System and method for notifying a user of conditions associated with an internet-of-things (IoT) hub

• US 9,729,340 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2015
• Issued: 08/08/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Afero, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Afero, Inc.
• Inventors: Britt, Joe, Matsumura, Shin, Forood, Houman, Zimmerman, Scott, Myles, Phillip, Zawicki, Sean, Kutami, Daisuke, Lee, Justin
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAN, MAN U
• Application Number:
  US14/590,719
• Publication Number:
  US 20160197786A1
• Time in Patent Office: 945 Days
• Field of Search: 370328-401, 370252-311, 709219-250
• 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 12/2827 Reporting to a device within the home network; wherein the reception of the information reported automatically triggers the execution of a home appliance functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0613 based on the type or category of the network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/00 Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00; network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00; security arrangements for protecting computers or computer systems against unauthorised activity G06F21/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• 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 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A platform, apparatus and method for detecting that an IoT hub communication channel has become inoperative. For example, one embodiment of an IoT system comprises: an Internet of Things (IoT) hub comprising a network interface to couple the IoT hub to an IoT service over a first communication channel; at least one IoT device communicatively coupled to the IoT hub over a second communication channel; connection monitoring logic to detect when the first communication channel between the IoT service and the IoT hub has become inoperative; notification logic to transmit a notification to a data processing device of a user of the IoT system responsive to the connection monitoring logic detecting that the first communication channel has become inoperative.

Claims

1. An IoT system comprising:

a hardware Internet of Things (IoT) hub comprising a first network interface to couple the IoT hub to an IoT service over a first communication channel and a second network interface to couple the IoT hub to the IoT service over a second communication channel, the first communication channel comprising a cellular network connection and the second communication channel comprising a home internet connection;

at least one IoT device communicatively coupled to the IoT hub over a local communication channel;

connection monitoring logic circuitry to detect when any one or both of the first and second communication channels between the IoT service and the IoT hub have become inoperative;

notification logic circuitry to transmit a notification to a data processing device of a user of the IoT system responsive to the connection monitoring logic circuitry detecting that any one or both the first and second communication channels have become inoperative.

2. The system as in claim 1 wherein the connection monitoring logic circuitry and the notification logic circuitry are implemented on the IoT service.

3. The system as in claim 2 wherein the connection monitoring logic circuitry is configured to periodically transmit a request to the IoT hub and to determine that any one or both of the first and second communication channels have become inoperative after the IoT hub has failed to transmit a response.

4. The system as in claim 3 wherein the connection monitoring logic circuitry determines that the first communication channel and/or the second communication channel has become inoperative after the IoT hub has failed to transmit a response after a specified number of requests.

5. The system as in claim 1 wherein the IoT service is configured to continue to communicate with the IoT hub over the home Internet connection if the cellular network connection has been determined to be inoperative and is configured to communicate with the IoT hub over the cellular connection if the home Internet connection has become inoperative.

6. The system as in claim 1 wherein the notification logic circuitry transmits the notification over the Internet to the user'"'"'s data processing device, the data processing device having an app or browser-based program code executed thereon to receive the notification and generate a visual notification to the user, the visual notification containing an indication of the current status of the first communication channel and the current status of the second communication channel.

7. A method comprising:

providing a hardware Internet of Things (IoT) hub comprising a first network interface to couple the IoT hub to an IoT service over a first communication channel and a second network interface to couple the IoT hub to an IoT service over a second communication channel, the first communication channel comprising a cellular network connection and the second communication channel comprising a home internet connection;

providing at least one IoT device communicatively coupled to the IoT hub over a local communication channel;

detecting when any one or both of the first and second communication channels between the IoT service and the IoT hub have become inoperative;

transmitting a notification to a data processing device of a user responsive to the detecting that any one or both of the first and second communication channels have become inoperative.

8. The method as in claim 7 wherein the operations of detecting and transmitting are performed on the IoT service.

9. The method as in claim 8 wherein detecting comprises periodically transmitting a request from the IoT service to the IoT hub and determining that any one or both of the first and second communication channels have become inoperative after the IoT hub has failed to transmit a response.

10. The method as in claim 9 wherein a determination is made that the first communication channel and/or the second communication channel has become inoperative after the IoT hub has failed to transmit a response to the IoT service after a specified number of requests transmitted from the IoT service.

11. The method as in claim 7 wherein the IoT service is configured to continue to communicate with the IoT hub over the home Internet connection if the cellular network connection has been determined to be inoperative and is configured to communicate with the IoT hub over the cellular connection if the home Internet connection has become inoperative.

12. The method as in claim 7 wherein the notification is transmitted over the Internet to the user'"'"'s data processing device, the data processing device having an app or browser-based program code executed thereon to receive the notification and generate a visual notification to the user, the visual notification containing an indication of the current status of the first communication channel and the current status of the second communication channel.