METHOD FOR REDUCING POWER CONSUMPTION OF SENSORS

• US 20080150714A1
• Filed: 11/30/2007
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Scotton, Paola, Rooney, John G., Bauer, Daniel Nikolaus
• Granted Patent: US 7,948,373 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.22
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0216 using a pre-established activity schedule, e.g. traffic indication frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/12 Wireless traffic scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method for reducing power consumption of sensors (2) within a sensor network (1), wherein a central controller (3) calculates a transmission schedule for said sensors (2) on the basis of a correlation between sensor data transmitted from said sensors (2) to the central controller (3).

Claims

1. A method for reducing power consumption of sensors within a sensor network comprising the steps of:

a central controller receiving sensor data transmitted from said sensors; and

said central controller calculating a transmission schedule for said sensors on the basis of a correlation between sensor data transmitted from said sensors to the central controller.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, in an initial learning phase, the sensors transmit phase sensor data independently to said central controller and said central controller calculates a correlation between said sensors based on the received sensor data.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the central controller calculates a correlation between said sensors on the basis of the received sensor data.

4. The method according to claim 3,

wherein the central controller calculates the transmission schedule which is made up of time periods, such that sensors with a high correlation having a correlation coefficient exceeding a predetermined adjustable threshold value do not transmit sensor data to said central controller during the same time period.

5. The method according to claim 4,

wherein the central controller assigns transmission periods to each sensor for transmitting sensor data to said central controller according to the calculated transmission schedule.

6. The method according to claim 5,

wherein sensors with a high correlation are occasionally assigned the same transmission period for transmitting sensor data for said central controller to monitor whether a previous calculated correlation between said sensors is still valid.

7. The method according to claim 6,

wherein, the central controller determines that a correlation between sensors is no longer valid when the difference between the actual calculated correlation and the previous calculated correlation exceeds a threshold value.

8. The method according to claim 7,

wherein the central controller recalculates a transmission schedule when the correlation between two sensors is no longer valid.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the calculated transmission schedule is flooded by said central controller to said sensors.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein each sensor stores the determined sensor data locally when the sensor is not transmitting said sensor data to said central controller.

11. A method for reducing power consumption of sensors within a sensor network comprising the following steps:

(a) transmitting in an initial learning phase sensor data from said sensors independently of each other to a central controller;

(b) calculating on the basis of the sensor data received by said central controller a correlation between said sensors;

(c) calculating a transmission schedule made up of time periods, such that sensors with a high correlation having a correlation coefficient exceeding a predetermined adjustable threshold value do not transmit sensor data to said central controller during the same time period; and

(d) assigning transmission periods to each sensor for transmitting sensor data according to the calculated transmission schedule.

12. A sensor network with reduced power consumption comprising:

(a) a plurality of sensors each generating local sensor data; and

(b) at least one central controller for processing sensor data transmitted by said sensors to said central controller,

wherein the central controller calculates a transmission schedule for said sensors on the basis of a correlation between sensor data of different sensors.

13. The sensor network according to claim 12,

wherein the sensor data are transmitted by a sensor to said central controller via a wireless data link.

14. The sensor network according to claim 12, wherein each sensor is powered by a replaceable battery.

15. The sensor network according to claims 12, wherein the transmission schedule comprises transmission periods each having an assignable number of time slots.

16. The sensor network according to claim 12, wherein each sensor comprises a memory for storing the generated local sensor data.

17. A central controller for a sensor network comprising:

a receiver for receiving sensor data transmitted from different sensors of said sensor network; and

processing component for determining a correlation between received sensor data and for generating a transmission schedule for said sensors on the basis of a correlation between the received sensor data.

18. The central controller of claim 17 wherein said processing component further comprises communication component for communicating the transmission schedule to the sensors.

19. A sensor with reduced power consumption within a sensor network comprising:

at least one sensing component for sensing system conditions and generating sensor data;

at least one storage location for storing sensor data; and

transmission component for transmitting sensor data to a central controller of said sensor network during transmission periods assigned to said sensor by said central controller according to a transmission schedule calculated by said central controller on the basis of a correlation between sensor data received by said central controller from said sensor and at least one different sensor.

20. The sensor of claim 19 wherein the transmission component additionally transmits sensor data in response to a received request from the central controller.