Hierarchical communication system providing intelligent data, program and processing migration

• US 5,790,536 A
• Filed: 06/07/1995
• Issued: 08/04/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/1989
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP PTE Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Norand Corporation (Baker Hughes Company)
• Inventors: Morris, Michael D., Meier, Robert C., Mahany, Ronald L., Danielson, Arvin D., Bunte, Alan G., West, Guy J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kizou, Hassan
• Application Number:
  US08/487,609
• Time in Patent Office: 1,154 Days
• Field of Search: 370/313, 370/314, 370/315, 370/328, 370/338, 370/349, 370/428, 370/486, 382/140, 235/385, 235/462, 235/470, 235/472, 455/53.1, 455/54.1, 455/54.2, 455/56.1, 395/200.01, 395/200.3
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0231 Circuits relating to the driving or the functioning of the vehicle monitoring tyres B60C23/00; indicating overspeed B60K31/00; for dash boards B60K37/00, B60Q3/10; for indicating emergencies B60Q1/52; brake control systems B60T; registering or indicating the working of vehicles G07C5/00; measuring distance G01C, e.g. combinations of speed and distance G01C23/00; engine indicators G01L; measuring speed or acceleration G01P
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0315 using multiplexing techniques multiplexing for transmission of signals G08C15/00; multiplexing for electrical communication in general H04J
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1632 External expansion units, e.g. docking stations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/28 Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/0225 User interface arrangements, e.g. keyboard, display; Interfaces to other computer systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1632 Pen holder integrated in the computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1633 Protecting arrangement for the entire housing of the computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/0022 arrangements or provisions for transferring data to distant stations, e.g. from a sensing device "transfer between computer elements G06F13/00 "; data-transmission H04L
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10574 Multiple sources
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10584 Source control
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10702 Particularities of propagating elements, e.g. lenses, mirrors G06K7/10831 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10722 Photodetector array or CCD scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10732 Light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10811 Focalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10841 Particularities of the light-sensitive elements semiconductor devices H01L
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10851 Circuits for pulse shaping, amplifying, eliminating noise signals, checking the function of the sensing device basic electronic circuitry H03
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10881 constructional details of hand-held scanners
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1098 : the scanning arrangement having a modular construction
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/12 : using a selected wavelength, e.g. to sense red marks and ignore blue marks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/343 : Cards including a counter
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 : Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0858 : wherein the data carrier is removable
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/27 : with central registration
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/38 : with central registration
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/02 : by keys or other credit registering devices
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0045 : with a code reader for reading of an identifying code of the article to be registered, e.g. barcode reader or radio-frequency identity [RFID] reader
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 : using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/20 : Binding and programming of remote control devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/1615 : Switching on; Switching off, e.g. remotely battery saving circuits associated with selective call operation H04W52/00; details of power consumption reduction in a PLL, H03L7/0802, H03L7/14, H03L2207/08, H03L2207/18; muting amplifiers by gain control see H03G3/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3877 : Arrangements for enabling portable transceivers to be used in a fixed position, e.g. cradles or boosters
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/0085 : using test signal generators
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 : Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2001/3894 : Waterproofing of transmission device
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0002 : by adapting the transmission rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0003 : by switching between different modulation schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0025 : Transmission of mode-switching indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0032 : Without explicit signalling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1671 : the supervisory signal being transmitted together with control information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1685 : the supervisory signal being transmitted in response to a specific request, e.g. to a polling signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/403 : with centralised control, e.g. polling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/12 : Modulator circuits; Transmitter circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/156 : with demodulation using temporal properties of the received signal, e.g. detecting pulse width
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/48 : Routing tree calculation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 : Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/18 : Multiprotocol handlers, e.g. single devices capable of handling multiple protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 : Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/325 : in the network layer [OSI layer 3], e.g. X.25 H04L69/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 : in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 : Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 : Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/14 : using intermediate storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 : Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/029 : reducing the clock frequency of the controller
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/343 : taking into account loading or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/46 : in multi hop networks, e.g. wireless relay networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 : adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 : Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A hierarchical communication system, arranged in a spanning tree configuration, is described in which wired and wireless communication networks exhibiting substantially different characteristics are employed in an overall scheme to link portable or mobile computing devices. Copies of data, program code and processing resources are migrated from their source toward requesting destinations based on request frequency, communication link costs and available local storage and/or processing resources. Each appropriately configured network device acts as an active participant in network migration. In addition, portable two-dimensional (2-D) code reading terminals are configured to wirelessly communicate compressed 2-D images toward stationary access servers that identify the code image through decoding and through comparison with a database of images that have previously been decoded and stored.

Claims

1. A communication network having a plurality of computing devices, at least one of the plurality of computing devices comprises a mobile terminal device configured with a wireless transceiver, said communication network comprising:

a plurality of access devices being arranged to support communications among the plurality of computing devices;

at least one of said plurality of access devices relays data stored by at least one other of the plurality of computing devices to the mobile terminal device; and

the at least one of said plurality of access devices selectively stores the relayed data for subsequent deliveries of the relayed data to the mobile terminal device.

2. The communication network of claim 1 wherein at least one of said plurality of access devices selectively migrates processing resources to support future processing requests.

3. The communication network of claim 2 wherein the processing resources perform the function of decoding signals representative of two-dimensional images captured by a two-dimensional code reading device.

4. The communication network of claim 1 wherein at least one of said plurality of access devices selectively migrates program code.

5. The communication network of claim 1 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the cost of re-obtaining data before selecting which data to store.

6. The communication network of claim 1 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the frequency that data is requested before selecting which data to store.

7. The communication network of claim 1 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers its available storage capacity before selecting which data to store.

8. The communication network of claim 1 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the size of the data before selecting which data to store.

9. The communication network of claim 1 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices selectively deletes stored data.

10. The communication network of claim 9 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the cost to re-obtain the stored data before selecting what stored data to delete.

11. The communication network of claim 9 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the frequency that the stored data is requested before selecting what stored data to delete.

12. A communication network having a computing device and a mobile terminal device that is configured with a wireless transceiver, said communication network comprising:

said computing device storing information used by said mobile terminal device;

a plurality of access devices being arranged to provide communication pathways for delivering the information stored by said computing device to said mobile terminal device upon request; and

at least one of said plurality of access devices monitoring the delivery of information through the at least one of said plurality of access devices and selectively storing delivered information in anticipation of future delivery requests.

13. The communication network of claim 12 wherein at least one of said plurality of access devices monitoring processing requests through the at least one of said plurality of access devices and selectively retrieving processing resources in anticipation of future processing requests.

14. The communication network of claim 13 wherein the processing resources perform the function of decoding signals representative of two-dimensional images captured by a two-dimensional code reading device.

15. The communication network of claim 13 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the cost of obtaining the processing resources before retrieving the processing resources.

16. The communication network of claim 13 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the frequency of requests for processing before retrieving the processing resources.

17. The communication network of claim 13 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers its limitations before retrieving the processing resources.

18. The communication network of claim 13 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the requirements of the processing resources before retrieving the processing resources.

19. The communication network of claim 12 wherein at least one of said plurality of access devices monitoring processing requests through the at least one of said plurality of access devices and selectively retrieving program code in anticipation of future processing requests.

20. The communication network of claim 19 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the cost of re-obtaining program code before retrieving program code.

21. The communication network of claim 19 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the frequency that program code is requested before retrieving program code.

22. The communication network of claim 19 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers its available storage capacity before retrieving program code.

23. The communication network of claim 19 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the size of the program code before retrieving program code.

24. The communication network of claim 12 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the cost of obtaining the delivered information before storing the delivered information.

25. The communication network of claim 12 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the frequency that the delivered information is requested before storing the delivered information.

26. The communication network of claim 12 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers its available storage capacity before storing the delivered information.

27. The communication network of claim 12 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the size of the data before storing the delivered information.

28. The communication network of claim 12 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices selectively deletes stored information.

29. The communication network of claim 28 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the cost to re-obtain the stored information before deleting stored information.

30. The communication network of claim 28 wherein the at least one of said plurality of access devices considers the frequency that the stored information is requested before deleting stored information.

31. The communication network of claim 12 further comprising a processing resource device remote from the mobile device that performs processing.

32. A communication network having at least one two-dimensional code reading device configured with a first wireless transceiver, said communication network comprising:

a plurality of access devices being arranged to maintain wireless communication with a two-dimensional code reading device;

at least one of said plurality of access devices comprising both a second wireless transceiver that receives signals representative of two-dimensional images captured by a two-dimensional code reading device, and a code processing circuit for decoding the received signals.

33. The communication network of claim 32 wherein another of said plurality of access devices comprises a code processing circuit that decodes received signals representative of two-dimensional images captured by a two-dimensional code reading device, said another of said plurality of access devices requesting processing resources for performing said decoding.

34. The communication network of claim 32 wherein the plurality of access devices are arranged in a spanning tree configuration.

35. The communication network of claim 32 wherein said code processing circuit of said at least one of said plurality of access devices performs a decode algorithm to decode said received signals.

36. The communication network of claim 32 wherein said code processing circuit of said at least one of said plurality of access devices compares said received signals to stored image signals located in an image database to decode said received signals.

37. The communication network of claim 32 wherein said code processing circuit of said at least one of said plurality of access devices performs a decode algorithm to decode said received signals, and, if unsuccessful, compares said received signals to stored image signals located in an image database to decode said received signals.

38. The communication network of claim 32 wherein said code processing circuit of said at least one of said plurality of access devices compares said received signals to stored image signals located in an image database to decode said received signals, and, if unable to find stored image signals which correspond to said received signals, performs a decode algorithm to decode said received signals.

39. The communication network of claim 38 wherein said code processing circuit of said at least one of said plurality of access devices updates said image database by storing the received signals if the performance of the decode algorithm is successful.

40. A processing device in a communication network, said communication network having at least one two-dimensional code reading device configured with a first wireless transceiver, said processing device comprising:

a second wireless transceiver that receives signals representative of two-dimensional images captured by a two-dimensional code reading device;

a code processing circuit that decodes the signals received from the two-dimensional code reading device; and

said code processing circuit delivering to the two-dimensional code reading device via said second wireless transceiver an indication of successful image decoding.

41. The processing device of claim 40 further comprising an image database that stores signals representative of two-dimensional images.

42. The communication network of claim 41 wherein said code processing circuit of said processing device compares said received signals to stored signals representative of two-dimensional images located in the image database to decode said received signals.

43. The communication network of claim 40 wherein said code processing circuit of said processing device performs a decode algorithm to decode said received signals.

44. The processing device of claim 40 further comprising an image database that stores signals representative of two-dimensional images, and wherein said code processing circuit of said processing device performs a decode algorithm to decode said received signals, and, if unsuccessful, compares said received signals to stored image signals located in the stored image database to decode said received signals.

45. The processing device of claim 40 further comprising an image database that stores signals representative of two-dimensional images, and wherein said code processing circuit of said at least one of said plurality of access devices compares said received signals to stored image signals located in the stored image database to decode said received signals, and, if unable to find stored image signals which correspond to said received signals, performs a decode algorithm to decode said received signals.

46. The communication network of claim 45 wherein said code processing circuit of said processing device updates said image database by storing the received signals if the performance of the decode algorithm is successful.

47. A communication network operating between a premises and a vehicle, comprising:

a data source located at a premises;

a terminal device within a vehicle;

a first communication link between said data source and said terminal device;

a vehicular network comprising a portable computing device and said terminal device;

said portable computing device and said terminal device communicating via a second communication link, said second communication link comprising a wireless communication link; and

said terminal device relaying data from the first communication link to the second communication link and selectively storing the relayed data to service subsequent delivery requests.

48. The communication network of claim 47 wherein said terminal device monitors the flow of data to the portable computing device, and, based on such monitoring, said terminal device selectively migrates data into local storage.

49. The communication network of claim 48 wherein said terminal device monitors the flow of program code to the portable computing device, and, based on such monitoring, said terminal device selectively migrates program code into local storage.

50. The communication network of claim 48 wherein said terminal device monitors processing requests from the portable computing device, and, based on such monitoring, said terminal device selectively migrates programming resources into local storage.