Trust Community Creation for Device Fleet Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Managing a fleet of computer-operated image forming devices, such as multi-function printers, requires complex and costly server setups, making it impractical for smaller organizations to efficiently distribute software updates and maintain consistent settings across devices.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for automatically creating trust communities within a fleet of devices, using candidate discovery techniques, analytics engines, and fleet orchestrator device lists to organize devices and facilitate file sharing, thereby simplifying the management of device fleets and reducing manual intervention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual methods are used to create trust communities and device lists, then devices can be organized into secure groups for file sharing, but the process is time-consuming and labor-intensive
Solution Approach 1:
Devices automatically discover each other and self-organize into trust communities without manual intervention. The system performs self-service by autonomously creating device lists, determining root devices, and establishing secure file-sharing relationships based on predefined policies and analytics engine evaluations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-configuring policies, device list criteria, and trust community parameters before devices need to be organized. The analytics engine pre-processes device data and pre-determines optimal trust community structures, so that when devices need to be organized, the work is already substantially complete.
2Productivity
If automatic creation of trust communities is implemented, then device organization is streamlined and time-consuming manual tasks are eliminated, but complex analytics and device discovery mechanisms are required
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the complex task of trust community creation into distinct functional components: device discovery module, analytics engine, device list creation module, and trust community formation module. Each component handles a specific aspect of the process, making the overall complex system manageable through functional segmentation.
Solution Approach 2:
The analytics engine serves as an intermediary between raw device data and trust community formation. It processes device information, evaluates policies, and generates device lists that feed into the automatic trust community creation process, mediating between discovery and organization functions.
3Ease of operation
If a separate dedicated server is used to manage device fleets, then centralized control and file distribution is achieved, but the system becomes costly and complex to set up and maintain
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the fleet management functionality from dedicated external servers and embeds it directly into the devices themselves. Each device contains the analytics engine and device discovery capabilities, eliminating the need for separate server infrastructure while maintaining centralized control through coordinated device-to-device communication.
Solution Approach 2:
Devices serve multiple functions: they are both endpoints that need management and active participants in the management system. Each device performs discovery, analytics, file storage, and file distribution functions, eliminating the need for specialized server hardware and making the system scalable without additional infrastructure.
4Measurement precision
If manual configuration of device lists and trust communities is performed, then precise control over device organization is maintained, but the process requires substantial manual effort and expertise
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from static manual configuration to dynamic automatic configuration. Device lists and trust communities are dynamically created and updated based on real-time device discovery, analytics engine evaluation of current conditions, and policy-based decision-making, allowing precise control without manual intervention.
Solution Approach 2:
The analytics engine continuously monitors device states, trust community performance, and policy compliance, using this feedback to automatically adjust and optimize device organization. This feedback loop maintains precise control over device organization while eliminating manual configuration tasks.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of automatically creating trust communities in a fleet of devices. The method includes finding candidate devices in a fleet of devices via one or more candidate discovery techniques and generating device-related data based on the candidate devices that are found, analyzing the device-related data via an analytics engine and creating one or more fleet orchestrator device lists based on the analysis of the device-related data, and automatically creating one or more new trust communities or suggesting joining one or more previously existing trust communities based at least on the one or more fleet orchestrator device lists for the candidate devices, wherein the one or more new trust communities or previously existing trust communities include at least a sub-set of the devices in the fleet, and wherein at least one of the managed devices in the sub-set of devices is configured as a root device to publish files via a file sharing function.