Universal Device Identifier for Cross-Service Mobile Binding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mobile devices are identified differently by various services, making it difficult to recognize interactions with the same device across multiple services, leading to inefficient user experiences and increased response times due to the need for multiple identifiers and login processes.
Innovation Solution
A Universal Device Identifier (UDID) system is introduced to create and maintain a unique, global identifier for each mobile device, binding multiple service-dependent identifiers together to provide a unified identification across all applications and services.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If multiple service-dependent identifiers (MIN, client ID, MSISDN) are used to identify a mobile device across different services, then each service can accurately identify the device, but it becomes difficult to recognize that interactions with multiple services are related to the same device
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a universal device identifier (UDID) as an intermediary that bridges multiple service-dependent identifiers. The UDID system creates a mapping between MIN, client ID, MSISDN, and other service-specific identifiers, allowing the system to recognize that different identifiers belong to the same mobile device without requiring changes to existing service identification mechanisms.
2Measurement precision
If service providers require users to log in and specify device associations for each service, then they can accurately track device interactions, but this increases user effort and time consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The UDID system performs preliminary binding of multiple identifiers to a universal identifier in advance, stored in a database. When a user accesses any service, the system automatically resolves the UDID from the service-dependent identifier without requiring user login or manual device association, thus eliminating the time-consuming registration process while maintaining accurate device tracking.
3Productivity
If a universal device identifier system is implemented to bind multiple identifiers, then device interactions can be tracked efficiently across services, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the identifier system into two distinct layers: service-dependent identifiers (MIN, client ID, MSISDN) that remain unchanged and service-specific, and a universal device identifier (UDID) that provides cross-service identification. This segmentation allows existing services to continue using their familiar identifiers while the UDID layer handles cross-service correlation, thus managing complexity through clear separation of concerns.
4Ease of manufacture
If service providers use only one identifier per service, then the service implementation is simple, but they cannot recognize that the same mobile device is used across various channels
Solution Approach 1:
The universal device identifier (UDID) serves multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as a cross-service device identifier, a binding mechanism for multiple service-dependent identifiers, and a lookup key for the UDID database. This multi-functionality allows service providers to maintain simple service-specific implementations while gaining cross-service device recognition capabilities through the universal UDID system.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of the invention are directed to determining a universal device identifier (UDID) for a client device, based on multiple service-dependent identifiers (SDIDs) used by client applications, websites, or other services to identify the client device. SDID types are prioritized with pre-assigned weights. A received SDID causes a single database read to access all other SDIDs, and any existing UDID(s) associated with the client device. A final UDID is created or selected based on the SDID weights. The database is updated in a sequence that enables self recovery of a prior UDID in case of database error during update. First, any non-selected UDID records are updated with the final UDID. Next, lower weighted SDID records are updated. The final UDID record is updated. The highest weighted SDID record is updated last, to preserve the prior UDID as long as possible in case of update error, which aborts the remaining update.