WO2019032668A1 - Ism band application server radio - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for operating a radio endpoint unit at a first location. Embodiments include storing one or more automation application programs at the first location and storing one or more telemetry processing programs at the first location. Sensor data is received from one or more sensors at the first location. First portions of the sensor data are processed by the one or more automation application programs to generate actuator control data at the first location. The actuator control data is outputted to one or more actuators at the first location. Second portions of the sensor data are processed by the one or more telemetry processing programs to generate sensor telemetry data. The sensor telemetry data is transmitted to a second location that is remote from the first location by radio frequency within the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band.

Description

ISM BAND APPLICATION SERVER RADIO

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application No. 62/544,295, filed August 11, 2017, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The invention relates generally to radios. In particular, the invention relates to radios used in telemetry applications.

BACKGROUND

[0003] Radios are used to provide industrial machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless networking and communications solutions. Radios of these types can support a variety of industrial applications such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCAD A), other Cloud systems used for industrial or commercial applications, wireless I/O and remote monitoring in a wide range of industries including oil and gas, utilities, irrigation and precision agriculture, water and wastewater, robotics and unmanned aerial vehicles. There remains, however, a continuing need for improved radios and methods. In particular there is a need for radios that provide enhanced functionality.

SUMMARY

[0004] An industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band app server radio in accordance with embodiments of the invention includes sensor ports to receive sensor data, actuator ports to output actuator control data, radio memory storing one or more telemetry processing programs and user applications memory storing one or more automation application programs. A transmitter/receiver transmits telemetry data and receives data by radio frequency within the ISM band. A controller is coupled to the transmitter/receiver, sensor ports, actuator ports, radio memory and user applications memory. The controller is configured to process first portions of the sensor data by the one or more automation application programs to generate the actuator control data, and to couple the actuator control data to the actuator ports for output from the radio. The controller is also configured to process second portions of the sensor data by the one or more telemetry processing programs to generate sensor telemetry data, and to couple the telemetry data to the transmitter/receiver for transmission from the radio. [0005] In embodiments, the controller is configured to process the first portions of the sensor data and to generate the actuator control data without user input or intervention. In embodiments the controller is configured to process the first portions of the sensor data and to generate the actuator control data without providing a user display. Embodiments of the radio do not have an alpha/numeric or graphical user interface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of a wireless communication system including application server radio endpoint units (REUs) in accordance with embodiments of the invention.

[0007] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an REU in accordance with embodiments.

[0008] FIG. 3 is diagram illustrating the operation of the REU in a telemetry mode in accordance with embodiments.

[0009] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the REU in an automation mode in accordance with embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0010] FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of an industrial wireless communication system 10 that can include ISM band (industrial, scientific and medical) machine-to-machine (M2M) app (application) server radios in accordance with embodiments of the invention. As shown, system 10 includes a plurality of transceivers or radios such as radio endpoint units (REUs) 12, each of which is connected to one or more actuators 13 and one or more sensors 14 at the location of the REU. In the embodiments illustrated in FIG. 1, actuators 13 and sensors 14 are coupled to the REUs 12 by wired connections. In other embodiments, one or more of actuators 13 and/or sensors 14 can be coupled to REUs 12 by wireless connections. As described in greater detail below, data collected by sensors 14 can be processed by an app of an REU 12 to generate control signals that are coupled to actuators 13 by the REU. By this approach the app-configured REU 12 provides programmable logic control (PLC) functionality in connection with actuators 13 and sensors 14. In addition, data collected by sensors 14 or other information is transmitted by the REUs 12 to one or more remotely-located radios such as radio gateway units (RGUs) 16, which can be connected by conventional communication networks (e.g., wired or wireless networks) to a system 18 such as supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCAD A) that uses the collected data (e.g., for process control or information

management). In the illustrated embodiment, the REUs 12 wirelessly communicate with the RGUs 16 through radios such as radio repeater units (RRUs) 20. Other embodiments, e.g., where the REUs 12 and RGUs 16 are within range of each other, do not include RRUs 20. A plurality of radios such as RRUs 20 can be co-located at a location or site, such as on a common antenna tower. In the illustrated embodiment, for example, each of antenna towers 24 and 26 includes two RRUs 20. Similarly, a plurality of co-located RGUs 16 are shown mounted to antenna tower 28. The sites of antenna towers 24, 26 and 28 are typically remotely located with respect to one another.

[0011] In embodiments, REUs 12, RGUs 16 and RRUs 20 can be configured as time division multiple access (TDMA) radios that operate at one or more of a wide range of carrier frequencies such as 100 MHz - 6 GHz, and channel bandwidths such as 6.25 KHz - 10 MHz. Embodiments can be configured to operate in the ISM radio bands such as 900 MHz (e.g., 902- 928 MHz), 2.4 GHz (e.g., 2400-2483 MHz), 5.8 GHz (e.g., 5725-5850 MHz) and 10 GHz.

Other embodiments of the invention operate at other frequency bands, other channel bandwidths and/or at multiple carrier frequencies, and can be configured with other physical layers and hardware structures. For example, other embodiments can use carrier sense multiple access (CSMA). One or more suitable modulation schemes such as, for example, FSK (frequency shift keying) QPSK (quadrature phase shift keying), 16QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) and 64QAM, and multicarrier schemes such OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) and OFDMA (orthogonal frequency division multiple access) can be used. In embodiments, the REUs 12, RGUs 16 and RRUs 20 can dynamically select modulation schemes based on factors such as desired data transmission rates, available channel bandwidth and interference levels. Applications of REUs 12, RGUs 16 and RRUs 20 include, for example, oil and gas field management, water and wastewater management, location tracking, unmanned aerial vehicles and agricultural applications.

[0012] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an REU 12 in accordance with embodiments. As shown, REU 12 includes an RF transmitter/receiver 30, controller 32, actuator/sensor ports 34, application programming interface (API) 36, radio memory 38 and user application (app) memory 40. Transmitter/receiver 30 is coupled to antenna 42 and provides two-way radio frequency communications with remote radios such as RRUs 20 and/or GRUs 16.

Transmitter/receiver 30 can be of conventional design and configuration. Data is received from sensors 14 and control signals are provided to actuators 13 through actuator/sensor ports 34. In embodiments, the actuators 13 and sensors 14 coupled to an REU 12 will be located at the site of the REU. Actuator/sensor ports 34 can be serial (e.g., RS-232, RS-485 and RS-422 serial ports and Ethernet ports). Actuator/sensor ports 34 are wired to actuators 13 and/or sensors 14 in embodiments. In other embodiments (not shown) the ports 34 are wirelessly coupled to actuators 13 and/or sensors 14 (e.g., through devices providing WiFi, Bluetooth or other RF communications). As shown in FIG. 2, the above-described components of REU 12 can be mounted within an enclosure 15.

[0013] Controller 32, which includes one or more processors, controls the operation of transmitter/receiver 30 and other functionality of REU 12 as described herein. Stored programs of instructions executed by the controller 32 are stored in memory such as radio memory 38 and user app memory 40. Radio memory 38 stores programs used by the controller 32 to provide a wide range of functionality provide by REU 12. For example, programs stored in radio memory 38 can be used to control the operation of transmitter/receiver 30 (e.g., operating frequencies, modulation techniques, timing). Programs stored in radio memory 30 can also be used to control telemetry functionality such as (1) the collection, organization and transmission of data received at ports 34 from sensors 14 for transmission from the REU 12 by transmitter/receiver 30, and (2) the collection, organization and transmission of commands and other information received by the REU at transmitter/receiver 30 for transmission to actuators 13 through the ports 34.

[0014] User app memory 40 stores programs used by the REU 12 to provide M2M PLC automation functionality in connection with actuators 13 and sensors 14. Although shown as separate elements in FIG. 1, radio memory 38 and user app memory 40 can be different logical portions of a common memory device, or separate devices. In embodiments, the user application memory 40 is segregated from the radio memory to minimize any interference with radio functionality that might be caused by the PCL functionality. Providing a secure environment to run applications protects the operational integrity of REU 12 as well as actuators 13 and/or sensors 14 while the apps are running. The user apps can also be prevented from accessing unauthorized data or system facilities of the REU 12. User app programs can be received by REU 12 through the API interface 36. In embodiments, API 36 can be coupled to receive programs wirelessly (e.g., through transmitter/receiver 30, when the REU is installed at a site that is remote from the user), and/or by a wired connection (e.g., through a port (not shown), when the REU is being set up for installation).

[0015] REU 12 can be configured for use with a wide range of actuators 13 and sensors

14. Sensors 14 can include devices or systems that provide data or other information. Non- limiting examples of such sensors 14 that can be coupled to REU 12 include flow sensors, level sensors, temperature sensors, power sensors, pressure sensors, pH sensors. Similarly, actuators 13 can include devices or systems that are actuated or otherwise respond to control signals or other information. Non-limiting examples of such actuators 13 that can be coupled to REU 12 include fluid flow control valves and on/off switches (including, e.g., switches that turn sensors on and off).

[0016] FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of the operation of REU 12 in a telemetry mode. As shown, during telemetry mode operation the REU 12 performs telemetry processing on data or other information received at ports 34 (e.g., from sensors 14), and transmits the telemetry processed data from the REU through the RF transmitter/receiver 30 (e.g., to RGUs 16 and/or RRUs 20). Similarly, REU 12 can perform telemetry processing on data received at the RF transmitter/receiver 30, and transmit the telemetry processed data from the REU through ports 34 (e.g., to actuators 13). In embodiments, the telemetry processing functionality provided by REU 12 includes transferring the data as it is received at the ports 34 and/or the

transmitter/receiver 30. In other embodiments the telemetry processing functionality provided by REU 12 includes manipulation of the received data before it is transferred. By way of non- limiting examples, types of telemetry data processing that can be performed by REU 12 include data compression and aggregation. In one application the REU will examine the sensor data to determine if it contains relevant data to be transferred upstream to the RGU and on to other equipment. This equipment could be a local server data base or a cloud based data base. The application can use history of the sensor reading as well as readings from other sensors to determine if the current value is valid or important to send upstream. This method is used to compress the data flow and improve the capacity of bandwidth limited RF networks. Programs that REU 12 executes to perform the telemetry processing functionality can be stored in radio memory 38 and/or can be user apps stored in user application memory 40.

[0017] FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic illustration of the operation of REU 12 in an automation or PLC mode. As shown, during automation mode operation the REU 12 performs automation processing on the data or other information received at ports 34 (e.g., from sensors 14), and transmits the automation processed data directly back to the ports 34 (e.g., to actuators 13). In embodiments, the automation processed data can be in the form of controls signal used to control the actuators 13. The automation mode operation of REU 12 can be performed separately or substantially at the same time as the telemetry mode operation of the REU. In embodiments, the control signals generated during the automated processing mode can be transmitted to remote locations by transmitter/receiver 30 after being outputted from the ports 34 or while being outputted from the ports. In other embodiments the control signals generated during the automated processing mode are not transmitted to remote locations by the transmitter/receiver 30. [0018] REU 12 can be configured to run apps in a variety of programming languages such as Python, Java, JavaScript, Node.js, Node-RED and C/C++. The automated processing functionality can be provided by a route file and in a route utility that is dedicated to the apps. Generally, apps can be executed on the REU 12 to control, command, react, report and provide customized PLC functions, to manage equipment within a network, and to manage the network components. In embodiments the PLC functionality is fully automated and performed by the REU 12 without any user interaction (e.g., there is no capability for a user to operate a graphical user or other interface (such as an alpha/numeric keypad or touchscreen) in connection with the automation processing performed by the REU, and/or no display of information specific to the automation processing at the REU). In embodiments such as these, the operation of the REU is M2M.

[0019] REU 12 enables users to integrate measurement, control, data storage and analytics at the sensor/actuator/radio level and to publish analytics to the cloud or other host system. The following use cases are non-limiting examples of the PLC mode operation of the REU 12. Applications can be used to translate from one protocol to another. As an example, the application can take ModBus RTU protocol data that is communicated over the serial port and provide a mapping to ModBus TCP protocol. In these and other examples the data may be published using a publish-subscribe mechanism such as MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport). In yet other instances D P3 (Distributed Network Protocol) can be bridged to ModBus TCP or MQTT. In the PLC application the control logic to will use the protocol translation features to read sensor inputs that could be on different types of networks, (e.g.

ModBus or DNP3), and control actuators that are on networks that use different (or the same) network protocols than the sensors. In this scenario, the PLC can monitor the level of a tank with a float sensor using Modbus RTU. When the tank full level has been reached, the PLC will then send a shutoff signal over ModBus TCP (or DNP3) to a pump. By monitoring a flow sensor, the PLC can determine whether the pump did shutoff. As this event is of interest to the operations of the system, a tank full signal will be published via MQTT so that the operations center will have a record of this event.

[0020] Radio-related functions provided by REU 12 can also be controlled by apps stored in radio memory 38 and/or user app memory 40. Examples of the radio functionality that can be controlled by apps includes communications to surrounding radios, configuration of radios with the network, network firmware upgrade management and network app download and upgrade management. Other app controllable radio functionality includes access to the content of the communications passing through the REU, translation of protocols and commands from legacy I/O devices, communication to the cloud, securing of the REU and its communication, data logging and reporting, and large network diagnostics and repair.

[0021] REU 12 including the app server functionality offers a number of important advantages. For example, it enables the collection, analysis and reaction to data in real-time at the sensor edge. The amounts of data that can otherwise clog data pipelines can be reduced. The costs associated with external or remote PLCs can be reduced. Sensors can be controlled at the closest touchpoint. The apps can be developed by third party users of the REU, and downloaded to the REU.

[0022] Although the invention has been described with reference to preferred

embodiments, those of skill in the art will recognize that changes can be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, in embodiments all or portions of the REU that provide the app server functionality can be provided separately from the telemetry processing and radio-related functionality (e.g., in a different enclosure), and located at and interfaced to the telemetry processing and radio-related functionality components at the location of the REU.

Claims

1. A method for operating a radio endpoint unit at a first location, comprising: storing one or more automation application programs at the first location;

storing one or more telemetry processing programs at the first location;

receiving sensor data from one or more sensors at the first location;

processing first portions of the sensor data by the one or more automation application programs to generate actuator control data at the first location;

outputting the actuator control data to one or more actuators at the first location;

processing second portions of the sensor data by the one or more telemetry processing programs to generate sensor telemetry data; and

transmitting the sensor telemetry data to a second location that is remote from the first location by radio frequency within the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein at least portions of the second portions of the sensor data are the same as at least portions of the first portions of the sensor data.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first portions of the sensor data are different than the second portions of the sensor data.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the first portions of the sensor data includes processing the first portions of the sensor data by the automation application programs without user input or intervention.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein receiving the sensor data, processing the first portions of the sensor data and outputting the actuator control data are performed without providing a user display at the first location.

6. The method of claim 5 and further including transmitting the actuator control data to a third location that is remote from the first location by radio frequency within the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band after outputting the actuator control data.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the sensor data, processing the first portions of the sensor data and outputting the actuator control data are performed without providing a user display at the first location.

8. The method of claim 1 and further including transmitting the actuator control data to a third location that is remote from the first location by radio frequency within the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band after outputting the actuator control data.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the actuator control data is not transmitted by radio frequency to a third location that is remote from the first location.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the sensor telemetry data includes transmitting the data within a frequency range of 902 MHz and 928 MHz.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the sensor telemetry data includes transmitting the data within a frequency range of 2400 MHz and 2483 MHz.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the sensor telemetry data includes transmitting the data within a frequency range of 5725 MHz and 5850 MHz.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein:

processing the first portions of the sensor data includes processing the first portions of the sensor data during first time periods; and

processing the second portions of the sensor data includes processing the second portions of the sensor data during second time periods that are different than the first time periods.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving sensor data includes receiving sensor data by one or both of a wired connection or a wireless connection.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein outputting the actuator control data includes outputting the actuator control data by one or both of a wired connection or a wireless connection.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein:

receiving sensor data includes receiving sensor data having a first protocol; and processing first portions of the sensor data includes generating actuator control data having a second protocol that is different than the first protocol.

17. A radio comprising:

a transmitter/receiver to transmit telemetry data and to receive data by radio frequency within the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band;

sensor ports to receive sensor data;

actuator ports to output actuator control data;

radio memory storing one or more telemetry processing programs;

user applications memory storing one or more automation application programs; and a controller coupled to the transmitter/receiver, sensor ports, actuator ports, radio

memory and user applications memory, and configured to:

process first portions of the sensor data by the one or more automation application programs to generate the actuator control data, and to couple the actuator control data to the actuator ports for output from the radio; and process second portions of the sensor data by the one or more telemetry

processing programs to generate sensor telemetry data, and to couple the telemetry data to the transmitter/receiver for transmission from the radio.

18. The radio of claim 17 wherein the controller is configured to process the first portions of the sensor data and to generate the actuator control data without user input or intervention.

19. The radio of claim 18 wherein the controller is configured to process the first portions of the sensor data and to generate the actuator control data without providing a user display.

20. The radio of claim 19 wherein the radio does not have an alpha/numeric or graphical user interface.

21. The radio of claim 17 wherein the controller is configured to:

process the first portions of the sensor data during first time periods; and process the second portions of the sensor data during second time periods that are different than the first time periods.

22. The radio of claim 17 wherein:

The sensor ports receive sensor data having a first protocol; and

The controller processes the first portions of the sensor data to generate the actuator control data having a second protocol that is different than the first protocol.