Methods and apparatus for device chat and management
Methods and apparatus are provided for device chat and management. One method comprises: obtaining a message at a device chat broker for management of a state of a recipient device using a person-to-person chat framework; and providing, by the device chat broker, the message to the recipient device, wherein the recipient device is registered with the device chat broker. The recipient device registers with a device management system as a device of a particular device type using a Device Type Repository storing attributes of the particular device type. The recipient device optionally communicates with a person using the person-to-person chat framework based on a remote session attribute. The remote session attribute optionally has associated predefined conversations and/or sequences of predefined question and answer pairs.
1. A method, comprising:
obtaining a first message at a device chat broker for registering a particular device type with a device type repository, wherein the device type repository stores one or more attributes of the particular device type;
providing, by said device chat broker, a second message to register at least one device of the particular device type with the device management system to enable communications between the at least one device and the device management system using a person-to-person chat framework;
obtaining a third message at said device chat broker from the device management system for management of a state of said at least one device using said person-to-person chat framework, wherein the third message is based at least in part on the one or more attributes of the particular device type; and
providing, by said device chat broker, said third message to said at least one device to manage said state.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of adding said at least one device to at least one device group used to broadcast one or more management messages to a plurality of devices in the at least one device group.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of devices in the at least one device group have one or more of shared device attributes; a shared location; a shared enterprise affiliation; and a shared ownership.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of monitoring an online status of said at least one device.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of filtering one or more messages based on at least one predefined policy.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said at least one device communicates with at least one person using said person-to-person chat framework based on a remote session attribute.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said remote session attribute comprises one or more of at least one associated predefined conversation and at least one sequence of predefined question and answer pairs for a given predefined conversation.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein registering the at least one device with the device management system comprises adding the at least one device to a contact list corresponding to the device management system in the person-to-person chat framework.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of obtaining, by the message broker, a fourth message comprising at least a security key and an address corresponding to the device management system to be used for communications between the device and the device management system.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the device type repository enables a plurality of devices of the same device type to be automatically registered with the device manager.
11. A system for communication among a plurality of devices, comprising:
a memory; and
at least one processing device, coupled to the memory, operative to implement the following steps:
obtaining a first message at a device chat broker for registering a particular device type with a device type repository, wherein the device type repository stores one or more attributes of the particular device type;
providing, by said device chat broker, a second message to register at least one device of the particular device type with the device management system to enable communications between the at least one device and the device management system using a person-to-person chat framework;
obtaining a third message at said device chat broker for management of a state of said at least one device using said person-to-person chat framework, wherein the third message is based at least in part on the one or more attributes of the particular device type; and
providing, by said device chat broker, said third message to said at least one device to manage said state.
12. The system of claim 11 , further comprising the step of adding said at least one device to at least one device group used to broadcast one or more management messages to a plurality of devices in the at least one device group.
13. The system of claim 11 , further comprising the step of monitoring an online status of said at least one device.
14. The system of claim 11 , further comprising the step of filtering one or more messages based on at least one predefined policy.
15. The system of claim 11 , wherein said at least one recipient device communicates with at least one person using said person-to-person chat framework based on a remote session attribute.
16. A computer program product for communication among a plurality of devices, comprising a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having encoded therein executable code of one or more software programs, wherein the one or more software programs when executed by at least one processing device perform the following steps:
obtaining a first message at a device chat broker for registering a particular device type with a device type repository, wherein the device type repository stores one or more attributes of the particular device type;
providing, by said device chat broker, a second message to register at least one device of the particular device type with the device management system to enable communications between the at least one device and the device management system using a person-to-person chat framework;
obtaining a third message at said device chat broker from the device management system for management of a state of said at least one device using said person-to-person chat framework, wherein the third message is based at least in part on the one or more attributes of the particular device type; and
providing, by said device chat broker, said third message to said at least one device to manage said state.
17. The computer program product of claim 16 , further comprising the step of adding said at least one device to at least one device group used to broadcast one or more management messages to a plurality of devices in the at least one device group.
18. The computer program product of claim 16 , further comprising the step of monitoring an online status of said at least one device.
19. The computer program product of claim 16 , further comprising the step of filtering one or more messages based on at least one predefined policy.
20. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein said at least one device communicates with at least one person using said person-to-person chat framework based on a remote session attribute.