COMMUNICATION NETWORK FOR CONTROLLING DEVICES

• US 20070162536A1
• Filed: 11/14/2006
• Published: 07/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Leviton Manufacturing Company Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Leviton Manufacturing Company Incorporated
• Inventors: Ostrovsky, Michael, Lombardi, Alfred
• Granted Patent: US 8,386,661 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/200
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2814 Exchanging control software or macros for controlling appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving configuration of the network and network elements H04L41/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2827 Reporting to a device within the home network; wherein the reception of the information reported automatically triggers the execution of a home appliance functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators

Abstract

A system and method for controlling devices that are part of a peer to peer network of controllers is provided. Messages are routed to controllers of the network and such messages are used to control devices coupled to said controllers. Status messages indicating the state of devices are routed to controllers to allow the state of the devices to be displayed by said controllers.

Claims

1. A system for communicating status of devices between controllers of a peer to peer network of controllers that controls the devices, the system comprises:

at least one NDSC; and

at least one DSC where said at least one DSCs has a list of controllers for receiving a status update message, said controllers having transmitter and receiver circuitry and where said at least one DSCs being programmed to route its status update message to each controller on its list of controllers in response to an update request received from said at least one NDSCs.

2. The system of claim 1 where the network is a wireless network.

3. The system of claim 1 where the network is an RF network.

4. The system of claim 1 where the at least one NDSC is a scene or a zone controller.

5. The system of claim 1 where the status update message is target status information.

6. The system of claim 1 where the received status update message is displayed by at least one controller.

7. The system of claim 1 where the devices are light fixtures.

8. The system of claim 1 where the devices are electrical appliances.

9. The system of claim 1 where the devices are components of an HVAC system.

10. A method for communicating status of devices between controllers of a peer to peer network of controllers that controls the devices, the controllers comprising at least one DSC and at least one NDSC, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving, at the at least one DSC coupled to a device, an request to update status information of said device, said request routed by the at least one NDSC where said at least one DSC has a list of controllers for receiving a status update message; and

routing, by the at least one DSC, status of said device to a plurality of controllers specified in the list in response to the update request.

11. The method of claim 10 where the transmitted status is target status information.

12. The method of claim 10 where the network is a wireless network.

13. The method of claim 12 where the wireless network is a power line network.

14. The method of claim 12 where the wireless network is an RF network.

15. The method of claim 10 where said request to update was transmitted by a NDSC.

16. The method of claim 15 where the NDSC is a scene or a zone controller.

17. The method of claim 15 where the request to update status was in response to a HAIL message from the DSC.

18. The method of claim 10 where the step of transmitting the status of said device comprises transmitting a HAIL message to at least one specified NDSC.

19. The method of claim 18 where said HAIL messages is triggered by a direct control of said DSC.

20. The method of claim 10 where the NDSC that transmitted the status request is the last of the plurality of controllers to receive the status of said device.

21. The method of claim 10 where the DSC stops transmitting the status in response to a change in said status occurring during said transmission and said controller then transmits new status information reflecting the change in status.

22. A method for communicating status of devices between controllers of a peer to peer network of controllers that controls the devices, the controllers comprising at least one DSC and at least one NDSC, the method comprising the steps of:

routing, by the at least one NDSC, a request to update status information of a device coupled to the at least one DSC; and

receiving, by the at least one NDSC, the status of said device from the at least one DSC.

23. The method of claim 22 where the received status is target status information.

24. The method of claim 22 where the network is a wireless network.

25. The method of claim 24 where the wireless network is a power line network.

26. The method of claim 24 where the wireless network is an RF network.

27. The method of claim 22 where the request to update was transmitted by a non-device specific controller.

28. The method of claim 27 was the NDSC is a scene or a zone controller.

29. The method of claim 27 where the request to update status was in response to a HAIL message from the DSC.

30. The method of claim 22 where the step of transmitting a request to update comprises receiving a HAIL message from the DSC.