Tracking information technology (IT) assets

• US 9,420,562 B1
• Filed: 02/24/2016
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HCL Technologies Limited
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cai, Mingming, Li, Yubo, Wang, Qing, Xue, Chao
• Primary Examiner(s): Bee, Andrew
• Application Number:
  US15/052,327
• Time in Patent Office: 174 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/38 triggered by timers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

An association connection is established between a first Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) device operating in central mode and attached to an asset to track, and a second BLE device operating in peripheral mode and associated with a physical location within the asset management environment. An association connection is established between the second BLE device and a third BLE device operating in central mode and coupled to one or more computer processors, and the association information stored in the second BLE device to the third BLE via one or more broadcasting frames is periodically transmitted. Based on current association information between the first BLE device and the second BLE device, an identity of the asset to which the first BLE device is attached, and the physical location of the second BLE device within the asset management environment is identified.

Claims

1. A method for managing assets in an asset management environment, the method comprising:

responsive to determining that a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) indicates that a signal power between a first (Bluetooth Low Energy) BLE device and a second BLE device exceeds a predefined threshold, transmitting, by the first BLE device, an association request to the second BLE device to establish an association connection between the first BLE device operating in central mode and attached to an asset to track, and the second BLE device operating in peripheral mode and associated with a physical location within an asset management environment, wherein the asset to which the first BLE device is attached is an electronic device including one of;

a display monitor, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile cellular device, computing peripheral equipment, another specialized computer system or a computer server;

exchanging one or more association request frames whereby association information is stored in the second BLE device;

establishing an association connection between the second BLE device and a third BLE device operating in central mode and coupled to one or more computer processors, and periodically transmitting the association information stored in the second BLE device to the third BLE device via one or more broadcasting frames;

maintaining, by the third BLE device, current association information between the first BLE device and the second BLE device, based on the transmitted association information;

receiving, by one or more computer processors from the third BLE device, the current association information between the first BLE device and the second BLE device;

identifying location information of the asset to which the first BLE device is attached, by the one or more computer processors, based on the current association information between the first BLE device and the second BLE device, an identity of the asset to which the first BLE device is attached, and the physical location of the second BLE device within the asset management environment, wherein the location information of the asset to which the first BLE device is attached describes one or more locations of the asset in asset management environment throughout a duration of time;

responsive to determining that an RSSI does not exceed a predefined threshold, updating, by the second BLE device, the association information to indicate that the first BLE device is not associated with the second BLE device; and

responsive to determining that the association request frame was not received before a timer time-out condition, dissociating the first BLE device from the second BLE device, wherein the timer time-out condition for the association request frame is implemented to periodically confirm that association connection is currently established.