METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONNECTING LOWER NODES TO ONE ANOTHER TO INCREASE SCALABILITY IN ZIGBEE NETWORK

• US 20090157878A1
• Filed: 09/30/2008
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: KIM, Hyunhak, PARK, Noseong, DOH, Yoonmee, KIM, Sun-Joong
• Application Number:
  US12/241,703
• Publication Number:
  US 20090157878A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/48 Routing tree calculation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/24 Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update

Abstract

Disclosed are a method and system for connecting lower nodes to one another to increase scalability in a ZigBee network. The method includes approving a participation request to excess lower nodes requesting participation in higher nodes where network addresses set with respect to the higher nodes are allocated to all of the lower nodes; when a transmission message is received from the excess lower nodes, analyzing the received transmission message and determining a node for transmitting the transmission message; and transmitting the transmitted transmission message to the determined node.

Claims

1. A method for connecting lower nodes to one another to increase scalability in a ZigBee network, the method comprising:

approving a participation request to excess lower nodes requesting participation in higher nodes where network addresses set with respect to the higher nodes are allocated to all of the lower nodes;

when a transmission message is received from the excess lower nodes, analyzing the received transmission message and determining a node for transmitting the transmission message; and

transmitting the transmitted transmission message to the determined node.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting, to the excess lower nodes, a confirmation message about whether the participation is approved when a request about the participation approval is received from the excess lower nodes.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

recording, in a table, the excess lower nodes in association with a message identifier for identifying a transmission message, the message identifier being transmitted together with the transmission message;

receiving, from the determined node, a response message in response to the transmission message;

retrieving, from the table, the excess lower nodes associated with the message identifier included in the received response message; and

transmitting the response message to the retrieved excess lower nodes.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the message identifier is at least one of an order of a message, an arbitrary address of a network, and a hardware address of a message transmitting/receiving node.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the excess lower nodes have a routing function;

releasing allocation of network addresses allocated to the lower nodes excluded from the routing function from among the lower nodes to which the network addresses are allocated, when the excess lower nodes have the routing function according to the determined result; and

allocating, to the excess lower nodes, the network address in which the allocation is released.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

additionally allocating a time slot to the excess lower nodes and allowing duplicated excess lower nodes to request the excess lower nodes to approve a participation in the higher nodes, when the excess lower nodes have the routing function.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving, from the excess lower nodes, the participation approval, and receiving, from the duplicated excess lower nodes capable of performing communication, a duplicated transmission message via the excess lower nodes;

analyzing the received duplicated transmission message to thereby determine a node for transmitting the duplicated transmission message; and

transmitting the transmitted transmission message to the determined node.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

recording, in a table, the excess lower nodes in association with a message identifier for identifying a transmission message, the message identifier being transmitted together with the transmission message;

receiving, from the determined nodes, a response message in response to the transmission message;

retrieving, from the table, excess lower nodes associated with the message identifier included in the received response message; and

transmitting the response message to the duplicated excess lower nodes via the retrieved excess lower nodes.

9. A system for connecting lower nodes to one another to increase scalability in a ZigBee network, the system comprising:

a request approval unit to approve a participation request to excess lower nodes requesting participation in higher nodes where network addresses set with respect to the higher nodes are allocated to all of the lower nodes;

a message processing unit to analyze a received transmission message to thereby determine a node for transmitting the transmission message, when the transmission message is received from the excess lower nodes; and

a message transmission unit to transmit the transmitted transmission message to the determined node.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein when a request about the participation approval is received from the excess lower nodes, the message transmission unit transmits, to the excess lower nodes, a confirmation message about whether the participation is approved.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the message processing unit records, in a table, the excess lower nodes in association with a message identifier for identifying a transmission message, the message identifier being transmitted together with the transmission message, receives, from the determined node, a response message in response to the transmission message, and retrieves, from the table, the excess lower nodes associated with the message identifier included in the received response message, and

the message transmission unit transmits the response message to the retrieved excess lower nodes.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the message processing unit determines whether the excess lower nodes have a routing function, when the excess lower nodes have the routing function according to the determined result, releases allocated network addresses allocated to the lower nodes excluded from the routing function from among the lower nodes to which the network addresses are allocated, and allocates, to the excess lower nodes, the network address in which the allocation is released.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein when the excess lower nodes have a routing function, the message processing unit receives, from the excess lower nodes, the participation approval, receives, from duplicated excess lower nodes capable of performing communication, a duplicated transmission message via the excess lower nodes, and analyzes the received duplicated transmission message to thereby determine a node for transmitting the duplicated transmission message, and

the message transmission unit transmits the transmitted transmission message to the determined node.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the message processing unit records, in a table, the excess lower nodes in association with a message identifier for identifying a transmission message, the message identifier being transmitted together with the transmission message, receives, from the determined nodes, a response message in response to the transmission message, and retrieves, from the table, the excess lower nodes associated with the message identifier included in the received response message, and

the message transmission unit transmits the response message to the duplicated excess lower nodes via the retrieved excess lower nodes.