Identifying fault conditions in combinations of components

• US 10,043,211 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2015
• Issued: 08/07/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Leeo, Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Leeo, Incorporated
• Inventors: Joshi, Nina S., Gettings, Adam M., Chan, Eddy Y., Stevens, Andrew G., Ivers, Lucas D., Hovland, Bjorn H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Kamini B
• Application Number:
  US14/701,450
• Publication Number:
  US 20160070614A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,195 Days
• Field of Search: 714 26
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1393 characterised by the use of electric means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3452 Performance evaluation by statistical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/52 during program execution, e.g. stack integrity ; Preventing unwanted data erasure; Buffer overflow
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/163 Real estate management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• 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 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/68 : Payment of value-added services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A control mechanism in a system monitors inputs and outputs (such as sensor data representing one or more environmental conditions in one or more environments, sub-services in the services, and/or compensation) exchanged among components in combinations that provide the services in the environments, where the components in a given combination include at least one of: environmental monitoring devices in the environments and one or more of the partner electronic devices in the environments and/or service providers. Moreover, the control mechanism stores the monitored inputs and outputs, and analyzes the monitored inputs and outputs based on quality criteria and historical inputs and outputs exchanged within the combinations. Based on the analysis, the control mechanism identifies an instance in the inputs and the outputs of: incorrect sensor data and/or fraudulent compensation. Furthermore, the control mechanism performs a remedial action based on the identified instance.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an interface circuit configured to communicate with environmental monitoring devices of entities, partner electronic devices of partners of a second entity that is associated with the system, and service-provider electronic devices of service providers, wherein the environmental monitoring devices and the partner electronic devices are included in environments; and

wherein the service providers comprise one of;

a maintenance service, an installation service, a retail service, and an emergency-monitoring service;

a control circuit, coupled to the interface circuit, configured to;

monitor inputs and outputs exchanged among components in combinations that provide services in the environments, wherein the components in a given combination comprise at least one of the environmental monitoring devices and one or more of;

the partner electronic devices and service providers, and wherein the inputs and the outputs from a given component in the given combination comprise;

sensor data representing one or more environmental conditions in one or more of the environments, sub-services in the services to provide additional sensor data that is different from the sensor data, and compensation within the given combination for the sensor data and the sub-services;

store the monitored inputs and outputs;

analyze the monitored inputs and outputs based on quality criteria and historical inputs and outputs exchanged within the combinations;

identify, based on the analysis, an instance in the inputs and the outputs of fraudulent compensation; and

perform a remedial action based on the identified instance, wherein the remedial action comprises excluding a source of the identified instance from an affected combination that includes the identified instance; and

wherein the source comprises one of;

the environmental monitoring devices, the partner electronic devices or the service providers.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis compares the monitored inputs and outputs and historical inputs and outputs from at least a subset of the combinations.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the combinations in the subset have one of:

a common type of service, and a common type of sensor data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the quality criteria comprise one of:

signatures of failure mechanisms in the combinations, and signatures of previous fraudulent activity in the combinations.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor data is acquired by one or more of:

the environmental monitoring devices, and the partner electronic devices.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least the one of the environmental monitoring devices and the one or more of the partner electronic devices and the service providers in the given combination are associated with different entities.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the control circuit is configured to provide modification information specifying a modification to one of the combinations based on one of:

the sensor data, and the environmental conditions; and

wherein the modification information adds or removes, from the one of the combinations, at least one of;

an environmental monitoring device, a partner electronic device and a service-provider electronic device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the remedial action comprises providing a notification about the identified instance to the affected combination.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the remedial action comprises providing modification information specifying a modification to the affected combination that includes the identified instance;

and

wherein the modification information adds or removes, from the one of the combinations, at least one of;

an environmental monitoring device, a partner electronic device and a service-provider electronic device.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the remedial action comprises banning the source from inclusion in subsequent combinations.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the remedial action comprises replacing a source of the identified instance in the affected combination;

wherein the source comprises one of;

the environmental monitoring devices, the partner electronic devices and the service providers; and

wherein a replacement for the source comprises one of;

the environmental monitoring devices, the partner electronic devices and the service providers that is different than the source.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the remedial action comprises discontinuing a service provided by the affected combination that includes the instance.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the remedial action comprises removing the incorrect sensor data from the inputs and the outputs.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the remedial action comprises replacing the incorrect sensor data from the inputs and the outputs with modified sensor data;

and

wherein the modified sensor data comprises interpolated or extrapolated sensor data.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the remedial action comprises instructions for performing maintenance on the source of the identified instance in the affected combination;

and

wherein the source comprises one of;

the environmental monitoring devices, and the partner electronic devices.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the control circuit comprises:

a processor coupled to the interface circuit; and

memory, coupled to the processor, which stores a program module, wherein, when executed by the processor, the program module causes the system to perform;

the monitoring, the storing, the analyzing, the identifying and the performing.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the additional sensor data provides feedback, independent of the sensor data, about at least one of the services.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the feedback verifies one or more of:

a duration of at least one of the services, and a price of at least one of the services.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for use in conjunction with a system, the computer-readable storage medium storing a program module, wherein, when executed by the system, the program module causes the system to:

monitor inputs and outputs exchanged among components in combinations that provide services in environments that comprise environmental monitoring devices and partner electronic devices, wherein the environmental monitoring devices are associated with entities and the partner electronic devices are associated with partners of a second entity that is associated with the system;

wherein the components in a given combination comprise at least one of the environmental monitoring devices and one or more of;

the partner electronic devices and service providers;

wherein the service providers comprise one of;

a maintenance service, an installation service, a retail service, and an emergency-monitoring service; and

wherein the inputs and the outputs from a given component in the given combination comprise;

sensor data representing one or more environmental conditions in one or more of the environments, sub-services in the services to provide additional sensor data that is different from the sensor data, and compensation within the given combination for the sensor data and the sub-services;

store the monitored inputs and outputs;

analyze the monitored inputs and outputs based on quality criteria and historical inputs and outputs exchanged within the combinations;

identify, based on the analysis, an instance in the inputs and the outputs of fraudulent compensation; and

perform a remedial action based on the identified instance, wherein the remedial action comprises excluding a source of the identified instance from an affected combination that includes the identified instance; and

wherein the source comprises one of;

the environmental monitoring devices, the partner electronic devices or the service providers.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the remedial action comprises providing a notification about the identified instance to the affected combination.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the remedial action comprises removing the incorrect sensor data from the inputs and the outputs.

19. A method for performing a remedial action, wherein the method comprises:

by a system;

monitoring inputs and outputs exchanged among components in combinations that provide services in environments that comprise environmental monitoring devices and partner electronic devices, wherein the environmental monitoring devices are associated with entities and the partner electronic devices are associated with partners of a second entity that is associated with the system;

wherein a given partner electronic device comprises, on behalf of the second entity, at least one of;

a module, and a sensor;

wherein the service providers comprise one of;

a maintenance service, an installation service, a retail service, and an emergency-monitoring service; and

wherein the inputs and the outputs from a given component in the given combination comprise;

sensor data representing one or more environmental conditions in one or more of the environments, sub-services in the services to provide additional sensor data that is different from the sensor data, and compensation within the given combination for the sensor data and the sub-services;

storing the monitored inputs and outputs;

analyzing the monitored inputs and outputs based on quality criteria and historical inputs and outputs exchanged within the combinations;

identifying, based on the analysis, an instance in the inputs and the outputs of fraudulent compensation; and

performing a remedial action based on the identified instance, wherein the remedial action comprises excluding a source of the identified instance from an affected combination that includes the identified instance; and

wherein the source comprises one of;

the environmental monitoring devices, the partner electronic devices or the service providers.