Configuring and Optimizing a Wireless Mesh Network
First Claim
1. A communication modeling system stored as a set of instructions on a computer-readable medium and adapted for implementation by a computer for use in configuring a wireless communication network for a process control environment, the system comprising:
- an interface module to receive input data describing a plurality of communication devices associated with the process control environment and to store the input data on a computer-readable medium;
an engine module communicatively coupled to the interface module to determine network configuration data using the input data and a set of rules associated with a wireless communication scheme to be used by the wireless communication network; and
an output module that provides the network configuration data as an output.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An interactive software-based network design tool that may be used to simulate and view the operation of a wireless mesh device network used in a process plant, such as a wireless HART device network, allows a user to create a model of a wireless network, input several design requirements, and automatically generate and view communication routes and schedules for the wireless network. The network design tool provides an interactive graphic interface for the addition, removal, and positioning of nodes and devices within the wireless network and a menu including several interactive screens for specifying threshold values, network topology selections, routing preferences, and other configuration parameters related to generating and optimizing communication routes and schedules within the wireless mesh network. The network design tool automatically applies a set of optimization rules along with the parameters input by user to the network model in order to generate efficient network configuration data.
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Citations
50 Claims
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1. A communication modeling system stored as a set of instructions on a computer-readable medium and adapted for implementation by a computer for use in configuring a wireless communication network for a process control environment, the system comprising:
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an interface module to receive input data describing a plurality of communication devices associated with the process control environment and to store the input data on a computer-readable medium; an engine module communicatively coupled to the interface module to determine network configuration data using the input data and a set of rules associated with a wireless communication scheme to be used by the wireless communication network; and an output module that provides the network configuration data as an output. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of designing a wireless communication network for a process control environment, the method comprising:
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obtaining input data descriptive of a plurality of wireless devices associated with the process control environment; automatically applying a set of rules associated with a communication scheme to the input data to generate network configuration data used to configure the plurality of wireless devices to wirelessly communicate in the process control environment; and providing the network configuration data as output. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A communication modeling system stored as a set of instructions on a computer-readable medium and adapted for implementation by a computer for designing a wireless communication network for a process control environment, the system comprising:
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a user interface module to receive input data descriptive a plurality of wireless devices associated with the process control environment and to store the input data on a computer-readable medium; and an engine module communicatively coupled to the interface module to automatically generate network configuration data using the input data for the plurality of wireless devices;
wherein the network configuration data includes a routing scheme defined as a set of communication paths connecting pairs of the plurality of devices and a communication schedule to define timing of communication of the plurality of devices;
the engine module including;a graph generator to define a plurality of direct wireless connections between pairs of the plurality of devices and to generate the set of directed graphs using the plurality of direct wireless connections; and a schedule generator to associate the plurality of timeslots with the plurality of communication channels, and to allocate the plurality of timeslots to the plurality of direct wireless connections defined by the graph generator. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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45. A software tool stored as a set of instructions on a computer-readable medium and adapted for implementation by a computer for designing a communication network that includes a plurality of devices operating in a process control environment, the tool comprising:
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an interface module to facilitate creation or modification of an interactive model of the communication network, wherein the interactive model is stored as data on a computer-readable medium; and an engine module communicatively coupled to the interface module to automatically generate a parameter set for operating the communication network based on the interactive model. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
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Specification