Sensor network system and data retrieval method for sensing data

• US 7,298,259 B2
• Filed: 08/26/2005
• Issued: 11/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maxell, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Moriwaki, Norihiko
• Primary Examiner(s): GOINS, DAVETTA WOODS
• Application Number:
  US11/211,697
• Publication Number:
  US 20060202834A1
• Time in Patent Office: 816 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.22, 340/573.1, 340/573.4, 340/686.1, 340/539.13, 340/572.1, 340/572.2, 340/5.1, 340/286.01, 340/825.49, 705/9, 709/223
• US Class Current: 340/539.22
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 21/00 Measuring or testing not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

This invention enables to easily retrieve real-time information from a large number of sensors connected to a network. A sensor network system includes data collectors that collect data from plural sensors at a specified cycle, a directory server that manages locations and identifiers of data from the sensors, and an event-action controller that, of the data collected from the sensors, monitors preset data to be monitored, and when the data satisfies a preset monitoring condition, executes preset processing.

Claims

1. A sensor network system, comprising:

distributed servers that process data transmitted from sensor nodes; and

a management server connected with the distributed servers through a network,

wherein the management server comprises;

a model list that stores preset model names;

a semantic interpretation list that stores semantic information corresponding to a value of the data; and

an event-action controller including an action executer that executes processing previously specified when an occurrence of an event is indicated from the distributed servers, and

the distributed servers comprise;

an event table that stores monitoring conditions of values of data corresponding to the model names; and

an event generator that receives data corresponding to the model names from the sensor nodes, and notifies the management server of an occurrence of an event when receiving data satisfying the monitoring conditions from the sensor nodes.

2. The sensor network system according to claim 1,

wherein the model list of the management server further stores information storage destinations of the data corresponding to the model names,

the management server comprises:

a receiver that receives a model name from a user terminal, and semantic information indicating a state of the model name;

an analyzer that refers to the model list based on the model name to select a distributed server of information storage destination and data to be monitored, and refers to the semantic interpretation list based on the semantic information to decide a condition of data to be monitored; and

an instructor that sends the selected monitoring object and the decided condition to the distributed server of the information storage destination, and

the distributed server stores the monitoring object and the condition that are sent from the instructor, in the event table.

3. The sensor network system according to claim 1,

wherein the management server manages identifiers added to data of the sensor nodes,

the sensor nodes transmit data including the identifiers,

the distributed servers comprise:

an ID extractor that extracts the identifiers from data received from the sensor nodes; and

an event search engine that searches the event table for the condition, based on the extracted identifiers, and

the event generator compares the searched condition with the data to determine whether the condition is satisfied, and when the condition is satisfied, generates an event.

4. The sensor network system according to claim 3,

wherein the event-action controller includes a first action table that stores in advance processing performed when the condition is satisfied, correspondingly to the identifiers, and

the action executer that, when the event generator generates an event, performs processing stored in the first action table, based on the identifiers.

5. The sensor network system according to claim 3,

wherein the action executer, when processing stored in the first action table is processing that processes data transmitted from the sensor nodes, processes the data, adds an identifier to the processed data, and inputs the processed data to the ID extractor.

6. The sensor network system according to claim 4,

wherein the management server comprises:

a receiver that receives a model name from a user terminal, and semantic information indicating a state of the model name;

an analyzer that refers to the model list based on the model name to select a distributed server of information storage destination and data to be monitored, and refers to the semantic interpretation list based on the semantic information to decide a condition of data to be monitored; and

an instructor that sends the selected monitoring object and the decided condition to the distributed server of the information storage destination,

the instructor notifies the event-action controller of the processing to be executed, based on a request from the user terminal, and

the event-action controller sets the processing to be executed in the first action table based on the notification.

7. The sensor network system according to claim 3,

wherein the event-action controller comprises:

a first action table in which file names of files describing processing to be executed are specified correspondingly to the identifiers; and

a second action table that stores the files describing the processing to be executed, and

the action executer executes processing of files stored in the second action table, based on file names stored in the first action table based on the identifiers.

8. The sensor network system according to claim 7,

wherein when executing a file stored in the second action table, the action executer compares the condition with the data in place of the event condition parser to determine whether the condition is satisfied, and decides processing to be executed when the condition is satisfied.