Network Agent Automates Communication Device Provisioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current communication devices and networks face inefficiencies in identifying, provisioning, and billing for services, particularly in internet telephony and home networks, leading to high labor costs and slow service adoption.
Innovation Solution
A Network Agent is implemented to automatically detect and provision communication devices, offering user-selectable service options and providing a user connection address, acting as a proxy between private and public networks to streamline service access and reduce labor costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If manual service provisioning is used in current communication networks, then service configuration can be customized, but labor costs are high and service setup is slow
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables self-service through the service registration device that automatically detects new communication devices, retrieves their capability information, and provisions services without human intervention. The device autonomously registers with the network, obtains service profiles, and configures itself, eliminating the need for manual provisioning while reducing labor costs and setup time.
Solution Approach 2:
The service registration device acts as an intermediary between communication devices and the network infrastructure. It mediates the provisioning process by receiving capability information from devices, interacting with the service profile database and authentication server, and automatically configuring services. This intermediary approach automates complex provisioning tasks while managing system complexity through centralized intelligence.
2Productivity
If automated service provisioning is implemented, then labor costs are reduced and setup is faster, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The automated provisioning system is segmented into distinct functional modules: the service registration device for detection and registration, the service profile database for storing capability information, and the authentication server for verification. This segmentation allows each component to specialize in specific tasks, improving provisioning speed while managing complexity through modular design that can be implemented and maintained independently.
3Quantity of substance
If service profiles are stored externally in a database, then device memory requirements are reduced, but network dependency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The solution moves service profile storage from the device dimension to the network dimension by implementing an external service profile database. This dimensional shift reduces device memory requirements significantly while maintaining reliability through the networked database's persistent storage capabilities and redundancy. The service registration device acts as a bridge, retrieving profiles on-demand from this external repository.
Data Source
AI summary
Certain exemplary embodiments provide a method, comprising: automatically detecting at an agent an installation of a communications device to a local network coupled to the agent; automatically offering via the communications device a plurality of user-selectable service options relating to a service provider's network and relating to at least one capability of the communications device, the at least one capability detected by the agent; in response to a selection of at least one service option from the plurality of service options, providing via the agent a user connection address.