Group Subscription Gateway for Wireless Push Notifications

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current wireless communication systems face challenges in efficiently managing group subscriptions for asynchronous push-based applications on diverse wireless devices, due to resource constraints and the complexity of delivering data across different platforms, leading to high bandwidth requirements and costly operations.

Innovation Solution

A communication system with an application gateway server that enables group subscription by acting as a proxy for multiple wireless devices, reducing the need for individual subscriptions and optimizing traffic by maintaining a subscription collection and subscriber collection, allowing for broadcast notifications across disparate devices.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If individual subscriptions are implemented for each wireless device, then each device can receive push notifications independently, but network traffic and bandwidth usage increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenotification deliveryVSAvoidbandwidth usage
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The patent combines multiple individual device subscriptions into a single group subscription. The subscription management server consolidates subscription requests from multiple wireless devices into one group subscription object, which is then transmitted to the event source. This merging approach maintains reliable notification delivery to each device while significantly reducing network traffic and bandwidth consumption compared to individual subscriptions.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The group subscription object serves multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as a single subscription entity for the event source, a collection mechanism for multiple device subscriptions, and a distribution template for push notifications. This universal object enables the system to handle both subscription management and notification routing efficiently, reducing overall system complexity and resource usage.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

2Productivity

If push notifications are sent to multiple wireless devices individually, then each device receives updates, but the complexity of managing subscriptions increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvenotification deliveryVSAvoidsubscription management
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The subscription management server acts as an intermediary between wireless devices and the event source. It receives individual subscription requests from multiple devices, consolidates them into a single group subscription, manages the subscription lifecycle, and handles notification distribution. This intermediary approach simplifies the overall system by centralizing subscription management logic and reducing the complexity burden on both devices and the event source.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent segments the subscription management process into distinct components: device-level subscription requests, server-level group subscription consolidation, and event-source-level notification triggers. This segmentation allows each component to operate independently with well-defined interfaces, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining high notification delivery productivity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

3Adaptability or versatility

If browsers are used for cross-platform application execution, then platform independence is achieved, but significant transfer bandwidth is required

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecross-platform compatibilityVSAvoidtransfer bandwidth
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the subscription and notification management functionality from browser-based implementations to a dedicated subscription management server. By taking out the heavy data transfer and processing requirements from the client-side browser environment and relocating them to a server-side infrastructure, the system achieves cross-platform compatibility while dramatically reducing the transfer bandwidth required on wireless devices.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentEP1872527B1System and method for enabling group subscription for asynchronous push-based applications on a wireless device
Publication Date: 2013.05.29 BLACKBERRY LTD
  • EP1872527B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP1872527B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP1872527B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A system and method of enabling group subscription for asynchronous push-based applications on wireless devices are provided. The system comprises an application registry, an application repository and an application gateway server including an event sink for communicating between the system and a device. The application gateway server is configured for communication with a back-end service via an event source and including a subscription collection and a subscriber collection. The method comprises the steps of reading a Web service interface, generating a Web service interface therefrom conforming to a notification protocol, creating a notification-based application bundle for the Web service, publishing the notification-based application bundle and creating an event source.