises transmitting the data using an anonymous routing technique in response to detection of a destination address of the generated data set to the smart grid service provider server.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the network access information of the smart household appliance includes an IP address and a port address of an external interface of the smart household appliance and an ID of the smart household appliance.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

prior to encrypting the network access information of the smart household appliance using the encryption key, setting the encryption key, the user ID, and service provider server access information in the smart mobile terminal and in the indoor IP sharer.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

subsequent to generating the response message and sending the response message to the smart mobile terminal, receiving, by the smart mobile terminal, the response message, and decrypting, by the smart mobile terminal, the encrypted network access information of the smart household appliance using the encryption key.