Method and system for network setup and maintenance and medium access control for a wireless sensor network

• US 8,199,635 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2008
• Issued: 06/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Atomics, Inc.
• Original Assignee: General Atomics, Inc.
• Inventors: Taylor, James Laurence, Racherla, Venkatagopal, Jeyaseelan, Jaya L., Askar, Naiel K., Perry, Michael D., Furuno, David S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yao, Kwang B
• Assistant Examiner(s): Liu, Jung-Jen
• Application Number:
  US12/259,213
• Publication Number:
  US 20100039933A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,324 Days
• Field of Search: 370/217, 370254-258, 370/310, 370/310.1, 370/310.2, 370328-341, 370431-440, 370464-465
• US Class Current: 370/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• 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: H04W 40/24 Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A sensor network having a first command center and a first access node, comprising a wireless transceiver, coupled to the command center. The sensor network may also include a plurality of nodes individually comprising a wireless transceiver and a directional antenna, wherein each of the plurality of nodes is successively located in a downlink direction relative to the first access node, and is configured to wirelessly communicate via the directional antenna with at least one node of a first neighbor group in a first direction and at least one node of a second neighbor group in a second direction. In addition, a sensor device is individually coupled to at least one of the nodes, and is configured to provide sensor data for the first command center.

Claims

1. A sensor network comprising:

a first command center;

a first access node coupled to the command center and comprising a wireless transceiver;

a plurality of nodes individually comprising a wireless transceiver and a directional antenna, wherein each of the plurality of nodes is successively located in a downlink direction relative to the first access node, and is configured to wirelessly communicate via the directional antenna with at least one node of a first neighbor group in a downlink direction and at least one node of a second neighbor group in an uplink direction; and

a sensor device individually coupled to at least one of the plurality of nodes and configured to provide sensor data for the first command center;

wherein for each given node of the plurality of nodes, the first neighbor group of the given node comprises two nodes of the plurality of nodes and which are located in the uplink direction relative to the given node, and the second neighbor group of the given node comprises two nodes of the plurality of nodes and which are located in the downlink direction relative to the given node; and

wherein each node of the plurality of nodes is configured to selectively communicate sensor data provided by a non-adjacent downlink node, of the two nodes located in the downlink direction, to either a non-adjacent uplink node or an adjacent uplink node of the two nodes located in the uplink direction based upon operation criteria.

2. The sensor network of claim 1, wherein each node of the plurality of nodes is configured to communicate the sensor data provided by the non-adjacent downlink node, of the two nodes located in the downlink direction, to the non-adjacent uplink node of the two nodes located in the uplink direction.

3. The sensor network of claim 1, wherein the operation criteria identifies that the non-adjacent uplink node is a failed node, thus permitting the communicating of the sensor data to the adjacent uplink node.

4. The sensor network of claim 1, wherein each node of the plurality of nodes is configured to selectively receive the sensor data provided by either the non-adjacent downlink node or an adjacent downlink node of the two nodes located in the downlink direction based upon operation criteria.

5. The sensor network of claim 4, wherein the operation criteria identifies that the non-adjacent downlink node is a failed node, thus permitting the receiving of the sensor data from the adjacent downlink node of the plurality of nodes.

6. The sensor network of claim 1, wherein each node of the plurality of nodes that include the sensor device is configured to communicate the sensor data to the first command center via an uplink communication in the downlink direction with a node of the first neighbor group.

7. The sensor network of claim 1, wherein each node of the plurality of nodes is configured to receive the sensor data provided by a downlink node of the second neighbor group, and is further configured to communicate the sensor data to an uplink node of the first neighbor group.

8. The sensor network of claim 7, wherein the received sensor data provided by the downlink node is generated by a sensor device coupled to a node located in the downlink direction from the at least one node of the second neighbor group.

9. The sensor network of claim 1, wherein the directional antenna of at least one of the plurality of nodes comprises a plurality of segments, wherein a first one of the plurality of segments permits communications in the downlink direction and wherein a second one of the plurality of segments permits communications in the uplink direction.

10. The sensor network of claim 1 further comprising:

a second command center; and

a second access node coupled to the second command center, wherein the second command center and the second access node are located in the downlink direction relative to the first access node, and wherein the second access node is located to wirelessly communicate with a terminating node of the plurality of nodes.

11. The sensor network of claim 1 wherein the wireless transceiver of each of the plurality of nodes comprises a wideband transceiver which transmits and receives communication bursts having a bandwidth of at least two percent of a center frequency of the bursts.

12. The sensor network of claim 1 wherein the wireless transceiver of each of the plurality of nodes comprises a wideband transceiver which transmits and receives communication bursts having a bandwidth of at least ten percent of a center frequency of the bursts.

13. The sensor network of claim 1 wherein the wireless transceiver of each of the plurality of nodes comprises a wideband transceiver which transmits and receives communication bursts having a bandwidth of at least twenty percent of a center frequency of the bursts.

14. The sensor network of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of sensor devices individually coupled with one of the plurality of nodes, the plurality of sensor devices each providing sensor data for the first command center.

15. The sensor network of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of nodes is coupled with a plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensors each providing sensor data for the command center.

16. The sensor network of claim 1, wherein the sensor device of at least one of the plurality of nodes is a sensor selected from the group consisting of:

a temperature sensor, a light sensor, a motion sensor, and a radar sensor.

17. The sensor network of claim 1, wherein the first access node and the plurality of nodes define a linear network of wireless nodes.

18. The sensor network of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of nodes is in a fixed location.

19. The sensor network of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of nodes is configured to wirelessly and linearly communicate via the directional antenna with the at least one node of the first neighbor group in the downlink direction and the at least one node of the second neighbor group in the uplink direction.

20. A sensor network comprising:

a first command center;

a first access node coupled to the command center and comprising a wireless transceiver;

a plurality of nodes individually comprising a wireless transceiver and a directional antenna, each of the plurality of nodes being in a fixed location, wherein each of the plurality of nodes is successively located in a downlink direction relative to the first access node, and is configured to wirelessly communicate via the directional antenna with at least one node of a first neighbor group in a first direction and at least one node of a second neighbor group in a second direction; and

a sensor device individually coupled to at least one of the plurality of nodes and configured to provide sensor data for the first command center;

wherein for each given node of the plurality of nodes, the first neighbor group of the given node comprises two nodes of the plurality of nodes and which are located in the first direction relative to the given node, and the second neighbor group of the given node comprises two nodes of the plurality of nodes and which are located in the second direction relative to the given node; and

wherein each node of the plurality of nodes is configured to selectively communicate sensor data provided by a non-adjacent node in the second direction, of the two nodes located in the second direction, to either a non-adjacent node in the first direction or an adjacent node in the first direction of the two nodes located in the first direction based upon operation criteria.

21. The sensor network of claim 20 wherein each of the plurality of nodes is configured to wirelessly and linearly communicate via the directional antenna with the at least one node of the first neighbor group in the first direction and the at least one node of the second neighbor group in the second direction.