Sensor network information collection via mobile gateway

• US 9,936,439 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2016
• Issued: 04/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP PTE Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Li, Zhenhong, Wang, Haifeng, Xia, Jun, Miao, Yi
• Primary Examiner(s): LY, ANH VU H
• Application Number:
  US15/055,572
• Publication Number:
  US 20160212684A1
• Time in Patent Office: 766 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/22 Alternate routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/745 Address table lookup; Address filtering
• 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 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/12 using signalling between network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 for collecting sensor information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/005 Routing actions in the presence of nodes in sleep or doze mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/244 using a network of reference devices, e.g. beaconing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/32 for defining a routing cluster membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/20 Master-slave selection or change arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/08 Access point devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements

Abstract

There is provided a sensor network information collection mechanism in which, after a UE has decided to become part of an information collecting operation for collecting information from a local sensor network, a signaling transmitted from a managing node of a local sensor network is received and processed. A communication network control element is informed about the willingness to become an information collector by sending a report message comprising measurement results derived from the signaling received from the managing node of the local sensor network. When receiving a gateway allocation message indicating that the UE is determined to be a gateway element to the local sensor network, the information collecting operation is started wherein sensor nodes of the local sensor network are woke up, and a traffic flow direction in the local sensor network is set in accordance with the managing node identity to which the UE is accessed.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising;

a memory including processor-readable instructions;

an input/output unit configured for communication within a sensor network; and

a processor configured to execute the processor-readable instructions to;

receive a wakeup message via the input/output unit;

cause an awakening from an idle mode;

receive an identification of a first sensor node in the sensor network that is a first allocated duster head node, the allocated cluster head node being one of a set of at least one cluster head node in the sensor network;

receive an identification of a second sensor node in the sensor network that is a second allocated cluster head node;

determine a selected neighbor node according to the first allocated cluster head node and the second allocated cluster head node; and

route traffic flow to the determined neighbor node.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, the processor further configured to execute the processor-readable instructions to recognize the identification of the first sensor node as an allocation of the apparatus as a cluster head node.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, the processor further configured to execute the processor-readable instructions to transmit a waken message via the input/output unit to the sensor network.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, the processor further configured to execute the processor-readable instructions to transmit the identification of the first and the second cluster head nodes via the input/output unit to the sensor network.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, the processor further configured to execute the processor-readable instructions to receive sensor data information from at least one node in the sensor network via the input/output unit.

6. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the input/output unit is further configured for communication within a communication network, and wherein the processor is further configured to execute the processor-readable instructions to establish communication with a mobile device in the communication network via the input/output unit, and to transmit to the mobile device information related to data received from the sensor network.

7. A sensor node comprising circuitry configured to:

receive via an input/output unit an identification of a first beacon cluster as being in communication with a gateway;

determine via a processor a first predefined neighbor node according to the first identified beacon cluster;

route traffic flow to the first neighbor node via the input/output unit;

receive an identification of a second beacon cluster as being in communication with a second gateway;

determine via the processor a predefined second neighbor node for the sensor node according to the identified first beacon cluster and second beacon cluster; and

route the traffic flow to the second neighbor node via the input/output unit.

8. The sensor node of claim 7, the circuitry further configured to provide the identifications of the first and the second beacon clusters to other nodes in a sensor network via the input/output unit.

9. The sensor node of claim 7, wherein the identifications of the first and the second beacon clusters are part of an identification of a plurality of beacon clusters, and the predefined first and second neighbor nodes are determined from a lookup table according to the identified plurality of beacon clusters.

10. The sensor node of claim 7, wherein the sensor node is allocated as a cluster head node by the identification of the first beacon cluster.

11. The sensor node of claim 7, subsequent to receiving the identification of the second beacon cluster, the circuitry is further configured to provide a wakeup message to other nodes of a sensor network, the other nodes including the first and the second neighbor nodes.

12. The sensor node of claim 7, wherein the first neighbor node is not the second neighbor node.

13. The sensor node of claim 7, the circuitry further configured to adjust traffic flow according to a change of gateway by determining the second predefined neighbor node from a lookup table.

14. The sensor node of claim 7, the circuitry further configured to provide sensor data to the first and the second neighbor nodes.

15. A method, comprising:

receiving at a sensor node first beacon cluster information identifying a first beacon cluster in communication with a first gateway;

determining from the first beacon cluster information a first neighbor node of predefined neighbor nodes assigned according to groupings of the at least one beacon cluster;

routing traffic flow to the first neighbor node;

receiving at the sensor node a second beacon cluster information identifying a second beacon cluster in communication with a second gateway; and

determining a second predefined neighbor node according to the first beacon cluster information and the second beacon cluster information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein each of the beacon cluster information includes an allocation of a cluster head node.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising ending the routing of traffic flow to the first neighbor node and routing the traffic flow to the second neighbor node.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising adjusting traffic flow according to a change of gateway by determining a next predefined neighbor node from a lookup table.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising providing sensor data to the first neighbor node and the second neighbor node.