Methods and systems for providing multiple network services by way of a single machine-to-machine gateway device

Abstract

An exemplary method includes a machine-to-machine (“M2M”) solutions provider subsystem 1) maintaining data representative of a plurality of distinct data processing schemes associated with a plurality of network services, 2) receiving a plurality of data streams from a single M2M gateway device, 3) identifying a data stream included in the plurality of data streams as corresponding to a network service included in the plurality of network services, and 4) processing, in response to the identifying, the data stream in accordance with a data processing scheme associated with the network service and included in the plurality of distinct data processing schemes. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method comprising:
 maintaining, by a machine-to-machine (“M2M”) solutions provider subsystem, data representative of a plurality of distinct data processing schemes associated with a plurality of network services; 
 receiving, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem, a plurality of data streams from a single M2M gateway device; 
 identifying, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem, a data stream included in the plurality of data streams as corresponding to a network service included in the plurality of network services; 
 processing, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem in response to the identifying of the data stream as corresponding to the network service, the data stream in accordance with a data processing scheme associated with the network service and included in the plurality of distinct data processing schemes; 
 identifying, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem, an additional data stream included in the plurality of data streams as corresponding to an additional network service included in the plurality of network services; and 
 processing, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem in response to the identifying of the additional data stream as corresponding to the additional network service, the additional data stream in accordance with an additional data processing scheme associated with the additional network service and included in the plurality of distinct data processing schemes, 
 wherein
 the network service is an M2M network service and the data stream is an M2M data stream, and 
 the additional network service is a non-M2M network service and the additional data stream is a non-M2M data stream, 
 
 wherein the processing of the data stream in accordance with the data processing scheme associated with the network service comprises:
 identifying a first entity responsible for payment for the M2M network service and billing the identified first entity for data included in the M2M data stream, 
 identifying a first quality of service level associated with the M2M network service and providing the identified first quality of service level for the M2M data stream, and 
 identifying a first security level associated with the M2M network service and providing the identified first security level for the M2M data stream, and 
 
 wherein the processing of the additional data stream in accordance with the additional data processing scheme associated with the additional network service comprises:
 identifying a second entity responsible for payment for the non-M2M network service and billing the identified second entity for data included in the non-M2M data stream, the second entity being different than the first entity, 
 identifying a second quality of service level associated with the non-M2M network service and providing the identified second quality of service level for the non-M2M data stream, the second quality of service level being different than the first quality of service level, and 
 identifying a second security level associated with the non-M2M network service and providing the identified second security level for the non-M2M data stream, the second security level being different than the first security level. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the maintaining of the data representative of the plurality of distinct data processing schemes comprises:
 assigning a distinct service identifier to the network service; and 
 linking the distinct service identifier to the data processing scheme associated with the network service within a database. 
 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 2 , wherein the identifying of the data stream as corresponding to the network service comprises:
 identifying an attribute associated with the data stream; and 
 determining that the attribute corresponds to the distinct service identifier assigned to the network service. 
 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 3 , wherein the attribute comprises at least one of an access point name (“APN”) associated with the data stream, a destination Internet protocol (“IP”) address associated with the data stream, a phone number associated with the data stream, a transmission protocol associated with the data stream, and an open standard identifier associated with the data stream. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the receiving of the plurality of data streams from the single M2M gateway device comprises concurrently receiving the plurality of data streams from the single M2M gateway device by way of a single wireless connection. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 5 , wherein the single wireless connection is a Long Term Evolution (“LTE”) connection. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the data stream is provided by an end point communicatively coupled to the M2M gateway device, and wherein the method further comprises:
 receiving, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem, another data stream intended for the end point from a computing device that provides the network service; and 
 processing, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem, the another data stream in accordance with the data processing scheme. 
 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium. 
     
     
       9. A method comprising: concurrently receiving, by a machine-to-machine (“M2M”) solutions provider subsystem, an M2M data stream and a non-M2M data stream from a single M2M gateway device by way of a single wireless connection;
 identifying, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem, the M2M data stream as corresponding to an M2M network service and the non-M2M data stream as corresponding to a non-M2M network service; 
 identifying, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem, a first entity responsible for payment for the M2M network service and a second entity responsible for payment for the non-M2M network service; 
 billing, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem, the identified first entity for data included in the M2M data stream and the identified second entity for data included in the non-M2M data stream; 
 identifying, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem, a first quality of service level associated with the M2M network service and a second quality of service level associated with the non-M 2 M network service; 
 providing, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem, the first quality of service level for the M2M data stream and the second quality of service level for the non-M2M data stream; 
 identifying, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem, a first security level associated with the M2M network service and a second security level associated with the non-M2M network service; and 
 providing, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem, the first security level for the M2M data stream and the second security level for the non-M2M data stream. 
 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9 , embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium. 
     
     
       11. A method comprising:
 establishing, by a machine-to-machine (“M2M”) gateway device, a wireless connection with an M2M solutions provider subsystem to provide an M2M network service to an M2M end point communicatively coupled to the M2M gateway device; 
 receiving, by the M2M gateway device, M2M data from the M2M end point, the M2M data comprising an attribute corresponding to a data processing scheme associated with the M 2 M network service; 
 transmitting, by the M2M gateway device, the M2M data to the M2M solutions provider subsystem by way of the wireless connection for processing in accordance with the data processing scheme associated with the M2M network service; and 
 leveraging, by the M2M gateway device, the wireless connection to provide a non-M2M network service by way of the wireless connection to a non-M2M end point communicatively coupled to the M2M gateway device, the leveraging comprising:
 receiving non-M2M data from the non-M2M end point, the non-M2M data comprising another attribute corresponding to another data processing scheme associated with the non-M2M network service; and 
 transmitting the non-M2M data to the M2M solutions provider subsystem by way of the wireless connection for processing in accordance with the another data processing scheme associated with the non-M2M network service, 
 
 wherein the data processing scheme associated with the network service specifies a first entity responsible for payment for the M2M data, a first quality of service level for the M2M data, and a first security level for the M2M data, and 
 wherein the data processing scheme associated with the non-M2M network service specifies a second entity responsible for payment for the non-M2M data, a second quality of service level for the non-M2M data, and a second security level for the non-M2M data. 
 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 11 , wherein the transmitting of the non-M2M data and the transmitting of the M2M data are performed concurrently. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 routing, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem, the M2M data to an M2M customer computing device subsystem; and 
 routing, by the M2M solutions provider subsystem, the non-M2M data to a non-M2M content provider subsystem. 
 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 13 , embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium. 
     
     
       15. A system comprising:
 a data processing facility configured to maintain data representative of a plurality of distinct data processing schemes associated with a plurality of network services; and 
 a data stream management facility communicatively coupled to the data processing facility and configured to
 receive a plurality of data streams from a single M2M gateway device, 
 identify a data stream included in the plurality of data streams as corresponding to a network service included in the plurality of network services, and 
 identify an additional data stream included in the plurality of data streams as corresponding to an additional network service included in the plurality of network services; 
 
 wherein
 the network service is an M2M network service and the data stream is an M2M data stream, and 
 the additional network service is a non-M2M network service and the additional data stream is a non-M2M data stream, and 
 
 wherein the data processing facility is further configured to
 process, in response to the identification of the data stream as corresponding to the network service, the data stream in accordance with a data processing scheme associated with the M2M network service and included in the plurality of distinct data processing schemes, the processing of the data stream in accordance with the data processing scheme associated with the M2M network service comprising:
 identifying a first entity responsible for payment for the M2M network service and billing the identified first entity for data included in the M2M data stream, 
 identifying a first quality of service level associated with the M2M network service and providing the identified first quality of service level for the M2M data stream, and 
 identifying a first security level associated with the M2M network service and providing the identified first security level for the M2M data stream, and 
 
 process, in response to the identification of the additional data stream as corresponding to the additional network service, the additional data stream in accordance with an additional data processing scheme associated with the non-M2M network service and included in the plurality of distinct data processing schemes, the processing of the additional data stream in accordance with the additional data processing scheme associated with the non-M2M network service comprising:
 identifying a second entity responsible for payment for the non-M2M network service and billing the identified second entity for data included in the non-M2M data stream, 
 identifying a second quality of service level associated with the non-M2M network service and providing the identified second quality of service level for the non-M2M data stream, and 
 identifying a second security level associated with the non-M2M network service and providing the identified second security level for the non-M2M data stream. 
 
 
 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first quality of service level Specifies one or more of a bandwidth level, a signal-to-noise ratio level, a bit rate, and a latency for the M2M data stream. 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first security level specifies one or more of an encryption scheme used to encrypt data within the M2M data stream and a domain-specific security setting for the M2M data stream.