Network Device Location Guidance via Traffic Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face challenges in locating and identifying network-enabled devices within their environments, particularly in securing and managing IoT devices due to their widespread presence and potential vulnerabilities, which can lead to security risks.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and system that monitors network communications to detect abnormal behavior, determines the physical location of network-enabled devices, and guides users through a user interface to these devices, using features like graphical, auditory, and augmented-reality displays to assist in their identification and potential security measures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If network-enabled devices are deployed throughout a home environment, then network functionality and connectivity are improved, but device security and user awareness of device locations deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors network traffic and provides real-time feedback to users about device locations, security status, and abnormal behaviors through a mobile application, enabling users to respond to security issues as they arise
Solution Approach 2:
A monitoring system acts as an intermediary between network devices and users, analyzing network traffic, determining device locations, and presenting information through a user interface without requiring direct user interaction with each device
2Loss of information
If users are provided with detailed information about all network devices, then user awareness and security control are improved, but system complexity and information processing requirements worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the most relevant information (device locations, security status, abnormal behaviors) from network traffic and presents it through a simplified mobile application interface, filtering out unnecessary technical details
Solution Approach 2:
The monitoring system automatically discovers devices, determines their locations, and presents information without requiring users to manually configure or query each device, reducing the perceived complexity for users
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed computer-implemented method for guiding users to network-enabled devices may include (i) monitoring network communications within a wireless network, (ii) determining, based on monitoring network communications transmitted over the wireless network that involve a network-enabled device connected to the wireless network, that an end user requires guidance to a physical location of the network-enabled device, (iii) deriving the physical location of the network-enabled device in three-dimensional space, and (iv) guiding, by a user interface, the end user to the physical location of the network-enabled device in three-dimensional space. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.