Mesh routing of sleepy sensor data

• US 10,560,894 B2
• Filed: 01/13/2016
• Issued: 02/11/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trane International Inc. (Trane Technologies plc)
• Original Assignee: Trane International Inc. (Trane Technologies plc)
• Inventors: VanderZee, Joel C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ng, Christine
• Application Number:
  US15/542,320
• Publication Number:
  US 20180279222A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,490 Days
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/46 Improving electric energy efficiency or saving
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/52 Indication arrangements, e.g. displays
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/56 Remote control
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/88 Electrical aspects, e.g. circuits
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2140/60 Energy consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 19/16519 using FET's
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3209 Monitoring remote activity, e.g. over telephone lines or network connections
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0702 the arrangement including a battery
• CPC Class Codes: H02H 1/0007 concerning the detecting means in general G01R or other subclasses of G01; reed switches H01H71/2445
• CPC Class Codes: H02H 3/20 responsive to excess voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H02H 3/38 responsive to both voltage and current; responsive to phase angle between voltage and current
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1685 the supervisory signal being transmitted in response to a specific request, e.g. to a polling signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/00 Data switching networks interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units G06F13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/742 Route cache; Operation thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0245 according to signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0254 : detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0261 : managing power supply demand, e.g. depending on battery level
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

HVAC components having improved efficiency are described. In one embodiment, excessive sleep current draw in a battery-powered device having a microcontroller is detected by measuring a voltage drop across a MOSFET device coupled in a for ward-conducting orientation in series between the battery and the microcontroller, causing a transistor to conduct when the voltage drop exceeds a predetermined threshold to generate a first trigger signal, integrating the first trigger signal to generate a second trigger signal, and generating an interrupt to the microcontroller. In another embodiment, a battery-saving method of operating an HVAC component includes maintaining the HVAC device in the sleep mode, receiving a user input to wake the device, transmitting a data request and returning the HVAC component to the sleep mode, waking up the HVAC device to poll an adjacent network node storing a cached response, displaying the response, and returning the HVAC device to sleep.

Claims

1. In a mesh network having an end node operable in a sleep mode and an awake mode, an energy-efficient method of transmitting data from the end node to a destination node, comprising:

transmitting a first message, the first message including a tag ID of the destination node and message data, from the end node to a parent node of the end node, wherein the tag ID represents an identifier of the destination node that differs from a network address of the destination node assigned by the mesh network;

receiving, at the end node, a first acknowledgement from the parent node acknowledging receipt of the first message by the parent node;

causing the end node to enter sleep mode in response to the first acknowledgement;

in response to determining that the parent node is not the destination node;

performing, at a node other than the end node, a discovery procedure that identifies the network address of the destination node based on the tag ID;

performing, at the node, a routing procedure that transmits a second message, comprising the first message, to the destination node based on the network address and receives, at the parent node, a second acknowledgement acknowledging receipt of the first message by the destination node; and

in response to an indication that the end node has awakened from the sleep mode, transmitting, by the parent node, the second acknowledgement to the end node.

2. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first acknowledgement is a data link layer acknowledgement and the second acknowledgment is an application layer acknowledgement.

3. The method in accordance with claim 1, further comprising:

caching the second acknowledgement at the parent node;

receiving, from the end node, a poll request, wherein the poll request is the indication that the end node has awakened.

4. The method in accordance with claim 3, further comprising caching, at the parent node, response data that the destination node generates in response to receiving the first message from the end node.

5. The method in accordance with claim 4, further comprising transmitting, by the parent node, the response data in response to the indication that the end node has awakened.

6. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the node other than the end node is the parent node.

7. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the node other than the end node is an intermediary node between the parent node and the destination node.

8. The method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first message further comprises an end tag ID identifying the end node.

9. The method in accordance with claim 8, wherein the performing the discovery procedure further comprises identifying an end network address that corresponds to the end tag ID.

10. An energy-efficient wireless mesh network, comprising:

a coordinator node;

a router node configured to;

receive a message from an end node that is battery-powered, wherein the message includes a destination tag indicating a destination node of the message and a source tag indicating the end node, wherein the destination tag and the source tag are configured to map to network addresses of the mesh network in response to a discovery procedure;

transmit a first acknowledgment to the end node;

process the message if the destination tag of the message identifies the router node; and

forward the message to the coordinator node if the destination tag of the message does not identify the router node; and

in response to a second acknowledgment indicating the destination node received the message, caching the second acknowledgment at the router node until an indication is received that the end node has awakened from a sleep mode.

11. The energy-efficient wireless mesh network in accordance with claim 10, further comprising the end node, and wherein the end node is configured to enter the sleep mode in response to receiving the first acknowledgment.

12. The energy-efficient wireless mesh network in accordance with claim 11, wherein the end node is configured to return to a sleep mode in response to receiving the first acknowledgment.

13. The energy-efficient wireless mesh network in accordance with claim 12, wherein the end node is configured to expend no further battery energy to effectuate the transmission of the message after returning to the sleep mode.

14. The energy-efficient wireless mesh network in accordance with claim 12 wherein the end node is configured to awaken at a subsequent time and transmit a poll message to the router node.

15. The energy-efficient wireless mesh network in accordance with claim 14, wherein the poll message is the indication.

16. The energy-efficient wireless mesh network in accordance with claim 11, wherein in response to receiving the indication, the router node transmits the second acknowledgment to the end node.

17. The energy-efficient wireless mesh network in accordance with claim 10, wherein the router node is further configured to:

receive a second message having a destination tag of the battery-powered end node;

cache the second message until the router node is polled by the battery-powered end node; and

forward the second message to the battery-powered end node in response to the router node being polled.