System, method and computer readable medium for communication on a Zigbee network

• US 20090092146A1
• Filed: 03/13/2008
• Published: 04/09/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harman Professional, Inc. (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Amx LLC (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Hargrave, James Roger, Escamilla, David Alan, Xu, Kelvin Hui
• Granted Patent: US 8,780,917 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/428
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/08 by repeating transmission, e.g. Verdan system H04L1/1858 and H04L1/189 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/12 by using return channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/625 for service slots or service orders
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/10 Flow control between communication endpoints
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

In a Zigbee network, reliable communications are provided by maintaining messages transmitted from a device in a message queue in the device. If no successful acknowledgement is received for a transmitted message, the message is re-transmitted when the message queue executes. Messages are deleted from the queue when the message is successfully transmitted or when a maximum number of re-tries has been exhausted.

Claims

1. A method for communicating on a Zigbee network, comprising:

transmitting a message from a device;

storing the transmitted message in the device;

determining whether the message was successfully transmitted;

if the message was not successfully transmitted, determining if the message can be re-transmitted; and

if the message can be re-transmitted, re-transmitting the message from the device.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein determining whether the message can be re-transmitted comprises determining if a maximum number of re-tries requirement has been met.

3. The method according to claim 2 wherein the step of re-transmitting a message further comprises incrementing a re-try counter.

4. The method according to claim 1 wherein storing the transmitted message comprises storing the message in a re-try queue and wherein the step of re-transmitting the message comprises executing the re-try queue.

5. The method according to claim 4 wherein the re-try queue is executed periodically.

6. The method according to claim 4 wherein messages in the re-try queue are transmitted from the device sequentially.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein determining whether the message can be re-transmitted comprises determining if a maximum number of re-tries requirement has been met, the method further comprising, if a maximum number of re-tries requirement for a message has been met, deleting the message from the re-try queue.

8. The method according to claim 1 further comprising determining whether a message has a message order requirement.

9. The method according to claim 8 further comprising storing a message with a message order requirement in a batch re-try queue;

and executing the batch re-try queue.

10. The method according to claim 9 wherein executing the batch re-try queue comprises re-transmitting a message having a message order requirement until the message is successfully transmitted or a maximum number of re-tries is exceeded.

11. The method according to claim 9 further comprising storing one or more messages associated with said message order requirement in said batch re-try queue.

12. A device for use on a Zigbee network, the device comprising:

at least one transmitter;

at least one processor; and

at least one memory;

wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit at least one message;

wherein the memory stores said transmitted message;

wherein the processor determines whether the message was transmitted successfully;

wherein, if the message was not transmitted successfully, the processor determines if the message can be re-transmitted; and

wherein if the message can be re-transmitted, the transmitter re-transmits the message.

13. The device according to claim 12 further comprising a counter, wherein the processor determines whether a message can be re-transmitted using said counter.

14. The device according to claim 13 wherein the processor increments the counter when a message is re-transmitted.

15. The device according to claim 12 wherein the memory is configured to store one or more transmitted messages in a queue.

16. The device according to claim 15 wherein the processor is configured to delete a message from the queue when the processor determines that a message has been transmitted successfully or a maximum number of re-tries requirement has been met.

18. The device according to claim 15 wherein the processor is configured to execute the queue by causing messages in the queue to be re-transmitted sequentially.

19. The device according to claim 15 wherein the processor is configured to determine whether a message comprises a message order requirement and wherein the processor executes the queue by re-transmitting a message with a message order requirement until the message is transmitted successfully or a maximum number of re-tries requirement has been met.

17. The device according to 15 wherein the processor is configured to execute the queue periodically.

20. A computer readable medium comprising instructions executable on a device of a Zigbee network, the instructions for:

transmitting a message from the device;

storing the transmitted message in the device;

determining whether the message was successfully transmitted;

if the message was not successfully transmitted, determining if the message can be re-transmitted; and

if the message can be re-transmitted, re-transmitting the message from the device.