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Claims  |
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What is claimed is:
1. A performance monitoring system, a portion of which is for inclusion in
an electrical apparatus, to monitor performance features of that
electrical apparatus during operation surreptitiously of a user of said
electrical apparatus, said system comprising:
remote site means for inclusion in each of said electrical apparatus to be
monitored by the system, each remote site means including:
monitor means programmed for collecting data on at least one performance
feature of said electrical apparatus of interest to the system
surreptitiously of a user of said electrical apparatus;
formatting means for creating a message bearing packet containing data
collected by said monitoring means; and
transmission means for initiating, at a semi-random rate, the transmission
of the message packet from the formatting means to a central site means of
the system surreptitiously of a user of said electrical apparatus; and
central site means for receiving information from at least one remote site
means, said central site including:
decoding means for receiving and processing the packet of said collected
data on at least one performance feature of said electrical apparatus of
interest to the system from at least one remote site means; and
detection means for comparing the decoded collected data from each remote
site means with the expected corresponding data for electrical apparatus
of the type in which said remote site means is installed to identify the
location of each of said remote sites means.
2. A performance monitoring system as in claim 1 wherein:
said remote site means further includes:
unique identification means for providing each remote site means with a
unique machine determinable identification; and
said formatting means also includes said unique identification in said
message bearing packet.
3. A performance monitoring system as in claim 1 wherein said transmission
between said remote site means and said central site means is telephone
transmission.
4. A performance monitoring system as in claim 3 wherein said remote site
means further includes number selection means for selecting randomly from
a list of at least two telephone numbers at said central site means to
which to transmit said status information.
5. A performance monitoring system as in claim 1 wherein:
said semi-random rate of said transmission means of each of said remote
site means has a selected range of values; and
said detection means of said central site means includes fraudulent usage
detection for detecting the receipt of status information including the
same unique identification from different remote site means during the
same selected range of values of the semi-random transmission rate.
6. A performance monitoring system as in claim 3 wherein said central site
means further includes automatic number identification means for
identifying the telephone number from which each remote site means places
it's call.
7. A performance monitoring system as in claim 3 wherein said transmission
means of said remote site means places the call to said central site means
using a toll-free telephone number which is assigned to said central site
means.
8. A performance monitoring system as in claim 1 wherein said transmission
means of said remote site means transmits said message packet to said
central site means amid other messages that are being transmitted to other
locations.
9. A performance monitoring system as in claim 3 wherein said remote site
means further includes number selection means for selecting from at least
two outgoing telephone lines that have been assigned to said remote site
means on which to call said central site means.
10. A performance monitoring system as in claim 3 wherein:
said central site means further includes means for transmitting different
telephone numbers to said each remote site means for updating the
telephone number list used to make future calls to said central site
means; and
said remote site means includes means for receiving and storing said
different telephone numbers of said central site means for making future
telephone calls to said central site means.
11. A method for monitoring software usage of owner-leased proprietary
software residing in at least one remote computer surreptitiously of a
user of said remote computer to detect violations of software usage
agreements surreptitiously of a user of said remote computer at a central
site means, said method comprising the steps of:
a. imbedding unique usage agreement information that is transparent to the
user in each original copy of said owner-leased proprietary software;
b. each of said at least one remote computers monitoring the use of said
software of step a. surreptitiously of a user of said remote computer;
c. each of said at least one remote computers automatically, at various
times, reporting said terms of said usage agreement imbedded in said
software and the use of said software by said remote computer monitored in
step b. to said central site means surreptitiously of a user of said
remote computer;
d. said central site means receiving the report of step c. from at least
one remote computer;
e. said central site means interpreting the received reports of step d.
from each of said at least one remote computers to determine when each
usage agreement is violated; and
f. said central site means transmitting software operation modification
information to each of said at least one remote computers at which an
agreement violation was detected in step e. surreptitiously of a user of
said remote computer to modify said owner-leased proprietary software
residing in the appropriate remote computers.
12. A remote site performance monitoring system for inclusion in an
electrical apparatus to monitor and collect performance data thereof
during operation surreptitiously of a user of said electrical apparatus
for transmitting said collected performance data to a central site means
for comparing the received collected performance data with expected
performance data for electrical apparatus of the type in which said remote
site performance monitoring system has been added, said remote site system
comprising:
monitor means programmed for collecting data on at least one performance
feature of said electrical apparatus of interest to the system
surreptitiously of a user of said electrical apparatus;
formatting means for creating a message bearing packet containing data
collected by said monitoring means; and
transmission means for initiating, at a semi-random rate, the transmission
of the message packet from the formatting means to the central site means
of the system surreptitiously of a user of said electrical apparatus.
13. A remote site performance monitoring system as in claim 12:
further including unique identification means for providing said remote
site system with a unique machine determinable identification; and
said formatting means also includes said unique identification in said
message bearing packet.
14. A remote site performance monitoring system as in claim 13 wherein said
transmission between said remote site system and said central site is
telephone transmission.
15. A remote site performance monitoring system as in claim 14 further
includes number selection means for selecting randomly from a list of at
least two telephone numbers at said central site means to which to
transmit said monitored performance data.
16. A remote site performance monitoring system as in claim 14 wherein said
transmission means places the call to said central site means using a
toll-free telephone number which is assigned to said central site means.
17. A remote site performance monitoring system as in claim 12 wherein said
transmission means transmits said message packet to said central site
means amid other messages that are being transmitted to other locations.
18. A remote site performance monitoring system as in claim 14 further
includes number selection means for selecting from at least two outgoing
telephone lines that have been assigned to said remote site system on
which to call said central site means.
19. A remote site performance monitoring system as in claim 14 wherein said
remote site means includes means for receiving and storing different
telephone numbers received of said central site means for making future
calls to said central site means.
20. A central site performance monitoring system for receiving performance
data from at least one remote site means included in an electrical
apparatus, said data being collected by said remote site means
surreptitiously of a user of said electrical apparatus to report said
collected performance data of that electrical apparatus during operation
surreptitiously of a user of said electrical apparatus to said central
site performance monitoring system, said central site system comprising:
decoding means for receiving and processing said collected performance data
from each remote site means; and
detection means for comparing the received collected data from each remote
site means with expected data for electrical apparatus of the type in
which said remote site means has been added to identify the location of
each of said remote site means.
21. A central site performance monitoring system as in claim 20 wherein the
remote site means initiates transmission to said central site system at a
semi-random rate and has a semi-random rate within a selected range of
values with the status information being accompanied by a unique machine
determinable identification, said detection means of said central site
system further includes fraudulent usage detection for detecting the
receipt of status information including the same unique identification
from different remote site means during the same selected range of values
of the semi-random transmission rate.
22. A central site performance monitoring system as in claim 21 wherein
said transmission between said remote site means and said central site
means is telephone transmission.
23. A central site performance monitoring system as in claim 22 further
includes means for transmitting different telephone numbers to said each
remote site means for updating the telephone number list used to make
future calls to said central site means.
24. A central site performance monitoring system as in claim 22 further
including automatic number identification means for identifying the
telephone number from which each remote site means places it's call.
25. A method of monitoring the performance of at least one electrical
apparatus surreptitiously of a user of said electrical apparatus at a
remote site that includes remote site monitoring means that collects
surreptitiously of a user of said electrical apparatus and reports
performance data from said electrical apparatus surreptitiously of a user
of said electrical apparatus to a central site monitoring means, said
method comprising the steps of:
a. collecting data by said remote monitoring means on at least one
performance feature of said electrical apparatus of interest;
b. formatting by said remote site monitoring means of a message bearing
packet containing data collected in step a., said message bearing packet
including unique identification information that was assigned to said
electrical apparatus prior to shipping of said apparatus to said remote
site;
c. said remote site monitoring means initiating transmission, at a
semi-random rate, of said message packet of step b. to the central site
monitoring means;
d. receiving the message packet of step c. at the central site monitoring
means from each remote site monitoring means;
e. decoding the received massage packet of step d. at said central site
monitoring means; and
f. comparing the performance data from step e. with the expected
performance data at the central site monitoring means for each of the
electrical apparatus of the type in which said remote site monitoring
means is installed to identify the location of at least one remote
monitoring means.
26. A method as in claim 25, said step b. is performed by placing a
telephone call to said central monitoring means using a toll free
telephone number.
27. A method as in claim 25 wherein:
said method further includes the step of:
g. identifying if more than one remote monitoring means transmits the same
unique identification to the central monitoring means within the same
selected time period as another.
28. A method as in claim 27 further including the steps of:
h. determining the location of at least one remote monitoring means
reporting the same unique identification using the results of step g.; and
i. determining if at least one of the electrical apparatus at the locations
determined in step h. is using an illegal copy of a properly uniquely
identified electrical apparatus.
29. A system to monitor software usage of owner-leased proprietary software
residing in at least one remote computer surreptitiously of a user of said
electrical apparatus to detect violations of software usage agreements
surreptitiously of a user of said electrical apparatus at a central site
means, said system comprising:
each original copy of said owner-leased proprietary software including
unique usage agreement information that is transparent to the user of said
software;
each of said at least one remote computer includes:
monitoring means for monitoring the use of said software surreptitiously of
a user of said electrical apparatus; and
transmitting means for automatically, at various times, reporting said
terms of said usage agreement and the use of said software by said remote
computer detected by said monitoring means to said central site means
surreptitiously of a user of said remote computer; and
central site means for receiving said agreement information and said
monitored usage information from at least one remote computer, said
central site means including:
transmission receiving means for receiving transmissions from at least one
remote computer; and
interpretation means for interpreting the received information from each of
said at least one remote computers to determine when each usage agreement
is violated.
30. A system as in claim 29 wherein:
said monitoring means of at least one remote computer also monitors general
performance characteristics of said remote computer and said transmission
means transmits that information to said central site means; and
said interpretation means of said central site means determines the general
performance of each of said remote computers from said general performance
information received.
31. A system as in claim 30 wherein said general performance information is
transmitted from said remote computer to said central site means
interspersed with said usage agreement information.
32. A system as in claim 29:
wherein said central site means further includes:
means for generating software performance modification instructions to each
of said at least one remote computers where agreement violations have been
detected surreptitiously of a user of said remote computer; and
transmission means for transmitting said software performance modification
instructions to each of said at least one remote computers where agreement
violations have been detected surreptitiously of a user of said remote
computer; and
wherein said each original copy of said owner-leased proprietary software
includes means for receiving said software performance modification
instructions from said central site means to modify subsequent operation
of said software.
33. A system as in claim 29 wherein said central site means further
includes means for identifying the telecommunications path by which each
of said at least one remote computers reports to said central site means
through the use of telephone system automatic number identification to
identify the telephone number each remote computer used for transmission
of violation reports.
34. A system as in claim 29 wherein said central site means further
includes means for determining the source address of each of said at least
one remote computers that transmits a violation report to said central
site means from packet headers when a packet communications system is used
as the telecommunications network between said remote computers and said
central site means,
35. A system as in claim 29:
wherein each original copy of said owner-leased proprietary software
includes unique copy identification information that is transparent to the
user of said software;
wherein said monitoring means of each of said at least one remote computers
includes in said report that is transmitted said unique copy
identification information of the copy of said software that is running on
said remote computer; and
wherein said interpretation means of said central site means tracks the
unique copy identification information received in each transmission from
each of said remote computers to detect if more than one remote computer
is using the same copy of said software.
36. A system as in claim 29 wherein said transmission means of said remote
computer includes pseudo-random delay means to randomly vary the times
that each report is transmitted to said central site means.
37. A system as in claim 29 wherein:
said transmission means of said remote computer includes means for use of
multiple telephone numbers to reach said central site means; and
said interpretation means of said central site means includes means for
determining which telephone numbers are associated with each of said at
least one remote computers.
38. A system as in claim 29 wherein said transmission means transmits said
user agreement information to said central site means amid other messages
that are being transmitted to other locations. |
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Claims |
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Description |
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to remote monitoring of electronic systems and the
prevention of misuse of proprietary software. Namely a system that
includes a telephone interface subsystem that is preprogrammed to
periodically call a monitoring station and report its current status.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The prior art includes systems wherein a central site, using a computer
with a modem, polls systems at remote sites having local modems for status
information. Similarly, the prior art also includes appliances that
contain a preprogrammed modem and microprocessor to call a central service
center when malfunctions occur in the appliance.
On-line service system providers have a difficult time monitoring exactly
what happens to a system after it leaves the factory. It would be
desirable to have a device that attaches to a system that performs several
functions:
Performance Monitoring: For example, fax and voice service systems are
relatively complex, and it is difficult for the customer to properly
monitor all of the functions of the system. It would be helpful to be able
to detect configuration errors (wrong phone number programmed into the
system) as well as monitoring the performance of units once they are
installed so that the supplier can recommend configuration changes to the
customer. This information could also be used for sales purposes, e.g. to
determine those customers who are ready for system capacity upgrades.
Fault detection and isolation: System design efforts seek to create "set it
and forget it" systems. Ideally, once installed in a phone closet, the
customer need never worry about the actual working of the system. This
poses a problem: if one non-critical component fails the customer will
probably not notice it. For example, if a fax board in a fax server stops
working, the unit will probably continue to function normally, although at
a reduced capacity. Problems of this nature generally go undetected for
several months until the customer becomes increasingly annoyed at the
declining performance of the system. What is needed is a way to detect
this type of problem early so that remedial action can be taken before the
problem has been noticed.
Marketing Information: Sale of voice and fax servers, and similar
equipment, is based upon an economic argument in their sales effort--it is
cheaper to buy an automated unit than to hire a person to do the faxing.
There is the need for hard numbers to quantify exactly how much traffic
the systems in the field are experiencing. For example, it would be
extremely useful to be able to show a prospective customer a report
listing the number of pages each day that are sent by systems that are
already installed.
Royalty Avoidance Protection: It is unfortunate, however, vendors of
PC-based voice mail systems have discovered that not all of their dealers
are honest. Some "fly-by-night" dealers purchase one or two systems from
the vendor and make copies of the software disks. They then go direct to
other manufactures and purchase voice boards. Combined with the copied
software, the vendor then churns out completed voice mail systems without
paying any royalty to the voice mail software company. In applications of
this nature, support is always provided by the local dealer. With the
software company removed from the support loop, illegal copying is
difficult to detect. Some software vendors have been forced to resort to
bundling the software to hardware devices which are usually attached to
the parallel port of a system. In such configurations, if the software
doesn't see this "lock" device, namely the board bundled with it, the
software refuses to operate. The problem here is that the hardware device
is obviously a theft protection device, and it tells the customer, "We
don't trust you". The insult implicit with the use of such highly visible
devices is not conducive to sales.
The software sales path is presently a one-way process in which knowledge
(software) moves from the developer to the end-user. What is needed is a
user transparent device which can serve as a conduit for information in
the other direction; i.e. from the end-user's system back to the
developer/manufacturer, without creating a nuisance to the user.
What is missing in the prior art is a local system that includes some or
all of the following features:
1) a call-out feature of the local unit that is concealed from the local
system user;
2) the use of modems and telephone lines for software copy protection;
3) the use of random periodicity of the calling-out function to prevent its
anticipation by the local system user;
4) the use of calling periodicity to allow detection of multiple units
using copies of software intended for use in a single unit only;
5) the use of toll free numbers to avoid detection by means of unrecognized
toll charges on the local system user's telephone bill; and
6) the use of ANI (automatic number identification) to uniquely determine
the identity of the local calling site.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the preferred embodiments of the present invention,
hardware or software is added to a local system that has incorporated
therewith a modem that is normally connected to the switched telephone
system that initiates surreptitious calls to report various data to a
remote monitoring station. These reporting calls are made from the remote
equipment to one or more monitoring sites. The call initiation is
preferentially triggered at a carefully controlled semi-random rate,
perhaps once a week. The exact time chosen is concealed from the operator
of the system that is reporting to the monitoring site. The same modem, or
modems, normally used by the local system being monitored is (are) also
used for an outgoing data call to ensure that the telephone connection is
always accessible to the monitoring apparatus. For voice mail systems
which lack modems, DTMF (Touchtone) can be used to transfer data. Toll
free numbers such as "800" telephone numbers in the United States and
Canada are used to eliminate operating costs to the owner of the local
system that is being monitored.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
This invention can be better understood by reference to the included
figures which are briefly described below:
FIG. 1 is a flow chart of the major functions performed by the present
invention.
FIG. 2 is a detailed flow chart of the randomizer portion of the flow chart
of FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the remote site electronics of the
present invention.
FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of the central site electronics of the
present invention.
FIG. 5 is a first modification of the randomizer flow chart of FIG. 2.
FIG. 6 is a second modification of the randomizer flow chart of FIG. 2.
FIG. 7 is a third modification of the randomizer flow chart of FIG. 2.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring first to the flow chart of FIG. 1 there is shown on the left side
of the figure Remote Sites 1-i, and on the right side of the figure the
Central Site. Each of the Remote Sites includes an electrical apparatus 18
that is to be monitored. Apparatus 18 can be any type of apparatus that
one wishes to monitor, e.g. a voice mail system, a fax machine, or any
computer on which selected software that is to be monitored is installed.
In order for the present invention to perform the desired monitoring
function, apparatus 18 must include or be connected to a means for
communicating via telephone lines, such as a modem, a fax machine or DTMF
encoder. The Central Site, which is discussed more completely below, is
disposed to monitor the apparatus 18 at each of the "i" sites by means of
an input device that is compatible with the device used by apparatus 18 to
communicate over a telephone line.
The monitoring system of the present invention is intended to be secretly
included at the time of sale in the apparatus 18 that is then installed at
the user's Remote Site. The system of the present invention includes a
randomizer 10 which determines when the status of the apparatus 18 is to
be reported to the Central Site by generating a wake-up signal 12 to
activate the monitoring means 14. Monitoring means 14 then generates an
interrogation signal 16 that is applied to apparatus 18. In response,
apparatus 18 generates a status signal 20 back to monitoring means 14,
with signal 20 including information that apparatus 18 was preprogrammed
to provide. That information would include, for example, the serial number
of apparatus 18 or the software that it is running, how many out-going
calls per hour are made on each of the available channels, from what
telephone number the call was made, and any other information that would
be useful in detecting operational problems with apparatus 18 or
maintaining the quality of performance of apparatus 18 to the user. Next,
monitoring means 14 generates an output signal 22 to logical unit 24 which
organizes the information of signal 22 into a packet for transmission to
the Central Site by modem, fax, DTMF generator, or other transmission
means. Each packet contains all relevant data (information that the
apparatus was preprogrammed to provide) within a single logical envelope
including the telephone number to be called and the serial number of the
apparatus being monitored. A telephone call is then initiated (block 28)
to the Central Site with the outgoing packet 26 being converted by a
modem, fax or DTMF generator in the send data unit 32 and sent to the
Central Site as a conventional telephone signal 34.
The packetization of the data in block 24 can be performed by several
techniques that are well known in the art. For example, with FAX modems
the HDLC frame structure as defined in CCITT T.30 is generally preferred.
There are similar standards or quasi-standards for modems and DTMF
equipped systems.
The Central Site receives data encoded telephone signals 34 from a number
of Remote Sites 46, 48 and 50, as well, as from Site 1. The telephone
signals are decoded at the accept incoming data block 36 by a unit that is
compatible to that used in send data block 32, with the decoded signals 38
being applied to the processing block 40. At block 40 data 38 is examined
for indications of nonstandard performance, such as performance that is
not in accordance with the manufacture's specifications or with the
license agreement. If a nonstandard performance signal is received, a
warning signal 42 is generated and applied to block 44 where a request for
manual or automatic investigation is flagged.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart that is provided to illustrate the operation of the
randomizer block 10 in cooperation with selected functions of the other
blocks of FIG. 1. Randomizer 10 performs two different functions. The
first is that of a clock to insure that one call per time period, such as
day/week/month, is made to the Central Site. Second, that call is made
randomly at only one time during that period. The present invention is
designed to make one, and only one, call during the selected period to
enable processor 40 to detect situations where more than one system is
using the same copy of the software. If more than one system 18 is using
software with the same serial number there will be more than one
interrogation occurring during that time period.
Randomizer 10 includes an independent clock 61 to provide basic timing.
Each clock pulse increments counter 62 to produce an output signal 64 for
comparison against a random number produced by block 66. The random number
is chosen from a range of numbers that corresponds to the total number of
clock time units necessary to cause one output per the selected time
period, e.g. day/week/month. Thus the triggering time is uniformly
randomly distributed over the selected time interval, say one month. If
the clock increment and the random number match, signal 72 is generated at
decision block 70, otherwise control is returned to block 66. Signal 72
(signal 12 in FIG. 1) initiates the readout of all the monitored registers
74 and a signal is generated to call the Central Site (block 78). The
Central Site (block 82) either accepts the call (block 90) or not (block
84), depending upon whether the line is busy, etc. If the call is not
accepted, a wait delay is introduced by block 86 and the delayed signal 88
loops back to block 78 to try calling again. This process is repeated
until the call is completed. If there is no response, the delay 86 can be
increased each time through the loop and the system retried. If the call
is accepted by the Central Site (block 92), the data (signal 34 in FIG. 1)
is sent to the Central Site, then control is returned to block 62.
FIG. 3. is a hardware implementation of the present invention shown as a
block diagram with the functions implemented in device 100. Device 100
includes a microprocessor 102, a crystal oscillator 104, ROM 110 and RAM
112 in communication with microprocessor 102. The clock signal from
oscillator 104 is counted in a counter 106 internal to microprocessor 102.
An example of such a microprocessor is Motorola 68 HC11. Microprocessor
102 also performs random number processing steps 62 through 74 as
described in FIG. 2. Another portion of device 100 is a transceiver,
dialer, encoder/decoder 108 which in cooperation with microprocessor 102,
generates the outgoing signal 34. Transceiver 108 can include a modem, FAX
machine or DTMF encoder/decoder, depending on the method of communication
selected for inclusion in apparatus 18 before shipment. This selection
will be dependent of the usual type of interface to the telephone, or
other communications line, that apparatus 18 is typically used with.
The decode feature included here permits the central site to transmit a new
telephone number for apparatus 18 to use in calling "home" to either avoid
detection, or when it is necessary for the central site to change its
telephone number.
The monitored apparatus 18 is shown having four leads in communication with
microprocessor 102. One lead is for the test probe signal 16 for
initiating the monitoring process. In addition there are three separate
signals 20a, 20b and 20c which correspond to signal 20 in FIG. 1. These
signals are emergency interrupt 20a, partial address 20b and data bus 20c.
The emergency interrupt signal occurs when the apparatus 18 being
monitored indicates nonstandard performance. This sets off a telephone
call of a class other than the random triggered time. The data from
apparatus 18 is sent in the form of an address and a data signal, as is
common in the microprocessor art.
Referring next to FIG. 4 there is shown a functional block diagram of the
central site of the present invention. The blocks illustrated here perform
the function of blocks 36-44 of FIG. 1. Included are a multi-port
transceiver/encoder/decoder/dialer 118 for receiving the signal 34 from
each of the remote sites, and for sending information to those sites. The
information sent to the remote sites may include, for example, a new
telephone number to be used to call the central site in the future. Unit
118 communicates with a central site microprocessor 120 via a data bus.
Also in communication with microprocessor 120 via the data bus are RAM
122, ROM 124, monitor 126 and keyboard 128. ROM 124 is to provide
instructions for the operation of the central site microprocessor 120, and
RAM 122 is for storage of the data from each remote site, including the
telephone number, or family of numbers that each monitored apparatus 18
used to call the central site, and for each serial number copy of the
software that is to be protected. Monitor 126 and keyboard 128 are
provided to allow the personnel at the central site to interact with the
system for making modifications to it or for investigating potential or
real problems with software use by the remote sites.
DESCRIPTION OF OPERATION
As seen from the above-discussion, the present invention can be implemented
by means of a separate microprocessor based subsystem or implemented by
means of software that operates on the internal processor of the apparatus
18 to be monitored. It is intended that the present invention could be
used to monitor performance parameters such as disk space usage, total
number of incoming and outgoing calls, and the number of calls per
modem/FAX/DTMF board. At random intervals, the desired information is
related to the Central Site via a toll-free telephone number.
The use of a toll-free telephone number provides two major benefits:
1) The apparatus user will never see the calls on his telephone bill, thus
eliminating any objections that the user may have about cost.
2) ANI (presently available nationally in the U.S. only on 800 numbers) can
be used to determine the calling apparatus telephone number and thus the
installation address.
The software protection afforded by the present invention arises, in part,
from the capability to determine the source of the call at the Central
Site. By imbedding a unique serial number in the software shipped with
each system, it becomes possible to track the current whereabouts of each
copy of the software that has been shipped. There may be some variation in
the ANI telephone numbers received at the Central Site, for monitored
apparatus that are installed at Remote Sites that have several different
telephone lines available for the device to use for outgoing telephone
calls. However, over time, the Central Site will be able to determine the
profile of which numbers are connected to which monitored apparatus by
storing and comparing those numbers each time a remote site calls in.
With any protection device, there will always be attempts to try to work
around it. Some of the features that can be included in the present
invention to make this more difficult are:
1) Send monitoring transmissions back to the Central Site in the middle of
other traffic to make it more difficult to "pull the plug" to prevent the
system from calling home.
2) Schedule the transmissions to occur randomly--the monitored apparatus
shouldn't phone home every Monday at 8 A.M.
3) Randomize the Central Site telephone number that is called. The
monitored apparatus can be preprogrammed with more than one telephone
number for the Central Site; if it can't get through on the first number,
then it can try an alternate number. The fact that a call is received on
the alternate number may be a clue that access to the first number has
been somehow blocked. The Central Site can also be programmed to issue a
new telephone number to the Remote Site monitored apparatus. This is
desirable if it ever becomes necessary to change the 800 number (for
example, when changing the interstate carrier).
4) Program the Remote Site monitored apparatus to place exactly one call
per time period, i.e. day, week or month. Thus, if the Central Site
observes multiple calls from the same software serial number in the same
time period, then it can be certain that that copy of the software has
been installed on more than one system in the field.
5) Randomize the board (or line) that the monitored apparatus uses of
outgoing calls.
Each of FIGS. 5-7 illustrate optional modifications to the randomizer flow
chart of FIG. 2 to implement several of the other potentially useful
features discussed above. These can be added individually, or in any
combination to include as many or as few of the features in a particular
installation.
FIG. 5 illustrates the modification to FIG. 2 to allow the remote site to
slip the call to the central site into other traffic that apparatus 18 is
engaging in. The flow chart of FIG. 5 is to be inserted between blocks 70
and 74 in FIG. 2, thus the incoming flow line of FIG. 5 is labelled 72,
while its outgoing flow line is labelled 72'. To slip the outgoing call
from apparatus 18 into other traffic, block 130 inquires if at least 1/2
of the telephone lines of apparatus 18 are in use, if no there is a delay
(block 132) for a preselected period of time before block 130 is again
visited. If more than 1/2 of the telephone lines are in use, then control
goes to block 134 to determine if more than 2 of the telephone lines in
use are occupied with outgoing traffic. If no, then delay 136 comes into
play and control is returned to block 134. If more than 2 of the active
telephone lines is active with outgoing traffic, then control proceeds to
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