EMBEDDED COMMUNICATION IN MESSAGE BASED TRANSPORTS

• US 20140074946A1
• Filed: 09/12/2012
• Published: 03/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digi International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Digi International Inc.
• Inventors: Dirstine, Adam D., Popp, Christopher Glen
• Granted Patent: US 10,194,284 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

Systems and methods for utilizing unused space in expensive message based communication to embed messages from a sender device to a receiver device to maximize payload usage over a potentially fee-based messaging service. One or more machine-to-machine messages may be embedded in unutilized transport space when other communications, that may potentially be delivered over a fee-based network, are initiated at a device. The machine-to-machine message and other communications may be extracted from a combined message package at a receiving device and processed as if they were independently transported. Machine-to-machine messages may be segmented and embedded across multiple unrelated communication packages and later reassembled.

Claims

1. A method for embedded communication between devices comprising:

queuing a machine-to-machine message in a queue at a first device;

receiving, at the first device, a user-initiated command to transmit a communication message to a second device;

determining an available payload within the communication message for the machine-to-machine message, wherein the available payload has a size that is a function of the communication message'"'"'s size;

loading the machine-to-machine message into the available payload;

combining the available payload and the communication message into a package; and

transmitting the package to the second device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the queue includes a plurality of machine-to-machine messages, and wherein loading includes selecting one of the plurality of machine-to-machine messages from the queue.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein selecting one of the plurality of machine-to-machine messages from the queue includes comparing a machine-to-machine message size to the available payload.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

compressing the machine-to-machine message.

5. The method of claim 4, comprising:

compressing the communication message prior to determining the available payload.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein loading the machine-to-machine message into the available payload includes dividing the machine-to-machine message into a first portion and a second portion, and embedding the first portion in the available payload.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising:

queuing the second portion of the machine-to-machine message at a head position in the queue.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is a client device, and the second device is a server.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is a server, and the second device is a client device.

10. An embedded communication system comprising:

a first device coupled to a network;

a second device coupled to the network, wherein one of the first and second devices is configured to communicate with the other device over the network by embedding messages in a communication;

wherein the embedding includes;

queuing a machine-to-machine message in a queue;

receiving a command to transmit a communication message to the other device;

determining an available payload within the communication for the machine-to-machine message, wherein the available payload is a function of a size of the communication;

loading the machine-to-machine message into the available payload;

combining the available payload and the communication message into a package; and

transmitting the package embedded within the communication to the other device.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the embedding includes:

selecting one of the plurality of machine-to-machine messages from the queue based on a determined size of the available payload.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the embedding includes:

compressing the machine-to-machine message.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the embedding includes:

compressing the communication message prior to determining the available payload.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein loading the machine-to-machine message into the available payload includes dividing the machine-to-machine message into a first portion and a second portion, loading the first portion in the available payload, and queuing the second portion of the machine-to-machine message at a head position in the queue.

15. A tangible computer readable medium comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed on a computing device, cause the computing device to:

queue a machine-to-machine message in a queue at a first device;

receive a user-initiated command at the first device to transmit a communication message to a second device;

determine an available payload within the communication message for the machine-to-machine message, wherein the available payload has a size that is a function of the communication message'"'"'s size;

load the machine-to-machine message into the available payload;

combine the available payload and the communication message into a package; and

transmit the package to the second device.

16. The tangible computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the plurality of instructions comprise:

selecting one of the plurality of machine-to-machine messages from the queue based on a determined size of the available payload.

17. The tangible computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the plurality of instructions comprise:

compressing the machine-to-machine message.

18. The tangible computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the plurality of instructions comprise compressing the communication message prior to determining the available payload.

19. The tangible computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein loading the machine-to-machine message into the available payload includes dividing the machine-to-machine message into a first portion and a second portion, and embedding the first portion in the available payload.

20. The tangible computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the plurality of instructions comprise:

queuing the second portion of the machine-to-machine message at a head position in the queue.