Identification and discovery of exposed services in a digital communication network

An apparatus, comprising:

• a memory;
• a processor;
• and
• a network interface;
• wherein the processor reads instructions from the memory and implements a method for facilitating Machine to Machine (M2M) communication, the instructions comprising:
• code for exchanging messages via the network interface with a network entity operating in a wide area wireless communication network;
• code for receiving information from the network entity indicative of resources available in the wide area wireless communication network;
• code for receiving, from an M2M application server, a resource query via the network interface, the resource query requesting information about resource availability in the wide area wireless communication network for providing an M2M service to a communication device operating in the wide area communication network;
• and
• code for facilitating, by providing resource information to the application server, establishment of an M2M communication service between the communication device and the application server.

A method of facilitating establishment of machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, comprising:

• exchanging messages via a first network interface with a network entity operating in a wide area wireless communication network;
• receiving information from the network entity indicative of resources available in the wide area wireless communication network;
• receiving a resource query from an application server via a second network interface;
• and
• facilitating establishment of an M2M communication service between the network entity and the application server.

A communication apparatus, comprising:

• a memory configured to store data and instructions;
• and
• a processor configured to read the instructions from the memory and to implement a method for facilitating Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication, the instructions comprising:
• code for providing a service capability exposure function (SCEF) in a communication network for storing and providing service capability information for other devices in the communication network;
• code for configuring a first programmer interface of the SCEF by which the SCEF exchanges messages with a network entity in the communication network and receives information about resources available in the communication network;
• code for configuring a second programmer interface to the SCEF by which the SCEF exchanges messages with an application to provide the application with information about the resources and to receive resource requests from the application;
• and thereby
• code for facilitating an M2M communication service between a communication device operating in the communication network and an application server hosting the application.

A communication apparatus, comprising:

• a memory configured to store data and instruction;
• and
• a processor configured to read the instructions from memory and to implement a method for facilitating establishment of machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, the instructions comprising:
• code for exchanging messages via a first network interface with a network entity operating in a wide area wireless communication network;
• code for receiving information from the network entity indicative of resources available in the wide area wireless communication network;
• code for receiving a resource query from an application server via a second network interface;
• and
• code for facilitating establishment of an M2M communication service between the network entity and the application server.