Scheduling apparatus and method

• US 8,452,892 B2
• Filed: 09/09/2010
• Issued: 05/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Maegawa, Tomonori, Mera, Keisuke, Matsuzawa, Shigeo, Ikeda, Koichi, Nishimura, Nobutaka
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Lynn
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jenkins, Benjamin A
• Application Number:
  US12/923,207
• Publication Number:
  US 20110066758A1
• Time in Patent Office: 992 Days
• Field of Search: 370/468, 709/234, 709/240, 709/248
• US Class Current: 709/240
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• 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

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a scheduling apparatus sends queries to communication modules in buildings and receives facility information measured at monitor-control points from the communication modules. As for each communication module, a network address, a waiting time to receive the facility information after sending a query, and a connection with the monitor-control points, are stored. When a service request indicating at least one monitor-control point is received, queries each including the network address of a communication module connected with a monitor-control point indicated by the service request, are generated. A priority of each query is decided based on the waiting time corresponding to the communication module. Each query is added to a first send queue or a second send queue based on the priority. When queries are sent, a timing to send from the first send queue is same as or earlier than a timing to send from the second send queue.

Claims

1. A scheduling apparatus for sending queries to communication modules in buildings and receiving facility information measured at monitor-control points from the communication modules, comprising:

a storage unit configured to store a network address of each communication module, a waiting time to receive the facility information from each communication module after sending a query, an average size of the facility information, and a connection relationship between each communication module and the monitor-control points;

a receiving unit configured to receive a service request indicating at least one monitor-control point;

a generation unit configured to generate queries by referring to the storage unit, each query including the network address of a communication module connected with a monitor-control point indicated by the service request, and to decide a priority of each query based on the waiting time corresponding to the communication module; and

a processing unit configured to add each query to a first send queue or a second send queue based on the priority, to create a predicted receive window based on the waiting time and the average size corresponding to the communication module of the network address included in the each query, and to send queries from the first send queue and queries from the second send queue based on the predicted receive window, a timing to send from the first send queue being earlier than a timing to send from the second send queue.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the waiting time corresponding to the priority of the queries added to the first send queue is longer than the waiting time corresponding to the priority of the queries added to the second send queue.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the processing unit adds each query to the first send queue and the second send queue in longer order of the waiting time.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the processing unit measures a time between a sending time of the query and a receiving time of the facility information for each communication module,

the apparatus further comprising:

an evaluation unit configured to overwrite the time onto the waiting time in the storage unit when a difference between the time and the waiting time is larger than a predetermined ratio of the waiting time.

5. A scheduling method for sending queries to communication modules in buildings and receiving facility information measured at monitor-control points from the communication modules, the method comprising:

storing in a memory, a network address of each communication module, a waiting time to receive the facility information from each communication module after sending a query, an average size of the facility information, and a connection relationship between each communication module and the monitor-control points;

receiving a service request indicating at least one monitor-control point;

generating queries by referring to the memory, each query including the network address of a communication module connected with a monitor-control point indicated by the service request;

deciding a priority of each query based on the waiting time corresponding to the communication module;

adding each query to a first send queue or a second send queue based on the priority;

creating a predicted receive window based on the waiting time and the average size corresponding to the communication module of the network address included in the each query; and

sending queries from the first send queue and queries from the second send queue based on the predicted receive window, a timing to send from the first send queue being is same as or earlier than a timing to send from the second send queue.

6. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for causing a computer to perform operations for sending queries to communication modules in buildings and receiving facility information measured at monitor-control points from the communication modules, the operations comprising:

storing in a memory, a network address of each communication module, a waiting time to receive the facility information from each communication module after sending a query, an average size of the facility information, and a connection relationship between each communication module and the monitor-control points;

receiving a service request indicating at least one monitor-control point;

generating queries by referring to the memory, each query including the network address of a communication module connected with a monitor-control point indicated by the service request;

deciding a priority of each query based on the waiting time corresponding to the communication module;

adding each query to a first send queue or a second send queue based on the priority;

creating a predicted receive window based on the waiting time and the average size corresponding to the communication module of the network address included in the each query; and

sending queries from the first send queue and queries from the second send queue based on the predicted receive window, a timing to send from the first send queue being earlier than a timing to send from the second send queue.