Node processing device and its processing method

• US 8,635,263 B2
• Filed: 04/29/2011
• Issued: 01/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Shikano, Hiroaki, Ogata, Yuji
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, HITESHKUMAR R
• Application Number:
  US13/097,106
• Publication Number:
  US 20110289133A1
• Time in Patent Office: 998 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/220, 709/224, 709/229, 370/328
• US Class Current: 709/202
• 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

Abstract

When the multiple sensors monitored by a sensor management unit, input sensor information into the entrance node, a sensor type identifier unit utilizes a buffer management table to buffer the data according to the sensor type. A start decision unit utilizes a processing start setting table containing accumulated start conditions for each application to execute the computation processing required by the processor units for processing the buffered sensor data according to the required application. A transmit condition decision unit decides whether or not to transmit the computation results to an external device or a CPU, and based on those decision results, transmits the computation results to the CPU or the upstream intelligent node.

Claims

1. A node processing device to send data corresponding to a plurality of applications over a network, comprising:

a processor; and

at least one memory area storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, instruct the processor to execute;

a sensor type identifier unit to receive sensor data from a plurality of sensors and identify different sensor types of the sensors;

a buffering unit to accumulate the sensor data into the sensor types based on identification results from the sensor type identifier unit;

a computation unit to perform computation processing for the sensor data of each respective sensor type accumulated in the buffering unit, according to processing start conditions corresponding to a respective one of the applications, where the computation unit includes a plurality of processor units; and

a transmit condition decision unit to decide transmission conditions for computation results from the computation unit based on the computation results,

wherein the at least one memory area stores a processing routing table containing accumulated start sequences for the processor units corresponding to a computation type of the sensor data, and a transmit condition comparator table containing accumulated decision computations to decide whether or not the computation results satisfy transmission conditions,

wherein a start decision unit sequentially starts the processor units corresponding to the computation type, based on the processing routing table, and changes the sequential starting and computation type of the processor units according to the computation results, and

wherein the transmit condition decision unit decides to transmit the computation results from the computation unit based on the transmit condition comparator table.

2. The node processing device according to claim 1, wherein:

the computation types are specified for the sensor data in each of the applications;

a processing start setting table to accumulate computation types for the sensor data for each of the applications and start conditions to execute the applicable computation type; and

a start decision unit to decide to start computation for each type of the sensor data accumulated in the buffering unit based on the processing start setting table.

3. The node processing device according to claim 1, wherein

wherein the start decision unit changes the sequential starting and computation type of the processor units according to the computation results of respective sensor types.

4. The node processing device according to claim 1,

wherein operation of the computation unit is stopped, and the processing routing table and transmit condition comparator table are rewritten based on accumulated information, when the accumulated information is received from a management node over a network.

5. The node processing device according to claim 1,

wherein the receiving of sensor data from the sensors and computing in the computation unit are stopped, and reconfiguring thereof is performed based on configuration data, when the configuration data for the processor units in the computation unit is received from a management node over the network.

6. The node processing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a transmit condition table to accumulate the transmit conditions including at least one transmitted data type and at least one transmission destination for the computation results, based on the computation results in the computation unit, and

wherein the transmit condition decision unit controls the transmission of computation results corresponding to the transmit data type to the transmission destination based on the transmit condition table.

7. The node processing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a sensor management table to acquire the different sensor types, acquire the sensor data and accumulate a transmission rate thereof, and

a sensor management unit to manage the sensors based on the sensor management table.

8. A node system including a management node device coupled to an entrance node device that transmits data corresponding to a plurality of applications over a network, the node system comprising:

the entrance node device having;

a processor; and

at least one first memory area having instructions that, when executed by the processor, instruct the processor to execute;

a sensor type identifier unit to receive sensor data from a plurality of sensors and identify different sensor types of the sensors;

a buffering unit to accumulate the sensor data into the sensor types based on identification results from the sensor type identifier unit;

a computation unit to perform computation processing for the sensor data of each respective sensor type accumulated in the buffering unit, according to processing start conditions corresponding to a respective one of the applications, where the computation unit includes a plurality of processor units;

a transmit condition decision unit to decide transmission conditions for computation results from the computation unit based on the computation results; and

the at least one first memory area to store a processing routing table containing accumulated start sequences for the processor units corresponding to a computation type of the sensor data, and a transmit condition comparator table containing accumulated decision computations to decide whether or not the computation results satisfy transmission conditions,

wherein a start decision unit sequentially starts the processor units corresponding to the computation type, based on the processing routing table, and changes the sequential starting and computation type of the processor units according to the computation results, and

wherein the transmit condition decision unit decides to transmit the computation results from the computation unit based on the transmit condition comparator table; and

the management node device having;

a management node processor; and

at least one second memory area storing computation unit configuration data of the entrance node device and storing instructions that, when executed by the management node processor, instruct the management node processor to execute processing which;

receives the sensor data from the entrance node device, executes computation processing of the sensor data according to the processing start conditions corresponding to the respective one of the applications, and rewrites the computation unit configuration data according to the computation processing, and

distributes computation unit configuration data to the entrance node device,

wherein the entrance node device performs the computation processing for the sensor data of each respective sensor type accumulated in the buffering unit according to the computation unit configuration data distributed by the management node.

9. The management node device according to claim 8,

wherein the management node processor instructs to distribute computation unit configuration data to the entrance node device to reconfigure a processing start setting table thereof.

10. An information processing method for a node processing device that receives sensor data from a plurality of sensors coupled to an upstream node over a network, the method comprising:

receiving sensor data from the sensors and identifying different sensor types of the sensors;

accumulating the sensor data into the sensor types based on the identified different sensor types;

sequentially starting a plurality of processor units of the node processing device by referring to a processing routing table containing accumulated start sequences according to a computation type of the sensor data;

executing computation processing with the processor units for the sensor data of each respective sensor type according to processing start conditions required for each of a plurality of applications;

deciding transmission conditions for computation results from the computation processing executed by the processor units based on the computation results;

deciding whether the computation results satisfy transmission conditions by referring to a transmit condition comparator table containing accumulated decision computations; and

transmitting the computation results according to the decided transmission conditions,

wherein the sequential starting of the processor units and computation type are changed according to the computation results,

wherein the processing routing table contains the accumulated start sequences for the processor units corresponding to the computation type of the sensor data, and the transmit condition comparator table contains the accumulated decision computations to decide whether or not the computation results satisfy transmission conditions.

11. The information processing method according to claim 10, further comprising:

starting the computation processing for each respective sensor type of the sensor data based on a processing start setting table containing accumulated computation types for the sensor data for each of the applications and start conditions for executing the applicable computation type.

12. The information processing method according to claim 11, further comprising:

stopping the computation processing of the processor units, and rewriting the processing start setting table based on distributed information received from the upstream node device over the network.

13. The information processing method according to claim 10, further comprising;

stopping the computation processing of the processor units, and performing reconfiguration based on configuration data received from the upstream node device over the network.

14. The information processing method according to claim 10, further comprising;

controlling transmission so that a transmitted data type and a transmit destination of the computation results are sent from the node processing device to an external location, based on the computation results from the computation processing of the processor units.