Constrained device and supporting operating system

• US 10,268,485 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2014
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tyco Fire & Security GmbH (Johnson Controls International plc)
• Original Assignee: Tyco Fire & Security GmbH (Johnson Controls International plc)
• Inventors: Rasband, Paul B., Lipsio, Jr., Vincent J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Choudhury, Zahid
• Application Number:
  US14/463,754
• Publication Number:
  US 20150248297A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,707 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 17/00 Surgical instruments, devices or methods, e.g. tourniquets A61B18/00 takes precedence; contraceptive devices, pessaries, or applicators therefor A61F6/00; eye surgery A61F9/007; ear surgery A61F11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/765 with exchange of information between interrogator and responder
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/876 Combination of several spaced transponders or reflectors of known location for determining the position of a receiver G01S13/874 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0236 Assistance data, e.g. base station almanac
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0284 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0295 Proximity-based methods, e.g. position inferred from reception of particular signals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/63 Image based installation; Cloning; Build to order
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4416 Network booting; Remote initial program loading [RIPL]
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/27 with central registration
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19608 Tracking movement of a target, e.g. by detecting an object predefined as a target, using target direction and or velocity to predict its new position
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19613 Recognition of a predetermined image pattern or behaviour pattern indicating theft or intrusion
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19634 Electrical details of the system, e.g. component blocks for carrying out specific functions
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19671 Addition of non-video data, i.e. metadata, to video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19697 Arrangements wherein non-video detectors generate an alarm themselves
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/007 Details of data content structure of message packets; data protocols
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/009 Signalling of the alarm condition to a substation whose identity is signalled to a central station, e.g. relaying alarm signals in order to extend communication range
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 29/181 due to failing power supply
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 29/188 Data fusion; cooperative systems, e.g. voting among different detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 7/062 indicating emergency exits
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 7/066 guiding along a path, e.g. evacuation path lighting strip
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 : Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 : Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/672 : Short addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0805 : by checking availability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 : Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/106 : across networks, e.g. mapping telephone numbers to data network addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/59 : using proxies for addressing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 : Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1051 : Group master selection mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1093 : Some peer nodes performing special functions
• 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: H04L 67/34 : involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/004 : for fault attacks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/65 : Control of camera operation in relation to power supply
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 : Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/26 : Cell enhancers or enhancement, e.g. for tunnels, building shadow
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 : Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 : for collecting sensor information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 : Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 : adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 : Inter-networking arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/00 : Systems for electrical power generation, transmission, distribution or end-user application management characterised by the use of communication or information technologies, or communication or information technology specific aspects supporting them
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 : Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/20 : Information technology specific aspects, e.g. CAD, simulation, modelling, system security

Abstract

A networked system for managing a physical intrusion detection/alarm includes an upper tier of server devices, comprising: processor devices and memory in communication with the processor devices, a middle tier of gateway devices that are in communication with upper tier servers, and a lower level tier of devices that comprise fully functional nodes with at least some of the functional nodes including an application layer that execute routines to provide node functions, and a device to manage the lower tier of devices, the device instantiating a program manager that executes a state machine to control the application layer in each of the at least some of the functional nodes.

Claims

1. A computer program product tangibly stored on a computer readable non-transitory hardware storage device, the computer program product for managing constrained sensor devices on a network, the computer program product comprising instructions to cause a processor to:

manage a dynamic set of user-defined independently executable functions or tasks that are either built into a loaded image or downloaded during normal operation of a constrained sensor device, to further cause the processor to;

add a new function to a management structure that comprises an array or a linked list of function pointers;

update readiness and priority information in scheduler variables; and

produce links between old and new code; and

schedule functions that are referenced through the management structure, to execute on the processor in the constrained sensor device, according to availability based on readiness information and priority of the scheduled functions relative to other functions obtained from the management structure, without saving context that includes register values of registers in the processor of a prior function executing on the processor in the constrained sensor device stored on a stack in random access memory to a different location in the random access memory, with the context including processor operating register values of the prior function, when a next function is identified as ready to run and the next function has a higher priority than the prior function executing on the constrained sensor device.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the computer program product is a real-time operating system for execution on the constrained sensor device.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the schedule instructions periodically evaluate the functions not currently running to determine whether any of these are ready to run.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein an interrupt is used to determine that a function is ready to run by either a supplying of data to a pended function or a counting down of a timer event for a function that has suspended itself.

5. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising to cause the processor to generate:

the stack, with functions stored according to respective priorities, and when the next function is found ready to run and is of higher priority than the prior function, the next function pushes its data on top of the stack.

6. The computer program product of claim 5 wherein when the next function completes running and returns, all its stack usage is popped and the prior function resumes running.

7. A method comprises:

managing by a processor including registers, and which controls a constrained sensor device a dynamic set of user-defined independent executable functions or tasks that are either built into a loaded image or downloaded during normal operation of the constrained sensor device, by;

adding a new function to a management structure that comprises an array or a linked list of function pointers;

updating readiness and priority information in scheduler variables; and

producing links between old and new code; and

scheduling functions that are referenced through the management structure, to execute on the processor in the constrained sensor device according to availability based on readiness information and priority of the scheduled functions relative to other functions, which are obtained from the management structure without saving context that includes register values of registers in the processor of a prior function executing on the processor in the constrained sensor device stored on a stack in memory to a different location in the memory, with the context including processor operating register values of the prior function, when a next function is identified as ready to run and the next function has a higher priority than the prior function executing on the constrained device.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the processor executes a real-time operating system.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein scheduling periodically evaluates the functions not currently running to determine whether any of these are ready to run.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein an interrupt is used to determine that a function is ready to run by either a supplying of data to a pended function or a counting down of a timer event for a function that has suspended itself.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the stack has functions stored according to respective priorities the method comprising:

determining whether the next function is ready to run and is of higher priority than the prior function and pushing next function data on top of the stack.

12. A constrained sensor device comprises:

a processor device including registers;

random access memory in communication with the processor device;

a sensor element for sensing a physical condition, the sensor element sending data for processing to the processor device, with the processor device applying one or more user-defined independent executable functions to the data; and

a storage device storing a computer program product comprising instructions to cause the processor device to;

manage a dynamic set of the user-defined independent executable functions that are either built into a loaded image or downloaded during normal operation of the constrained sensor device to further cause the processor device to;

add a new function to a management structure that comprises an array or a linked list of function pointers;

update readiness and priority information in scheduler variables; and

produce links between old and new code; and

schedule functions that are referenced through the management structure, to execute on the constrained sensor device, according to availability based on readiness information and priority of the scheduled functions relative to other functions obtained from the management structure, without saving context that includes register values of registers in the processor device of a prior function executing on the processor device in the constrained device stored on a stack in the memory to a different location in memory, with the context including processor operating register values of the prior function, when the scheduler identifies a next function that is ready to run and the next function has a higher priority than the prior function executing on the constrained device.

13. The device of claim 12 wherein the computer program product is a real-time operating system for execution on constrained sensor devices.

14. The device of claim 12 wherein the stack has functions stored according to respective priorities and when the next function is found ready to run that is of higher priority than the prior function, the next function pushes its data on top of the stack.

15. The device of claim 12 wherein the constrained device has less than 10 Kbytes of volatile memory.

16. The device of claim 12 wherein the constrained device is a device with less than a megabyte of flash/persistent memory and less than 20 Kbytes of RAM/volatile memory.

17. A networked detection system comprising:

a network of sensors and computing devices, with the network of sensors and computing devices comprising;

one or more constrained sensor devices with at least one of the constrained sensor devices comprising;

a first processing device;

a sensor element for sensing a physical condition, the sensor element sending data for processing to the first processing device, with the first processing device applying one or more user-defined independent executable functions to the data;

a storage device storing a computer program product comprising instructions to cause the first processor device to;

manage a dynamic set of the user-defined independent executable functions that are either built into a loaded image or downloaded during normal operation of the constrained sensor device, to further cause the first processing device to;

add a new function to a management structure that comprises an array or a linked list of function pointers;

update readiness and priority information in scheduler variables; and

produce links between old and new code; and

schedule functions that are referenced through the management structure to execute on the constrained sensor device according to availability based on readiness information and priority of the scheduled functions relative to other functions obtained from the management structure, without saving context that includes register values of registers in the first processing device of a prior function executing on the first processing device in the constrained device stored on a stack in the memory to a different location in the memory, with the context including processor operating register values of the prior function, when a next function is identified as ready to run and the next function has a higher priority than the prior function executing on the constrained device; and

one or more fully functional sensor devices each comprising;

a second different type of processing device having greater processing capabilities than the first processing device;

second different memory coupled to the second different type of processing device; and

a network connection to connect the one or more constrained sensor devices to the network.