Software architecture system and method for discovering components within an appliance using fuctionality identifiers

• US 8,155,120 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2006
• Issued: 04/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: McCoy, Richard A., Ebrom, Matthew P., Grosse, Alexandre de Sonza, Kicklighter, Judith Godeke
• Primary Examiner(s): Ton, Dang
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mansoury, Nourali
• Application Number:
  US11/571,456
• Publication Number:
  US 20070160022A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,929 Days
• Field of Search: 370/392, 370/338, 370/235, 370/249, 370/396, 370/389, 370/254, 370/312, 370/432
• US Class Current: 370/392
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• 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 69/26 Special purpose or proprietary protocols or architectures network applications for proprietary or special purpose networking environments H04L67/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/246 Connectivity information discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel

Abstract

A network comprising a plurality of nodes, and each of the nodes has at least one identifier from pre-determined group of identifiers, with each identifier identifying at least one functionality applicable such node. A method of identifying the nodes comprises at least one node sending over the network a message configured to ask for the presence of at least one identifier from the pre-determined group of identifiers. At least one other node sends a feedback message affirming the existence of the at least one identifier on the at least one other node.

Claims

1. A method of identifying functionalities in at least one control board in an appliance for performing a useful cycle of operation on a physical article, wherein the at least one control board has software architecture configured for communication on a network including other control boards or clients, and the at least one control board has at least one functionality from a universe of functionalities, the method comprising:

forming a message comprising a collection of bytes wherein at least one byte is predefined to contain a unique identifier associated with each instance of the at least one functionality on the network,

setting the at least one byte to a single unique value corresponding to the unique identifier, and

sending the message over the network from the at least one control board to affirm the existence of each instance of the at least one functionality on the network based on the value of the at least one byte so that one instance of the at least one functionality is uniquely identifiable among more than one instance of the same functionality on the network and messaging regarding the one instance is more efficient using the single unique value than using more than one value to identify the one instance.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the message relates to at least one of evaluating network integrity, enabling dynamic network behavior, and configuring interactions between nodes.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising implementing the unique identifier by a software module residing on the at least one control board and requesting information regarding the functionality of the software module and the identity of the software module.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the sending step is initiated in response to broadcasting a node alive message.

5. The method of claim 1 comprising sending a follow-up message in response to the message asking for additional information based on the unique identifier.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the message refers to an addressing identifier to facilitate communicating the unique identifier.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the addressing identifier includes one of a network identifier, an Application Program Interface (API) identifier, an Operation (Op) Code, and a command feedback flag.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the unique identifier comprises one of a class identifier, a sub-class identifier, and at least one instance identifier.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the unique identifier comprises the class identifier and the at least one instance identifier wherein the at least one instance identifier is cached and indexed to the class identifier.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one control board has two identical functionalities and further comprising the step of assigning a unique instance identifier to each of the identical functionalities.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the unique identifier comprises at least one of a model number and a serial number of the appliance or components of the appliance.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising configuring the each instance of the at least one functionality by reference to the unique identifier.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the each instance of the at least one functionality is configured by one of a network message, a message internal within the at least one control board, and by assigning a unique identifier to a new function.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the unique identifier comprises an Application Program Interface (API) identifier that also serves as a portion of an address identifier.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending a discovery query to identify nodes on the network and the message is a response to an identification.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the discovery query is to the at least one control board to discover the each instance of the at least one functionality and wherein the message is a response to the discovery query.

17. The method of claim 15 comprising caching the unique identifier and indexing it to an address identifier.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the discovery query is one of internal to the at least one control board so it discovers its own at least one unique identifier, and over the network.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein the discovery query seeks at least one of an acknowledgement of the relevance of a specified unique identifier, an identification of multiple unique identifiers relevant to the at least one control board, and an identification of all unique identifiers relevant to a specific control board.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the communication of the unique identifier gives meaning to a command to use a functionality, a request for information relating to the functionality, a response to a request message, and an acknowledgement of receipt of the command.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the message is sent from the at least one control board when the at least one control board is initialized.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the initialization occurs at power up of the at least one control board.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one control board is connected to a node on the network and the message is sent from the at least one control board when the node is initialized.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the initialization occurs at power up of the node.