Method and system for equipment testing
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| Title: | Method and system for equipment testing |
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| Patent Number: | 11392,959 |
| Publication Date: | July 19, 2022 |
| Appl. No: | 16/800785 |
| Application Filed: | February 25, 2020 |
| Abstract: | A method of testing a managed networked video-delivery devices or delivery devices at a base location consists of the following steps. A customer disconnection notice is issued to a service provider resulted in a disconnection event/state of the delivery device. A series of tests are conducted on the delivery device at the customer location. Reprogramming and resetting operations are carried out on the delivery device simultaneously with the disconnection event/state occurring at the service provider prior to retrieval of the device from the customer location, to prepare the delivery device for future use prior to receipt thereof by the service provider. |
| Inventors: | Zodiac Systems, LLC (Hicksville, NY, US) |
| Assignees: | ZODIAC SYSTEMS, LLC (Hicksville, NY, US) |
| Claim: | 1. A method of testing and managing of at least one managed networked device or a delivery device at a base location, without a need for a visit by technical personnel of an operator, said method comprising the steps of: issuing a customer disconnection notice to a service provider resulted in a disconnection state of the delivery device; simulating manual interaction with the delivery device; conducting a series of automated testing procedures on the delivery device at the base location; retrieving information about services taken place on the delivery device, but not finalized by reporting such occurrences to service provider systems; conducting an automated health check of the individual delivery device or all delivery devices at a selected household; retrieving diagnostic information from the said at least one individual delivery device; certifying the delivery device for software upgrade; conducting automated chaos testing of operator network including OSS, BSS, Delivery Devices, other service provider and third-party components; conducting multiple operations on the delivery device selected from the group including: reprogramming, clearing, resetting and factory reset, said operations taking place simultaneously with the disconnection state occurring at the service provider prior to retrieval of the delivery device from the base location, so as to prepare the delivery device for future use prior to receipt thereof by the service provider and eliminating the need for reconnecting the Delivery Device to a plant at a warehouse and eliminating the need for testing at said warehouse plant; generating multiple test reports, said reports are selected from the group including chaos test reports, certification test reports, and health check reports for use by service provider personnel; wherein each of said steps is used individually and/or organized into workflows by Matrix depending on application; wherein said automated testing procedures are applied to operating system, physical device components, drivers, middleware, and individual software application and services; and wherein simulating manual interactions with managed delivery device is performed by operator personnel on as needed basis and by means of the remote commands issued to delivery device. |
| Claim: | 2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the delivery device is selected from the group including: a set-top box, router, gateway, IoT device, and other wired or wireless managed networked device; and the base location is a customer location. |
| Claim: | 3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the disconnection state is triggered by a phone conversation of a customer with a customer support representative. |
| Claim: | 4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the disconnection state is triggered by an online transaction from an application connected via communication systems including an Internet. |
| Claim: | 5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the disconnection state is triggered by a document delivered from the customer to the service provider. |
| Claim: | 6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the disconnection state is triggered by sending a notification from a software application to a customer mobile device selected from the group including: smartphone and tablet, wherein said software application is provided to the customer by the service provider. |
| Claim: | 7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the testing operations triggered by the disconnection state result in executing multiplicity of tests to assure viability and proper operation of the delivery device, retrieval of information necessary to manage changes in service provider inventory and logistics processing. |
| Claim: | 8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the testing operations triggered by the disconnection state result in executing multiple operations to clear customer specific data modes, said data modes are selected from the group including: parental controls, pay-per-view information, DVR record, settings, NVM, etc. |
| Claim: | 9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the testing operations triggered by the disconnection state result in executing additional operations in the service provider systems, said additional operations are selected from the group including: further progressing the disconnection state of the delivery device, change in inventory and logistics. |
| Claim: | 10. The method of claim 9 , wherein said additional operations are further selected from the group including: automatically executing series of testing operations on the delivery device, so that said series of testing operations generate a diagnostic report data to the service provider in real-time, and rerouting said diagnostic report data to the operator personnel on as needed basis, said operator personnel is selected from the group including: operational engineers, customer support representatives, and field support technicians. |
| Claim: | 11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the testing operations result in additional operations on the delivery device to place said delivery device into its original software states including a factory reset. |
| Claim: | 12. The method of claim 1 , wherein said delivery device may be in a fault state or not operating in accordance with service level specifications. |
| Claim: | 13. The method of claim 12 , wherein said generated reports are further selected from the group including: additional diagnostic data and applied analytics to provide recommended procedures, operations, processes, and functional work-flows to the service provider to minimize, optimize, and reduce time required spent at the base location. |
| Claim: | 14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of retrieving diagnostic information further comprises retrieving diagnostic information from the group including: delivery devices of a selected household, and entire population of the delivery devices. |
| Claim: | 15. The method of claim 1 , wherein said at least one individual delivery device is a delivery device of the selected household or represents the entire population of the delivery devices. |
| Patent References Cited: | 2004/0143470 July 2004 Myrick 2007/0183746 August 2007 Haeuser 2007/0199049 August 2007 Ziebell 2008/0275956 November 2008 Saxena 2012/0330769 December 2012 Arceo 2013/0179833 July 2013 Stallings 2013/0339930 December 2013 Xu 2015/0081570 March 2015 Gedela 2015/0249512 September 2015 Adimatyam 2017/0039194 February 2017 Tschetter 2017/0331642 November 2017 Lyotier 2017/0347278 November 2017 Gonzalez 2019/0050791 February 2019 Larson 2021/0083926 March 2021 Costa 2021/0374675 December 2021 George 2022/0150973 May 2022 Lim |
| Primary Examiner: | Patel, Dhairya A |
| Attorney, Agent or Firm: | Fridman, Esq, Lawrence G. Feigin & Fridman, LLC |
| Accession Number: | edspgr.11392959 |
| Database: | USPTO Patent Grants |
| Abstract: | A method of testing a managed networked video-delivery devices or delivery devices at a base location consists of the following steps. A customer disconnection notice is issued to a service provider resulted in a disconnection event/state of the delivery device. A series of tests are conducted on the delivery device at the customer location. Reprogramming and resetting operations are carried out on the delivery device simultaneously with the disconnection event/state occurring at the service provider prior to retrieval of the device from the customer location, to prepare the delivery device for future use prior to receipt thereof by the service provider. |
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