Tracking management systems and methods

• US 9,084,075 B2
• Filed: 09/15/2011
• Issued: 07/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Farley, Richard O., Krishnaswamy, Dilip, Ding, Gang
• Primary Examiner(s): RENNER, BRANDON M
• Application Number:
  US13/233,985
• Publication Number:
  US 20130070636A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,398 Days
• Field of Search: 370/328, 370/336, 370/338
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• 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 4/38 for collecting sensor information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0203 in the radio access network or backbone network of wireless communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/20 Master-slave selection or change arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A collaborative method for a node includes forming a local network with at least one other node using a lower power subsystem; selecting a master node from among the local network based on a first set of criteria; and communicating with a back end server over a wireless wide area network (WWAN) using a higher power subsystem. An apparatus may include a first subsystem for communicating with a local network; and a second subsystem having an active mode and an inactive mode, the second subsystem for communicating with a wireless wide area network (WWAN) when in the active mode, the apparatus selecting the active mode or inactive mode based on a set of criteria.

Claims

1. A collaborative method for a first node, the method comprising:

connecting the first node in a local network with at least one other node using a low power subsystem of the first node;

enabling the first node as a first master node from among the local network based on a first set of criteria;

activating, in response to the enabling, a high power subsystem of the first master node for communicating over a wireless wide area network (WWAN);

communicating with a back end server over the WWAN using the high power subsystem of the first node;

disabling the first node as the first master node based on a second set of criteria; and

deactivating, in response to the disabling, the high power subsystem of the first node while maintaining operation of the low power subsystem of the first node;

wherein a second master node may be selected from the local network for communicating with the back end server;

wherein the second set of criteria includes at least one of (i) a WWAN condition and (ii) a transition cost of changing a power state of the high power subsystem.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the communicating is via at least the master node.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first master node communicates with the back end server via another master node.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of criteria is the second set of criteria.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of criteria includes remaining battery life of each of the nodes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a protocol for communicating over the WWAN is selected based on a third set of criteria.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the third set of criteria includes at least one of WWAN load, WWAN availability, WWAN channel bandwidth, WWAN code availability, WWAN time utilization, quality of WWAN link, and number of nodes allowed to participate in the WWAN.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of criteria includes at least one of:

WWAN load, WWAN availability, WWAN channel bandwidth, WWAN code availability, WWAN time utilization, quality of at least one link in at least one subsystem, type of WWAN protocol, remaining battery life, a cost associated with data collection process from a collection of objects, a transition cost of changing power states in at least one subsystem, energy efficiency, number of nodes allowed to participate in the WWAN, and number of nodes allowed to participate in the local network.

9. The method of claim 8, the method further comprising:

receiving the WWAN load in a system information block.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the number of nodes allowed to participate in the WWAN is specified by at least one of the WWAN and the back end server.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein first the master node receives data from non-master nodes of the local network.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first master node transmits, either directly or through at least another master node, at least the data received from the non-master nodes of the local network to the back end server.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first master node receives data from a master node of a different local network.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first master node transmits, either directly or through at least another master node, at least the data received from the master node of the different local network to the back end server.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the master node receives partial data from a master node of a different local network.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the master node transmits, either directly or through at least another master node, at least the partial data received from the master node of the different local network to the back end server.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the partial data is compressed.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the partial data indicates presence.

19. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

selecting a super-master node from among the first master node and at least one other master node based on a third set of criteria, the super-master node for communicating with the back end server over the WWAN using the high power subsystem.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the third set of criteria includes at least one of:

WWAN load, WWAN availability, WWAN channel bandwidth, WWAN code availability, WWAN time utilization, quality of at least one link in at least one subsystem, type of WWAN protocol, remaining battery life, a cost associated with data collection process from a collection of objects, a transition cost of changing power states in at least one subsystem, energy efficiency, number of nodes allowed to participate in the WWAN, and number of nodes allowed to participate in the local network.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein a protocol for communicating over the WWAN is selected based on a fourth set of criteria.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the fourth set of criteria includes at least one of WWAN load, WWAN availability, WWAN channel bandwidth, WWAN code availability, WWAN time utilization, quality of WWAN link, and number of nodes allowed to participate in the WWAN.

23. The method of claim 20, the method further comprising:

receiving the WWAN load in a system information block.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the number of nodes allowed to participate in the WWAN is specified by at least one of the WWAN and the back end server.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the deactivated high power subsystem of the first node prevents the first node from communicating over the WWAN.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting, based on the second set of criteria, another node from the local network as the second master node.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the WWAN condition comprises at least one of WWAN load, WWAN availability, WWAN channel bandwidth, WWAN time utilization, WWAN link quality, and type of WWAN protocol.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of criteria includes a number of nodes allowed to participate in a network.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the number of nodes in a network comprise at least one of a number of nodes allowed to participate in the WWAN and a number of nodes allowed to participate in the local network.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of criteria includes remaining battery life of the first node, the WWAN condition with respect to the first node, and the transition cost of changing the power state of the high power subsystem of the first node.

31. The method of claim 27, the method further comprising:

receiving the WWAN load in a system information block.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the number of nodes allowed to participate in the WWAN is specified by at least one of the WWAN and the back end server.

33. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining connection with the local network using the low power subsystem after deactivating the high power subsystem of the first node.

34. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting data to the second master node after deactivating the high power subsystem of the first node.

35. The method of claim 1, wherein the second master node communicates with the back end server over the WWAN using a high power subsystem of the second master node.

36. A collaborative method for a first node, the method comprising:

connecting the first node in a local network with at least one other node using a low power subsystem of the first node;

enabling the first node as a first master node from among the local network based on a first set of criteria;

activating, in response to the enabling, a high power subsystem of the first master node for communicating over a wireless wide area network (WWAN);

communicating with a back end server over the WWAN using the high power subsystem of the first node;

disabling the first node as the first master node based on a second set of criteria; and

deactivating, in response to the disabling, the high power subsystem of the first node while maintaining operation of the low power subsystem of the first node;

wherein a second master node may be selected from the local network for communicating with the back end server;

wherein the first set of criteria and the second set of criteria includes remaining battery life of each of the nodes and a WWAN condition with respect to each of the nodes for each of the nodes.

37. A collaborative method for a first node, the method comprising:

connecting the first node in a local network with at least one other node using a low power subsystem of the first node;

enabling the first node as a first master node from among the local network based on a first set of criteria;

activating, in response to the enabling, a high power subsystem of the first master node for communicating over a wireless wide area network (WWAN);

communicating with a back end server over the WWAN using the high power subsystem of the first node;

disabling the first node as the first master node based on (i) a transition cost of changing a power state of one or more of the first master node and a second master node and (ii) a second set of criteria; and

deactivating, in response to the deselecting disabling, the high power subsystem of the first node while maintaining operation of the low power subsystem of the first node;

wherein a second master node may be selected from the local network for communicating with the back end server.

38. A collaborative method for a first node, the method comprising:

connecting the first node in a local network with at least one other node using a low power subsystem of the first node;

enabling the first node as a first master node from among the local network based on a first set of criteria;

activating, in response to the enabling, a high power subsystem of the first master node for communicating over a wireless wide area network (WWAN);

communicating with a back end server over the WWAN using the high power subsystem of the first node;

disabling the first node as the master node when energy efficiency of a second node as the master node exceeds energy efficiency of the first node remaining as the master node; and

deactivating, in response to the disabling, the high power subsystem of the first node while maintaining operation of the low power subsystem of the first node;

wherein the second master node may be selected from the local network for communicating with the back end server;

wherein the efficiency of the first node remaining as the master node is based on remaining battery life of the first node and a link quality of the first node with the WWAN; and

wherein the efficiency of the second node as the master node is based on remaining battery life of the second node, a link quality of the second node with the WWAN, and a transition cost of changing a power state of the high power subsystem of one or more of the first node and the second node.