Method and apparatus for monitoring and processing sensor data in an interfacing-device network

• US 9,063,873 B2
• Filed: 10/21/2014
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ubiquiti Inc.
• Original Assignee: Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. (Ubiquiti Inc.)
• Inventors: Frei, Randall W., Cheng, Linker, Pera, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Zarni
• Application Number:
  US14/520,231
• Publication Number:
  US 20150046534A1
• Time in Patent Office: 245 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709206-207, 709223-229, 709/250
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/10 Program control for peripheral devices G06F13/14 - G06F13/42 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/01 characterised by the transmission medium
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• 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 12/281 indicating a format for calling an appliance service function in a home automation network for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• 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 41/024 using relational databases for representation of network management data, e.g. managing via structured query language [SQL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/256 NAT traversal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2575 using address mapping retrieval, e.g. simple traversal of user datagram protocol through session traversal utilities for NAT [STUN]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5061 Pools of addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• 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 67/141 : Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 : Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 : Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 : Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/10 : Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

An interfacing device is configured to process one or more rules, based on sensor data, to perform a predetermined action. During operation, the device can establish a network connection with a device controller, and receives a device configuration that includes a rule for the interfacing device. The rule can include an action description for performing an action, and can include a condition that takes sensor data as input and indicates criteria for performing the action. The device can store the rule in a rule repository, and determines data generated by processing the rule'"'"'s action description. When the device receives a data-subscription request for the data generated by processing the rule'"'"'s action description, the device determines a remote interfacing device which issued the data-subscription request, and stores the data-subscription request, for the data generated by the rule'"'"'s action description, in association with the remote interfacing device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by an interfacing device, a device configuration that includes a rule for the interfacing device, wherein the rule includes an action description for performing an action that produces one or more output data values, and includes a condition that indicates criteria for performing the action;

storing the rule in a rule repository;

receiving a data-subscription request for an output data value from the rule;

determining, from the data-subscription request, a remote interfacing device which is to receive the output data value; and

storing the data-subscription request, for the rule'"'"'s output data value, in association with the remote interfacing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the data-subscription request involves:

establishing a network connection with the remote interfacing device; and

receiving the data-subscription request from the remote interfacing device via the established connection.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein establishing the network connection involves establishing a peer-to-peer network connection with the remote interfacing device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein establishing the network connection involves:

determining that the remote interfacing device is not reachable via a peer-to-peer communication channel; and

establishing the network connection via a data-forwarding service.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a network connection with a device controller; and

receiving the data-subscription request from the device controller, via the established network connection with the device controller.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the network connection is established with the device controller using one or more of:

a WebSocket protocol;

a communication channel via the Session-Traversal Utilities for Network-address-translation (STUN) protocol; and

a Comet protocol.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining sensor data;

selecting a rule to process based on the sensor data;

determining that the rule'"'"'s condition is satisfied; and

processing the rule'"'"'s action description to perform the action, which produces the one or more output data values.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein obtaining the sensor data involves obtaining sensor data from at least one of:

a local physical device that measures one or more physical attributes;

a remote interfacing device; and

a device controller which monitors and/or configures one or more interfacing devices.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein selecting the rule to process involves:

selecting a set of rules whose condition takes the obtained data as input;

determining a user-specified ordering for the set of rules, wherein the user-specified ordering indicates an order in which the rules are to be processed; and

selecting a rule, from the set of rules, based on the user-specified ordering.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the method further comprises:

determining that the output data value satisfies a data-subscription request from a remote interfacing device; and

communicating the output data value to the remote interfacing device.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the action includes one or more of:

sending an email message to a predetermined recipient;

sending a short message service (SMS) message to a predetermined recipient;

generating a system alert;

generating an event for an event log;

computing an output data value based in part on the obtained sensor data;

sending a predetermined signal pattern over a serial port; and

processing a predetermined script to configure a peripheral device via a serial port.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the rule includes a compound rule that is associated with multiple data sources, and wherein the compound rule includes a condition formed using one or more logical operators to process output data from one or more of:

a local physical device;

a condition from a previously processed rule;

an action description from a previously processed rule;

a remote interfacing device; and

a command from a device controller which monitors and/or configures one or more interfacing devices.

13. An apparatus, comprising:

a communication module to receive a device configuration that includes a rule for a local interfacing device, wherein the rule includes an action description for performing an action that produces one or more output data values, and includes a condition that indicates criteria for performing the action;

a rule-processing module to store the rule in a rule repository;

wherein the communication module is further configured to receive a data-subscription request for an output data value from the rule; and

wherein the apparatus further comprises a data-subscription module to;

determine, from the data-subscription request, a remote interfacing device which is to receive the output data value; and

store the data-subscription request, for the rule'"'"'s output data value, in association with the remote interfacing device.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein while receiving the data-subscription request, the communication module is further configured to:

establish a network connection with the remote interfacing device; and

receive the data-subscription request from the remote interfacing device via the established connection.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein while establishing the network connection, the communication module is further configured to establish a peer-to-peer network connection with the remote interfacing device.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein while establishing the network connection, the communication module is further configured to:

determine that the remote interfacing device is not reachable via a peer-to-peer communication channel; and

establish the network connection via a data-forwarding service.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a rule-processing module to:

obtain sensor data;

select a rule to process based on the sensor data;

determine that the rule'"'"'s condition is satisfied; and

process the rule'"'"'s action description to perform the action, which produces the one or more output data values.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein while selecting the rule to process, the rule-processing module is further configured to:

select a set of rules whose condition takes the obtained data as input;

determine a user-specified ordering for the set of rules, wherein the user-specified ordering indicates an order in which the rules are to be processed; and

select a rule, from the set of rules, based on the user-specified ordering.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein while obtaining the sensor data, the rule-processing module is further configured to:

determine that the output data value satisfies a data-subscription request from a remote interfacing device; and

configure the communication module to communicate the output data value to the remote interfacing device.

20. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a rule-processing device, a device configuration that includes a rule for the rule-processing device, wherein the rule includes an action description for performing an action that produces one or more output data values, and includes a condition that indicates criteria for performing the action;

storing the rule in a rule repository;

receiving a data-subscription request for an output data value from the rule;

determining, from the data-subscription request, a data recipient for the output data value; and

storing the data-subscription request.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein storing the data-subscription request for the rule'"'"'s output data value involves storing the data-subscription request in association with the data recipient for the output data value.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the data recipient includes one or more of:

a rule-processing device;

an interfacing device;

a device controller;

a personal computing device;

a messaging service; and

a messaging client.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

providing a device-configuring user interface to a client; and

receiving, via the device-configuring user interface, the device configuration that includes the rule for the rule-processing device.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the device-configuring user interface includes a Web page, and wherein the client includes a Web browser.

25. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

establishing a network connection with a device controller; and

receiving the data-subscription request from the device controller, via the established network connection with the device controller.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the device controller includes one or more of:

a server on a local area network;

one or more server computers in a remote computer network;

an application running on a personal computing device; and

an application running on a smartphone.

27. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

responsive to obtaining input data which is associated with the rule, determining whether the rule'"'"'s condition is satisfied; and

responsive to determining that the rule'"'"'s condition is satisfied, processing the rule'"'"'s action description to perform the action, which generates the one or more output data values.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the input data includes sensor data obtained from at least one of:

a local physical device that measures one or more physical attributes;

a remote rule-processing device; and

a network controller which monitors and/or configures one or more rule-processing devices.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the method further comprises:

determining that a generated data value satisfies a data-subscription request from the data recipient; and

communicating the generated data value to the data recipient.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein the action includes one or more of:

sending an email message to the data recipient;

sending a short message service (SMS) message to the data recipient;

generating a system alert;

generating an event for an event log;

computing an output data value based in part on the obtained sensor data;

sending a predetermined signal pattern over a serial port; and

processing a predetermined script to configure a peripheral device via a serial port.