DISCOVERY PROTOCOL

• US 20100054138A1
• Filed: 09/03/2009
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SNIF Labs Incorporated
• Original Assignee: SNIF Labs Incorporated
• Inventors: Laibowitz, Mathew, Aylward, Ryan, Gips, Jonathan
• Granted Patent: US 8,780,945 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/248
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• 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 52/0229 where the received signal is a wanted signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method and device may comprise transmitting, via a transmitter, a plurality of transmit pings at a transmit interval. A receiver may listen, for a live ping and the receiver may be configured to be turned on at a beginning of the assess interval, and off at an end of the detect duration. The receiver may further receive the live ping. After receiving the live ping, transmission of a new ping may be delayed for a delay duration. The new pings may be transmitted at the transmit interval.

Claims

1. ) A method comprising:

transmitting, via a transmitter, a plurality of transmit pings at a transmit interval, the transmit interval corresponding to a time between transmission of each transmit ping;

listening, via a receiver, for a live ping, the receiver configured to be turned on at a beginning of an assess interval, and off at an end of a detect duration, the assess interval corresponding to a time each packet in the live ping is spaced apart multiplied by an amount of packets in the live ping, the detect duration corresponding to the time each packet in the live ping is spaced apart plus a transmit time, the transmit time corresponding to a time required for a packet to travel from one device to another;

receiving, via the receiver, at least one packet from the live ping;

delaying, after receiving the live ping, transmission of a new ping for a delay duration, the delay duration corresponding to an amount of time determined, at least in part, by a counter value of a packet of the live ping; and

transmitting, via the transmitter, new pings at the transmit interval.

2. ) The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the transmit ping, the live ping, and the new ping comprises a plurality of packets, each transmitted at a burst interval, the burst interval corresponding to a time each packet in the plurality of packets is spaced apart.

3. ) The method of claim 2 wherein at least one packet of the plurality of packets is received in the transmit time.

4. ) The method of claim 3 wherein the transmit time is less than one burst interval.

5. ) The method of claim 4 wherein the detect duration corresponds to the transmit time plus one burst interval.

6. ) The method of claim 2 wherein each packet comprises at least one of a device identifier, status information, and a counter value.

7. ) The method of claim 1 wherein the transmit interval is between about 3 seconds and about 12 seconds.

8. ) The method of claim 2 wherein the burst interval is between about 1 millisecond and about 2 milliseconds.

9. ) The method of claim 2 wherein at least one of the transmit ping, the live ping, and the new ping comprises between about 96 packets and about 320 packets.

10. ) The method of claim 2 wherein the packets are RF packets.

11. ) The method of claim 1 further comprising

delaying, after receiving the live ping, transmission of a new ping for an additional backoff duration, the backoff duration corresponding to an amount of time configured to prevent pings from colliding.

12. ) A method comprising:

transmitting, via a transmitter, a plurality of transmit pings at a transmit interval, the transmit interval corresponding to a time between transmission of each transmit ping, each transmit ping including a number of packets;

listening, via a receiver, for a live ping, each live ping including a number of packets, the receiver configured to be turned on at a beginning of an assess interval, and off at an end of a detect duration, the assess interval corresponding to a time each packet in the live ping is spaced apart multiplied by an amount of packets in the live ping, the detect duration corresponding to the time each packet in the live ping is spaced apart plus a transmit time, the transmit time corresponding a time required for a packet to travel from one device to another;

receiving, via the receiver, at least one packet of the live ping;

delaying, after receiving the live ping, transmission of a new ping for a delay duration plus a backoff duration, the delay duration corresponding to an amount of time determined, at least in part, by a counter value of the received packet of the live ping, the counter value designating which packet in the live ping was received by the receiver, the backoff duration corresponding to an amount of time configured to prevent pings from colliding; and

transmitting, via the transmitter, the new ping at the transmit interval, the new ping including a plurality of packets.

13. ) The method of claim 12 wherein the assess interval is B*M, wherein B corresponds to the time each packet in the live ping is spaced apart, and M corresponds to the amount of packets in the live ping.

14. ) The method of claim 12 wherein the detect duration is B+P, wherein P corresponds to the amount of time each packet of the live ping is in transmission.

15. ) The method of claim 12 wherein the backoff duration is configured to prevent pings from colliding for up to N/(B*M) devices, wherein N corresponds to the transmit interval, the transmit interval corresponding to a time between transmission of each ping.

16. ) The method of claim 12 further comprising duty cycling the receiver based upon, at least in part, the assess interval.

17. ) The method of claim 12 further comprising duty cycling the receiver based upon, at least in part, the detect duration.

18. ) A method comprising:

transmitting, via a transmitter, a plurality of transmit pings at a transmit interval, the transmit interval corresponding to a time between transmission of each transmit ping, each transmit ping including a number of packets;

listening, via a receiver, for a live ping;

receiving, via the receiver, at least one packet of the live ping;

delaying, after receiving the live ping, transmission of a new ping for a delay duration, the delay duration corresponding to an amount of time determined, at least in part, by a counter value of a packet of the live ping; and

transmitting, via the transmitter, the new ping at the transmit interval, the new ping including a plurality of packets.

19. ) A method of claim 18 wherein a monitoring device having the transmitter is in communication with a remote device having a second receiver, without network synchronization.

20. ) The method of claim 19 further comprising duty cycling the receiver.

21. ) A device comprising:

a transmitter configured to transmit a plurality of transmit pings at a transmit interval, the transmit interval corresponding to a time between transmission of each transmit ping, each transmit ping including a number of packets;

a receiver configured to listen for a live ping and to receive at least one packet of the live ping; and

the transmitter further configured to delay transmission of a new ping for a delay duration, the delay duration corresponding to an amount of time determined, at least in part, by a counter value of the at least one packet of the live ping, and to transmit a new ping at the transmit interval.

22. ) A method comprising:

listening, via a receiver, for a live ping;

receiving, via the receiver, at least one packet of the live ping; and

duty cycling the receiver based upon, at least in part, information in at least one packet of the live ping.