Method for reporting and accumulating data in a wireless communication network
First Claim
1. A method for coordinating communication in a wireless sensor network, comprising:
- associating a first node with a wireless sensor network including at least two nodes associated with each other in a parent/child relationship, the first node being associated with the wireless sensor network such that the first node functions as a parent or child to at least one other node; and
determining a wake up time for the first node to wake up and listen for or broadcast a signal regarding communication with a parent or child node, the wake up time being determined based on a detected temperature at the first node, wherein determining further comprises;
determining a wake up time period;
determining an elapsed time;
comparing the elapsed time to the wake up time period;
controlling the first node to wake up when the elapsed time equals the wake up time period; and
wherein the elapsed time is adjusted based on the detected temperature.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for coordinating communication in a wireless sensor network may include a plurality of nodes, such as routers, edge nodes, data accumulators and/or gateways. Time management functions, such as determining an elapsed time, may be controlled based on a detected temperature, e.g., a temperature detected at a node, and/or based on a detected clock skew between two or more clocks in two or more different devices. Accurate time management may allow for devices to more accurately coordinate communication instances, e.g., communication that occurs at periodic wake up times. A cluster head, such as a data accumulator, may be associated with a network after its initial formation and cause nodes in the network to alter their hierarchy in the network, thereby making the cluster head accumulator a parent to nodes in the network. Nodes having a relatively lower hop count may have a higher battery capacity than nodes having a higher hop count.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method for coordinating communication in a wireless sensor network, comprising:
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associating a first node with a wireless sensor network including at least two nodes associated with each other in a parent/child relationship, the first node being associated with the wireless sensor network such that the first node functions as a parent or child to at least one other node; and determining a wake up time for the first node to wake up and listen for or broadcast a signal regarding communication with a parent or child node, the wake up time being determined based on a detected temperature at the first node, wherein determining further comprises; determining a wake up time period; determining an elapsed time; comparing the elapsed time to the wake up time period; controlling the first node to wake up when the elapsed time equals the wake up time period; and wherein the elapsed time is adjusted based on the detected temperature. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for coordinating communication in a wireless sensor network, comprising:
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associating a first node with a wireless sensor network including at least two nodes associated with each other in a parent/child relationship, the first node being associated with the wireless sensor network such that the first node functions as a parent or child to at least one other node; determining a wake up time for the first node to wake up and listen for a signal regarding communication with a second node that has a parent or child relationship with the first node, the wake up time being determined based on a determined clock skew between a clock in the first node and a clock in the second node, and wherein determining comprises;
determining a wake up time period to a next wake up time and adjusting the wake up time period based on the determined clock skew;controlling the first node to wake up and listen for the signal based on the wake up time, the first node listening for the signal for a first time period; controlling the first node to wake up and listen for the signal at a subsequent wake up time for a second time period that is longer than the first time period if the first node does not detect the signal during the first time period; and wherein the first node is controlled to not listen for the signal at the subsequent wake up time if the second time period exceeds a threshold; wherein the second time period is determined based on a lookup table; and wherein the first node is controlled to not listen for the signal at the subsequent wake up time if values in the lookup table are exhausted. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification