MODULAR ANTENNA FOR INTEGRATION WITH AN INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT) HUB AND ASSOCIATED SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20170005390A1
• Filed: 07/03/2015
• Published: 01/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Afero, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Kiban Labs, Inc.
• Inventors: Zakaria, Omar, Britt, Joe, Forood, Houman
• Granted Patent: US 9,847,569 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/22 by structural association with other equipment or articles
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2291 used in bluetooth or WI-FI devices of Wireless Local Area Networks [WLAN] H01Q1/241 takes precedence; WLAN in general H04W
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2827 Reporting to a device within the home network; wherein the reception of the information reported automatically triggers the execution of a home appliance functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54

Abstract

An modular antenna for integration with an Internet of Things (IoT) hub and associated systems and methods. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: a modular antenna to be used with an embedded Internet of Things (IoT) hub having a plurality of wireless communication interfaces, the modular antenna comprising an interface component and an antenna component; the interface component comprising a first plurality of pins or pads to electrically couple the module antenna to the embedded IoT hub; and the antenna component comprising a plurality of antennas to be electrically coupled to the first plurality of pins or pads, thereby electrically coupling each of the plurality of antennas to one of the plurality of wireless communication interfaces of the embedded IoT hub.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a modular antenna to be used with an embedded Internet of Things (IoT) hub having a plurality of wireless communication interfaces, the modular antenna comprising an interface component and an antenna component;

the interface component comprising a first plurality of pins or pads to electrically couple the module antenna to the embedded IoT hub; and

the antenna component comprising a plurality of antennas to be electrically coupled to the first plurality of pins or pads, thereby electrically coupling each of the plurality of antennas to one of the plurality of wireless communication interfaces of the embedded IoT hub.

2. The apparatus as in claim 1 wherein the antennas comprise a first antenna and a second antenna, the first antenna to transmit and receive radio frequency (RF) signals for a first wireless communication protocol and the second antenna to transmit and receive RF signals for a second wireless communication protocol.

3. The apparatus as in claim 2 wherein the first and second wireless communication protocols are selected from a group comprising WiFi, Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLS), and cellular data protocols.

4. The apparatus as in claim 3 wherein the cellular data protocols comprise 3G, 4G, or 5G communication protocols.

5. The apparatus as in claim 1 wherein the antenna component comprises a first cylindrical enclosure having a first height and a first diameter.

6. The apparatus as in claim 5 wherein the interface component comprises a second cylindrical enclosure having a second height and a second diameter.

7. The apparatus as in claim 6 wherein the first diameter is larger than the second diameter.

8. The apparatus as in claim 7 wherein the first diameter comprises approximately 100 mm or 50 mm and the second diameter comprises approximately 17 mm.

9. The apparatus as in claim 7 wherein the first diameter comprises between 40 mm and 110 mm and the second diameter comprises between 10 mm and 25 mm.

10. The apparatus as in claim 1 wherein the first plurality of pins or pads comprise at least one ground pin or pad to ground each antenna of the antenna component and at least one radio frequency (RF) pin or pad to transmit and receive RF signals.

11. The apparatus as in claim 1 further comprising:

an embedded Internet of Things (IoT) hub comprising a wide area network (WAN) interface to couple the embedded IoT hub to an IoT service over a network, and a local wireless communication interface to communicatively couple the IoT hub to one or more IoT devices;

an IoT hub slot interface coupled to the embedded IoT hub and comprising a first plurality of pins or pads to interface with corresponding pins or pads within an IoT hub slot of an appliance when the embedded IoT hub is inserted into the IoT hub slot; and

a modular antenna interface coupled to the embedded IoT hub and comprising a second plurality of pins or pads to interface with corresponding pins or pads on the interface component of the modular antenna.

12. The apparatus as in claim 11 wherein the first plurality of pins or pads comprise at least one power pin or pad to electrically couple the embedded IoT hub to a power system of the appliance.

13. The apparatus as in claim 12 wherein the first plurality of pins or pads comprise at least one ground pin or pad to electrically couple the embedded IoT hub to a ground plane of the appliance.

14. The apparatus as in claim 11 wherein the local wireless communication interface comprises a Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE) interface to communicatively couple the embedded IoT hub to one or more IoT devices within the appliance over one or more BTLE communication channels.

15. The apparatus as in claim 14 wherein the one or more IoT devices within the appliance include sensors to take readings and responsively communicate the readings to the embedded IoT hub over the BTLE communication channels.

16. The apparatus as in claim 15 wherein the embedded IoT hub is configured to transmit the readings over the WAN interface to the IoT service.

17. The apparatus as in claim 16 wherein the IoT service is configured to communicate the readings to a user device comprising an app or browser configured to connect to the IoT service.

18. The apparatus as in claim 11 further comprising:

a set of latches affixed to the embedded IoT hub and configured to lock down the modular antenna when the modular antenna is coupled to the embedded IoT hub.

19. The apparatus as in claim 18 wherein the embedded IoT device further comprises an antenna enclosure into which the embedded antenna is to be inserted to couple the embedded antenna to the IoT hub.

20. The apparatus as in claim 19 wherein the antenna enclosure comprises a cylindrical enclosure having a diameter between 15 mm and 25 mm and a length of between 15 mm and 25 mm.