US 11,700,261 B1Granted

Tool for management of a pool of authorizations to use software

AssigneeT-Mobile Innovations LLC

InventorsScott Adam, Oscar Cummings, Yi-Hsin Hsu

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Abstract

A method of managing authorizations to operate a software tool. The method comprises maintaining a count of available authorizations and an authorization allocation list that identifies what authorizations for executing the software tool are allocated to what computers by an authorization resource manager application executing on a computer system, for each of a plurality of computers, determining periodically by the authorization resource manager application if the computer is currently executing the software tool, for each computer determined to be executing the software tool, determining by the authorization resource manager application if an authorization for executing the software tool is allocated to the computer in the authorization allocation list, and, in response to determining that a computer is executing the software tool without being identified as being allocated an authorization in the authorization allocation list, invalidating an authorization identity being used by the computer.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method of managing access to a pre-defined number of authorizations to operate a user equipment (UE) chipset diagnostic software tool, comprising:

obtaining the pre-defined number of authorizations to operate the UE chipset diagnostic software tool;
storing a count of available authorizations in a data store by an authorization resource manager application executing on a computer system;
receiving a request from an authorized UE chipset diagnostic computer to use an authorization by the authorization resource manager application;
accessing the data store by the authorization resource manager application;
based on accessing the data store, determining by the authorization resource manager application that at least one authorization is available;
requesting by the authorization resource manager application that a software authorization controller application send an authorization identity to the authorized UE chipset diagnostic computer that requested to use the authorization, whereby the authorized UE chipset diagnostic computer is provided with an authorization identity that is used to authorize the use of the chipset diagnostic software by the authorized UE chipset diagnostic computer;
storing information about the authorized UE chipset diagnostic computer and the authorization identity by the authorization resource manager application in the data store;
decrementing the count of available authorizations in the data store by the authorization resource manager application;
at a predefined time interval, determining by the authorization resource manager application that no authorized UE chipset diagnostic computers are using the chipset diagnostic software tool;
based on determining the chipset diagnostic software tool is not currently in use by any authorized UE chipset diagnostic computer, sending a message by the authorization resource manager application to the software authorization controller application to invalidate the authorization identities, whereby authorized UE chipset diagnostic computers that attempt to use the invalidated authorization identities are denied access to operate the UE chipset diagnostic software tool;
and
resetting the count of available authorizations to the pre-defined number of authorizations obtained.

9 more elements

A method of managing access to a pre-defined number of authorizations to operate a software tool, comprising:

maintaining a count of available authorizations in a data store by an authorization resource manager application executing on a computer system;
receiving a first request by the authorization resource manager application for access to an authorization to operate the software tool, where the first request identifies a first computer where the software tool will be executed and a user;
responsive to the count of available authorizations being nonzero and a number of authorizations allocated to the user being less than a threshold, decrementing the count of available authorizations in the data store by the authorization resource manager application, wherein the threshold is a pre-defined maximum number of authorizations for the user to operate the software tool;
adding a record of allocation of an authorization to the first computer and the user by the authorization resource manager application into the data store;
providing an identity of an authorization by the authorization resource manager application to the first computer;
receiving a second request by the authorization resource manager application for access to an authorization to operate the software tool;
based on examining the count of available authorizations in the data store, determining by the authorization resource manager application that no authorizations to operate the software tool are available;
and
rejecting the second request by the authorization resource manager.

6 more elements

A method of managing access to a pre-defined number of authorizations to operate a software tool, comprising:

maintaining a count of available authorizations for executing the software tool and an authorization allocation list that identifies what authorizations for executing the software tool are allocated to what computers by an authorization resource manager application executing on a computer system;
for each of a plurality of computers within a private network that have the software tool installed, determining periodically by the authorization resource manager application if the computer is currently executing the software tool;
for each computer within the private network determined to be executing the software tool, determining by the authorization resource manager application if an authorization for executing the software tool is allocated to the computer in the authorization allocation list;
in response to determining that a computer within the private network is executing the software tool without being identified as being allocated an authorization in the authorization allocation list, invalidating an authorization identity being used by the computer, whereby the computer is prevented from executing the software tool;
determining, at a programmed time, which computers of the plurality of computers are executing the software tool;
and
in response to determining which computers of the plurality of computers are executing the software tool, invalidating authorization identities being used by each computer of the plurality of computers not executing the software tool.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.