Virtual mobile management—remote control

• US 9,294,621 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2012
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AetherPal, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Parmar, Ramesh, Doshi, Dinesh, Jagannatha, Deepa, Gonsalves, Deepak
• Primary Examiner(s): BALAOING, ARIEL A
• Application Number:
  US13/492,507
• Publication Number:
  US 20120254762A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,383 Days
• Field of Search: 455/418, 455/420, 455/410, 715/736
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2207/18 wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/00 Security arrangements; Authentication; Protecting privacy or anonymity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/37 Managing security policies for mobile devices or for controlling mobile applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities

Abstract

Disclosed is a Virtual Mobile Management apparatus and method using a control center system operable to enable remote control of wireless handheld devices based upon the establishment of dedicated communication channels with the wireless device and employing communication protocols to facilitate display capture, key and touch input simulation, and collect device parameters to analyze and compare with pre-defined parameters and generate a standards deviation report viewable by an authorized user. A device client is resident on the mobile device non-volatile memory and is operable by the end user to invoke the application to request remote control feature.

Claims

1. A virtual mobile management apparatus for mobile devices, comprising:

at least one server including a Registration and Authentication Function to provide a single point of entry for all mobile devices for enrollment and authentication services during a remote session;

a technician console providing a graphical user interface to manage and control said mobile devices that are enrolled and authenticated, said technician console providing remote session control tools selected from the group of Session Stop, Pause, Resume, Snapshot, Record, Image Resize, Resolution change, Unified Keypad, application shortcuts and session password for security, said session control tools facilitate display capture, key and touch input simulation and collect device parameters to analyze and compare pre-defined parameters; and

a data repository for storing information about said mobile devices, server and tenant configurations and for use in generating a standards deviation report viewable by an authorized user,

wherein mutual authentication is established between the at least one mobile device and the technician console, between the technician console and the at least one server, and the mobile device and the at least one server,

wherein communication protocols employed between the at least one server, the mobile device and the technician console provide efficient usage of over-the-air resources while streaming, provide remote session recovery due loss of communications, and provides support of remote control view with replication of actual mobile device screen rotation with press and hold features of the mobile device and provides load balancing across multiple connection handlers on each communication end point gateway server in order to minimize single point of failure.

2. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 1 wherein a user can request a technician to start a remote control session.

3. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 2 wherein a user initiated session request is queued for the technician to attend to the request.

4. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said technician invokes the remote session.

5. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said technician can connect to multiple devices and start a remote control session from the same technician console.

6. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said data repository maintains historical data of device enrollment, session, audit, and report views.

7. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said data repository is accessed by an admin server.

8. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said technician is able to view device details and device vitals including at least device memory, device processor occupancy, device operator, device ID, and device ESN.

9. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said technician and user can have a chat session.

10. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 1 wherein data that is queried during the session can be exported from the technician console.

11. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 1 wherein arguments including at least a web address can be forwarded to said device during the session.

12. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 1 wherein an Ad/Alert Notification is forwarded to the mobile device.

23. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 1 wherein communications between the at least one mobile device and the technician console is performed peer-to-peer.

13. A virtual mobile management apparatus for mobile devices, comprising:

at least one server configured to provide a single point of entry for all mobile devices for enrollment and authentication services during a remote session;

a console configured to provide a graphical user interface to manage and control the mobile devices that are enrolled and authenticated;

the console configured to provide remote session control tools; and

a data repository configured to store information about at least the mobile devices,

wherein communications between the at least one mobile device and the technician console is performed peer-to-peer;

wherein mutual authentication is established between the at least one mobile device and the console, between the console and the at least one server, and the mobile device and the at least one server;

wherein communication protocols employed between the at least one server, the mobile device and the technician console provide efficient usage of over-the-air resources while streaming;

wherein the communication protocols employed between the at least one server, the mobile device and the technician console provide remote session recovery due to loss of communications; and

wherein the communication protocols employed between the at least one server, the mobile device and the technician console provide support of remote control view with replication of actual mobile device screen rotation with press and hold features of the mobile device.

14. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising:

the console configured to receive a request to start the remote session.

15. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising:

the console configured to initiate a request to start the remote session.

16. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 13, wherein a user initiated session request is queued for the console to attend to the request.

17. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising:

the console configured to invoke the remote session.

18. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising:

the console configured to connect to multiple mobile devices and start remote sessions from the same console for each mobile device.

19. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising:

the console configured to view mobile device details including at least device memory, device processor occupancy, device operator, device ID, and device ESN.

20. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising:

the console configured to have a chat session with a user of the mobile device.

21. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising:

the console configured to export data that is queried during the remote session.

22. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 13, wherein mutual authentication is established between the at least one mobile device and the technician console.

24. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the communication protocols employed between the at least one server, the mobile device and the technician console provide load balancing across multiple connection handlers on each communication end point gateway server in order to minimize single point of failure.

25. The virtual mobile management apparatus according to claim 13, wherein applications are pre-installed on the mobile device.

26. A virtual mobile management apparatus for mobile devices, comprising:

at least one server configured to provide a single point of entry for all mobile devices for enrollment and authentication services during a remote session;

a console configured to provide a graphical user interface to manage and control the mobile devices that are enrolled and authenticated;

the console configured to provide remote session control tools; and

a data repository configured to store information about at least the mobile devices,

wherein mutual authentication is established between the at least one mobile device and the console, between the console and the at least one server, and the mobile device and the at least one server; and

wherein the communication protocols employed between the at least one server, the mobile device and the technician console provide support of remote control view with replication of actual mobile device screen rotation with press and hold features of the mobile device.