System and method for providing device file using device identifier

• US 8,566,448 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2009
• Issued: 10/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Jeon, Jong Hong, Lee, Seung Yun, Lee, Kang Chan, Lee, Won Suk, In, Min Kyo, Kim, Sung Han
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tammy
• Application Number:
  US12/634,904
• Publication Number:
  US 20100161804A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,412 Days
• Field of Search: 709/226, 709/206, 709/243, 709/238, 709/224, 705/64
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles

Abstract

A system and method for providing a device profile using a device identifier are disclosed. The system for providing a device profile using a device identifier includes: a mobile terminal that provides a device identifier having information regarding a hierarchical structure of a server and a model name; a plurality of servers that analyze the device identifier to recognize the lowermost server when the device identifier is queried, acquire a device profile corresponding to the device identifier through the lowermost server, and provide the acquired device profile; and an application server that connects to one of the plurality of servers, queries the device identifier, and is provided with a device profile corresponding to the device identifier. Device description of various mobile terminals can be more effectively managed and used in a mobile environment.

Claims

1. A system for providing a device profile using a device identifier, the system comprising:

a mobile terminal that provides a device identifier having information regarding a hierarchical structure of a server and a model name,

wherein the hierarchical structure of the server comprises at least an uppermost server and a plurality of lowermost servers, and

wherein the uppermost server comprises an IP address of each of the plurality of lowermost servers;

a plurality of servers that analyze the device identifier to recognize the lowermost server when the device identifier is queried, acquire a device profile corresponding to the device identifier through the uppermost server to the lowermost server, and provide the acquired device profile; and

an application server that connects to one of the plurality of servers, queries the device identifier, and is provided with a device profile corresponding to the device identifier.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the device identifier comprises:

one or more classification names expressing the hierarchical structure of the plurality of servers;

a model name added to the end of each of the classification name to express a mobile terminal model name; and

one or more boundary symbols added between the classification names and between the classification name and the model name to discriminate the classification names,

wherein the classification names are extendible from the left to the right according to the hierarchical structure of the plurality of servers.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the classification names and the model names are expressed by a combination including one or more of an English upper case and lower case letter, characters of multiple languages, a hyphen, and numbers from 0 to 9, and the boundary symbols are one of special symbols.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein, among the plurality of servers, the uppermost server provides an IP address of a server corresponding to the uppermost classification name of the device identifier, and an upper server has a hierarchical structure providing an IP address of a lower server.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of servers comprises:

a data storage unit that stores the device profile corresponding to the device identifier and an IP address of each of the servers having an upper and lower hierarchical relationship;

a searching unit that searches a device profile corresponding to a device identifier queried by the application server and provides the same;

an open API that searches a device profile corresponding to a device identifier queried by the external server and provides the same through communication with the external server;

an information providing unit that searches the data storage unit to acquire the device profile queried by the application server or the external server, and provides the same to the searching unit or the open API; and

a management unit that receives update information through the open API upon communication with the external server, and updates information stored in the data storage unit according to the received update information.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the searching unit checks whether or not the device profile corresponding to the device identifier queried by the application server has been stored, and if the device profile has been stored, the searching unit provides the stored device profile to the application server, whereas if the device profile has not been stored, the searching unit analyzes the device identifier to recognize the lowermost server, receives the device profile from the lowermost server, and provides the received device profile to the application server.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the searching unit extracts the classification name of each stage from the device identifier and sequentially inquire of an upper server about an IP address of a server of a lower classification name until such time as there remains no more classification name of a lower stage, and when there is no more classification name of a lower stage, the searching unit acquires an IP address of a finally queried server as an IP address of the lowermost server.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the open API is implemented as one of an XML-RPC (eXtensible Markup Language-Remote Procedure) interface allowing for query searching based on an XML-RPC, a Web service interface based on a simple object access protocol (SOAP) and a Web services description language (WSDL), and a REST type interface based on an HTTP GET scheme.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the data storage unit comprises:

a device profile storage unit that stores the device profile corresponding to the device identifier; and

a server information storage unit that stores the IP addresses of the servers corresponding to the device identifier.

10. The system of claim 5, wherein each of the plurality of servers further comprises:

a shared caching unit that caches the device profile searched by the information providing unit and the IP addresses of the servers searched by the searching unit,

wherein the searching unit and the open API preferentially use the information cached in the shared caching unit.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile terminal has the device identifier specified in an operating system.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile terminal requests the providing of contents or an application through the device identifier.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein when the application server is requested to provide contents or an application through the device identifier, the application server receives a device profile corresponding to the device identifier from one of the plurality of servers, adjusts the contents according to the device characteristics of the mobile terminal according to the received device profile, and provides the adjusted contents to the mobile terminal.

14. A server connected with at least one application server and at least one external server, the server comprising:

a data storage unit that stores a device profile corresponding to a device identifier having information regarding a hierarchical structure of the server and a model name of a mobile terminal,

wherein the hierarchical structure of the server comprises at least an uppermost server and a plurality of lowermost servers, and

wherein the uppermost server comprises an IP address of each of the plurality of lowermost servers, and

wherein the lowermost servers are connected at least one of directly or indirectly to the uppermost server;

a searching unit that searches a device profile corresponding to a device identifier queried by the application server and provides the same;

an open API that searches a device profile corresponding to a device identifier queried by the external server and provides the same through communication with the external server;

an information providing unit that searches the data storage unit to acquire the device profile queried by the application server or the external server, and provides the same to the searching unit or the open API;

and a management unit that receives update information through the open API upon communication with the external server, and updates information stored in the data storage unit according to the received update information.

15. The server of claim 14, wherein the searching unit checks whether or not the device profile corresponding to the device identifier queried by the application server has been stored, and if the device profile has been stored, the searching unit provides the stored device profile to the application server, whereas if the device profile has not been stored, the searching unit analyzes the device identifier to recognize the lowermost server, receives the device profile from the lowermost server, and provides the received device profile to the application server.

16. The server of claim 15, wherein the searching unit extracts the classification name of each stage from the device identifier and sequentially inquires of an upper server about an IP address of a server of a lower classification name until such time as there are no remaining lower stage classification names, and when there are no remaining lower stage classification names, the searching unit acquires an IP address of a finally queried server as an IP address of the lowermost server.

17. The server of claim 14, wherein the server further comprises:

a shared caching unit that caches the device profile searched by the information providing unit and the IP addresses of the servers searched by the searching unit,

wherein the searching unit and the open API preferentially use the information cached in the shared caching unit.

18. A method for providing contents using a device identifier of an application server connected with a mobile terminal and a plurality of servers having a hierarchical structure, the method comprising:

receiving a device identifier having information regarding a hierarchical structure of a server and a model name from the mobile terminal;

querying one of the plurality of servers about the device identifier,

wherein the hierarchical structure of the plurality of servers comprises have at least two or more servers which are associated with each other according to their unique IP address; and

processing contents according to a device profile provided from one of the plurality of servers and providing the processed contents to the mobile terminal.

19. A method for providing a device profile using a device identifier of a server connected with at least one application server and at least one external server, the method comprising:

when a device identifier having information regarding a hierarchical structure of a server and a model name is queried by the application server, acquiring a device profile corresponding to the device identifier and providing the acquired device profile to the application server, and

wherein the hierarchical structure of the server comprises at least two servers, and

wherein each of the at least two servers have a unique IP address;

and when the device identifier is queried by one of the plurality of external servers, checking whether or not the device profile corresponding to the device identifier has been stored, and if the device profile has been stored, providing the device profile corresponding to the device identifier to the corresponding external server, or otherwise, providing an IP address of a lower server to the corresponding external server.