REMOTE INFORMATION COLLECTING DEVICE AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM

• US 20120254350A1
• Filed: 12/23/2011
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Kaneko, Yu, Matsuzawa, Shigeo, Ito, Toshio
• Granted Patent: US 9,172,755 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2809 indicating that an appliance service is present in a home automation network monitoring functionality H04L43/0817; discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services, H04L67/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2825 Reporting to a device located outside the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with telemetering systems H04M11/002
• 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: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests

Abstract

A building-facility information storage stores data sizes of process data to be collected from building-side communicating devices. A schedule generating unit generates a collection schedule of the process data from the building-side communicating devices so that, in a collection period including a plurality of unit periods continuous in terms of time, a first communication load representing a total data volume received from the building-side communicating devices per unit period and second communication loads each representing a data volume transmitted from each of the building-side communicating devices per unit period are balanced among the unit periods. A network communicating unit collects the process data from the building-side communicating devices in accordance with the collection schedule.

Claims

1. A remote information collecting device which sequentially collects one or more process data from each of a plurality of building-side communicating devices, comprising:

a building-facility information storage configured to store data sizes of the process data to be collected from the building-side communicating devices;

a schedule generating unit configured to generate a collection schedule of the process data from the building-side communicating devices so that, in a collection period including a plurality of unit periods continuous in terms of time, a first communication load representing a total data volume received from the building-side communicating devices per unit period and second communication loads each representing a data volume transmitted from each of the building-side communicating devices per unit period are balanced among the unit periods; and

a network communicating unit configured to collect the process data from the building-side communicating devices in accordance with the collection schedule.

2. The device according to claim 1, further comprising

a time determiner;

wherein

the building-facility-information storage stores information to specify response time required from when an acquisition request of each of the process data is transmitted to one of the building-side communicating devices corresponding to each of the process data until each of the process data is received;

the time determiner determines transmitting time of the acquisition request of each of the process data in accordance with the information and the collection schedule; and

the network communicating unit transmits the acquisition request of each of the process data at the time determined by the time determiner and receives each of the process data from one of the building-side communicating devices corresponding to each of the process data.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein

the schedule generating unit generates the collection schedule so that the first communication load is equal to or lower than a first permissible communication load and that the second communication loads are equal to or lower than second permissible communication loads.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein

the schedule generating unit generates the collection schedule so that a weighted total of a maximum value of the first communication load and maximum values of the second communication loads is minimized or equal to or lower than a threshold value.

5. The device according to claim 3, wherein

the schedule generating unit generates the collection schedule so that a weighted total of

a minimum value of a difference between the first permissible communication load and the first communication load and

minimum values of differences between the second permissible communication loads and the second communication loads

is maximized or equal to or higher than a threshold value.

6. The device according to claim 1, wherein

the building-facility-information storage contains information of acquisition cycles of respective process data;

the collection period is a common multiple of the acquisition cycles of the respective process data; and

the collection schedule is executed in each of collection periods.

7. The device according to claim 1, wherein

the building-facility-information storage contains a restriction of acquisition time among the process data;

and

the schedule generating unit generates the collection schedule so as to satisfy the restriction.

8. The device according to claim 1, wherein

each one of the process data is collected within any one of unit periods.

9. A remote information collecting device which sequentially collect one or more process data from each of a plurality of building-side communicating devices, comprising:

a schedule generating unit configured to generate a collection schedule of the process data from the building-side communicating devices so that, in a collection period including a plurality of unit periods continuous in terms of time, a third communication load representing a total number of the process data received from the building-side communicating devices per unit period and fourth communication loads each representing a number of the process data transmitted from each of the building-side communicating devices per unit period are balanced among the unit periods; and

a network communicating unit configured to collect the process data from the building-side communicating devices in accordance with the collection schedule.

10. The device according to claim 9, further comprising

a time determiner;

wherein

the building-facility-information storage stores information to specify response time required from when an acquisition request of each of the process data is transmitted to one of the building-side communicating devices corresponding to each of the process data until each of the process data is received;

the time determiner determines transmitting time of the acquisition request of each of the process data in accordance with the information and the collection schedule; and

the network communicating unit transmits the acquisition request of each of the process data at the time determined by the time determiner and receives each of the process data from one of the building-side communicating devices corresponding to each of the process data.

11. The device according to claim 9, wherein

the schedule generating unit generates the collection schedule so that the third communication load is equal to or lower than a third permissible communication load and that the fourth communication loads are equal to or lower than fourth permissible communication loads.

12. The device according to claim 9, wherein

the schedule generating unit generates the collection schedule so that a weighted total of a maximum value of the third communication load and maximum values of the fourth communication loads is minimized or equal to or lower than a threshold value.

13. The device according to claim 11, wherein

the schedule generating unit generates the collection schedule so that a weighted total of

a minimum value of a difference between the third permissible communication load and the third communication load and

minimum values of differences between the fourth permissible communication loads and the fourth communication loads

is maximized or equal to or higher than a threshold value.

14. The device according to claim 9, wherein

the building-facility-information storage contains information of acquisition cycles of respective process data;

the collection period is a common multiple of the acquisition cycles of the respective process data; and

the collection schedule is executed in each of collection periods.

15. The device according to claim 9, wherein

the building-facility-information storage contains a restriction of acquisition time among the process data;

and

the schedule generating unit generates the collection schedule so as to satisfy the restriction.

16. The device according to claim 9, wherein

each one of the process data is collected within any one of unit periods.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program which, when executed by a computer to sequentially collect one or more process data from each of a plurality of building-side communicating devices, causes the computer to perform steps comprising:

accessing a building-facility information storage configured to store data sizes of the process data to be collected from the building-side communicating devices;

generating a collection schedule of the process data from the building-side communicating devices so that, in a collection period including a plurality of unit periods continuous in terms of time, a first communication load representing a total data volume received from the building-side communicating devices per unit period and second communication loads each representing a data volume transmitted from each of the building-side communicating devices per unit period are balanced among the unit periods; and

collecting the process data from the building-side communicating devices in accordance with the collection schedule.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program which, when executed by a computer to sequentially collect one or more process data from each of a plurality of building-side communicating devices, causes the computer to perform steps comprising:

generating a collection schedule of the process data from the building-side communicating devices so that, in a collection period including a plurality of unit periods continuous in terms of time, a third communication load representing a total number of the process data received from the building-side communicating devices per unit period and fourth communication loads each representing a number of the process data transmitted from each of the building-side communicating devices per unit period are balanced among the unit periods; and

collecting the process data from the building-side communicating devices in accordance with the collection schedule.