Network control system for home appliances

• US 7,873,699 B2
• Filed: 07/02/2004
• Issued: 01/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Dae-Woong, Koo, Ja-In, Kang, Sung-Hwan, Lim, Jeong-Hyun, Choi, Hwan-Jong, Baek, Seung-Myun, Ha, Sam-Chul, Lee, Koon-Seok
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar; Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): HUQ, FARZANA B
• Application Number:
  US10/882,426
• Publication Number:
  US 20040249903A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,391 Days
• Field of Search: 709/208, 709/223, 709/224, 709/227, 709/228, 370/389, 370/392, 370/469, 370/470, 370/471, 370/473
• US Class Current: 709/208
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2203/5408 using protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2203/5425 improving S/N by matching impedance, noise reduction, gain control
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2203/5445 Local network
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2203/545 Audio/video application, e.g. interphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2203/5458 Monitor sensor; Alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/542 the information being in digital form
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/403 with centralised control, e.g. polling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2843 Mains power line
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2845 Telephone line
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2849 Audio/video appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/285 Generic home appliances, e.g. refrigerators
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/028 for synchronisation between service call and response
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0681 Configuration of triggering conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/06 Generation of reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 : by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 : by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5038 : for local use, e.g. in LAN or USB networks, or in a controller area network [CAN]
• 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 69/22 : Parsing or analysis of headers
• 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: H04N 21/4131 : home appliance, e.g. lighting, air conditioning system, metering devices home automation data switching networks exchanging configuration information on appliance services H04L12/2807
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 : Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43632 : involving a wired protocol, e.g. IEEE 1394 high-speed IEEE 1394 serial bus H04L12/40052
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/00 : Systems for electrical power generation, transmission, distribution or end-user application management characterised by the use of communication or information technologies, or communication or information technology specific aspects supporting them
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 : Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

Disclosed is a network control system for home appliances that satisfies the characteristics of low-cost and high-efficiency with respect to currently used appliances adopting a low-performance microcomputer. The system is constructed to define a master/slave type communication structure with respect to the respective appliances; construct a network by connecting the appliances through the serial communication function; and enable the appliances to communicate with one another if a predetermined communication event is produced. According to the system, an optimized network for the home appliances can be implemented, and operation states of the respective appliances can be displayed through the co-operation among the appliances, thereby maximizing the user convenience.

Claims

1. A network control system, comprising:

a network defined by a predetermined control protocol;

at least one home appliance connected to the network; and

a network manager connected to the network and configured to determine home codes for classifying respective homes, wherein the network manager controls the home appliance and monitors the state of the home appliance, wherein the predetermined control protocol is composed of an application layer, a data link layer, and a physical layer, wherein the network manager and the home appliance communicate with one another in the unit of a single packet according to the predetermined control protocol,

wherein when data communicated over the network is larger than the single packet, the application layer of the control protocol divides the data into single packet increments, each single packet increment is transferred to the data link layer, and a header region is added to the single packet in the data link layer;

wherein the packet comprises;

the header region composed of a packet header field comprising a home code (HC) field for classifying a home where the network is constructed, and a field for adding packet function later,

a body region composed of a message header field, a field for adding a message function later, and a message field, and

a trailer region, and

wherein the packet header field comprises;

a receiver address (RA) field for indicating a receiver,

a sender address (SA) field for indicating a sender,

a packet length (PL) field for indicating the length of the packet,

an access priority (AP) field for indicating a priority of transmission,

a packet header length (PHL) field for indicating the length of the packet header,

a protocol version (PV) field for indicating the version of the control protocol,

a packet type (PT) field for indicating the type of the packet,

a retransmission counter (RC) field for indicating the number of retransmissions, and

a packet number (PN) field for indicating the transmission of a new packet.

2. The network control system of either claim 1, wherein the packet has a size of 17-255 bytes.

3. The network control system of claim 1, wherein the home code field is located in front of the receiver address field.

4. The network control system of claim 1, wherein the receiver address field and the sender address field comprise a network code field, a product code field and a code field for classifying products of the same kind.

5. The network control system of claim 4, wherein the code field for classifying products of the same kind is used as a group addressing code field according the network code value.

6. The network control system of claim 5, wherein the group addressing code is divided into a group address according a kind of products, and a group address according to an installed place of products.

7. The network control system of claim 5, wherein the group addressing code is changed through the network manager as needed by a user.

8. The network control system of claim 1, wherein the access priority is determined to be a first code in case of a retransmission due to a data collision or an emergent state, a second code in case of a mass transmission of data through a message division, a third code in case of a normal communication, and a fourth code in case of reporting a network connection state.

9. The network control system of claim 1, wherein the protocol version field is composed of a 4-bit version and 4-bit subversion, and takes a value in the range of 0˜

15 in the order of updating.

10. The network control system of claim 1, wherein the packet type indicates a packet requested by the network manager in case of a first code, a successful response packet in case of a second code, a failed response packet in case of a third code, a known packet in case of a fourth code, an arrayed packet in case of a fifth code and a last packet of arrayed data in case of a sixth code, respectively.

11. The network control system of claim 1, wherein the retransmission counter is set to a first code at the first transmission, and increases by a predetermined value in case of retransmission of the same packet.

12. The network control system of claim 1, wherein the packet number increases by a predetermined value when a new packet is transmitted, and is maintained when the same packet is transmitted.

13. The network control system of claim 1, wherein the message header field comprises a message length (ML) field, a message header length (MHL) field, and a port number (PO) field.

14. The network control system of claim 1, wherein the message field comprises a command code (CC) field, and arguments (ARG) field.

15. The network control system of claim 1, wherein the trailer region comprises an error check (CRC) field and an ETX field for indicating an end of the packet.