Method, apparatus and system for device discovery

• US 9,961,151 B2
• Filed: 06/12/2017
• Issued: 05/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Zhou, Weihua, Guo, Yali, Zhang, Wanqiang, Wu, Xiaobo
• Primary Examiner(s): JEAN GILLES, JUDE
• Application Number:
  US15/620,518
• Publication Number:
  US 20170279902A1
• Time in Patent Office: 323 Days
• Field of Search: 709224, 709219
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/10 using broadcasted information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

The present invention provides a method, an apparatus and a system for device discovery. The method includes: acquiring, by a first device, a user identification of a target user, and acquiring, according to the user identification of the target user, broadcast information of a second device which the target user logs in; when broadcast information of another device is monitored through a D2D function, matching, by the first device, the monitored broadcast information with the broadcast information of the second device, and if the match is successful, determining, by the first device, that the second device and the first device are within a preset distance. According to the present invention, the accuracy of discovering a short distance user is improved and, thus, the problem in the prior art that the accuracy of discovering a user in a short distance cannot be guaranteed by using a cell ID is solved.

Claims

1. A method for device discovery, comprising:

acquiring, by a first device, a user identification of a target user, and acquiring, according to the user identification of the target user, broadcast information of a second device to which the target user logs in; and

when broadcast information of another device except the first device is monitored through a device-to-device (D2D) function, matching, by the first device, the monitored broadcast information of another device with the broadcast information of the second device, and when the matching is successful, determining, by the first device, that the second device and the first device are within a preset distance;

wherein the acquiring, according to the user identification of the target user, the broadcast information of the second device to which the target user logs in, comprises;

sending, by the first device, the user identification of the target user to an application server, so as to trigger the application server to query a device identity of the second device to which the target user logs in and acquire the broadcast information of the second device according to the device identity of the second device; and

receiving, by the first device, the broadcast information of the second device returned by the application server.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein before the acquiring, by the first device, the user identification of the target user, the method further comprises:

acquiring, by the first device, broadcast information of the first device itself; and

broadcasting, by the first device, the broadcast information of the first device itself after enabling the D2D monitor and broadcast function, so that the another device except the first device is capable of discovering the first device according to the broadcast information of the first device.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein before the acquiring, by the first device, the user identification of the target user, the method further comprises:

acquiring, by the first device, a local user identification, and initiating a registration request to an application server according to the user identification, wherein the registration request comprises a device identity of the first device, so that the application server stores the device identity of the first device and perform authentication and authorization on the user identification.

11. The method according to claim 1, where the acquiring, according to the user identification of the target user, the broadcast information of the second device to which the target user logs in, comprises:

sending, by the first device, the user identification of the target user to an application server, so as to trigger the application server to query a device identity of the second device to which the target user logs in;

receiving, by the first device, the device identity of the second device returned by the application server;

querying, by the first device, the broadcast information of the second device to a short distance server according to the device identity of the second device; and

receiving, by the first device, the broadcast information of the second device returned by the short distance server.

4. An apparatus for device discovery, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to a processor, wherein the memory stores processor-executable instructions which when executed causes the processor to implement operations including;

acquiring a user identification of a target user, and acquiring, according to the user identification of the target user, broadcast information of a second device to which the target user logs in; and

when broadcast information of another device except the apparatus itself is monitored through a device-to-device (D2D) function, matching the monitored broadcast information of the another device with the broadcast information of the second device, and when the matching is successful, determining that the second device and the first device are within a preset distance.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the operations further include:

acquiring broadcast information of the apparatus itself before acquiring the user identification of the target user;

broadcasting the broadcast information of the apparatus itself when the D2D monitor and broadcast function is enabled by the apparatus itself, so that the another device except the apparatus itself is capable of finding the apparatus according to the broadcast information.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the operations further include:

initiating a registration request to a short distance server, so as to trigger the short distance server to assign broadcast information for it; and

receiving, after receiving the registration request initiated by the second requesting unit, the broadcast information of the apparatus itself returned by the short distance server.

7. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the operations further include:

acquiring a local user identification before obtaining the user identification of the target user, and initiating a registration request to the application server according to the user identification, wherein the registration request comprises a device identity, so that the application server stores the device identity and performs authentication and authorization on the user identification.

8. A short distance server, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to a processor, wherein the memory stores processor-executable instructions which when executed causes the processor to implement operations including;

receiving a request for querying broadcast information of a second device, wherein the query request is initiated by a first device and the query request comprises a device identity of the second device; and

searching for the broadcast information of the second device according to the device identity of the second device, and returning the broadcast information of the second device to the first device, so that the first device matches monitored broadcast information of another device except the first device with the broadcast information of the second device to determine whether the first device and the second device are within a preset distance.

9. The server according to claim 8, wherein the operations further include:

receiving a registration request initiated by the first device before receiving the request for querying the broadcast information of the second device initiated by the first device;

performing authorization on the first device according to the registration request which is initiated by the first device, and assigning the broadcast information for the first device after the authorization is passed.

10. The server according to claim 9, wherein the operations further include:

performing authorization on the first device locally according to the registration request initiated by the first device.

12. The server according to claim 9, wherein the operations further include:

querying, according to the registration request initiated by the first device, subscription information of the first device to a home subscriber server (HSS) to which the first device belongs, and performing authorization on the first device according to the subscription information of the first device returned by the HSS.