SENSOR NETWORK

• US 20170026858A1
• Filed: 12/17/2014
• Published: 01/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2013
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: British Telecommunications PLC (BT Group PLC)
• Inventors: MCKEE, Paul Francis
• Granted Patent: US 10,848,991 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/50 Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2115 Third party
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/24 Traffic characterised by specific attributes, e.g. priority or QoS
• 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 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A loss of connection between a wireless access point and a network is reported to a network-based service platform by the wireless access point by automatically establishing wireless contact with a second wireless access point, and transmits a predetermined fault report message to a predetermined network platform address by way of the second wireless access point and the second network interface. Authentication credentials are stored in the access point allowing automatic access to the service platform without user intervention, to allow the report to be generated without user intervention. The message may include data on recent usage of the access point, or may be repeated when a user attempts to use the access point, in order to prioritise the fault reported at the service platform.

Claims

1. A method of operating a data event processor in a sensor network, said method comprising:

receiving a plurality of data events from a sensor,

performing an analysis of said plurality of events to determine a relevance indicator for at least one of said data events,

associating said relevance indicator with said at least one data event,

providing said data event in association with said relevance indicator to an event consumer.

2. A method according to claim 1 further comprising operating said data event processor to associate a time of arrival with each received data event and perform a statistical analysis on the data events in order to determine an average interval between data events for the data event generator.

3. A method according to claim 1 further comprising operating the data event processor to process received data events in order to generate extrapolated or interpolated data events.

4. A method of operating an event consumer, said method comprising:

receiving an event from a sensor,

collecting additional event data from a data event processor operating in accordance with claim 1, wherein the event data has associated therewith a relevance indicator, and initiating a reaction to the event which depends upon both the event data and the relevance data associated with said event data.

5. A method according to claim 4 wherein said reaction comprises determining whether to delay any reaction to said event until further event data is provided.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein the relevance indicator is determined from temporal characteristics of the event data.

7. A method according to claim 5 wherein the temporal characteristics comprise an age of the data or a time interval until the event data generator will generate a new data event.

8. A method according to claim 5 wherein the temporal characteristics comprise the rate of change of data generated by the data event generator.

9. A method according to claim 1 wherein the relevance indicator is determined from location data associated with the data event generator.

10. A method according to claim 4 wherein the relevance indicator is further determined based on comparing the event data received from the data event generator to event data received from neighbouring data event generators.

14. A computer program or suite of computer programs executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform the method of claim 1.

15. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a computer program or a suite of computer programs according to claim 14.

11. A data event processor for use in a sensor network, said event processor comprising:

one or more interfaces arranged in operation to receive a plurality of data events from a sensor;

a module arranged to perform an analysis of said plurality of data events to determine a relevance indicator for a data event and to associate said relevance indicator with said data event; and

an output arranged in operation to provide said data event and said associated relevance indicator to an event consumer.

12. An event consumer arranged to initiate an action based on an event, said event consumer comprising:

one or more interfaces arranged to receive an event from a sensor,

a data collection module arranged to collect additional event data from a data event processor according to claim 11, wherein the event data has associated therewith a relevance indicator, and

a reaction initiation module arranged to initiate a reaction to the event which depends upon both the event data and the relevance data associated with that event data.

13. An event consumer according to claim 13 wherein said reaction initiation module is arranged to determine whether to delay any reaction to the event until further event data is provided.