Environment control device providing a Wi-Fi hotspot for accessing the Internet

• US 10,070,470 B2
• Filed: 09/04/2015
• Issued: 09/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Distech Controls, Inc. (Acuity Brands, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Distech Controls, Inc. (Acuity Brands, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gervais, Francois, Breton, Danny, Ouellet, Francois
• Primary Examiner(s): Rinehart, Mark
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dewan, Sanjay K
• Application Number:
  US14/845,413
• Publication Number:
  US 20170071015A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,096 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/43 using wireless personal area networks [WPAN], e.g. 802.15, 802.15.1, 802.15.4, Bluetooth or ZigBee
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

An environment control device (ECD) providing a Wi-Fi hotspot for accessing the Internet. The ECD comprises a communication module with a Wi-Fi hotspot functionality for establishing a Wi-Fi hotspot at the ECD, and a mesh client functionality for communicating over a mesh network. The communication module provides for exchanging environmental data with at least another ECD, over one of the Wi-Fi hotspot or mesh network. It also provides for receiving upstream Internet data from at least one user terminal over the Wi-Fi hotspot, and forwarding the upstream Internet data to another ECD over the mesh network. It further provides for receiving downstream Internet data from another ECD over the mesh network, and forwarding the downstream Internet data to the at least one user terminal over the Wi-Fi hotspot. The ECD providing the Wi-Fi hotspot for accessing the Internet may be a daisy-chained ECD controlled by a master ECD.

Claims

1. An environment control device (ECD) comprising:

an input for receiving an input signal having an input frequency from a preceding device in a daisy-chained communication configuration;

an electronic circuit for generating an output signal having an output frequency different and based on the input frequency;

an output for outputting the output signal to a following device in the daisy-chained communication configuration; and

a processing unit for determining a communication address of the ECD based on the input frequency of the input signal; and

a communication module comprising;

a first communication functionality for communicating over a first network using the communication address; and

a second communication functionality consisting of a Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 hotspot functionality for establishing a second network consisting of a IEEE 802.11 hotspot at the ECD;

the communication module providing for receiving upstream Internet data from at least one user terminal over the IEEE 802.11 hotspot and forwarding the upstream Internet data to another device over the first network, and the communication module providing for receiving downstream Internet data from the other device over the first network and forwarding the downstream Internet data to the at least one user terminal over the IEEE 802.11 hotspot.

2. The ECD of claim 1, wherein the first communication functionality is a mesh client functionality and the first network is a mesh network.

3. The ECD of claim 1, wherein the processing unit provides for:

receiving an environmental characteristic value from a sensor over the IEEE 802.11 hotspot via the IEEE 802.11 hotspot functionality, determining an environmental state based on the environmental characteristic value, generating a command based on the environmental state, and transmitting the command to a controlled appliance over the IEEE 802.11 hotspot via the IEEE 802.11 hotspot functionality.

4. The ECD of claim 1, wherein the processing unit provides for:

receiving an environmental characteristic value from a sensor over the IEEE 802.11 hotspot via the IEEE 802.11 hotspot functionality, and forwarding the environmental characteristic value to another ECD over the first network via the first communication functionality.

5. The ECD of claim 1, wherein the processing unit provides for:

receiving a command from another ECD over the first network via the first communication functionality, and forwarding the command to a controlled appliance over the IEEE 802.11 hotspot via the IEEE 802.11 hotspot functionality.

6. The ECD of claim 1, wherein the IEEE 802.11 hotspot functionality implements a roaming functionality for allowing the at least one user terminal to roam from the IEEE 802.11 hotspot to another IEEE 802.11 hotspot established by another ECD connected to the first network.

7. The ECD of claim 1, wherein the communication module further provides for exchanging environmental data with at least another ECD over the first network.

8. The ECD of claim 1, wherein the communication module further provides for exchanging environmental data with at least another ECD over the IEEE 802.11 hotspot.

9. The ECD of claim 8, wherein the IEEE 802.11 hotspot functionality operates at a first frequency for exchanging the environmental data with the at least another ECD over the IEEE 802.11 hotspot, and the IEEE 802.11 hotspot functionality operates at a second frequency for exchanging the Internet data with the at least one user terminal over the IEEE 802.11 hotspot.

10. The ECD of claim 8, wherein the environmental data exchanged with the at least another ECD over the IEEE 802.11 hotspot are encrypted via a dedicated encryption mechanism.

11. A master device for use in a daisy-chained communication configuration, the daisy-chained communication configuration comprising daisy-chained devices, the master device comprising:

memory for storing for each daisy-chained device of the daisy-chained communication configuration an address of the daisy-chained device and characteristics of the daisy-chained device;

an output for transmitting a signal having a pre-determined frequency to a first daisy-chained device in the daisy-chained communication configuration;

a communication interface for exchanging Internet data with the daisy-chained devices using the addresses of the daisy-chained devices stored in the memory, an exchange of Internet data between the master device and any one of the daisy-chained devices occurring directly between the master device and the any one of the daisy-chained devices without transiting through any other one of the daisy-chained devices; and

a processing unit for;

forwarding upstream Internet data received from the daisy-chained devices via the communication interface to an Internet gateway, and

forwarding downstream Internet data received from the Internet gateway to the daisy-chained devices via the communication interface.

12. The master device of claim 11, wherein the processing unit implements an Ethernet masquerading functionality for the Internet data exchanged between the daisy-chained devices and the Internet gateway.

13. The master device of claim 11, wherein the communication interface further provides for exchanging environmental data with the daisy-chained devices using the addresses of the daisy-chained devices stored in the memory, an exchange of environmental data between the master device and any one of the daisy-chained devices occurring directly between the master device and the any one of the daisy-chained devices without transiting through any other one of the daisy-chained devices.

14. The master device of claim 13, wherein the processing unit generates environmental data transmitted to the daisy-chained devices via the communication interface, the generation of the environmental data depending on the characteristics of the daisy-chained devices stored in the memory, and the processing unit processes environmental data received from the daisy-chained devices via the communication interface, the processing of the environmental data depending on the characteristics of the daisy-chained devices stored in the memory.