Reporting statistics on the health of a sensor node in a sensor network

• US 8,634,314 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2010
• Issued: 01/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Banka, Tarun, Dutta, Debojyoti, Sen, Mainak, Duraisamy, Nagarajan, Pandey, Manoj Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Chou, Albert T
• Application Number:
  US12/847,963
• Publication Number:
  US 20120026890A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,271 Days
• Field of Search: 370/252, 370/235, 370/319, 370/373, 709/223
• US Class Current: 370/252
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/064 involving time analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/069 using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes generating a set of statistics concerning a sensor node in a sensor network based on one or more of sensor data from a sensor at the sensor node, communication to the sensor node from one or more other sensor nodes in the sensor network, or communication from the sensor node; determining based on a subset of the set of statistics whether a predetermined anomalous event correlated with the subset has occurred; and, if the predetermined anomalous event has occurred, generating a summary of the subset and communicating it to a police node in the sensor network.

Claims

1. A method comprising, by one or more computing devices:

generating, at a first sensor node in a sensor network, statistics indicative of health of the first sensor node based on sensor data from a sensor at the first sensor node;

receiving, at the first sensor node, statistics indicative of health of one or more other sensor nodes in the sensor network;

aggregating, at the first sensor node, the generated statistics and the received statistics into a summary comprising an average of the generated statistics and the received statistics;

communicating the summary to a police node in the sensor network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received statistics are based on sensor data from one or more sensors at the one or more other sensor nodes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first sensor node comprises a health-monitoring node in the sensor network.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first sensor node comprises a super node in the sensor network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first sensor node comprises a zone leader for a zone of the sensor network that comprises the one or more other sensor nodes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the police node is a health-monitoring node or a super node in the sensor network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the generated statistics comprise one or more of:

a logical or physical address of the first sensor node;

an amount of energy remaining at the first sensor node;

a number of packets communicated to the first sensor node from the one or more other sensor nodes over a recent period of time;

a number of packets generated at the first sensor node over the recent period of time;

a number of packets communicated from the first sensor node over the recent period of time;

a size of a queue at the first sensor node;

a number of packet drops at the first sensor node over the recent period of time;

or

a number of packet collisions observed by the first sensor node over the recent period of time.

8. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying instructions that are operable when executed to:

generate, at a first sensor node in a sensor network, statistics indicative of health of the first sensor node based on

sensor data from a sensor at the first sensor node;

receive, at the first sensor node, statistics indicative of health of one or more other sensor nodes in the sensor network;

aggregate, at the first sensor node, the generated statistics and the received statistics into a summary comprising an average of the generated statistics and the received statistics;

communicate the summary to a police node in the sensor network.

9. The media of claim 8, wherein the received statistics are based on sensor data from one or more sensors at the one or more other sensor nodes.

10. The media of claim 8, wherein the first sensor node comprises a health-monitoring node in the sensor network.

11. The media of claim 8, wherein the first sensor node comprises a super node in the sensor network.

12. The media of claim 8, wherein the first sensor node comprises a zone leader for a zone of the sensor network that comprises the one or more other sensor nodes.

13. The media of claim 8, wherein the police node is a health-monitoring node or a super node in the sensor network.

14. The media of claim 8, wherein the generated statistics comprise one or more of:

a logical or physical address of the first sensor node;

an amount of energy remaining at the first sensor node;

a number of packets communicated to the first sensor node from the one or more other sensor nodes over a recent period of time;

a number of packets generated at the first sensor node over the recent period of time;

a number of packets communicated from the first sensor node over the recent period of time;

a size of a queue at the first sensor node;

a number of packet drops at the first sensor node over the recent period of time;

or

a number of packet collisions observed by the first sensor node over the recent period of time.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a communication interface;

one or more processing devices at a first sensor node in a sensor network; and

one or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying instructions that are operable when executed by the processing devices to;

generate statistics indicative of health of the first sensor node based on

sensor data from a sensor at the first sensor node;

receive statistics indicative of health of one or more other sensor nodes in the sensor network;

aggregate the generated statistics and the received statistics into a summary comprising an average of the generated statistics and the received statistics;

communicate the summary to a police node in the sensor network.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the received statistics are based on sensor data from one or more sensors at the one or more other sensor nodes.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first sensor node comprises a health-monitoring node in the sensor network.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first sensor node comprises a super node in the sensor network.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first sensor node comprises a zone leader for a zone of the sensor network that comprises the one or more other sensor nodes.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the police node is a health-monitoring node or a super node in the sensor network.

21. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the generated statistics comprise one or more of:

a logical or physical address of the first sensor node;

an amount of energy remaining at the first sensor node;

a number of packets communicated to the first sensor node from the one or more other sensor nodes over a recent period of time;

a number of packets generated at the first sensor node over the recent period of time;

a number of packets communicated from the first sensor node over the recent period of time;

a size of a queue at the first sensor node;

a number of packet drops at the first sensor node over the recent period of time;

or

a number of packet collisions observed by the first sensor node over the recent period of time.