Wireless fire system with idle mode and gateway redundancy

• US 9,264,161 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2013
• Issued: 02/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Life Safety Distribution AG (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Life Safety Distribution AG (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Frison, Andrea, Merli, Daniel, Polito, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Moore, Jr., Michael J
• Application Number:
  US14/101,863
• Publication Number:
  US 20150163002A1
• Time in Patent Office: 798 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/009 Signalling of the alarm condition to a substation whose identity is signalled to a central station, e.g. relaying alarm signals in order to extend communication range
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0641 Change of the master or reference, e.g. take-over or failure of the master
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0647 Synchronisation among TDM nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2827 Reporting to a device within the home network; wherein the reception of the information reported automatically triggers the execution of a home appliance functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• 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 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0015 one node acting as a reference for the others
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A method and apparatus that includes the steps of providing a plurality of wireless nodes including at least one parent node and at least one child node, a control panel sending instructions to and receiving data from the plurality of nodes through a primary gateway and a wireless subsystem of the gateway, the primary gateway synchronizing the plurality of nodes by periodically transmitting a synchronization signal and one of the plurality of nodes detecting failure of the gateway and transmitting an idle synchronization signal for so long as the one of the plurality of nodes detects failure of the gateway.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a plurality of wireless nodes including at least one parent node and at least one child node;

a control panel sending instructions to and receiving data from the plurality of nodes through a wired connection with a primary gateway and a wireless subsystem of the primary gateway;

the primary gateway synchronizing the plurality of nodes into a network by periodically transmitting a synchronization signal;

one of the plurality of nodes detecting failure of the primary gateway and transmitting an idle mode synchronization signal for so long as the one of the plurality of nodes detects failure of the primary gateway;

a backup gateway wired to the control panel initializing and synchronizing with the network and then entering a sleep mode;

the backup gateway detecting the idle mode synchronization signal from the one of the plurality of nodes and assuming a role of the primary gateway; and

upon detecting an over-riding synchronization signal from the primary gateway, the backup gateway resuming its backup state,

wherein there are no differences between the primary and backup gateways except that the backup gateway includes a backup control program.

2. The method as in claim 1 further comprising the idle mode synchronization signal inhibiting message traffic from the other of the plurality of nodes.

3. The method as in claim 1 further comprising the backup gateway synchronizing the plurality of nodes by transmitting a second synchronization signal.

4. The method as in claim 3 further comprising the one node detecting the second synchronization signal from the backup gateway and synchronizing to the backup gateway.

5. The method as in claim 4 further comprising the backup gateway exchanging messages between at least some of the plurality of nodes and the control panel.

6. The method as in claim 1 wherein the one node further comprises a child node directly coupled to the one node.

7. The method as in claim 1 further comprising the plurality of wireless nodes arranging themselves into a mesh network.

8. The method as in claim 1 further comprising the plurality of nodes communicating with the primary gateway under a time division multiplex (TDM) format.

9. The method as in claim 1 wherein the plurality of nodes and the primary gateway operate as a security system.

10. The method as in claim 1 further comprising at least some of the plurality of nodes detecting a fire and reporting the detection to the control panel through the primary gateway.

11. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of wireless nodes including at least one parent node and at least one child node;

a primary gateway;

a control panel having a wired connection with the primary gateway, wherein the control panel sends instructions to and receives data from the plurality of nodes through the primary gateway and a wireless subsystem of the primary gateway, wherein the primary gateway synchronizes the plurality of nodes into a network by periodically transmitting a synchronization signal, and wherein one of the plurality of nodes detects failure of the primary gateway and transmits an idle mode synchronization signal for so long as the one of the plurality of nodes detects failure of the primary gateway; and

a backup gateway wired to the control panel wherein there are no differences between the primary and backup gateways except that the backup gateway includes a backup control program, wherein the backup gateway initializes and synchronizes with the network and then enters a sleep mode, wherein, upon detecting the idle mode synchronization signal from the one of the plurality of nodes, the backup gateway assumes a role of the primary gateway, and wherein, upon detecting an over-riding synchronization signal from the primary gateway, the backup gateway resumes its backup state.

12. The apparatus as in claim 11 further comprising a processor of each of the plurality of wireless nodes that inhibits message traffic from the node.

13. The apparatus as in claim 11 further comprising a processor of the backup gateway that synchronizes the plurality of nodes by transmitting a second synchronization signal.

14. The apparatus as in claim 13 further comprising a processor of the one node that detects the second synchronization signal from the backup gateway and synchronizes to the backup gateway.

15. The apparatus as in claim 14 further comprising a processor of the backup gateway that exchanges messages between at least some of the plurality of nodes and the control panel.

16. The apparatus as in claim 11 wherein the one node further comprises a directly coupled child node of the primary gateway.

17. The apparatus as in claim 11 arranged into a mesh network.

18. An apparatus comprising:

a plurality of wireless nodes of a mesh network including at least one parent node and at least one child node;

a primary gateway that synchronizes each of the plurality of wireless nodes to the primary gateway;

a control panel wired to the primary gateway, wherein the control panel sends instructions to and receives data from the plurality of nodes through the primary gateway and a wireless subsystem of the primary gateway, and wherein one of the plurality of nodes detects failure of the primary gateway and transmits an idle mode synchronization signal for so long as the one of the plurality of nodes detects failure of the primary gateway; and

a backup gateway wired to the control panel, wherein there are no differences between the primary and backup gateways except that the backup gateway includes a backup control program, wherein the backup gateway synchronizes the plurality of nodes and exchanges messages between the plurality of wireless nodes in place of the primary gateway upon detection of the idle mode synchronization signal from the one of the plurality of nodes, and wherein, upon detecting an over-riding synchronization signal from the primary gateway, the backup gateway resumes its backup state.