Automatic provisioning of meeting room device

• US 9,774,571 B2
• Filed: 03/10/2015
• Issued: 09/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Krantz, Anton W., Fried, Chaim
• Primary Examiner(s): RAHIM, MONJUR
• Application Number:
  US14/643,941
• Publication Number:
  US 20160269366A1
• Time in Patent Office: 931 Days
• Field of Search: 713150
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/08 Key distribution or management, e.g. generation, sharing or updating, of cryptographic keys or passwords network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting key management in a packet data network H04L63/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/30 Public key, i.e. encryption algorithm being computationally infeasible to invert or user's encryption keys not requiring secrecy

Abstract

Various embodiments enable meeting room devices to be produced such that, after purchase, the devices can be automatically provisioned by a meeting service. Automatic provisioning takes place over a communication network through a trust relationship that is established between the meeting room device and the meeting service.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

establishing, by a meeting room device, a communication connection with a meeting service implemented as a web service, the meeting room device usable to participate in a meeting with other devices via a communication network;

encrypting, by the meeting room device, information that can be used to establish a trust relationship with the meeting service;

transmitting, by the meeting room device, the encrypted information to the meeting service effective to enable the meeting service to identify and validate the meeting room device;

receiving, by the meeting room device, provisioning information from the meeting service related to a class of devices corresponding to the meeting room device;

using the provisioning information to automatically provision the meeting room device by at least setting an operational parameter of the meeting room device to support participation in the meeting; and

responsive to using the provisioning information to provision the meeting room device, automatically invoking an account generation process to establish an account usable by the meeting room device to automatically and directly connect to the meeting service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said encrypting is performed using a symmetric key.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said encrypting is performed using a private key of a public/private key pair.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information comprises a unique identifier, the unique identifier identifying the meeting room device and having been provided on the meeting room device prior to purchase.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the meeting room device is configured to automatically discover the meeting service responsive to connection of the meeting room device to the communication network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said provisioning information includes one or more policies that control how the meeting room device works.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said provisioning information includes one or more of bandwidth allocation, video resolution, or user authentication type allowed.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said provisioning information includes information to enable the meeting room device to directly connect to the meeting service responsive to connection of the meeting room device to the communication network.

9. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at a meeting service, encrypted information that can be used to establish a trust relationship with a meeting room device to enable the meeting room device to be automatically provisioned by the meeting service, the meeting service implemented as a web service via a web platform;

decrypting, at the meeting service, the encrypted information that was received from the meeting room device;

validating, at the meeting service, the meeting room device based on the information that was received from the meeting room device;

responsive to validating the information received from the meeting room device, sending provisioning information to the meeting room device, the provisioning information related to a class of devices corresponding to the meeting room device and said sending the provisioning information effective to automatically provision the meeting room device by at least specifying an operational parameter of the meeting room device to support participation in a meeting; and

responsive to automatically provisioning the meeting room device, automatically invoking an account generation process to establish an account usable for automatically establishing a direct connection between the meeting room device and the meeting service.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein said decrypting is performed using a symmetric key.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein said decrypting is performed using a public key of a public/private key pair, the private key having been used to encrypt the information.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the information comprises a unique identifier identifying the meeting room device.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein said validating is performed by comparing the information that was received from the meeting room device with information received from a manufacturer of the meeting room device.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein said provisioning information includes one or more policies that control how the meeting room device works.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein said provisioning information includes one or more of bandwidth allocation, video resolution, or user authentication type allowed.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein said provisioning information includes information to enable the meeting room device to directly connect to the meeting service responsive to connection of the meeting room device to a network.

17. A meeting room device comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer readable storage media;

computer-readable instructions embodied on the one or more computer readable storage media and executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

establishing a communication connection with a meeting service implemented as a web service;

encrypting information that can be used to establish a trust relationship with the meeting service;

transmitting the encrypted information to the meeting service effective to enable the meeting service to identify and validate the meeting room device;

receiving provisioning information from the meeting service related to a class of devices corresponding to the meeting room device;

using the provisioning information to automatically provision the meeting room device by at least setting an operational parameter of the meeting room device to support participation in a meeting; and

automatically initiating an account generation process to establish an account usable by the meeting room device to automatically and directly connect to the meeting service and conduct a meeting with one or more additional devices.

18. The meeting room device of claim 17, wherein said encrypting is performed using a private key of a public/private key pair.

19. The meeting room device of claim 17, wherein the information comprises a unique identifier, the unique identifier identifying the meeting room device and having been provided on the meeting room device prior to purchase.

20. The meeting room device of claim 17, wherein said provisioning information includes at least one of:

one or more policies that control how the meeting room device works;

or

one or more of bandwidth allocation, video resolution, or user authentication type allowed.

21. A computing device comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more computer readable media;

computer-readable instructions embodied on the one or more computer readable media and executable by the one or more processors to implement a web service via a web platform, the web service comprising a meeting service configured to perform operations comprising;

receiving encrypted information that can be used to establish a trust relationship with a meeting room device to enable the meeting room device to be automatically provisioned by the meeting service;

decrypting the encrypted information that was received from the meeting room device;

validating the meeting room device based on the unique identifier;

responsive to validating the information received from the meeting room device, sending provisioning information to the meeting room device, the provisioning information related to a class of devices corresponding to the meeting room device and said sending the provisioning information effective to automatically provision the meeting room device by at least specifying an operational parameter of the meeting room device to support participation in a meeting; and

responsive to provisioning the meeting room device, automatically initiating an account generation process to establish an account associated with the meeting room device, the account being usable to establish an automatic and direct connection between the meeting service and the meeting room device.

22. The computing device of claim 21, wherein said decrypting is performed using a public key of a public/private key pair, the private key having been used to encrypt the information.

23. The computing device of claim 21, wherein the information comprises a unique identifier identifying the meeting room device.

24. The computing device of claim 21, wherein said validating is performed by comparing the information that was received from the meeting room device with information received from a manufacturer of the meeting room device.

25. The computing device of claim 21, wherein said provisioning information includes at least one of:

one or more policies that control how the meeting room device works;

or

one or more of bandwidth allocation, video resolution, or user authentication type allowed.