ENVIRONMENT CONTROL DEVICE PROVIDING A WI-FI HOTSPOT FOR ACCESSING THE INTERNET

• US 20170071015A1
• Filed: 09/04/2015
• Published: 03/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Distech Controls, Inc. (Acuity Brands, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Distech Controls, Inc. (Acuity Brands, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gervais, Francois, Breton, Danny, Ouellet, Francois
• Granted Patent: US 10,070,470 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• 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: H04Q 2209/43 using wireless personal area networks [WPAN], e.g. 802.15, 802.15.1, 802.15.4, Bluetooth or ZigBee
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

An environment control device (ECD) providing a Wi-Fi hotspot for accessing the Internet. The ECD comprises a communication module with a Wi-Fi hotspot functionality for establishing a Wi-Fi hotspot at the ECD, and a mesh client functionality for communicating over a mesh network. The communication module provides for exchanging environmental data with at least another ECD, over one of the Wi-Fi hotspot or mesh network. It also provides for receiving upstream Internet data from at least one user terminal over the Wi-Fi hotspot, and forwarding the upstream Internet data to another ECD over the mesh network. It further provides for receiving downstream Internet data from another ECD over the mesh network, and forwarding the downstream Internet data to the at least one user terminal over the Wi-Fi hotspot. The ECD providing the Wi-Fi hotspot for accessing the Internet may be a daisy-chained ECD controlled by a master ECD.

Claims

1. An environment control device (ECD), comprising:

a communication module comprising;

a Wi-Fi hotspot functionality for establishing a Wi-Fi hotspot at the ECD; and

a mesh client functionality for communicating over a mesh network;

the communication module providing for exchanging environmental data with at least another ECD over one of the Wi-Fi hotspot or the mesh network, the communication module providing for receiving upstream Internet data from at least one user terminal over the Wi-Fi hotspot and forwarding the upstream Internet data to another ECD over the mesh network, and the communication module providing for receiving downstream Internet data from another ECD over the mesh network and forwarding the downstream Internet data to the at least one user terminal over the Wi-Fi hotspot.

2. The ECD of claim 1, further comprising a processing unit capable of:

receiving an environmental characteristic value from a sensor over the Wi-Fi hotspot via the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality, determining an environmental state based on the environmental characteristic value, generating a command based on the environmental state, and transmitting the command to a controlled appliance over the Wi-Fi hotspot via the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality.

3. The ECD of claim 1, further comprising a processing unit capable of:

receiving an environmental characteristic value from a sensor over the Wi-Fi hotspot via the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality, and forwarding the environmental characteristic value to another ECD over the mesh network via the mesh client functionality.

4. The ECD of claim 1, further comprising a processing unit capable of:

receiving a command from another ECD over the mesh network via the mesh client functionality, and forwarding the command to a controlled appliance over the Wi-Fi hotspot via the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality.

5. The ECD of claim 1, wherein the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality implements a roaming functionality for allowing the at least one user terminal to roam from the Wi-Fi hotspot to another Wi-Fi hotspot established by another ECD connected to the mesh network.

6. The ECD of claim 1, wherein the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality operates at a first frequency for exchanging the environmental data with the at least another ECD over the Wi-Fi hotspot, and the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality operates at a second frequency for exchanging the Internet data with the at least one user terminal over the Wi-Fi hotspot.

7. The ECD of claim 1, wherein the environmental data exchanged with the at least another ECD over the Wi-Fi hotspot are encrypted via a dedicated encryption mechanism.

8. The ECD of claim 1, wherein the mesh client functionality implements the 802.11s standard for communicating over the mesh network.

9. The ECD of claim 1, further comprising a USB controller for receiving a USB key implementing the communication module.

10. The ECD of claim 1, wherein the communication module further comprises a Bluetooth functionality for exchanging environmental data with at least another ECD via the Bluetooth functionality.

11. An environment control device (ECD) for use in a daisy-chained communication configuration, comprising:

an input for receiving an input signal having an input frequency from a preceding device in the daisy-chained communication configuration;

an electronic circuit for generating an output signal having an output frequency different and based on the input frequency;

an output for outputting the output signal to a following device in the daisy-chained communication configuration; and

a processing unit for determining an address of the ECD based on the input frequency of the input signal; and

a communication module comprising;

a Wi-Fi hotspot functionality for establishing a Wi-Fi hotspot at the ECD; and

a daisy-chain communication functionality for communicating over a daisy-chain network using the determined address;

the communication module providing for exchanging environmental data with at least another ECD over one of the Wi-Fi hotspot or the daisy-chain network, the communication module providing for receiving upstream Internet data from at least one user terminal over the Wi-Fi hotspot and forwarding the upstream Internet data to another ECD over the daisy-chain network, and the communication module providing for receiving downstream Internet data from another ECD over the daisy-chain network and forwarding the downstream Internet data to the at least one user terminal over the Wi-Fi hotspot.

12. The ECD of claim 11, wherein the daisy-chain communication functionality is a mesh client functionality and the daisy-chain network is a mesh network.

13. The ECD of claim 11, wherein the processing unit is capable of:

receiving an environmental characteristic value from a sensor over the Wi-Fi hotspot via the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality, determining an environmental state based on the environmental characteristic value, generating a command based on the environmental state, and transmitting the command to a controlled appliance over the Wi-Fi hotspot via the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality.

14. The ECD of claim 11, wherein the processing unit is capable of:

receiving an environmental characteristic value from a sensor over the Wi-Fi hotspot via the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality, and forwarding the environmental characteristic value to another ECD over the daisy-chain network via the daisy-chain communication functionality.

15. The ECD of claim 11, wherein the processing unit is capable of:

receiving a command from another ECD over the daisy-chain network via the daisy-chain communication functionality, and forwarding the command to a controlled appliance over the Wi-Fi hotspot via the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality.

16. The ECD of claim 11, wherein the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality implements a roaming functionality for allowing the at least one user terminal to roam from the Wi-Fi hotspot to another Wi-Fi hotspot established by another ECD of the daisy-chained communication configuration connected to the daisy-chain network.

17. The ECD of claim 11, wherein the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality operates at a first frequency for exchanging the environmental data with the at least another ECD over the Wi-Fi hotspot, and the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality operates at a second frequency for exchanging the Internet data with the at least one user terminal over the Wi-Fi hotspot.

18. The ECD of claim 11, wherein the environmental data exchanged with the at least another ECD over the Wi-Fi hotspot are encrypted via a dedicated encryption mechanism.

19. A master device for use in a daisy-chained communication configuration, comprising:

memory for storing for each device of the daisy-chained communication configuration an address of the device and characteristics of the device;

an output for transmitting a signal having a pre-determined frequency to a first device in the daisy-chained communication configuration;

a communication interface for exchanging environmental data and Internet data with devices of the daisy-chained communication configuration using the addresses of the devices stored in the memory; and

a processing unit for;

generating the environmental data transmitted to a device of the daisy-chained communication configuration via the communication interface, the generated data depending on the characteristics of the device stored in the memory,

processing the environmental data received from a device of the daisy-chained communication configuration via the configuration interface, the processing depending on the characteristics of the device stored in the memory,

forwarding upstream Internet data received from a device of the daisy-chained communication configuration to an Internet gateway,

forwarding downstream Internet data received from the Internet gateway to a device of the daisy-chained communication configuration.

20. The master device of claim 19, wherein the processing unit implements an Ethernet masquerading functionality for the Internet data exchanged between the devices of the daisy-chained communication configuration and the Internet gateway.