Wireless sensor field enumeration

• US 9,396,337 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Hansen, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Traore, Fatoumata
• Assistant Examiner(s): LE, KHOI V
• Application Number:
  US13/827,357
• Publication Number:
  US 20130276144A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,223 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9554 by using bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/02 for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• 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

A system for authenticating data acquired by multiple sensors prior to storing the data in a database is described. The system also authenticates users requesting data access and intelligence agents that provide analyses of data stored in the database. As a result, any data or data analysis obtained from the system is traceable and reliable.

Claims

1. A system for authenticating data provided by a network of multiple sensors and providing an authenticated presentation of the data, the system comprising:

an authentication server configured to;

authenticate the multiple sensors and data provided by the multiple sensors;

store the data in a database;

authenticate a data requester before providing requested data from the database;

a presentation server configured to;

authenticate an analysis requester requesting an analysis of at least some of the data stored in the database; and

authenticate an analyst selected by the analysis requester to perform the analysis,

wherein the presentation server requests for the analyst access to the at least some of the data stored in the database from the authentication server;

a permanently established gateway having final routing information for routing data aggregated from the network of sensors to the authentication server; and

multiple mobile gateways, wherein each of the mobile gateways is configured to aggregate data from the network of sensors, and wherein each of the mobile gateways includes a routing table for routing the aggregated data among the multiple mobile gateways to the permanently established gateway.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a gateway configured to aggregate data from at least some of the sensors and transmit the data to the authentication server for storage in the database, wherein the data is obtained from sensors reading RFID (radio frequency identification) tags.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the sensors measure an aspect of a person'"'"'s health, the data is personal medical data, and wherein the mobile gateways include smart phones.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the data is an encrypted hash value, and further wherein the hash value is generated by a secret hash function known to the sensor that generated the data and the authentication server.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least some of the sensors measure environmental conditions, the data is environmental data, and further wherein the data analysis provides recommendations for improving crop yields.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the data requester specifies a presentation format for the requested data, and further wherein subsequent requests for data made by the data requester are presented in the specified presentation format.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the presentation format is selected from one of the following:

instantaneous values of sensor data, graphing of a time series of sensor data with tolerance bars, linear regression or curve fitting of sensor data, and correlation of sensor data against another form of metadata stored in the database.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein authenticating the data requester comprises ensuring payment information is obtained from the data requester for the requested data before providing data to the data requester.

9. A system for authenticating data provided by a network of multiple sensors and providing an authenticated presentation of the data, the system comprising:

a permanently established gateway that stores final routing information for routing data aggregated from the network of sensors to an authentication server, and further stores sensor information about which sensors are registered and a type of data which each registered sensor is permitted to store in a database, wherein the permanently established gateway is configured to authenticate the sensor and the data provided by the sensor;

multiple mobile gateways, wherein each of the mobile gateways is configured to aggregate data from the network of sensors, and wherein each of the mobile gateways includes a routing table for routing the aggregated data among the multiple gateways to the permanently established gateway;

wherein the authentication server configured to;

authenticate the permanently established gateway;

receive the data from the permanently established gateway;

store the data in the database; and

authenticate a data requester before providing requested data from the database; and

a presentation server configured to;

authenticate an analysis requester requesting an analysis of at least some of the data stored in the database; and

,

authenticate an analyst selected by the analysis requester to perform the analysis, wherein the presentation server requests for the analyst access to the at least some of the data stored in the database from the authentication server.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein when the fixed gateway does not have the information to authenticate a sensor, and the fixed gateway queries the authentication server for authentication information.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the authentication server is one of multiple authentication servers, and further wherein the routing information stored at the fixed gateway routes data aggregated from the network of sensors to a predetermined one of the multiple authentication servers.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the data is obtained from sensors reading RFID (radio frequency identification) tags to determine a position of the RFID tags.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the presentation server is further configured to provide a list of analysts for performing the analysis.

14. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, at an authentication server, data from one or more sensors;

authenticating, at the authentication server, the one or more sensors and the received data prior to storing the received data in a database;

receiving, at a presentation server, a request from an analysis requester for an analysis of at least some of the stored data;

authenticating, at the presentation server, the analysis requester;

authenticating, at the presentation server, an analyst selected by the analysis requester to perform the analysis;

storing, at a permanently established gateway, final routing information for routing data aggregated from the network of sensors to the authentication server;

aggregating data from the network of sensors to multiple mobile gateways, wherein each of the mobile gateways includes a routing table for routing the aggregated data among the multiple mobile gateways to the permanently established gateway; and

providing access to the at least some of the stored data to the analyst, wherein at least one of the analysis requester and the analyst is authorized to access the at least some of the stored data.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing a list of analysts to the analysis requester for performing the analysis.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein at least some of the sensors measure an aspect of a person'"'"'s health, the data is personal medical data, and the multiple mobile gateways include smart phones.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein at least some of the sensors measure environmental conditions, the data is environmental data, and further wherein the analysis provides recommendations for improving crop yields.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein authenticating the analysis requester comprises ensuring payment information is obtained from the analysis requester for the requested analysis before providing analysis to the analysis requester.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the data is obtained from sensors reading RFID (radio frequency identification) tags to determine a position of the RFID tags.