Beacon Sharing Platform Entitlement Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing beacon systems require burdensome configuration and costly setup when switching ownership, as beacons are typically managed by a single entity and sharing between accounts is not efficiently facilitated.
Innovation Solution
A system that allows for the selective sharing of beacons across different accounts by generating entitlements, such as keys or tokens, which specify validity windows and usage restrictions, enabling rapid sharing and management of beacon arrays among multiple entities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If separate co-extensive beacon arrays are set up at a given location to enable switching owners, then beacon ownership can be switched, but it becomes costly, space consuming and time consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The beacon system is designed to serve multiple owners through a single shared beacon array. The beacons are configured to detect client devices and determine ownership based on pre-established associations between beacons and owner accounts, eliminating the need for separate beacon arrays for each potential owner.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of creating physical copies of beacon arrays for each owner, the system creates virtual copies through data associations. The beacon data includes references to multiple owner accounts, allowing the same physical beacons to function as if they were separate arrays for different owners through software-based ownership management.
2Device complexity
If a single beacon array is shared among multiple accounts, then cost and space are reduced, but configuration becomes burdensome and complex
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically manages beacon-to-owner associations through programmed logic. When a client device detects a beacon, the system automatically determines which owner account should receive the notification based on pre-configured associations, eliminating the need for manual configuration during ownership transitions.
Solution Approach 2:
Owner associations with beacons are established in advance through account registration and entitlement generation. The system pre-configures which accounts have access to which beacons before actual use, so that when ownership needs to be transferred, the process simply involves generating new entitlements rather than reconfiguring the entire beacon array.
3Adaptability or versatility
If beacon ownership is switched through traditional methods, then ownership transfer is achieved, but it requires burdensome configuration and changes to client software
Solution Approach 1:
The ownership management functionality is extracted from the client software and relocated to the beacon system server. The server handles all ownership determination and account association logic, so that when ownership transfers, only server-side configurations need to change, not the client applications on user devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The beacon system server acts as an intermediary between beacons and client devices. It receives beacon detections, determines the appropriate owner account based on entitlement data, and delivers notifications to the correct account. This intermediary layer abstracts away the complexity of ownership management from both the beacons and client software.
Data Source
AI summary
Data is received that specifies at least one beacon associated with a first account and a first validity window specifying a time period during which the at least one beacon is to be associated with an additional account. Thereafter, a first entitlement is generated which, when registered by a second account, causes the at least one beacon to be associated with the second account until expiration of the first validity window. Prior to registration of the first entitlement and additionally outside the first validity window the at least one beacon is associated solely with the first account. After the registration of the first entitlement, the at least one beacon is caused to be associated with the second account during the first validity window. Other types of sharing parameters are also available such as sequencing, subsets of beacons, and the like.