Device Management System

GA-DMS is an optional component of GA-CDP ensuring that requested services and content are delivered in the most suitable format for the requesting device. The system recognizes the device and its configuration (hardware, firmware, software and settings) and selects the most appropriate version of the content. If the configuration needs to be updated this may be done Over the Air, prior to provisioning the service or delivering the content.

Challenges

Service providers and enterprises delivering content and services are faced with an ever increasing number of complex devices with multiple access channels. Therefore, it is necessary to be able to quickly and easily recognize the device capabilities so that the appropriate services and content can be selected for delivery. The problem increases as services become more complex, utilizing more of the devices capabilities with different devices could result in different user experiences. Furthermore, the user cannot be expected to manually select appropriate content or configure the device.

Features

GA-DMS can detect the type and capabilities of requesting devices through Internet and mobile network channels. The system then selects the appropriate content, either internally (from an attached content delivery platform e.g GA-CDP) or from external business partners. If necessary the content may be rendered it to make it more appropriate and if required the system may configure the device with the relevant applications or settings.

Device detection

The detection of a device's capabilities is a complex task that consists of two parallel processes:

• Device matching - A connected device is identified by the provided user agent string; this is then compared to the database to identify the corresponding device and its supported features. If not included in the database a dynamic query to existing public and private data sources is performed.
• Feature support analysis - Each connected device provides some information on its attributes and its actual configuration. Thus even if a device cant be identified this means that its features can be and the system can use this information to select the best match. Attributes include: Vendor, Model, OS, Screen size, applications Configured attributes and settings include: Preferred language, accepted content

Device information processing

The system evaluates which service or content is most suitable and selects the most suitable content supported by the requesting device. It is possible to define different delivery methods or even application flows for particular device. For example, it is possible to deliver a ring-tone to a mobile device or display a Web or WAP page with rich media content preview of the ring-tone for a PDA or smart-phone.

Each content item can be attributed with information via the management platform e.g. GA-CMP (Regardless of the source of this information (external or internal). Examples include: image size, number of MIDI channels for sound files, color depth or size of the data. If required the device configuration or content can be tailored. It is also possible to select protected content or to protect it before delivery.

Rendering

If the available content is not suitable for the capabilities of the requesting device, the content can be modified. As an example an image file can be resized, or its color space flattened; similarly some elements can be stripped out from an XHTML or WML page or images linked from a page can be redirected to images from a proper resolution set.

OTA configuration

The system can detect if the device requires different settings or software to be able to support the service / content or if an upgrade would improve the user experience. For example: a new video player. In such cases the firmware, software and configurations updates can be sent to the device over-the-air (OTA). In short any data and configurations can be pushed to mobile devices using Open Mobile Alliance client provisioning or WAP push technologies.

DRM

The system supports digital rights management (DRM). The DRM capabilities of devices are detected and provide back to the application or content delivery platform.

Device information repository

Flexible and scalable database containing the features and capabilities of hundreds of devices. Examples include device model, display resolution, color depth, sound capabilities. GA-DMS uses RDF (Resource Description Framework) data model to enable a maximal flexibility and UA profile compatible data management.

Device information maintenance

The database is constructed dynamically and connected to multiple independent sources of data in real-time. In addition, it is updated regularly with new devices and from feature support analysis.