SYNCHRONIZED WIRELESS DATA CONCENTRATOR FOR AIRBORNE WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

• US 20130003620A1
• Filed: 06/28/2011
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Dame, Stephen G.
• Granted Patent: US 9,571,378 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/310
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/007 specially adapted for indoor communication
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/28 Adaptation for use in or on aircraft, missiles, satellites, or balloons
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0667 Bidirectional timestamps, e.g. NTP or PTP for compensation of clock drift and for compensation of propagation delays arrangements for monitoring round trip delays in packet switching networks H04L43/0864
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/12 Shortest path evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A system, method, and apparatus for a synchronized wireless data concentrator are provided for facilitating a precisely synchronized system of nodes in a wireless sensor network for airborne data systems. The wireless data concentrator contains a plurality of IEEE 802.15.4 radio/micro-processor subsystems, which are connected to a local host microprocessor, which is in turn connected to an aircraft data network. The airplane data network also contains a precision clock source and a plurality of specialized network switches, which have a low-jitter data-path routing capability.

Claims

1. A system for airborne wireless sensor networks, the system comprising:

at least one wireless data concentrator (WDC) operable as a router;

at least one processor that is to run hosted applications related to the at least one WDC operable as a router;

at least one network switch that is connected to the at least one WDC operable as a router and the at least one processor; and

at least one node that is wirelessly in communication with the at least one WDC operable as a router.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one WDC operable as a router includes at least one standard router, and

wherein the at least one node operates as a standard node.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one standard router and the at least one node operable as a standard node employs a Zigbee communications protocol.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one standard router transmits and receives signals to the at least one node operable as a standard node.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one node operable as a standard node is powered by at least one of battery power, a wired power line, and strong harvested energy.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the strong harvested energy is harvested from at least one of thermoelectric power, vibration, and inductive coupling to a high voltage.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one WDC operable as a router includes at least one green router, and

wherein the at least one node operates as a green node.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one green router and the at least one node operable as a green node employs the Zigbee communications protocol.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one green router receives signals from the at least one node operable as a green node.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one node operable as a green node transmits its state three times sequentially in a row to the at least one green router.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one node operable as a green node is powered by harvested energy.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the harvested energy is harvested from at least one of solar power and manual actuation power.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is an application server.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one network switch is an Ethernet switch.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises at least one WDC operable as a coordinator.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one WDC operable as a coordinator employs a Zigbee communications protocol.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one WDC operable as a coordinator is in wireless communication with the at least one WDC operable as a router, and is to coordinate communications with the at least one WDC operable as a router.

18. A method for airborne wireless sensor networks, the method comprising:

transmitting state information from at least one node;

receiving, by at least one wireless data concentrator (WDC) operable as a router, the state information;

transmitting the state information from the at least one WDC operable as a router;

receiving, by at least one WDC operable as a coordinator, the state information; and

sending the state information, by the at least one WDC operable as a coordinator, to at least one processor for processing.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises coordinating, by the at least one WDC operable as a coordinator, communications with the at least one WDC operable as a router.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the state information is sent from the at least one WDC operable as a coordinator to the at least one processor via a network switch.

21. A wireless data concentrator (WDC) for airborne wireless sensor networks, the WDC comprising:

at least one router, wherein at least one node is in communication with the at least one router;

at least one microprocessor, wherein the at least one microprocessor is for processing signals received by the at least one router from the at least one node; and

at least one clock crystal, wherein the at least one clock crystal is used for synchronizing communications for the at least one router.