Contextual Awareness Engine for Home Network Policy Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems lack the ability to effectively leverage contextual awareness data from various sources to enhance user experiences and provide personalized services in a home network environment, particularly in managing and controlling applications and devices based on real-time user interactions and environmental changes.
Innovation Solution
A contextual awareness architecture that utilizes a contextual awareness engine to collect and manage data from diverse sources, including user devices and sensors, to provide contextually aware services, integrating authentication, authorization, and access management, and using this data to drive new categories of applications and control devices based on user presence and activity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a modem or home routing gateway captures and processes contextual awareness data from multiple sources, then personalized services and user experience are enhanced, but device complexity and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the contextual awareness system into multiple independent components: a contextual awareness engine that collects and processes data, a policy decision point that makes decisions based on contextual data, and a policy enforcement point that executes decisions. This segmentation allows the gateway to offload complex processing tasks to dedicated modules, reducing overall device complexity while maintaining personalized service capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a contextual awareness engine as an intermediary layer between data sources (sensors, user devices) and the gateway's control functions. This intermediary processes contextual data and generates policy decisions, shielding the gateway from direct complexity of multiple data sources while enabling personalized services through structured policy enforcement.
2Productivity
If contextual awareness data is continuously collected and processed in real-time, then service delivery and user experience are improved, but energy consumption and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic policy evaluation where the contextual awareness engine continuously monitors contextual data but only triggers policy decisions when significant changes occur or at scheduled intervals. This periodic action maintains real-time service delivery capability while reducing continuous processing overhead and energy consumption by the gateway.
Solution Approach 2:
The contextual awareness engine operates autonomously to collect, process, and generate policy decisions from contextual data without requiring constant gateway intervention. The engine self-manages the data processing workflow, enabling efficient service delivery while minimizing the gateway's processing burden and energy consumption.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple interfaces and devices are integrated into the home network, then system versatility and user convenience are enhanced, but difficulty in managing and controlling devices increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal policy framework that works across multiple device types and communication interfaces (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, MoCA, Bluetooth). The contextual awareness engine and policy decision point provide a unified control mechanism that manages diverse devices through common policies, enhancing versatility while simplifying operation through standardized management procedures.
Data Source
AI summary
An architecture for collecting and managing contextual awareness data is contemplated. The architecture may be used to implement various policies as a function of the contextual awareness data, such as but not limited to implementing dwelling specific policies depending on the contextual awareness data indicating whether one or more users are presence within a dwelling.