Method and system of communication in a wireless water treatment system

• US 7,949,747 B1
• Filed: 08/20/2007
• Issued: 05/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ecowater Systems LLC (Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Ecowater Systems LLC (Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated)
• Inventors: Van Oosterwijck, Patrick, Zimmerman, Jeffrey A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trost, IV; William
• Assistant Examiner(s): THIAW, CATHERINE B
• Application Number:
  US11/841,571
• Time in Patent Office: 1,373 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-225, 709231-232, 709/245, 709217-218, 370311-319, 455/404.1
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/40 using a wireless architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/845 where the measuring is synchronized between sensing devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/88 Providing power supply at the sub-station
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

A method of communication within a network of a water treatment system is disclosed. The water treatment system includes a plurality of devices. The devices including at least one AC powered device. The method comprising the steps of continually checking, by a first AC powered device, the network for broadcasts by other devices, detecting, by the first AC powered device, a broadcast by another device, establishing, by the first AC powered device, a logical connection with the other device, receiving, by the first AC powered device, any request by the other device for data, the request including the identification of a data element, and the address of the device which relates to the data element, and receiving, by the first AC powered device, any data offered by the other device, the data including the identification of a data element, the data element value, and the identification of the device which originated the data element value.

Claims

1. A method of communication within a network of a water treatment system, the water treatment system including a plurality of devices, the devices including at least one AC powered device and at least one battery powered device or battery operated device, the method comprising the steps of:

continually checking, by a first AC powered device, the network for broadcasts by other devices;

detecting, by the first AC powered device, a broadcast by another device;

establishing, by the first AC powered device, a logical connection with the other device;

receiving, by the first AC powered device, any request by the other device for data, the request including the identification of a data element, and the address of the device which relates to the data element, wherein the data includes a respective lifetime value; and

receiving, by the first AC powered device, any data offered by the other device, the data including the identification of a data element, the data element value, and the identification of the device which originated the data element value, wherein the data includes a respective lifetime value; and

waking up and requesting, by the battery operated device, updated data element values when any one data element value, as a result of the respective lifetime value being reduced as the data or request travels through the network, has less than a first pre-determined minimum of a maximum life time value, wherein the requesting is for all values resident in the battery operated device having a life time value less than a second pre-determined minimum of the maximum life time value, wherein the first pre-determined minimum is less than the second pre-determined minimum.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

caching, by the first AC device the request by the other device for the requested data;

broadcasting, by the first AC device, a request for the requested data requested by the other device, the request of the first AC device including the identification of the data element, and the address of the device which relates to the data element; and

receiving and caching, by the first AC device, the requested data provided by yet another device, the data including the identification of a data element, the data element value, and the identification of the device which originated the data element;

receiving, by the first AC powered device, a further request by the other device for the requested data, the request including identification of a data element, and the address of the device which relates to the data element; and

providing, by the first AC device, the requested data to the other device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of broadcasting, by the first AC device, a request, is part of a step of broadcasting, by the first AC device, a request for data based on previous data requests the first AC device received and cached.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of broadcasting, by the first AC device, a request, is part of a step of broadcasting, by the first AC device, offering data previously received from another device and cached by the first AC device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, by a device in the network which transmitted a particular data, information related to the quality of the data, receiving, by another device in the network, multiple copies of the data and quality information, including life time values, comparing the information related to the quality of the data, by the other device which received the data, selecting the data which has the greater quality of data.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising requesting, by a device in the network, data from a specific device, receiving, by the device in the network, multiple copies of the data, and through multiple paths in the network.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the information related to the quality of the data is the life time value.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the information related to the quality of the data is a signal strength value of the data at the weakest point of travel through the network.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the information related to the quality of the data is the life time value and a signal strength value of the data at the weakest point of travel through the network, and the step of selecting the data which has the greater quality of data includes selecting the data with the longer life time value, and in the event the life time values are the same, selecting the data which has the greatest signal strength value.

10. The method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of:

receiving, by the AC device, multiple copies of the requested data from a plurality of respective devices; and

identifying, by the AC device, the copy of the received data having a higher quality than the other copies of received data.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the identifying step includes identifying the received data having the greatest life time remaining.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the identifying step includes comparing the life time value of the multiple copies of the received data, and identifying the received data having the greater remaining life time.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the identifying step includes identifying two or more received data having the same remaining life time, and identifying among the two or more received data, the received data having the higher quality signal level.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of identifying the received data having the higher quality signal level includes comparing, for each received data, the signal strength of the weakest link the data traveled, and identifying the received data having the greater signal strength.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of other devices includes a battery operated device, further comprising a step of periodically entering, by the battery operated device, a power conservation mode, periodically entering, by the battery operated device, a non-power conservation or active mode, and wherein the detecting step includes detecting, by the first AC powered device, a broadcast by a battery operated device during an active mode, and the first step of receiving any requests includes receiving, by the first AC powered device, any request by the battery operated device for data, the request including the identification of a data element, and the address of the device which relates to the data element, and the step of receiving any data includes receiving, by the first AC powered device, any data offered by the battery operated device, the data including the identification of a data element, the data element value, and the identification of the battery operated device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of devices includes a remote device, wherein the first step of receiving any request includes receiving, by the first AC powered device, any request by the remote device for data, the request including the identification of a data element, and the address of the device which relates to the data element, and the second step of receiving any data includes receiving, by the first AC powered device, any data offered by the remote device, the data including the identification of a data element value, the data element value and the identification of the remote operated device.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of devices includes a second AC powered device, wherein the step of receiving any request includes receiving, by the first AC powered device, any request by the second AC powered device for data, the request including the identification of a data element, and the address of the device which relates to the data element, and the step of receiving any data includes receiving, by the first AC powered device, any data offered by the second AC powered device, the data including the identification of a data element, the data element value, and identification of the device which originated the data element value.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of receiving any data includes receiving, by the first AC powered device, data offered by the second AC powered device, the data previously cached by the second AC powered device, the data including the identification of a data element, the data element value, and the identification of a third AC device which originated the data element value.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the second step of receiving and data includes receiving, by the first AC powered device, data offered by the second AC powered device, the data previously cached by the second AC powered device, the data including the identification of a data element, the data element value, and identification of a battery operated device which originated the data element value.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of receiving any data includes receiving, by the first AC powered device, data offered by the second AC powered device, the data previously cached by the second AC powered device, the data including the identification of a data element, the data element value, and identification of a remote device which originated the data element value.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the data further having a signal strength value.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the life time value includes a first part and a second part, the first part including the lower 15 bits of data to provide a maximum of 9 hours in one second increments, and the second part is the most significant bit to provide a remote control flag which is set to one by a remote to indicate that the associated data element value has been updated by a remote.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising setting the life time value to a maximum value when the respective data or request is newly transmitted by the respective device.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the life time value is periodically reduced, in particular, wherein AC powered devices reduce the life time value of cached data element value or request every second.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the first pre-determined minimum is one-quarter of the maximum life time value, and the second pre-determined minimum is one-half of the maximum life time value.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the step of waking up and requesting does not include data element values wherein the related life time value has reached zero without any request of the data element value by other devices.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising periodically initiating a wake up routine by a battery operated device to broadcast to the network, requesting data, by the battery operated device, the request including the identification of the battery operated device, the identification of a data element, and the address of the data element;

and providing data, by the battery operated device, the data including the identification of a data element, the data element value, and the identification of the battery operated device which originated the data element.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising broadcasting, by the AC powered device, after communicating with a battery powered device, the AC powered device data and the data cached by the AC powered device.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the AC powered device will broadcast a cached request for data if the request has a greater life time value than a corresponding cached data.

30. The method of claim 1, further comprising broadcasting, by the AC powered device, on a periodic basis, the AC powered device data and the data cached by the AC powered device.