METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NETWORK DEVICE REGISTRATION

• US 20130046872A1
• Filed: 12/21/2011
• Published: 02/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2011
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Ecolink Intelligent Technology Inc. (Universal Electronics, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Ecolink Intelligent Technology Inc. (Universal Electronics, Inc.)
• Inventors: Seelman, George
• Application Number:
  US13/332,812
• Publication Number:
  US 20130046872A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2203/5408 using protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2203/5458 Monitor sensor; Alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/542 the information being in digital form
• 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 12/2809 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

Abstract

A method and apparatus for registering a remote network device with a network control device. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving a query from the network control device requesting that the remote network device provide a network identification code stored within the remote network device, transmitting a response to the query after a time period has expired, the response comprising the network identification code stored within the remote network device, determining whether an acknowledgement message has been received from the network control device, if the acknowledgement message has been received, setting a flag within the remote network device indicating that the remote network device has successfully registered with the network control device, and if the acknowledgment message has not been received, re-sending the response to the network control device after a second time period has elapsed.

Claims

1. A method for registering a remote network device with a network control device, comprising:

receiving a query from the network control device requesting that the remote network device provide a network identification code stored within the remote network device;

transmitting a response to the query after a time period has expired, the response comprising the network identification code stored within the remote network device;

determining whether an acknowledgement message has been received from the network control device;

if the acknowledgement message has been received, setting a flag within the remote network device indicating that the remote network device has successfully registered with the network control device; and

if the acknowledgment message has not been received, re-sending the response to the network control device after a second time period has elapsed.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the remote network device has previously registered with the network control device; and

proceeding to transmit the response only if the remote network device has not previously registered with the network control device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one or both time periods are randomly generated.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a number of times that the response has been transmitted; and

terminating the method if the number of times that the response has been transmitted exceeds a predetermined threshold.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising additional processor-readable instructions that cause the apparatus to:

determine a number of times that the response has been transmitted; and

terminate the method if the number of times that the response has been transmitted exceeds a predetermined threshold.

5. An apparatus for registering a remote network device with a network control device, comprising:

a transmitter for transmitting information;

a receiver for receiving information;

a processor coupled to the transmitter and the receiver; and

a memory coupled to the processor for storing a network identification code belonging to the remote network device and processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to;

receive a query from the network control device requesting that the remote network device provide a network identification code stored within the remote network device;

transmit a response to the query after a time period has expired, the response comprising the network identification code stored within the remote network device;

determine whether an acknowledgement message has been received from the network control device;

if the acknowledgement message has been received, set a flag within the remote network device indicating that the remote network device has successfully registered with the network control device; and

if the acknowledgment message has not been received, re-send the response to the network control device after a second time period has elapsed.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, further comprising additional processor-readable instructions that cause the apparatus to:

determine whether the remote network device has previously registered with the network control device; and

proceed to transmit the response only if the remote network device has not previously registered with the network control device.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein one or both time periods are randomly generated.

9. A processor-readable medium having processor-usable instructions stored thereon for execution by a processor to perform a method for registering a remote network device with a network control device, the method comprising:

receiving a query from the network control device requesting that the remote network device provide a network identification code stored within the remote network device;

transmitting a response to the query after a time period has expired, the response comprising the network identification code stored within the remote network device;

determining whether an acknowledgement message has been received from the network control device;

if the acknowledgement message has been received, setting a flag within the remote network device indicating that the remote network device has successfully registered with the network control device; and

if the acknowledgment message has not been received, re-sending the response to the network control device after a second time period has elapsed.

10. The processor-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions for the processor to perform further steps for registering the remote network device with the network control device, comprising:

determining whether the remote network device has previously registered with the network control device; and

proceeding to transmit the response only if the remote network device has not previously registered with the network control device.

11. The processor-readable medium of claim 9, wherein one or both time periods are randomly generated by the processor.

12. The processor-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions for the processor to perform further steps for registering the remote network device with the network control device, comprising:

determining a number of times that the response has been transmitted; and

terminating the method if the number of times that the response has been transmitted exceeds a predetermined threshold.