Fabric network

• US 9,923,801 B2
• Filed: 03/18/2016
• Issued: 03/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Logue, Jay D., Erickson, Grant M., Smith, Zachary B., Hardison, Osborne B., Schultz, Richard J., Gujjaru, Sunny P., Neeley, Matthew G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Application Number:
  US15/074,547
• Publication Number:
  US 20160218955A1
• Time in Patent Office: 732 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/604 Address structures or formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/618 Details of network addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/668 Internet protocol [IP] address subnets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0805 by checking availability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/15 Interconnection of switching modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/20 Support for services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/355 Application aware switches, e.g. for HTTP
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5069 for group communication, multicast communication or broadcast communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/147 Signalling methods or messages providing extensions to protocols defined by standardisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols

Abstract

Systems and methods relating to communication within a fabric network are presented. The fabric network includes one or more logical networks that enables devices connected to the fabric to communicate with each other using various profiles known to the devices. A device sending a message may follow a general message format to encode the message so that other devices in the fabric may understand the message regardless of which logical networks the devices are connected to. Within the message format, a payload of data may be included for the receiving device to forward, store, or process the message. The format and the contents of the payload may vary according to a header within the payload that indicates a profile and a message type within the profile. Using the profile and message type, the receiving devices may decode the message to process the message.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a sensor for generating data indicative of an environmental condition;

a memory to store instructions; and

a processing system communicatively coupled to the memory, the processing system configured to;

receive a view request message from a second electronic device through a fabric network, the view request message indicating a schema path related to the data generated by the sensor;

generate an update request that encodes the data generated by the sensor, the update request comprising;

a transaction ID configured to identify the requested update; and

a path list configured to indicate the schema path;

transmit the update request to the second electronic device via the fabric network, the transmission causing the second electronic device to generate and transmit an update response message; and

receive the update response to the update request message from the second electronic device, the update response comprising the transaction ID.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the update response comprises an update request status configured to report a status of the update request.

3. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the view request message comprises:

the transaction ID configured to identify the requested view; and

the path list configured to indicate a schema path; and

wherein the processing system is configured to send a view response message based on the view request message, wherein the view response message comprises;

the transaction ID transmitted in the view request through the fabric network; and

a view request status configured to indicate a status of the view request.

4. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the update request comprises a periodic update having a snapshot view and an update period.

5. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein the periodic update request comprises:

a path list length indicating a length;

a path list field corresponding to the length and configured to indicate a schema path; and

an update period comprising a value that corresponds to a time lapse between update requests specified in a unit of time.

6. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein the processing system is configured to send a cancel request to cancel the periodic update, wherein the cancel request comprises the transaction ID to allow the second electronic device to recognize the cancel request.

7. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the update request comprises:

an update item list comprising a plurality of data items having updated values, wherein each data item of the plurality of data items comprises a format, wherein the format comprises;

an item index field indicating a view under which the update request is being requested and an index in the path list of that view;

an item timestamp field indicating an elapsed time from a change in a setting on the second electronic device; and

a data item field of variable length that is encoded in a tag-length-value format.

8. The electronic device of claim 7, wherein the item timestamp field indicates a time of a most recent change in the setting or an earliest change in the setting when the change in the setting is of a plurality of changes to the setting.

10. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the path list comprises a tag, a length, and a value, wherein the path list comprises a profile binary format, and wherein the profile binary format comprises a profile identifier field configured to identify a profile schema of the schema path.

9. The electronic device of 1, wherein the data item field indicates whether the update request was successful.

11. A tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored instructions thereon, the instructions configured to:

receive, by a first electronic device, a view request message from a second electronic device through a fabric network, the view request message indicating a schema path related to data indicative of an environmental condition that is generated by a sensor included in the first electronic device;

generate an update request that encodes the data generated by the sensor, the update request comprising;

a transaction ID configured to identify the requested update; and

a path list configured to indicate the schema path;

transmit the update request to the second electronic device via the fabric network;

receive an update response to the update response message from the second electronic device, wherein the update response comprises the transaction ID.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions are configured to:

send a view request from the second electronic device to a third electronic device requesting a view into a schema of the third electronic device; and

establish the view on the second electronic device on behalf of the third electronic device prior to the update request.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions are configured to send the update request in a first format when the update request is an explicit update request and send the update in a second format when the update request is a periodic update request.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the update response comprises an update request status field configured to indicate a status of the update request.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, the update request status field indicates whether the update was successfully completed, ill-formed, invalid, lacking permission, out of memory, successful and desiring additional action, or any combination thereof as the status of the update request.

16. A method of communicating in a fabric network, the method comprising:

receiving, at a first electronic device, a view request message from a second electronic device through the fabric network, the view request message indicating a schema path related to data indicative of an environmental condition that is generated by a sensor included in the first electronic device;

generating, via a processing system, an update request encoding the data generated the sensor, the update request comprising;

a transaction ID configured to identify the requested update; and

a path list configured to indicate the schema path;

transmitting the update request to the second electronic device via the fabric network;

receiving, via the processing system, an update response to the update request message from the second electronic device, wherein the update response comprises the transaction ID.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the path list comprises a tag, a length, and a value.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the path list comprises a profile binary format, wherein the profile binary format comprises a profile identifier field configured to identify a profile schema of the schema path.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the transaction ID comprises two bytes.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the update request comprises a periodic update having an update period that is four bytes in length.