Patent Application
20200205232
European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) machine-to-machine (M2M) standard contains an overall end-to-end M2M functional architecture. The ETSI M2M standard describes a resources-based architecture that can be used for the exchange of data and events between machines.
An M2M gateway 20 runs M2M application(s) using M2M service capabilities. The M2M gateway 20 may act as a proxy between M2M devices 10/12 and the network domain 30. The M2M gateway 20 may provide a service to other devices (e.g., d devices) connected to it that are hidden from the network domain. The M2M gateway 20 may provide M2M service capabilities (i.e., GSCL) that communicates to the NSCL using the mld reference point and to a gateway application (GA) using the dla reference point.
The network domain 30 comprises an access network and a core network. The access network is a network which allows the M2M device and the gateway to communicate with the core network. The access network includes, but is not limited to, x-Digital Subscriber Line (xDSL), GPRS EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN), UMTS Terrestrial Ratio Access Network (UTRAN), Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN), wireless local area network (WLAN), WiMAX, etc. The core network provides Internet protocol (IP) connectivity, service and network control functions, interconnection with other networks, roaming, etc. The core network includes, but is not limited to, Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) core network, ETSI Telecoms & Internet converged Services & Protocols for Advanced Networks (TISPAN) core network, 3GPP2 core network, etc.
The ETSI M2M defines 3 reference points (mla, dla, and mid) as shown in
A method and apparatus for distributed services and data in an M2M communication network are disclosed. A network server, an M2M gateway, and M2M devices that comprise an M2M network architecture. The network server, the M2M gateway, and the M2M device may comprise a processor that is configured to implement an M2M service capability layer for supporting M2M service capabilities. Reference points may be defined in the M2M network architecture for interactions between network service capability layers, between gateway service capability layers, between a gateway service capability layer and a device service capability layer of an M2M device, between M2M device applications, and/or between a network/gateway/device service capability layer and an M2M application.
The network server may be split into a control server and a data server at the service capability layer to provide service capabilities for control functions and service capabilities for data functions, respectively. Reference points for control functions and data functions may be separately provided between network service capability layers; between gateway service capability layers; between a gateway service capability layer and a device service capability layer; between M2M device applications; and/or between a network/gateway/device service capability layers and an M2M application at the service capability layer level. The data server may be configured to interact with another data server to push or pull data or resources either directly or indirectly via the control server.
The control server and the data server may have a resource for storing a list of registered data servers or control servers. The network server and/or the gateway may have a capabilities resource for storing information for sharing of capabilities with another network server or another gateway. Each instance of the capabilities resource may include sub-resources for storing information regarding supported capabilities, capabilities shared with other service capability layers, and capabilities shared from other service capability layers.
A more detailed understanding may be had from the following description, given by way of example in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:
As shown in
The communications systems 100 may also include a base station 114a and a base station 114b. Each of the base stations 114a, 114b may be any type of device configured to wirelessly interface with at least one of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to facilitate access to one or more communication networks, such as the core network 106, the Internet 110, and/or the networks 112. By way of example, the base stations 114a, 114b may be a base transceiver station (BTS), a Node-B, an eNode B, a Home Node B, a Home eNode B, a site controller, an access point (AP), a wireless router, and the like. While the base stations 114a, 114b are each depicted as a single element, it will be appreciated that the base stations 114a, 114b may include any number of interconnected base stations and/or network elements.
The base station 114a may be part of the RAN 104, which may also include other base stations and/or network elements (not shown), such as a base station controller (BSC), a radio network controller (RNC), relay nodes, etc. The base station 114a and/or the base station 114b may be configured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals within a particular geographic region, which may be referred to as a cell (not shown). The cell may further be divided into cell sectors. For example, the cell associated with the base station 114a may be divided into three sectors. Thus, in one embodiment, the base station 114a may include three transceivers, i.e., one for each sector of the cell. In another embodiment, the base station 114a may employ multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) technology and, therefore, may utilize multiple transceivers for each sector of the cell.
The base stations 114a, 114b may communicate with one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d over an air interface 116, which may be any suitable wireless communication link (e.g., radio frequency (RF), microwave, infrared (IR), ultraviolet (UV), visible light, etc.). The air interface 116 may be established using any suitable radio access technology (RAT).
More specifically, as noted above, the communications system 100 may be a multiple access system and may employ one or more channel access schemes, such as CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA, and the like. For example, the base station 114a in the RAN 104 and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), which may establish the air interface 116 using wideband CDMA (WCDMA). WCDMA may include communication protocols such as High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and/or Evolved HSPA (HSPA+). HSPA may include High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and/or High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA).
In another embodiment, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement a radio technology such as Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA), which may establish the air interface 116 using Long Term Evolution (LTE) and/or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A).
In other embodiments, the base station 114a and the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c may implement radio technologies such as IEEE 802.16 (i.e., Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), CDMA2000, CDMA2000 1×, CDMA2000 EV-DO, Interim Standard 2000 (IS-2000), Interim Standard 95 (IS-95), Interim Standard 856 (IS-856), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE (GERAN), and the like.
The base station 114b in
The RAN 104 may be in communication with the core network 106, which may be any type of network configured to provide voice, data, applications, and/or voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services to one or more of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d. For example, the core network 106 may provide call control, billing services, mobile location-based services, pre-paid calling, Internet connectivity, video distribution, etc., and/or perform high-level security functions, such as user authentication. Although not shown in
The core network 106 may also serve as a gateway for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d to access the PSTN 108, the Internet 110, and/or other networks 112. The PSTN 108 may include circuit-switched telephone networks that provide plain old telephone service (POTS). The Internet 110 may include a global system of interconnected computer networks and devices that use common communication protocols, such as the transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP) and the internet protocol (IP) in the TCP/IP internet protocol suite. The networks 112 may include wired or wireless communications networks owned and/or operated by other service providers. For example, the networks 112 may include another core network connected to one or more RANs, which may employ the same RAT as the RAN 104 or a different RAT.
Some or all of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d in the communications system 100 may include multi-mode capabilities, i.e., the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d may include multiple transceivers for communicating with different wireless networks over different wireless links. For example, the WTRU 102c shown in
The processor 118 may be a general purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in association with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGAs) circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine, and the like. The processor 118 may perform signal coding, data processing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any other functionality that enables the WTRU 102 to operate in a wireless environment. The processor 118 may be coupled to the transceiver 120, which may be coupled to the transmit/receive element 122. While
The transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit signals to, or receive signals from, a base station (e.g., the base station 114a) over the air interface 116. For example, in one embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be an antenna configured to transmit and/or receive RF signals. In another embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be an emitter/detector configured to transmit and/or receive IR, UV, or visible light signals, for example. In yet another embodiment, the transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and receive both RF and light signals. It will be appreciated that the transmit/receive element 122 may be configured to transmit and/or receive any combination of wireless signals.
In addition, although the transmit/receive element 122 is depicted in
The transceiver 120 may be configured to modulate the signals that are to be transmitted by the transmit/receive element 122 and to demodulate the signals that are received by the transmit/receive element 122. As noted above, the WTRU 102 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, the transceiver 120 may include multiple transceivers for enabling the WTRU 102 to communicate via multiple RATs, such as UTRA and IEEE 802.11, for example.
The processor 118 of the WTRU 102 may be coupled to, and may receive user input data from, the speaker/microphone 124, the keypad 126, and/or the display/touchpad 128 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) display unit or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display unit). The processor 118 may also output user data to the speaker/microphone 124, the keypad 126, and/or the display/touchpad 128. In addition, the processor 118 may access information from, and store data in, any type of suitable memory, such as the non-removable memory 106 and/or the removable memory 132. The non-removable memory 106 may include random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), a hard disk, or any other type of memory storage device. The removable memory 132 may include a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, a memory stick, a secure digital (SD) memory card, and the like. In other embodiments, the processor 118 may access information from, and store data in, memory that is not physically located on the WTRU 102, such as on a server or a home computer (not shown).
The processor 118 may receive power from the power source 134, and may be configured to distribute and/or control the power to the other components in the WTRU 102. The power source 134 may be any suitable device for powering the WTRU 102. For example, the power source 134 may include one or more dry cell batteries (e.g., nickel-cadmium (NiCd), nickel-zinc (NiZn), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium-ion (Li-ion), etc.), solar cells, fuel cells, and the like.
The processor 118 may also be coupled to the GPS chipset 136, which may be configured to provide location information (e.g., longitude and latitude) regarding the current location of the WTRU 102. In addition to, or in lieu of, the information from the GPS chipset 136, the WTRU 102 may receive location information over the air interface 116 from a base station (e.g., base stations 114a, 114b) and/or determine its location based on the timing of the signals being received from two or more nearby base stations. It will be appreciated that the WTRU 102 may acquire location information by way of any suitable location-determination method while remaining consistent with an embodiment.
The processor 118 may further be coupled to other peripherals 138, which may include one or more software and/or hardware modules that provide additional features, functionality and/or wired or wireless connectivity. For example, the peripherals 138 may include an accelerometer, an e-compass, a satellite transceiver, a digital camera (for photographs or video), a universal serial bus (USB) port, a vibration device, a television transceiver, a hands free headset, a Bluetooth® module, a frequency modulated (FM) radio unit, a digital music player, a media player, a video game player module, an Internet browser, and the like.
The RAN 104 may include eNode-Bs 140a, 140b, 140c, though it will be appreciated that the RAN 104 may include any number of eNode-Bs while remaining consistent with an embodiment. The eNode-Bs 140a, 140b, 140c may each include one or more transceivers for communicating with the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c over the air interface 116. In one embodiment, the eNode-Bs 140a, 140b, 140c may implement MIMO technology. Thus, the eNode-B 140a, for example, may use multiple antennas to transmit wireless signals to, and receive wireless signals from, the WTRU 102a.
Each of the eNode-Bs 140a, 140b, 140c may be associated with a particular cell (not shown) and may be configured to handle radio resource management decisions, handover decisions, scheduling of users in the uplink and/or downlink, and the like. As shown in
The core network 106 shown in
The MME 142 may be connected to each of the eNode-Bs 142a, 142b, 142c in the RAN 104 via an S1 interface and may serve as a control node. For example, the MME 142 may be responsible for authenticating users of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, bearer activation/deactivation, selecting a particular serving gateway during an initial attach of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and the like. The MME 142 may also provide a control plane function for switching between the RAN 104 and other RANs (not shown) that employ other radio technologies, such as GSM or WCDMA.
The serving gateway 144 may be connected to each of the eNode Bs 140a, 140b, 140c in the RAN 104 via the S1 interface. The serving gateway 144 may generally route and forward user data packets to/from the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c. The serving gateway 144 may also perform other functions, such as anchoring user planes during inter-eNode B handovers, triggering paging when downlink data is available for the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, managing and storing contexts of the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, and the like.
The serving gateway 144 may also be connected to the PDN gateway 146, which may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to packet-switched networks, such as the Internet 110, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and IP-enabled devices.
The core network 106 may facilitate communications with other networks. For example, the core network 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to circuit-switched networks, such as the PSTN 108, to facilitate communications between the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c and traditional land-line communications devices. For example, the core network 106 may include, or may communicate with, an IP gateway (e.g., an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) server) that serves as an interface between the core network 106 and the PSTN 108. In addition, the core network 106 may provide the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c with access to the networks 112, which may include other wired or wireless networks that are owned and/or operated by other service providers.
Hereafter, the terms “SCL” and “service capabilities” will be used interchangeable, unless it explicitly states that service capabilities mean a specific service capability. The terms “M2M server” and “server”, “M2M control server” and “control server”, “M2M data server” and “data server”, “M2M gateway” and “gateway”, and “M2M device” and “device” will be used interchangeably, respectively.
M2M service capabilities provide M2M functions that are to be shared by different applications. The M2M service capabilities expose functions through a set of open interfaces, use core network functionalities, and simplify and optimize application development and deployment through hiding of network specificities. The M2M service capabilities in the network domain, the gateway, and the device include application enablement, generic communication, reachability, addressing and repository, communication selection, remote entity management, security, history and data retention, transaction management, compensation broker, telco operator exposure, interworking proxy, etc. M2M applications are applications that run a service logic and use M2M service capabilities accessible via an open interface.
In the case where M2M devices reside behind an M2M gateway, the service capabilities may be distributed over the M2M system in a form of hierarchy. This hierarchical architecture may be generalized further if one considers that M2M gateways may exist behind other M2M gateways, and that network service capabilities may be replicated and shared between many M2M service providers. Sharing service capabilities may provide benefits such as reducing device overhead (e.g., an M2M device with limited hardware capacity would not need to support complex service capability functionalities and may make use of other service capabilities in the network).
The ETSI M2M standard uses RESTful architecture such that information is represented by resources which are structured as a tree. Representational state transfer (REST) is a style of software architecture for distributed systems such as World Wide Web. A RESTful architecture is about the transfer of representations of uniquely addressable resources. A resource is a uniquely addressable entity in the RESTful architecture. When handling resources in a RESTful architecture, there are four basic methods (called “verbs”). A CREATE method creates child resources. A RETRIEVE method reads the content of the resource. An UPDATE method writes the content of the resource. A DELETE method deletes the resource.
A resource has a representation that may be transferred and manipulated with the verbs. A resource may be addressed using a Universal Resource Identifier (URI). A sub-resource is a resource that has a containment relationship with the addressed (parent) resource. A sub-resource may be called a child resource. The parent resource representation contains references to the child resource. A hosting SCL is the SCL where the addressed resource resides. An issuer is the actor performing a request. An issuer may be either an application or an SCL.
The notation <resourceName> in the following description and the drawings means a placeholder for an identifier of a resource of a certain type, and the actual name of the resource is not predetermined. The notation “attribute” denotes a placeholder for one or more fixed names. Without the delimiters <and > or “and”, names appearing in boxes in drawings may be literals for fixed resource names or attributes.
Attribute 2602 is meta-data that provides properties associated with a resource representation.
An SCL resource 2604 may represent an associated (remote) SCL that is authorized to interact with the hosting SCL. In order to be authorized to interact with the hosting SCL, the remote SCL may go through an M2M service registration procedure. An SCL resource 2604 may be created as a result of a successful registration of the remote SCL with its local SCL, or vice-versa.
An application resource 2606 may store information about the application. The application resource 2606 may be created as a result of successful registration of an application with the local SCL.
A container resource 2608 is a generic resource that may be used to exchange data between applications and/or SCLs by using the container as a mediator that takes care of buffering the data.
A group resource 2610 may be used to define and access groups of other resources. For example, a group resource may be used to write the same content to a group of M2M container resources.
An accessRight resource 2612 may store a representation of permissions. An accessRight resource 2612 is associated with resources that may be accessible to entities external to the hosting SCL.
A subscription resource 2614 may be used to keep track of status of active subscription to its parent resource. A subscription represents a request from the issuer to be notified about modifications on the parent resource.
A discovery resource 2616 may be used to allow discovery. It may be used to retrieve the list of URI of resources matching discovery filter criteria.
In the conventional ETSI M2M functional architecture, control and data paths are not separated and supposed to use the same transmission mechanism. Such approach may make control and data paths impact each other. For example, if there is a big volume of data stream between two M2M devices that is routed via an M2M server, it may delay other M2M devices to register with the M2M server. On the other hand, if there are many new M2M devices (normal or malicious) to register with the M2M server, the existing data transmission on the data path may be impacted and even stopped in the worst case.
The conventional ETSI M2M SCL registration is network-centric (i.e., NSCL-centric) and is limited to a DSCL registration to an NSCL and a GSCL registration to an NSCL. The impact of such limit is that the NSCL serves as an anchor point and there is no direct communication between some SCLs, such as DSCL to DSCL, DSCL to GSCL, GSCL to GSCL, or NSCL to NSCL.
The M2M servers (e.g., NSCLs in the ETSI M2M framework) may be owned by different businesses and a service provider. They may offer different service capability functionalities, and offer a complete service jointly. Therefore, NSCL-to-NSCL interaction is needed.
The M2M gateways belonging to the same service providers may need to have interactions to exchange control and user data. Such information does not need to go through their common NSCL for efficiency. In mobility scenarios, for example, when a device moves from one gateway to another, a direct communication between the gateways is needed.
In the case where multiple verticals are involved, a full scale of and diverse SCL interactions is needed. For example, a monitor in an eHealth system detected an emergency issue. The home gateway sends a message to the eHealth system to report the emergency. The eHealth system contacts emergency medical services (EMS) for an ambulance, and the ambulance system contacts the city traffic control system for route information. Here, there are three different kinds of SCLs: one for eHealth, one for EMS, and one for city traffic control system. Interactions among them are needed to perform necessary coordination to support the use case.
In one embodiment, new reference points and/or new operations on the reference points are defined to support SCL interactions based on the ETSI M2M architecture. Conventional reference points and application programming interface (API) operations may be supported and re-used.
mlm is a reference point between two M2M servers 330 (i.e., NSCLs). Within the M2M architecture, the mlm reference point resides between two NSCLs to provide new service capability sharing and configuration functions. Within the scalable M2M architecture (SMA), which will be explained below, the mlm reference point may reside between two M2M control servers, between an M2M control server and an M2M data server, or between two M2M data servers to provide new functions, such as resource copy/move and charging.
dld is a reference point between a GSCL and a GSCL, or between a DSCL and a GSCL, or between a DSCL and a DSCL that is defined to support new functions such as capability sharing and resource copy/move.
dla is a reference point between a DSCL and D′ devices 312 that is defined to enable direct communications between a DSCL and D′ devices 312 by leveraging dla reference points with enhanced application registration.
ala is a reference point between D′ devices 312. For example, D′ devices may register with an M2M gateway 320 but the data may be exchanged between the D′ devices 312 directly. Alternatively, one D′ device may register with the M2M gateway 320 and other D′ devices may register with the M2M gateway 320 through the D′ device registered with the M2M gateway 320. The D/D′ devices may exchange data directly with other D/D′ devices.
In another embodiment, instead of introducing new reference points, the conventional mld reference point may be re-used with extensions.
In another embodiment, a scalable M2M architecture (SMA) may be implemented. In the SMA, the M2M server is split to an M2M data server and an M2M control server. One M2M control server may control one or multiple M2M data servers. The control path and the data path may be separated. The SMA may eliminate drawbacks in the conventional M2M functional architecture and may achieve better system reliability, scalability, and manageability.
In SMA, functions and procedures in the ETSI M2M architecture may be categorized into control functions and data functions. The control functions include, but are not limited to, M2M bootstrap, M2M SCL registration, M2M application registration, M2M resource discovery, and M2M remote entity management (REM), or the like. The data functions include other regular resource access such as operations on containers and groups resources.
In
mlm is a reference point between two M2M servers. The mlm reference point may be used for registration, authorization, subscription/notification between M2M servers, M2M point of contact (PoC) operations, management functions, capability/functionality sharing, SCL and application registration, copy or move resources, billing (e.g., requested services, traffic statistics, etc.), or the like.
dld_d is a reference point between two D devices or two M2M gateways for non-control operations. The dld_d reference point may be used for DSCL/GSCL retrieve and update on DSCL/GSCL container, content instances collection management, group management, group collection management, capability/functionality sharing, and the like.
dld_c is a reference point between two D devices or two M2M gateways for control operations. The dld_c reference point may be used for DSCL/GSCL gateway or device bootstrapping, SCL management, access right management, resource discovery, notification channels collection management, notification channel management, M2M PoCs and M2M PoCs collection management, capability/functionality sharing, or the like.
ala_d is a reference point between two D′ devices for data operations. The ala_d reference point may be used for billing (e.g., traffic statistics), multi-hop data relaying, or the like.
ala_c is a reference point between two D′ devices for control operations. The ala_c reference point may be used for DA bootstrapping operations, remote triggering, registration, resource discovery on DA, capability/functionality sharing, or the like.
mla_d is a reference point between an NA and an M2M data server. The mla_d reference point may be used for NA announce/de-announce, retrieve and update application, containers, content instances management and groups collection management, billing (e.g., traffic statistics), or the like.
mla_c is a reference point between an NA and an M2M control server. The mla_c reference point may be used for NA registration, authorisation, announce/de-announce, subscription and subscription collection management, access right management, resource discovery and remote entity management, capability/functionality sharing, application registration, or the like.
mld_d is a reference point between a DSCL/GSCL and an M2M data server. The mld_d reference point may be used for DSCL/GSCL, containers and content instances management, group and groups collection management, copy or move resources, billing (e.g., traffic statistics), or the like.
mld_c is a reference point between a DSCL/GSCL and an M2M control server and between a DSCL and a GSCL. The mId_c reference point may be used for DSCL/GSCL gateway or device bootstrapping, SCL management, access right management, resource discovery, notification channels collection management and notification channel management, M2M PoCs and M2M PoCs collection management, SCL registration, billing (e.g., requested services), capability or functionality sharing, or the like.
dla_d is a reference point between a DA/GA and a DSCL/GSCL for non-control operations. The dla_d reference point may be used for DA/GA announce/de-announce, containers and content instances management, group and groups collection management on DSCL/GSCL, billing (e.g., traffic statistics), or the like.
dla_c is a reference point between a DA/GA and a DSCL/GSCL for control operations.
The dla_c reference point may be used for DA/GA bootstrapping operations, remote triggering, registration, resource discovery and remote entity management M2M PoCs and M2M PoCs collection management on DSCL/GSCL, capability/functionality sharing, application registration, or the like.
Multiple M2M devices and/or gateways may operate in a group, for example where devices provide the same services or where devices are deployed for the same company. If the M2M devices are currently not under the same M2M data server, it may be difficult to perform a group operation efficiently. Therefore, the M2M control server may move a group of M2M devices/gateways to the same M2M data server.
If an M2M data server is at the risk of congestion, the M2M control server may move some M2M devices from the current M2M data server to other M2M data server. If one M2M data server goes down, M2M devices may move to another M2M data server. An M2M data server(s) may be used to back-up each other and have consistent images of each other, for example, using the mlm reference point.
In order to manage multiple M2M data servers, the M2M control server may maintain an M2M data server inventory to have a list of currently active M2M data servers. In one embodiment, each M2M data sever may register or attach itself to an M2M control server once it becomes online or active. In addition, the M2M control server and the M2M data server may periodically exchange messages so that the M2M control server may have real-time information about each M2M data server. In another embodiment, an M2M control server may dynamically discover M2M data servers using service discovery mechanism such as domain name system-service discovery (DNS-SD).
Splitting an M2M server into an M2M control server and an M2M data server may be extended to a GSCL and/or a DSCL. For example, a GSCL may be split to one control gateway (i.e., CGSCL) and one or more data gateway (i.e., DGSCL). The CGSCL may handle control-related GSCL functions, while the DGSCL may handle data-related GSCL functions. The CGSCL may register with the M2M control server (i.e., CNSCL), while the DGSCL may communicate with the M2M data server (i.e., DNSCL) directly. The same scheme may be applied to the DSCL.
The mlm reference point may handle interactions between M2M servers or between an M2M control server and an M2M data server. The mlm reference point may also handle interactions between two M2M data servers or between two M2M control servers.
The M2M control server may manage a set of M2M data servers. The M2M control server may enable direct communications between two M2M data servers. For example, the M2M control server may trigger to move data or resources from one M2M data server to another M2M data server. The M2M control server may pass M2M devices and gateways registration-related information to M2M data servers, so that the M2M data servers may authenticate messages and operations from the M2M devices and gateways.
For interactions between the M2M control server and the M2M data server, each M2M data server may first register with the M2M control server.
The configuration, control, and management operations may be performed through RESTful operations. Each M2M data server may provide management objects via which it may be managed by the M2M control server.
An SCL may register with multiple SCLs. For example, a device may be connected to multiple local gateways and may use different service capability functions in each of the gateways, (e.g., one for caching and one for security and addressability). A device may be roaming and its SCL may be registered to both home and visiting network cores. One to multiple SCL registration may happen at initial SCL registration (i.e., an SCL registers with multiple SCLs at the initial registration), or it may occur incrementally (i.e., an SCL initially registers with one SCL, and subsequently registers to multiple SCLs). Upon SCL registration, an SCL resource may be created on the target SCL for the requestor SCL.
An application may have one anchor SCL, or may register to multiple SCLs. An application may request different service capability functionalities from the SCLs it registers with. The different SCLs may exchange the information of the application.
Each time when an M2M device, gateway, or application registers itself with the M2M control server, the M2M control server may assign one or more M2M data server to the M2M device or gateway.
The M2M control server 852 may notify the M2M data server 854 or the M2M gateway 856 and may create corresponding resources locally (808). The M2M control server 852 may create or copy such resource into the M2M data server(s) 854 so that the M2M data server(s) 854 may authenticate messages and operations from the M2M device/gateway 856. The M2M control server 852 may send a registration response to the M2M device/gateway 856 (810). The M2M data server 854 may pass traffic statistics information to the M2M control server 852 for example, for charging. Alternatively, the M2M control server 852 may query the M2M data server 854 for such information.
Upon instruction from the M2M control server, an M2M data server may push or pull data or resources from another M2M data server, for example, for data replication, data mobility, etc. The direct communications between the M2M data servers may be managed and controlled by the M2M control server.
Once the resource is discovered (in this example data server 954), the M2M data server 956 sends a retrieve request to the data server 954 (924). The M2M data server 954 sends a response to the M2M data server 956 (926). The M2M data server may send a resource operation report to the M2M control server 952 (928). The M2M data server 956 sends a delete request to the M2M data server 954 (930). The M2M data server 954 deletes the resource and sends a response to the M2M data server 956 (932). The M2M data server 956 may send a resource operation report to the M2M control server 952 (934).
The whole resource including a sub-tree may be moved, copied, or created by one message or operation. The “copy” attribute is used to copy the single resource. The “copytree” attribute is used to copy the whole sub-tree under the requested resource including the requested resource. The “movetree” attribute is used to move the whole sub-tree under the requested resource including the requested resource. The “createtree” attribute is used to create a sub-tree under the requested resource. The above attributes may be triggered by using CREATE or UPDATE method.
The M2M data server 1054 sends a full representation of the requested resource in a response to the M2M control server 1052 (1004). The M2M control server 1052 sends a create/update request to the M2M data server 1056 with createtree attribute (1006). The M2M data server 1056 creates the resource tree and copies the resource and sends a response to the M2M control server 1052 (1008). For the movetree operation, the M2M control server 1052 sends a create/update request with movetree attribute to the M2M data server 1054 (1010). The M2M data server 1054 sends a full representation of the requested resource in a response to the M2M control server 1052 and deletes the resource and deletes the resource (1012). The M2M control server 1052 sends a create/update request with createtree attribute to the M2M data server 1056 (1014). The M2M data server 1056 creates the resource tree and copies the resource and sends a response to the M2M control server 1052 (1016).
There may be some implications to resource discovery by copying and moving resources from one data server to another data server. For example, the moved resource may have been announced previously. After it is moved to another data server, the previously announced resource becomes invalid and the old data server may perform de-announcement and perform announcement update to reflect the new location of the moved resource. As shown in
It should be noted that even though
In the context of ETSI M2M, both a control server and a data server may be treated as an NSCL. In other words, both a control server and a data server may create and maintain an sclBase tree (as shown in
The resources <dsclBase> and <gsclBase> (i.e., the root resource of the device and gateway, respectively) need new resources and attributes to represent the list of data servers. Each DSCL/GSCL may get a list of assigned data servers which they may access, when it registers with an M2M control server. As an alternative, the control server may update or re-assign new data server to an M2M device or gateway.
In one embodiment, a new resource “dataServers” is introduced. It is a collection of data servers assigned to the device or gateway.
The resource “dataServers” may be centralized.
Alternatively, the resource “dataServers” may be distributed.
Referring to
dataServerIDs is the list of data server IDs assigned to the <scl>. Each dataServerID points to a data server contained in the resource “dataServers” 1110.
controlServerIDs is the list of control server IDs assigned to the <scl>. Each controlServerID points to a <cnscl> under <d/gsclBase/<scls>. A<scl> representing a control server may not have this attribute.
serverindication is a flag to show if <scl> is <cnscl> or <d/gscl>. If it is a <d/gscl>, this attribute may also indicate if this <d/gscl> has server capability to support hierarchical service structure, i.e., to show if the device/gateway represented by this <scl> has other D/GSCL behind it. The serverindication attribute may not be used.
Each <application> 1140 in <d/gsclBase> tree may have new attributes: dataServerIDs and controlServerIDs. dataServerIDs is the list of data server IDs assigned to this <application>. Each dataServerID points to a data server contained in the resource “dataServers” 1110. controlServerIDs is the list of control server IDs assigned to this <application>. Each controlServerID points to a <cnscl> under <d/gsclBase/<scls>.
In
In
As shown in
Each <application> 1230 under <cnsclBase> may have sub-resources “dataServers” 1232, “requestedServices” 1234, and “agreedServices” 1236.
Alternatively, as shown in
Each <d/gscl> 1320 under <dnsclBase> may have two sub-resources “controlServers” 1322 and “trafficStatistics” 1324. Each <application> 1330 under <dnsclBase> may have a sub-resource “controlServers” 1332 and “trafficStatistics” 1334, for example, for charging purpose. Each <scl> under <dnsclBase> may have data-related resources such as containers.
The resource “dataServers” may be a sub-resource of <scl>, <application>, or <cnsclBase>. For the <cnsclBase>/dataServers, <dataServer> may also have sub-resources “groups” 1402 for data server to create groups on the control server, and “containers” 1404 for data server to create containers on the control server, so that each data server may create groups and containers on their control servers.
The resource “controlServers” may be a sub-resource of <scl>, <app>, or <dnsclBase>. For the <dnsclBase>/controlServers, <controlServer> may also have sub-resources “groups” 1502 for the control server to create groups on the data server and “containers” 1504 for the control server to create containers on the data server, so that each control server may create groups and containers on their data servers.
Each <performanceMetric> 1810 may have sub-resource “results” 1812 to store measurement values. Each <resultInstance> stands for a value. Each <resultInstance> may have two attributes: startTime and endTime. startTime is the start time of the <resultInstance> and endTime is the end time of the <resultInstance>.
Each <performanceMetric> 1810 may have sub-resource “actions” 1814, which has two attributes (start and stop) to start or stop the measurement by using UPDATE or CREATE method on those two attributes. Attribute start is for starting the measurement, and attribute stop is for stopping the measurement.
As alternative embodiments, the resources “requestedServices”, “agreedServices”, and “trafficStatistics” may be directly applied to the conventional ETSI M2M resource structure, (e.g., adding them as a sub-resource of <scl> and <application>), to provide charging and billing function.
A new attribute may be added for the application to indicate if its data may be distributed to other SCLs, besides the hosting SCL. For example, an attribute “Local” may be used. By using this attribute, the application that registered to an SCL (i.e., the hosting SCL) may indicate and decide whether its data may distributed to other SCLs besides the hosting SCL. The attribute “Local” may be a Boolean value. For example, when it is set to “1”, it means the data is available only at the hosting SCL. Alternatively, the attribute may be a reference to sub-resource containers.
Privacy control may be performed when data is shared in distributed SCLs. Access rights may be created as resources, and each access right resource's URI may become the AccessRightID associated with different resources. The access right resource defines who may do what (e.g., READ, WRITE, CREATE, DELETE, DISCOVER, etc.).
When two SCLs are owned by different businesses, they may not be able to establish an access right completely. The application who creates the data on a hosting SCL may decide the general rule of whether the data may be shared.
In one embodiment, when an SCL owned by a different service provider is registered to a hosting SCL, the hosting SCL may create or update the access right resources to define the access right for the SCL belonging to another SCL. The hosting SCL may apply the AccessRightID to different resources in its resource tree.
To enhance the access right protection over distributed SCLs, (e.g., over SCLs owned by different service providers), the conventional access right permissions and flags may be extended. New “permissionFlags” values that indicates an access mode may be defined to support additional operations. Table 1 shows example permissionFlag values. A new “externalPermissions” attribute may be introduced to define permissions for SCLs owned by different service providers. If the attribute “externalPermissions” is absent, the entities that correspond to ancestor resources may have no permissions.
Service capabilities are the functionalities that one SCL supports. Among the various service capabilities defined by ETSI M2M standard, an SCL may not support all service capabilities and may rely on capabilities provided by different SCLs. Before sharing the detail of the service capabilities, SCLs may register with the other SCL or mutually register with each other depending on the requirement like whether both want to share the capabilities or just one SCL wants to get support from other SCL. There may be security exchanges between two SCLs that establish a shared capability. Capability sharing may be performed by NSCLs, GSCLs, and DSCLs by sharing the detail of the capabilities they support and the capabilities they want to share.
Service capability sharing may be transparent to other M2M entities such as M2M devices and M2M network applications, which use the shared service capabilities. In other words, the original SCL which shares service capabilities from other SCLs may be kept in the loop and may control related procedures. For example, suppose NSCL1 shares or gets extra service capabilities (e.g., remote entity management (REM)) from NSCL2. There is an M2M network application (NA1) and an M2M device (Dev1) registered with NSCL1. Since NSCL1 does not have REM, it may rely on the REM in NSCL2 to manage Dev1. NA1 may still issue a management command to NSCL1, and NSCL1 may forward the management command to NSCL2. From there on, NSCL2 may use its REM to manage Dev1 on behalf of NSCL1 and get a response back from Dev1. NSCL2 may forward a management response back to NSCL1 and NSCL1 may forward the response to NA1. In this process, both request and response messages may pass through, and under the control of, NSCL1, and both Dev1 and NA1 may not need to be aware of the existence of NSCL2.
In another example, DSCL1 may register with NSCL1. NSCL1 may have a shared container management service capability with NSCL2. NSCL1 and NSCL2 negotiate and configure such capability while they are registered with each other. NSCL2 may conduct container management for DSCL1 even though DSCL1 is not registered with NSCL2.
In one embodiment, capability management resources may be added to the SCL resource tree to facilitate and maintain the SCL-SCL interaction and sharing of capabilities.
A collection resource called “capabilities” 1910 may be added to the resource tree <sclBase> 1905 (as shown in
Referring to
Referring to
Procedures for the operations of different SCL service capability configurations are described hereafter. The operations may apply to control plane reference points.
Before sharing the service capabilities, SCLs may register with the other SCL. The registration may be mutual or unidirectional depending on the requirement. For example, if only one SCL wants to share the capability with other SCL, mutual registration may not be needed. If the NSCLs that want to share capabilities belong to two different service providers, the NSCLs may perform security procedures before sharing service capabilities. For example, they may use shared password or some known key to authenticate each other during registration procedure.
For mutual registration, NSCL-2 2054 sends a registration request (e.g., CREATE) to NSCL-1 2052 (2008). In the request message, NSCL-2 2054 may include capability information, including capSupported and/or capSharedTo. NSCL-1 2052 knows the capabilities available from NSCL-2 2054 from capSharedTo. NSCL-1 2052 may perform the security checks to authenticate the communication of NSCL-2 2054 (2010). If NSCL-2 2054 is not allowed to communicate with NSCL-1 2052, the request may be rejected. If authenticated, NSCL-1 2052 sends a response to NSCL-2 2054 (2012).
When NSCL-1 2052 needs to obtain capabilities from NSCL-2 2054 (2014), NSCL-1 2052 may send a CREATE request to NSCL-2 2054 for capability sharing (2016). In the request, NSCL-1 2052 indicates the capabilities it requires from NSCL-2 2054. Once NSCL-2 2054 grants the requested capabilities, NSCL-2 2054 may create the capSharedFrom resource, for example, under the <scl2Base>\scls\<scl1> remoteCaps\<capability> resource (2018). NSCL-2 2054 sends a success response to NSCL-1 2052 (2020).
Without mutual registration, NSCL-1 2152 may not be aware of the capabilities supported and offered by NSCL-2 2154. Alternatively, NSCL-2 2154 may include such information, (e.g., capSupported and/or capSharedTo), in the response to NSCL-1 2152. Since NSCL-1 2152 is registered to NSCL-2 2154, NSCL-2 2154 may decide if it may grant capabilities to NSCL-1 2152.
When NSCL-1 2152 needs to obtain capabilities from NSCL-2 2154 (2108), NSCL-1 2152 may send a CREATE request to NSCL-2 2154 for capability sharing (2110). In the request, NSCL-1 2152 indicates the capabilities it requires from NSCL-2 2154. Once NSCL-2 2154 grants the requested capabilities, NSCL-2 2154 may create the capSharedFrom resource, for example, under the <scl2Base>\scls\<scl\> remoteCaps\<capability> resource (2112). NSCL-2 2154 sends a success response to NSCL-1 2152 (2114).
If it is determined that the issuer SCL 2252 is authorized, the hosting SCL 2254 sends a positive respond to the request (2206). If mutual registration was not requested by the issuer SCL 2252 in the CREATE request, the mutual registration may be requested by the hosting SCL 2254. The hosting SCL 2254 may indicate it in the response. The issuer SCL 2252 may wait for the mutual registration request (2208). The issuer SCL 2252 knows that there is a mutual registration pending, since it either requested the mutual registration, or the response from the hosting SCL 2254 indicated a mutual registration.
The hosting SCL 2254 sends a mutual registration request (e.g., CREATE) (2210). The issuer SCL 2252 authenticates and authorizes the hosting SCL 2254 (2212). The issuer SCL 2252 responds positively to the request (2214).
The issuer SCL 2252 may creates the scl resource in its sclBase resource tree for the hosting SCL 2254 and the hosting SCL 2254 may creates the sc/resource in its sc/Base resource tree for the issuer SCL 2252 (2216, 2218).
For the issuer and hosting SCL 2252/2254 to indicate that a mutual registration is needed, two primitive types for the create request may be introduced: SCL_MUTUAL_CREATE_REQUEST and SCL_MUTUAL_CREATE_RESPONSE. Tables 2 and 3 show sclCreateRequestIndication and sclCreateResponseConfirm (successful case) primitives, respectively. STATUS_ACCEPTED may be used for the hosting SCL 2254 when sending the response back to the issuer SCL 2252. Alternatively, a new status code STATUS_MUTUAL_REGISTRATION_PENDING may be used.
Alternatively, an SCL may indicate that a mutual registration is required in the scl resource. For example, an attribute “mutualRegis” may be added to the <scl> resource attribute to indicate that a mutual registration is required. In this way, the indication may be discovered and retrieved by other SCLs. Alternatively, the SCL may include it as a primitive attribute in the sclCreateRequestIndication.
To facilitate an SCL to decide whether a mutual registration should be done, for example, an attribute called “sclType” may be added to the <scl> resource attribute list. The sclType attribute may indicate the SCL type: NSCL, GSCL, DSCL.
The capability sharing procedures between GSCL-1 2352 and GSCL-2 2354 are the same as NSCL-1 2362 and NSCL-2 2364. The additional complexity is the role of NSCLs in the communication and security.
GSCL-1 2352 indicates to NSCL-1 2362 that it wants to communicate with GSCL-2 2354 (2302). GSCL-1 2352 is already registered with NSCL-1 2362, and GSCL-2 2354 is already registered with NSCL-2 2364. NSCL-1 2362 may relay the request to NSCL-2 2364 (2304), and NSCL-2 2364 may relay the request to GSCL-2 2354 (2306). It is assumed that NSCL-1 2362 and NSCL-2 2364 have a trust relationship. GSCL-2 2354 sends a response which is related by NSCL-2 2364 and NSCL-1 2362 to GSCL-1 2352 (2308, 2310, 2312).
GSCL-1 2352 initiates the registration procedure by sending a registration request to GSCL-2 2354 (2314). In the request message, GSCL-1 2352 may include capability information, including capSupported and/or capSharedTo. GSCL-2 2354 knows the capabilities available from GSCL-1 2352 from capSharedTo. GSCL-2 2354 may perform security checks to authenticate the communication from GSCL-1 2352 (2316). GSCL-2 2354 may check supported service capabilities (2318).
Before sending a successful response, GSCL-2 2354 may ask for the authentication check from NSCL-2 2364 (2320). If GSCL-1 2352 and GSCL-2 2354 belong to the same service provider, GSCL-2 2354 may not need to authenticate the GSCL-1 2352. If GSCL-1 2352 and GSCL-2 2354 do not belong to the same service provider, NSCL-2 2364 may retrieve and verify GSCL-1 2352 from NSCL-1 2362 (2322). NSCL-1 2362 sends response back to NSCL-2 2364 (2324).
NSCL-2 2364 sends a successful response to GSCL-2 2354 if GSCL-1 2352 and GSCL-2 2354 are allowed to communicate (2326). GSCL-2 2354 sends a successful response to GSCL-1 2352 (2328).
When GSCL-1 2352 needs to obtain capabilities from GSCL-2 2354, GSCL-1 2352 may send a request (e.g., CREATE) to GSCL-2 2354 for capability sharing (2330, 2332). In the request, NSCL-1 2362 indicates the capabilities it requires from GSCL-2 2354. In terms of the capabilities requested from GSCL-1 2352, additional security check procedures may be performed between NSCL-1 2362 and NSCL-2 2364 (2334). GSCL-2 2354 grants the requested capabilities and sends a successful response to GSCL-1 2352 (2336, 2338). GSCL-1 2352 may update NSCL-1 2362 for the change of the capabilities, and GSCL-2 2354 may update NSCL-2 2364 for the change of the capabilities (2340, 2342).
Currently in ETSI M2M, when SCL1 registers with SCL2, two <scl> resources are created, one in SCL1 and one in SCL2.
The resource tree structure may be changed as shown in
In another embodiment, the same SCL resource structure may be kept without change, and a new attribute called, for example, “Direction” may be introduced. It should be noted that the name of the attribute is merely an example and any name may be used for the attribute. The “Direction” attribute indicates that if the SCL resource is the SCL where the local SCL registered to, or other SCLs that registered with the local SCL.
Although features and elements are described above in particular combinations, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that each feature or element can be used alone or in any combination with the other features and elements. In addition, the methods described herein may be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware incorporated in a computer-readable medium for execution by a computer or processor. Examples of computer-readable media include electronic signals (transmitted over wired or wireless connections) and computer-readable storage media. Examples of computer-readable storage media include, but are not limited to, a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magnetic media such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-optical media, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks, and digital versatile disks (DVDs). A processor in association with software may be used to implement a radio frequency transceiver for use in a WTRU, UE, terminal, base station, RNC, or any host computer.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/729,131 filed Oct. 10, 2017, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/371,984 filed Jul. 11, 2014, which claims the benefit of PCT/US2012/071028, filed Dec. 20, 2012, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Nos. 61/586,352, filed Jan. 13, 2012, and 61/694,904, filed Aug. 30, 2012, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61694904 | Aug 2012 | US | |
| 61586352 | Jan 2012 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 15729131 | Oct 2017 | US |
| Child | 16722900 | US | |
| Parent | 14371984 | Jul 2014 | US |
| Child | 15729131 | US |
