METHOD FOR COMMUNICATING IN A NETWORK COMPRISING A BATTERYLESS ZIGBEE DEVICE, NETWORK AND DEVICE THEREFOR

• US 20120224571A1
• Filed: 11/02/2010
• Published: 09/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Signify Holding B.V. (Signify N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Tolhuizen, Ludovicus Marinus Gerardus Maria, Schlumbohm, Stephan, Yuan, Wei, Erdmann, Bozema
• Granted Patent: US 8,937,935 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/349
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4633 Interconnection of networks using encapsulation techniques, e.g. tunneling
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/04 based on wireless node resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/12 based on transmission quality or channel quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/02 Data link layer protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/182 Network node acting on behalf of an other network entity, e.g. proxy
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method for wireless communication in a network comprising a resource-restricted device, and at least one proxy device, wherein the method comprises the following steps:-the resource-restricted device (ZGPD) transmitting a frame containing source identifier to be forwarded to a destination device in the network,-the proxy device (ZP5) receiving the frame,-the proxy constructing, from the frame, a packet to be forwarded to the destination device,-the router device associating a delay to the packet and scheduling forwarding of the packet after this delay, wherein the step of constructing a packet from the frame comprises deriving source-related information from the received packet and including this information in the packet.

Claims

1. A method for wireless communication in a network comprising a resource-restricted device, and at least one proxy device, wherein the method comprises the following steps:

the resource-restricted device (ZGPD) transmitting a frame containing source identifier to be forwarded to a destination device in the network,

the proxy device (ZP5) receiving the frame,

the proxy constructing, from the frame, a packet to be forwarded to at least the destination device,

the router device associating a delay to the packet and scheduling forwarding of the packet after this delay,

wherein the step of constructing a packet from the frame comprises deriving source-related information from the received frame and including this information in the packet.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of deriving source-related information comprises:

determining a source address as a function of the resource-restricted device source identifier,

including the determined source address in the packet to be forwarded.

3. A method as recited in claim 1 or 2, wherein the step of deriving source-related information comprises:

determining a sequence number, based on the reception time of the frame,

including the sequence number in the packet to be forwarded.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein the determination of the sequence number is also performed based on a repetition counter included in the frame.

5. A method as recited in claim 1 or 2, wherein the step of deriving source-related information comprises:

determining a sequence number, based on the sequence number from the received frame,

including the determined sequence number in the packet to be forwarded.

6. A method as recited in any of the claims 1 to 5, wherein the method further comprises the step of determining the delay associated to forwarding the data frame as a function of the reception quality of the frame on the proxy device.

7. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein the delay is determined as being dependent on the ZigBee Link Quality Indicator.

8. A method as recited in one of the preceding claims, comprising the step, in case the determination of a ZigBee network source address leads to generating an address already existing, of the proxy maintaining the address and allowing the device with the existing address to pick a new one.

9. A method as recited in one of the preceding claims, comprising the step, in case the proxy device hears that the packet has been forwarded by another router device, of cancelling the scheduled transmission of the packet.

10. A method as recited in one of claims 1 to 8 comprising the step, in case the proxy device receiving an acknowledgment from the destination device, of cancelling scheduled transmission of the packet.

11. A method as recited in one of claims 1 to 8 comprising the step, in case the proxy device receiving an acknowledgment from the destination device, of forwarding the acknowledgement to another proxy device involved in the forwarding process on behalf of the resource-restricted device.

12. A method as recited in one of claims 1 to 8, comprising the step, in case the proxy not receiving any acknowledgement from the destination device or via other proxies after a predetermined duration, of performing scheduled (re)transmission of the packet.

13. A proxy device comprising:

reception means for receiving data frame from a resource-restricted device in a wireless network,

transmission means for forwarding the data frame towards a destination device in the network, as part of a packet,

determination means for deriving source-related information from the received frame and including this information in the packet

determination means for determining, from the reception quality of the frame, a forwarding delay of the packet.

14. A proxy device as recited in claim 13, further comprising means for canceling a scheduled transmission of a data frame when hearing that the data frame has been transmitted by another router device or acknowledged by the destination.

15. A ZigBee Green Power frame comprising a source identifier of an originating resource restricted device, wherein the frame format comprises a MAC layer frame control field or in a NWK layer frame control field, and the frame further comprises a repetition counter included in one of the MAC layer frame control field and the NWK layer frame control field.