SENSOR NETWORK SYSTEM, GATEWAY NODE, AND METHOD FOR RELAYING DATA OF SENSOR NETWORK SYSTEM

• US 20070299956A1
• Filed: 12/04/2006
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Moriwaki, Norihiko, Ara, Koji, Odaka, Toshiyuki, Ogushi, Minoru
• Application Number:
  US11/566,367
• Publication Number:
  US 20070299956A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• 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 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

Provided is a method for transferring data of a sensor network system in which communication is made with multiple sensor nodes SN1s connected via a wireless network to transmit sensing data measured by the sensor nodes SN1s to a server SNS connected via a wired network. The method includes: receiving the sensing data from each of the sensor nodes SN1s (S1); adding meaning information that corresponds to a measurement value contained in the sensing data to the sensing data (S2, S5); and transmitting the sensing data to which the meaning information is added to the server SNS (S6). Accordingly, data of the sensor nodes are efficiently used by multiple applications while effectively using a reduced resource for wireless communication.

Claims

1. A sensor network system, comprising:

a gateway connected to multiple sensor nodes via a wireless network; and

a server connected to the gateway via a wired network, wherein;

the gateway comprises;

a wireless communication unit for communicating with each of the multiple sensor nodes via the wireless network and receiving sensing data from each of the multiple sensor nodes;

a first data converting unit for adding, to the sensing data received from each of the multiple sensor nodes via the wireless network, meaning information that corresponds to a measurement value contained in the sensing data; and

a wired communication unit for communicating with the server via the wired network and transmitting the sensing data received from the first data converting unit to the server;

the server comprises a data storing unit for storing the sensing data received from the gateway; and

the server provides a user computer connected to the wired network with the sensing data stored in the data storing unit.

2. The sensor network system according to claim 1, wherein:

the wired communication unit receives a command from the server via the wired network;

the gateway further comprises a second data converting unit for deleting meaning information from the command received via the wired network; and

the wireless communication unit transmits the command received from the second data converting unit to a corresponding one of the multiple sensor nodes via the wireless network.

3. The sensor network system according to claim 2, wherein the first data converting unit comprises:

a data ID extracting unit for extracting, from the sensing data received from each of the multiple sensor nodes, a data identifier specified by the sensor node;

a conversion processing unit for retrieving meaning information of the sensing data which corresponds to the data identifier from a preset data conversion table; and

a first data assembling unit for adding the retrieved meaning information to the sensing data.

4. The sensor network system according to claim 3, wherein:

the data conversion table associates a type of a physical quantity of the sensing data which corresponds to the data identifier with a unit of the physical quantity; and

the first data assembling unit adds the type and the unit of the physical quantity to the measurement value contained in the sensing data.

5. The sensor network system according to claim 2, wherein:

the first data converting unit comprises an address converting unit for converting a local ID contained in the sensing data received from each of the multiple sensor nodes into a corresponding global ID uniquely identifiable on the wired network; and

the first data converting unit specifies the global ID in the sensing data in place of the local ID.

6. The sensor network system according to claim 2, wherein the second data converting unit comprises:

a meaning information extracting unit for extracting the meaning information contained in the command received from the server;

a conversion processing unit for retrieving a data identifier that corresponds to the meaning information from a preset data conversion table; and

a second data assembling unit for deleting the meaning information from the command and specifying the data identifier in the command.

7. The sensor network system according to claim 2, wherein:

the second data converting unit comprises an address converting unit for converting a global ID contained in the command received from the server into a corresponding local ID uniquely identifiable on the wireless network; and

the second data converting unit specifies in the command the local ID, which has a smaller amount of data than the global ID, in place of the global ID.

8. The sensor network system according to claim 2, wherein the user computer executes an application that uses the sensing data stored in the data storing unit based on the meaning information.

9. A base station, comprising:

a wireless communication unit for performing transmission and reception with multiple sensor nodes via a wireless network; and

a wired communication unit for performing transmission and reception with a server via a wired network; and

a first data converting unit for adding, to sensing data received from each of the multiple sensor nodes via the wireless network, meaning information that corresponds to a measurement value contained in the sensing data, wherein;

the wireless communication unit receives the sensing data from each of the multiple sensor nodes; and

the wired communication unit transmits the sensing data received from the first data converting unit to the server.

10. The base station according to claim 9, further comprising a second data converting unit for deleting meaning information from the command received via the wired network, wherein:

the wired communication unit receives a command from the server via the wired network; and

the wireless communication unit transmits the command received from the second data converting unit to a corresponding one of the multiple sensor nodes via the wireless network.

11. The base station according to claim 10, wherein the first data converting unit comprises:

a data ID extracting unit for extracting, from the sensing data received from each of the multiple sensor nodes, a data identifier specified by the sensor node;

a conversion processing unit for retrieving meaning information of the sensing data which corresponds to the data identifier from a preset data conversion table; and

a first data assembling unit for adding the retrieved meaning information to the sensing data.

12. The base station according to claim 11, wherein:

the data conversion table associates a type of a physical quantity of the sensing data which corresponds to the data identifier with a unit of the physical quantity; and

the first data assembling unit adds the type and the unit of the physical quantity to the measurement value contained in the sensing data.

13. The base station according to claim 10, wherein:

the first data converting unit comprises an address converting unit for converting a local ID contained in the sensing data received from each of the multiple sensor nodes into a corresponding global ID uniquely identifiable on the wired network; and

the first data converting unit specifies the global ID in the sensing data in place of the local ID.

14. The base station according to claim 10, wherein the second data converting unit comprises:

a meaning information extracting unit for extracting the meaning information contained in the command received from the server;

a conversion processing unit for retrieving a data identifier that corresponds to the meaning information from a preset data conversion table; and

a second data assembling unit for deleting the meaning information from the command and specifying the data identifier in the command.

15. The base station according to claim 10, wherein:

the second data converting unit comprises an address converting unit for converting a global ID contained in the command received from the server into a corresponding local ID uniquely identifiable on the wireless network; and

the second data converting unit specifies in the command the local ID, which has a smaller amount of data than the global ID, in place of the global ID.

16-21. -21. (canceled)