Device registration mechanism

A machine-implemented method of registering a device with a server for an application-specific system, the method performed at the device comprising:

• selecting at least one branch of a data structure as at least one selected branch, the data structure identifying specific resources available to the device from a root node representative of a set of all resources, each branch of the data structure comprising a group of an identified object, an identified object instance, an identified resource, and an identified resource instance at the device,
• wherein the at least one selected branch is structured hierarchically including:
• the identified object as a child node of the root node and representative of a subset of all resources of the root node, the identified object being available to the device through an identified object identifier,
• the identified object instance as a child node of the identified object and representative of a specific instance of the identified object created according to requirements of the application-specific system, the identified object instance being available to the device through an identified object instance identifier defined by hierarchy through the identified object identifier,
• the identified resource as a child node of the identified object instance and representative of a specific resource of the identified object instance, the identified resource being available to the device through an identified resource identifier defined by hierarchy through the identified object instance identifier and the identified object identifier, and
• the identified resource instance as a child node of the identified resource and representative of a specific instance of the identified resource created according to requirements of the application-specific system, the identified resource instance being available to the device through an identified resource instance identifier defined by hierarchy through the identified resource identifier, the identified object instance identifier, and the identified object identifier;
• applying a data-reducing function to the at least one selected branch at the device by applying the data-reducing function to each of the identified object identifier, the identified object instance identifier, the identified resource identifier, and the identified resource instance identifier to generate reversibly compressed resource data corresponding to a group identifier identifying at least one group of the at least one selected branch;
• transmitting, to a server, a registration message comprising the reversibly compressed resource data, an indicator to indicate that the server is to use template based registration, and a template identifier configured to enable the server to obtain a corresponding template, and wherein the registration message is configured to enable the server to register the device using the resource data and the corresponding template, and wherein the reversibly compressed resource data can be reversed to obtain the identified object, the identified object instance, the identified resource, and the identified resource instance;
• and accessing the server when registration is complete.