DATA COMMUNICATION USING A PRIVATE PREAMBLE

• US 20160373940A1
• Filed: 06/17/2015
• Published: 12/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mueller International LLC (Mueller Water Products Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Mueller International LLC (Mueller Water Products Incorporated)
• Inventors: Ali, Hassan, Splitz, David Edwin, Magley, Dale McLeod, Dukes, Brent, Grady, Robert Henry, Parish, Edward C.
• Granted Patent: US 10,051,346 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/40 using a wireless architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/50 using a mobile data collecting device, e.g. walk by or drive by
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/60 for transmitting utility meters data, i.e. transmission of data from the reader of the utility meter
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

Examples of data communication using a private preamble are disclosed. In one example implementation according to aspects of the present disclosure, a data stream is detected. It is then determined whether the received data stream includes a private preamble known to the computing node. If it is determined that the data stream includes a private preamble known to the computing node, a targeted data stream intended for the computing node is received by the computing node.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting, by a computing node, a data stream;

determining, by the computing node, whether the received data stream includes a private preamble known to the computing node; and

if it is determined that the data stream includes a private preamble known to the computing node, receiving, by the computing node, a targeted data stream intended for the computing node.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the private preamble comprises a string of symbols unique to a network to which the computing node is communicatively connected.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the private preamble is one of a first private preamble and a second private preamble, the first private preamble designating an upstream communication and the second private preamble designating a downstream communication.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the private preamble is one of a first private preamble and a second private preamble, the first private preamble designating a private network to which the computing node is communicatively connected and the second private preamble designating a public network to which the computing node is communicatively connected.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if it is determined that the data stream does not include a private preamble known to the computing node, detecting, by the computing node, additional data streams; and

determining, by the computing node, whether any of the additional data streams include the private preamble known to the computing device.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

if it is determined that one of the additional data streams includes a private preamble known to the computing node, receiving, by the computing node, the targeted data stream intended for the computing node.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing node is selected from the group consisting of a water meter, a gas meter, and an electricity meter.

8. A method, comprising

detecting, by a computing node, an incoming hailing data packet;

determining, by the computing node, whether the incoming hailing data packet includes a known private preamble;

if it is determined that the hailing data packet includes the known private preamble, receiving, by the computing node, the hailing data packet during a hailing listening period on a set of a plurality of non-frequency hopping spread spectrum (non-FHSS) channels; and

receiving, by the computing node, a targeted data stream intended for the computing node.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein detecting occurs approximately every 3 seconds.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the detecting occurs approximately every 750 milliseconds.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of non-FHSS channels comprises 16 non-FHSS channels.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

if it is determined that the hailing data packet does not include the known private preamble, discarding, by the computing node, the hailing data packet and continuing to detect, by the computing node, an additional incoming hailing data packet.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving, by the computing node, the targeted data stream intended for the computing node comprises receiving the targeted data stream on one of a plurality of frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) channels.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of FHSS channels comprises 50 FHSS channels.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the private preamble comprises a string of symbols unique to a network to which the computing node is communicatively connected.

16. A computing system, comprising:

a sending node; and

a receiving node,

wherein the sending node further comprises

a hailing module configured to hail a receiving node by transmitting a hailing data packet over at least one of a set of a plurality of non-frequency hopping spread spectrum (non-FHSS) channels, the hailing data packet including a private preamble, and

a data transmission module configured to transmit data to the receiving node after receiving a hailing acknowledgement from the receiving node, and

wherein the receiving node further comprises

a channel activity detector module configured to detect the private preamble on at least one of the set of the plurality of non-FHSS channels, to determine that the private preamble is a known private preamble, and to receive a hailing data packet during a hailing listening period on the set of the plurality of non-FHSS channels when it is determined that the private preamble is a known private preamble,

an acknowledgement module configured to transmit a hailing acknowledgement to the sending node after detecting the private preamble and receiving the hailing data packet, and

a data receiving module configured to receive the data transmitted by the sending node.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the private preamble comprises a string of symbols unique to a network to which the sending node and the receiving node are communicatively connected.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the hailing data packet further comprises a node ID of the receiving node, a node ID of the sending node, a current time, and a start channel ID.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the data receiving module is further configured to receive the data transmitted by the sending node on one of a plurality of frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) channels beginning with the channel identified by the start channel ID.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the non-FHSS channels are 125 kHz wide channels and wherein the FHSS channels are 500 kHz wide channels.