Method and apparatus for facilitating accessing home surveillance data by remote devices

Abstract

Method and apparatus for facilitating accessing home surveillance device data, preferably an IP camera video stream, by a remote user device at the remote user device's instigation, over the Internet through a home router, the facilitating including incorporating a smart gateway in local communication with the home router and in persistent or intermittent communication with a remote Internet server to facilitate communication of data over the Internet at the remote user device's request through direct communication between the remote user device and the smart gateway, the smart gateway in local communication with the home surveillance device such as an IP camera, the direct communication facilitated by a “hole punch” type of technique.

Description

[0001]This invention relates to and claims priority to the co-pending provisional application Ser. No. 61 / 972,602, filed Mar. 31, 2014, entitled Method and Apparatus for Facilitating Providing Home Surveillance Device Data to Remote Devices, having inventors Russell S. Vail, Michael R. Miller, Byron L. Hoffman, and Eric R. Lachney. The content of the referenced co-pending provisional application is herein and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The invention is directed to the home security space and more particularly, in a preferred aspect, to the installation of a remote server on the Internet and a smart gateway in communication with a home router on a home premises, in order to provide a cost effective method and system for conveying preferably live home security data, such as IP camera data, to remote user devices upon a remote user device's request. (Home as used herein means residence or small business. The home router is also referred...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011]It is desirable to provide a means by which an installer of home security devices, especially IP cameras, can install and enable secure communication over the Internet, at a remote user device's instigation, between a remote user device and a security device through a home router without having to port forward or “pre-configure” the router in advance to forward requests for a particular device to a local address.

[0014]For local communication behind the router, preferably a home surveillance device such as the IP camera has an assigned static IP address. Alternatively, each IP camera has a known Media Access Control (MAC) address. The smart gateway could perform an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) scan on a local network, and discover the IP address of a camera with a known MAC address. This embodiment offers the additional advantage that the installer does not need to know the IP address of the camera, because the smart gateway can discover it automatically.A Preferred Embodiment of the Process

[0019]The instant solution provides nearly universal functionality and scales well because the demand on the remote Internet server is small and increases little as the number of system users increases. Installers are not required to perform pre-configurations specific to each customer's router, which lowers training costs and reduces the time required to perform installations. Without the instant solution, the installer must be well versed in network configuration topics. Further, security is increased by limiting an installer's access to specific confidential home network access information. Furthermore, other functionalities may utilize the existence of the remote Internet server and / or the smart gateway.

[0022]The invention solves problems in the field of home security and more particularly in apparatus and methods for facilitating communicating home surveillance data, epitomized by home video camera data, over the Internet to remote user devices upon remote user device request. An objective of the invention is to provide the cost effective, reliable communication of the home surveillance data without requiring a typical pre-configuring of, or port forwarding on, a home router which connects between an Internet wide area network (WAN) and a local home network (LAN). A smart gateway is added to the local network behind the router and is connected to the home surveillance devices, likely through the same LAN. A remote Internet server is placed in persistent or intermittent connection with the smart gateway.

[0024]To eliminate the burden of having to develop the skills to pre-configure a variety of home routers, the invention inserts a local “smart gateway” on the LAN and a remote Internet server on the WAN. The smart gateway can initiate and keep alive communication with the remote Internet server through the router and can communicate locally through the router or otherwise with home surveillance data providers, such as cameras.

[0027]Looked at in overview, a smart gateway functions as a “client” and participates in a persistent or intermittent Internet connection with a remote Internet server. Through the Internet server connection the smart gateway learns of a request for data, and in response secures a set of local data. The remote Internet server facilitates the smart gateway's and remote user device's establishing direct Internet communication between themselves by extracting at least port information from UDP communications from each and forwarding the information to the other. If and when each begins messaging the other repeatedly using the forwarded information, an initial attempt at communication will be dropped but subsequent attempts will be interpreted as “replies” by the router and direct communication will be effected. This process avoids the necessity of having to pre-configure NAT tables or perform port forwarding or the like upon various and sundry home routers. It provides a more cost effective, secure and reliable communication link between a home surveillance data provider and a remote user device.SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Problems solved by technology

As stated above, performing pre-configurations or port forwarding is specific to each home router and can represent a high cost in time and training for installers, requiring them to learn how to properly translate addresses for a variety of home routers.

Such preconfiguring or port forwarding can also result in security risks for customers.

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