Home Gateway Data Flow Management for Context-Aware Service Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Home gateways do not effectively integrate services like VoIP and Internet access, leading to independent service delivery without context-awareness, resulting in inconvenient user experiences, such as needing to stop browsing to answer a call on a connected landline telephone.
Innovation Solution
A method for managing data streams through a home gateway that notifies and allows interaction with other devices, enabling services to be redirected or controlled based on user context, such as transferring calls or managing video streams, by passing signaling streams through the gateway and receiving instructions from connected devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If services are provided independently without coupling, then service delivery is simple and direct, but user experience is inconvenient due to lack of context-awareness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple independent services (VoIP, Internet access, video conferencing) into an integrated service delivery system through the gateway. The gateway couples these services to enable context-aware delivery, where the status of one service can influence others. This resolving the contradiction by combining services while maintaining manageable complexity through centralized coordination.
Solution Approach 2:
The gateway is designed as a universal device that performs multiple functions: routing data streams, managing service subscriptions, notifying user equipment, and coordinating between different services. This multi-functionality enables the gateway to handle various service types (voice, video, data) uniformly, improving user experience without proportionally increasing complexity.
2Productivity
If the gateway automatically redirects calls based on user database information, then call delivery is efficient, but accuracy decreases when device status is not reliably linked to user availability
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where user equipment can explicitly indicate their service subscription status and availability. The gateway uses this feedback information to make accurate call routing decisions. When a device indicates it is unavailable or not subscribed to a service, the gateway respects this feedback and does not redirect calls, thereby maintaining both efficiency and accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The gateway performs preliminary actions by notifying user equipment about incoming data streams before actual service delivery. This advance notification allows users to prepare or indicate their availability status, enabling more accurate call routing decisions. The gateway waits for user confirmation or status indication before finalizing the call delivery, improving reliability without sacrificing efficiency.
3Speed
If services are delivered without coupling, then service establishment is fast and direct, but service combination capabilities are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments service establishment into distinct phases: initial data stream setup through the gateway, and subsequent service-specific delivery to user equipment. This segmentation allows the gateway to quickly establish the data pathway while enabling later service combination and coordination. The gateway maintains control over the data stream routing, enabling service combination without slowing down the initial establishment process.
Data Source
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AI summary
The method involves notifying an event e.g. incoming call, relative to a data flow establishment request to a terminal (T3) i.e. personal computer, connected to a domestic gateway (PAD). A modifying instruction i.e. data flow reproducing request, of defect processing of the data flow, is received from the terminal by the gateway. Another event e.g. telephone ring, relative to the establishment of the data flow is notified when the flow is established between a remote telephone (T1) and a telephone (T2). The data flow is copied by the gateway and the copied flow is transmitted to the terminal. Independent claims are also included for the following: (1) a domestic gateway, comprising an event notification unit (2) a device i.e. terminal, comprising an event notification receiving unit (3) a computer program comprising instructions for implementing a method for establishing a data flow between source and recipient devices.