INTER-DEVICE COMMUNICATION IN A MACHINE TO MACHINE COMMUNICATION NETWORK

• US 20150080000A1
• Filed: 05/30/2012
• Published: 03/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Neul Ltd (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Webb, William, Young, Robert, Collier, James
• Granted Patent: US 9,456,438 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/450
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/14 Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0219 where the power saving management affects multiple terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0238 where the received signal is an unwanted signal, e.g. interference or idle signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/54 based on quality criteria
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/30 Smart metering, e.g. specially adapted for remote reading

Abstract

A communication system comprising a base station and two or more terminals configured for communicating with the base station by means of a communications protocol, wherein: the communications protocol operates in a frequency band to which unlicensed access is permitted; and the terminals are configured for unattended operation with the base station.

Claims

1. A communication system comprising a base station and one or more terminals configured for communicating with the base station by means of a communications protocol, wherein:

the communications protocol operates in a frequency band to which unlicensed access is permitted; and

the terminals are configured for unattended operation with the base station.

2. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each terminal comprises a sensor for sensing physical data local to the terminal, and is configured for automatically transmitting to the base station data gathered by the sensor.

3. A communication system as claimed in claim 2, wherein each terminal comprises a memory for aggregating data sensed by the sensor over time, and is configured for automatically transmitting to the base station the aggregated data.

4. A communication system as claimed in claim 2, wherein each terminals is integrated with a utility meter.

5. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each terminal has no user interface input device by which data for transmission to the base station can be input.

6. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least part of the frequency band lies in the range from 450 MHz to 800 MHz.

7. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communications protocol is a spread-spectrum communications protocol.

8. A communication system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the communications protocol is a frequency hopping communications protocol.

9. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the protocol has a minimum instantaneous data rate and the minimum instantaneous data rate is 20 bits per second or less.

10. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, comprising a server coupled to the base station by means of a data link.

11. A communication system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the data link is a dedicated data link.

12. A communication system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the data link is a logical data link over a publically-accessible network and the base station is configured so as to isolate the terminals from the publically-accessible network.

13. A communication system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the base station is configured to pass traffic data received from the terminals to the server.

14. A communication system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the server has access to a database and the server is configured to store traffic data received from the terminals in the database together with data identifying the source(s) of the data.

15. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the base station and the terminal(s) collectively implement a scheduling algorithm whereby communications from the terminal(s) to the base station can be automatically scheduled, and the scheduling algorithm is such as to be capable of scheduling individual communications more than six hours in advance.

16. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each terminal is capable of receiving and acting on configuration data received from the base station, wherein the configuration data is one of operating software and media data.

18. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communications protocol supports a frame length longer than one second.

19. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the terminals are configured to communicate directly with the base station.

20. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the terminals are configured to communicate by means of the communication protocol with the base station only.

22. A communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the communication system is configured for long range communications.

17. (canceled)

21. (canceled)

23. (canceled)

24. (canceled)