Self-organizing hierarchical wireless network for surveillance and control

• US 20030151513A1
• Filed: 11/21/2002
• Published: 08/14/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Karlsson, Johannes, Israelsson, Mikael, Herrmann, Falk, Hill, Jason, Hensel, Andreas, Manjeshwar, Arati
• Application Number:
  US10/301,394
• Publication Number:
  US 20030151513A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/003 Address allocation methods and details
• 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: 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 40/246 Connectivity information discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A wireless network is described including a cluster network and a sensor/actuator network arranged in a hierarchical manner with the cluster head network. The cluster head network includes at least one cluster head and the sensor/actuator network includes a plurality of sensor/actuator nodes arranged in a plurality of node levels.

Claims

1. A wireless network, comprising:

a cluster head network having at least one cluster head; and

a sensor/actuator network arranged in a hierarchical manner with the cluster head network and having a plurality of sensor/actuator nodes arranged in a plurality of node levels and being self-organizing.

2. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the wireless network does not include a single point of failure.

3. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the wireless network does not include a central base station.

4. The wireless network of claim 1, where the at least one cluster head includes redundant information regarding the wireless network as compared to another cluster head.

5. The wireless network of claim 4, wherein the redundant information is accessible by user at any of the at least one cluster head.

6. The wireless network of claim 5, wherein the wireless network is configured so that the user interacts with at least one of the at least one cluster head and the redundant information.

7. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the at least one cluster head is configured to one of control and supervise the sensor/actuator nodes so that a task is performed by any cluster head.

8. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the wireless network is configurable without at least one of user interaction and detailed planning.

9. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the wireless network is reconfigurable despite at least one of a link failure and a sensor/actuator node failure.

10. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the useful lifetime of the wireless network is optimized.

11. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the wireless network is applied for at least one of security, home automation, climate control, and control and surveillance.

12. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the at least one cluster head includes a base station.

13. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the sensor/actuator nodes includes a sensor element.

14. The wireless network of claim 13, wherein the sensor element includes at least one of a smoke detector, a motion detector, a temperature sensor, and a door/window contact.

15. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the sensor/actuator nodes include an actuator.

16. The wireless network of claim 15, wherein the actuator includes at least one of an alarm sounder and a valve actuator.

17. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the sensor/actuator nodes include a power-line powered node.

18. The wireless network of claim 17, wherein the power-line powered node is configured to serve as a multi-hop point.

19. The wireless network of claim 17, wherein the power-lined powered node includes a backup power supply.

20. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the sensor/actuator nodes include a battery-powered node.

21. The wireless network of claim 20, wherein the battery-powered node includes at least one of a solar cell and an electro-ceramic generator.

22. The wireless network of claim 20, wherein the battery-powered node is configured to serve as a multi-hop point.

23. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the sensor/actuator nodes include a battery-powered node with limited capabilities.

24. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the cluster head includes a first radio module to communicate with the sensor/actuator nodes and a second radio module to communicate with other cluster heads.

25. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the at least one cluster head includes a single radio module to communicate with the sensor/actuator nodes and with other cluster heads.

26. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the at least one cluster head includes one of a standard wire-based or a standard wireless transceiver.

27. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the at least one cluster head includes at least one of an Ethernet and a Bluetooth transceiver.

28. The wireless network of claim 1, further comprising:

a panel connected to the cluster head network.

29. The wireless network of claim 28, wherein the panel is connected to the cluster head network via at least one of a local area network, a dedicated wire-based link, and a dedicated wireless link.

30. The wireless network of claim 28, wherein the panel includes software to auto-configure the at least one of the cluster head network and the sensor/actuator node network.

31. The wireless network of claim 28, wherein the panel includes a personal computer.

32. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the sensor/actuator nodes are configured to operate in an energy-saving polling mode.

33. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the sensor/actuator nodes are configured to be woken up by a built in timer to scan a channel for a beacon signal.

34. The wireless network of claim 33, wherein the beacon signal is one of a RF tone and a special sequence.

35. The wireless network of claim 1, wherein the at least one cluster head and the sensor/actuator nodes include a unique identifier.

36. A method of wirelessly networking sensor/actuator nodes, comprising:

initializing a cluster head network;

initializing a sensor/actuator node network to form an integrated wireless network, the sensor/actuator nodes forming a plurality of node levels; and

operating the integrated wireless network.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the step of initializing the cluster head network further includes:

providing a cluster head with a list of identifiers of cluster heads of the cluster head network;

discovering links between the cluster heads by exchanging inquiry packets and the list of identifiers;

updating entries of routing tables; and

determining an optimum topology based on at least one of message delay, a number of hops, and connections between the cluster heads.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein the step of initializing the sensor/actuator node network further includes:

transmitting beacon signals and link discovery packets from cluster heads to a first layer of sensor/actuator nodes to wakeup the first layer of sensor/actuator nodes and to gather link information;

successively transmitting the beacon signals and link discovery packets from the lower layer nodes to the higher layer nodes to wakeup the higher layer nodes and to gather the link information; and

transmitting route discovery packets to the sensor/actuator nodes;

transmitting route registration packets to the cluster heads including the link information; and

sharing the link information with all cluster heads of the cluster head network.

39. The method of claim 36, wherein the step of initializing the sensor/actuator node network further includes:

successively transmitting beacon signals and link discovery packets to each of the node levels to wakeup the sensor/actuator nodes and to gather link information;

registering the sensor/actuator nodes by sending the link information to the cluster head network; and

sharing the link information with all cluster heads of the cluster head network.

40. The method of claim 36, wherein the step of operating the integrated wireless network further includes:

continuously sharing link information among the cluster heads of the cluster head network; and

operating the sensor/actuator nodes in an energy-efficient mode.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the step of operating the sensor/actuator node further includes:

waking-up the sensor/actuator nodes for a brief cycle to one of detect beacon signals, perform a self-test, and perform a task.

42. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

reconfiguring the sensor/actuator network in case of one of a link failure and a node failure.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the reconfiguring step further includes:

determining an alternate route according to link information stored at a sensor/actuator node.

44. The method of claim 42, wherein the reconfiguration step further includes:

transmitting a SOS message to a neighbor sensor/actuator node of a lost sensor/actuator node to retrieve link information stored at the neighbor sensor/actuator node regarding the lost sensor/actuator node.

45. The method of claim 42, wherein reconfiguration step further includes:

determining an alternative route according to the link information stored at the cluster head.

46. The method of claim 42, wherein the reconfiguration step further includes:

fragmenting the integrated wireless network into more than one segment.