# US 9,521,121 B2 · Asset management via virtual tunnels

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- Number: US 9,521,121 B2
- Document ID: US9521121B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 14/936,943
- Filed: 2015-11-10
- Published: 2016-06-16
- Granted: 2016-12-13
- Earliest claimed: 2011-04-28
- Assignees: Lantronix, Inc.
- Applicants: Daryl R. Miller; David L. Wagstaff
- Inventors: Daryl R. Miller; David L. Wagstaff
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US9521121B2

## CPC

- H04L 63/0236: {Filtering by address, protocol, port number or service, e.g. IP-address or URL}
- G06Q 10/06: Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
- G06Q 10/087: Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
- G06Q 10/08744: {by distributed inventory management}
- H04L 12/4633: {Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling}
- H04L 43/12: Network monitoring probes
- H04L 63/0272: {Virtual private networks}
- H04L 63/029: {Firewall traversal, e.g. tunnelling or, creating pinholes}
- G06Q 10/0877: {by inventory control or reporting using inventory tracking or counting}
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR

## Abstract

An asset management system is presented. The management system includes monitoring devices able to provide asset data across firewalls without requiring reconfiguration of the firewalls. The asset data pass through a forwarding service that instantiates a virtual tunnel comprising a communication channel between the monitoring devices and remote asset management engines. The asset management engines can also be located behind firewalls. As the management engines aggregate asset data, the engines can present one or more alerts via a management interface.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An asset management system configured to acquire data representative of a status of one or more assets, comprising:
a plurality of asset monitoring devices located behind firewalls under control of different third party entities, each monitoring device configured to sense an asset status of an asset;
a device server configured to establish a communication session with a management engine, the communication session comprising:
a forwarding service implemented on a network server, configured to instantiate a virtual tunnel comprising an asset-side network address, a management-side network address, and a communication channel between the addresses,
receiving asset status messages that are load balanced based on content of the messages from the plurality of asset monitoring devices through the firewalls and addressed to an asset-side network address,
forwarding the asset status messages to a management engine network address via the virtual tunnel and from the management-side network address according to routing information associated with the asset status messages;
an asset management engine responsive to the management engine network address and configured to:
compare data within a plurality of aggregated messages to alert criteria so as to determine if one or more alerts should be generated and sent to a management interface; the alert criteria being stored within an alert database.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the asset status messages reflect a status of at least one of the following: a fuel, a food stuff, a resource, a temperature, and a piece of equipment.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the asset monitor device comprises a device server.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the forwarding service comprises a cloud-based service.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the asset-side network address comprises at least one of the following: a fixed network address, a URL, and a domain.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the management-side network address comprises at least one of the following: a fixed network address, a URL, and a domain.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the asset monitoring device lacks a requirement to alter the firewall behavior to transmit the asset status message to the asset-side network address.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein asset status message communications between the asset monitoring device and the management engine via the forwarding services lacks a requirement for a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, further comprising asset transports configured to submit asset status messages to the asset management engine wherein the asset status messages are representative of a mobile asset local to the asset transport.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The system of claim 9, wherein the mobile asset status comprises at least one of the following types of data: a location, a position, a heading, a quantity, and a cost.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the asset status messages comprise at least one of the follow types of data: competitor data, cost data, inventory data, account data, and alert data.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the management interface comprises a web interface.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the management interface comprises an API.

### Claim 14 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the management interface comprises at least one of the following: a cell phone, a computer, a tablet, an application, and a voice-based interface.

### Claim 15 (depends on 1)

The system of claim 1, wherein the asset management engine comprises the forwarding service.