Sensor Device, Sensor Network System, and Sensor Device Control Method

• US 20090325486A1
• Filed: 11/13/2007
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ATEC AP Co., Ltd. (ATEC T& Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: LG Innotek Company Limited (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Nam Yun
• Granted Patent: US 8,112,035 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/541 using the level of interference

Abstract

Disclosed are a sensor device and a sensor device control method. The sensor device comprises a reader for requesting a tag information and detecting an interference channel, and a short range wireless communication nodule for sharing a information of the interference channel through short range wireless communication, and reallocating channels to be used for the reader.

Claims

1. A sensor device comprising:

a reader for requesting a tag information and detecting an interference channel; and

a short range wireless communication module for transmitting or receiving a information of the interference channel through short range wireless communication to share the interference channel information.

2. The sensor device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the reader is connected to the short range wireless communication module through a wire interface.

3. The sensor device as claimed in claim 1, the short range wireless communication module comprises at least one among a ZigBee module, a wireless LAN or WiFi, a ultra wide band (UWB) module, a Bluetooth module, a world interoperability for microwave access (WiMax) module, a wireless broadband (WiBro) module, and a dedicated short range communication (DSRC) module.

4. The sensor device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the reader comprises an interference channel detector for detecting intensity of a signal received from a tag to detect the interference channel.

5. The sensor device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the reader comprises:

a radio frequency(RF) processor for making communication with a tag;

an interference channel detector for sensing intensity of a signal received from an antenna to detect the interference channel; and

a reader controller connected to the short range wireless communication module, in which the reader controller delivers the interference channel information to the short range wireless communication module and receives a information of a channel to be used.

6. The sensor device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the short range wireless communication module reallocates a channel except for the interference channel and channels used by other readers.

7. The sensor device as claimed in claim 1, comprising a signal splitter that commonly connects the reader and the short range wireless communication module to an antenna.

8. A sensor device comprising:

a reader for requesting a tag information and detecting an interference channel; and

a short range wireless communication module for sharing a information of the interference channel through short range wireless communication, and reallocating channels to be used for the reader.

9. The sensor device as claimed in claim 8, wherein the reader comprises:

a radio frequency(RF) processor for making communication with a tag;

an interference channel detector for sensing intensity of a signal received from an antenna to detect the interference channel; and

a reader controller connected to the short range wireless communication module, in which the reader controller delivers the interference channel information to the short range wireless communication module and receives the a information of a channel to be used.

10. The sensor device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the interference signal detector comprising:

a signal coupler for coupling the received signal;

a signal transformer for transforming the coupled signal into a signal having an intermediate frequency; and

a filter for detects the interference channel from the signal having the intermediate frequency.

11. The sensor device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the reader controller delivers the tag information and the interference channel information to the short range wireless communication module, and receives a reallocated channel information to control the RF processor.

12. The sensor device as claimed in claim 8, wherein the reader makes communication in an ultra high frequency (UHF) band, and the short range wireless communication module makes communication in a band of 2.45 GHz.

13. The sensor device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the reader controller processes a information related to frequency hopping through a channel coding scheme using a time-frequency hopping spread spectrum (T-FHSS) time synchronization scheme.

14. The sensor device as claimed in claim 8, wherein the short range wireless communication module comprises a ZigBee module, and the ZigBee module operates by using at least one of a reduced function device (RFD) module and a full function device (FFD) module.

15. A sensor network system comprising:

a sensor for making communication with a tag, and transmitting a node information comprising a information of the tag and a interference channel information;

a coordinator module for collecting the node information of the sensor; and

a sever for reallocating a channel of the sensor based on the node information collected from the coordinator module and transmitting a information of the reallocated channel.

16. The sensor network system as claimed in claim 15, wherein the sensor comprises:

a reader for making communication with the tag; and

a short range wireless communication module connected to the reader, in which the short range wireless communication module makes short range wireless communication with other sensors.

17. The sensor network system as claimed in claim 15, comprising a router interposed between the short range wireless communication module and the coordinator module.

18. A sensor device control method comprising the steps of:

detecting an interference channel from a reader of a sensor;

sharing a information of the interference channel with a neighboring sensor if the interference channel is detected; and

reallocating an available channel to the reader except for the interference channel.

19. The sensor device control method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the sharing of the interference channel information is achieved through a short range wireless communication module.

20. The sensor device control method as claimed in claim 18, wherein a information of the reallocated channel are counted in a short range wireless communication module or are received from a server.