System and method for beacon fleet management

• US 9,826,351 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2017
• Issued: 11/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Estimote Polska Sp. z o.o.
• Original Assignee: Estimote Polska Sp. z o.o.
• Inventors: Klimek, Marcin, Kostka, ukasz, Krzych, Jakub
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, MAHENDRA R
• Application Number:
  US15/590,939
• Publication Number:
  US 20170245104A1
• Time in Patent Office: 196 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561, 4554566, 455434, 709224
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0226 Transmitters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02529 not involving signal parameters, i.e. only involving identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0294 Trajectory determination or predictive filtering, e.g. target tracking or Kalman filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0295 Proximity-based methods, e.g. position inferred from reception of particular signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/27 for locating or positioning the transmitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 17/318 Received signal strength
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/322 Power control of broadcast channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A method for distributed beacon management, including: broadcasting a packet from the beacon; receiving the packet at an application executing on a plurality of user devices; and transmitting beacon information extracted from the packet to the management system from the application.

Claims

1. A method for distributed beacon management, comprising:

at a remote management system;

receiving beacon settings from a management account with access permissions to a beacon population;

transmitting the beacon settings for the beacon population to a plurality of application instances, each application instance executing on a separate and distinct user device;

receiving a beacon packet, broadcast by a beacon of the beacon population, at an application instance of the plurality;

in response to beacon packet receipt, at the application instance;

transmitting the beacon settings from the respective user device to the beacon;

transmitting beacon telemetry, extracted from the beacon packet, to the remote management system; and

determining a location for the respective user device based on a predetermined beacon location for the beacon, wherein the predetermined beacon location is associated with a beacon identifier determined from the beacon packet;

at the remote management system;

receiving beacon telemetry for the beacon from the plurality of application instances;

storing the beacon telemetry from the plurality of application instances at the remote management system in association with the beacon identifier;

monitoring the stored beacon telemetry for occurrence of a predetermined event; and

in response to occurrence of the predetermined event;

generating a notification comprising identifying information for the beacon; and

transmitting a notification associated with an anomaly classification for the predetermined event to a management client associated with the beacon.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the beacon telemetry comprises sensor data measured by sensors on-board the beacon.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the beacon identifier from the application instance to the remote management system, wherein the beacon settings are transmitted to the application instance by the remote management system after receiving the beacon identifier from the application instance.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an operating setting version number from the beacon packet; and

transmitting the beacon settings to the beacons in response to the operating setting version number differing from a current setting version number for the beacon settings.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically connecting beacons of the population into a mesh;

receiving the beacon settings at the beacon from the application instance; and

transmitting the beacon settings from the beacon to remaining beacons of the population through the mesh.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein transmitting the beacon settings from the beacon to the remaining beacons within the population through the mesh comprises:

operating the beacon in a server mode while operating the remaining beacons in a client mode;

connecting the beacon to the remaining beacons proximal the beacon;

transmitting the beacon settings from the beacon to the remaining beacons proximal the beacon; and

operating the beacon in the client mode after beacon setting transmission.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein automatically connecting beacons of the population into a mesh comprises:

a) operating a radio of a first beacon within the population in a scanning mode;

b) with the radio operating in the scanning mode, receiving beacon packets broadcast by the remaining beacons within the population; and

c) storing beacon identifiers determined from the received beacon packets at the first beacon; and

d) repeating a)-c) for each beacon within the set.

8. A method for distributed beacon management, comprising:

at a remote management system, receiving beacon settings from a management account with access permissions to a beacon population;

from the remote management system, transmitting the beacon settings to a plurality of application instances, each application instance executing on a separate and distinct user device;

receiving a beacon packet broadcast by a beacon at each of the plurality of application instances;

at each application instance, transmitting beacon telemetry, extracted from the beacon packet, from the application instance to a remote management system in response to beacon packet receipt;

at the remote management system;

receiving the beacon telemetry for the beacon from the plurality of application instances;

storing the beacon telemetry received from the plurality of application instances in association with a beacon identifier for the beacon;

monitoring the stored beacon telemetry for occurrence of a predetermined event; and

in response to occurrence of the predetermined event,

generating a notification comprising identifying information for the beacon; and

transmitting a notification associated with the anomaly classification to a management client associated with the beacon; and

determining a location for the respective user device executing the application instance based on a beacon location associated with the beacon.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

transmitting the beacon settings from an application instance of the plurality to the beacon in response to receipt of the beacon packet; and

.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

automatically connecting the beacon to a secondary beacon to form a mesh;

receiving the beacon settings at the beacon from the application instance; and

transmitting the beacon settings from the beacon to secondary beacon through the mesh.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the predetermined event comprises an occurrence of a beacon operation anomaly, wherein performing the action comprises:

generating a notification comprising identifying information for the beacon; and

transmitting a notification associated with the anomaly classification to a management client associated with the beacon.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the beacon telemetry comprises sensor data measured by sensors on-board the beacon.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the sensor data comprises beacon orientation data measured by an orientation sensor on-board the beacon, wherein the beacon operation anomaly comprises an orientation data pattern indicative of beacon movement.

14. A method for beacon fleet management, comprising:

a) receiving the beacon settings from a management account with access permissions to the beacon population at the remote management system;

b) transmitting beacon settings for a beacon population to a plurality of application instances from the remote management system, each application instance executing on a separate and distinct user device;

c) receiving a beacon packet, broadcast by a beacon of the beacon population, at an application instance of the plurality;

d) in response to beacon packet receipt, at the application instance;

transmitting the beacon settings from the respective user device to the beacon; and

transmitting beacon telemetry, extracted from the beacon packet, from the application instance to a remote management system; and

e) monitoring the beacon telemetry for occurrence of a predetermined event; and

f) in response to occurrence of the predetermined event, generating a notification comprising identifying information for the beacon; and

transmitting a notification associated with the anomaly classification for the predetermined event to a management client associated with the beacon;

g) determining a location for the respective user device based on a predetermined beacon location for the beacon, wherein the predetermined beacon location is associated with a beacon identifier determined from the beacon packet;

h) repeating c) to g) for each beacon of the beacon population.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the beacon comprises a short-range radio, wherein the beacon packet is broadcast by the short-range radio.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein d) further comprises:

determining an operating setting version number from the beacon packet; and

transmitting the beacon settings to the beacons in response to the operating setting version number differing from a current setting version number for the beacon settings.