CN217656749U - System for providing location awareness in a building automation system - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model discloses a system for be arranged in building automation system to provide position perception relates to position management and trails technical field. A second mesh network including a lighting device located on a first floor of the building and a lighting device located on a second floor of the building, each mesh network aggregating the tracking tag signals at a floor gateway of the building automation system. Each mesh node receiving the tag data also measures the received signal strength and optionally the direction and time difference of arrival of the data packet and adds a timestamp to each data packet received before sending to the server. Tag location information is computed in the application layer of the server by collating data packets received from multiple mesh nodes according to the timestamps and applying trilateration algorithms to such information and the known locations of the mesh nodes.

Description

System for providing location awareness in a building automation system

Technical Field

The utility model relates to a position management and tracking technology field specifically are a system for providing position perception in building automation system.

Background

It is often desirable to track assets (e.g., products, goods, personnel, etc.) within a building for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to maintaining site security, managing inventory, or measuring capacity. In some cases, such assets may be lost or stolen, in which case it is currently difficult to efficiently and effectively determine the movement history and last known location of a particular asset.

Currently, some buildings and complexes may attempt to address this problem by tracking assets using a large number of video surveillance systems. While these monitoring systems may constantly record activity, they may not be able to optimize or identify critical events that require human attention. Such systems can therefore result in wasted resources, as in some cases hundreds of television information streams may have to be monitored at any time, which can result in overall monitoring efficiency and quality inefficiencies. Furthermore, the lack of filtering of certain events on the video stream may result in longer response times for security personnel when security issues arise.

In other cases, some buildings and complexes may utilize passive radio frequency identification or bar code tracking systems to track assets. However, throughout the course of an asset from point "a" to point "B", these systems rely heavily on the proper scanning of each item and its corresponding tag at the respective checkpoint. While such systems can record when an item leaves point "a" and arrives at point "B", they cannot perceive the exact location of the asset as it travels between the checkpoints.

While many buildings currently contain an array of systems for building automation and asset monitoring, there is still a great need to provide effective and efficient location awareness while tracking assets.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

The utility model discloses an implement the system that utilizes wireless mesh network to provide the position perception and solve above-mentioned problem. In such networks, the tracking tags communicate tag data (e.g., RSSI, sensor readings, etc.) to the mesh nodes, which in turn relay the tag data further through the gateways, which further forward the tag data to the application layer in the server.

The mesh nodes autonomously form the network and relay data using an efficient routing scheme (e.g., a head-of-wave node selection protocol) to efficiently route the label data. Multiple gateways may be deployed to provide redundant routes for label data to be routed to the server. In addition, hop limit is used to prevent the data being routed from exceeding the standard number of hops required to reach the gateway, so the label data within the area may be localized rather than routed throughout the mesh network and create unnecessary traffic load.

Each mesh node receiving the tag data also measures the received signal strength and optionally the direction and time difference of arrival of the data packet and adds a timestamp to each data packet received before sending to the server. Tag location information is computed in the application layer of the server by collating data packets received from multiple mesh nodes according to the timestamps and applying trilateration algorithms to such information and the known locations of the mesh nodes.

The present invention is particularly applicable to lighting devices that are part of a building automation network, such as standard luminaires (2 feet by 4 feet) to serve as mesh nodes and gateway devices. The gateway device is in one example implementation a power over ethernet (PoE) powered luminaire, where the connection to the server is conveniently provided through an ethernet connection.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the utility model discloses a following technical scheme realizes: a system for providing location awareness in a building automation system, the system comprising:

a first plurality of nodes of a first mesh network of devices on a first floor of a building that aggregate tag signals at a first floor gateway of the building automation system;

a second plurality of nodes of a second mesh network of devices of a second floor of the building that aggregate the tag signals at a second floor gateway of the building automation system;

a premises gateway of the building that aggregates the tag signals aggregated by the first floor gateway and the second floor gateway into tag data and transmits the tag data to a cloud server that processes the tag data to compute a tracking tag location and mobility and to initiate allocation of the tag location and mobility to the first and second plurality of nodes.

Preferably, the tracking tag location is associated with a floor.

Preferably, this includes identifying a tracking tag location relative to one or more of the smartphone, tracking object or device.

Preferably, the tracking tag location is associated with a control module on the device.

Preferably, the device is remotely controlled by one or both of the first mesh network and the second mesh network.

Preferably, the device is a lighting device.

Preferably, the method comprises controlling the device with respect to one or more of lighting colour, lighting brightness and lighting temperature.

Preferably, at least one device of the first plurality of nodes or the second plurality of nodes is a mobile device.

Preferably, the first mesh network and the second mesh network conform to the bluetooth low energy standard.

Preferably, the tracking tag is coupled to an object to be tracked.

Preferably, the tag data comprises sensor readings collected in the vicinity of the tracking tag.

A method of providing location awareness in a building automation system, the method comprising:

receiving tag signals at a first plurality of nodes of a first mesh network of devices of a first floor of a building and aggregating the tag signals at a first floor gateway of the building automation system;

receiving the tag signals at a second plurality of nodes of a second mesh network of devices of a second floor of the building and aggregating the tag signals at a second floor gateway of the building automation system;

aggregating, at a premises gateway of the building, the tag signals aggregated by the first floor gateway and the second floor gateway into tag data and transmitting the tag data to a cloud server;

wherein the cloud server processes the tag data to compute tracking tag location and mobility; and

wherein the tag location and the mobility are assigned to the first plurality of nodes and the second plurality of nodes.

Preferably, wherein a combination of a first node in a first known location, a second node in a second known location, and a third node in a third known location of one or more floors triangulates the location of the tracking tag by calculating a difference in RSSI values of the tag signal received at the first, second, and third nodes.

Drawings

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a building automation and location awareness environment 100;

FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a system 200 for integrating building automation with location awareness using wireless mesh technology;

FIG. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a flow 300 for utilizing a building automation wireless mesh network integration with location awareness;

FIG. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a system 400 for integrating building automation with location awareness using wireless mesh technology;

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a system 500 for integrating building automation with location awareness using wireless mesh technology;

FIG. 6 illustrates an aspect of a system 600 that integrates building automation with location awareness using wireless mesh technology;

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a system 700 for integrating building automation with location awareness using wireless mesh technology;

fig. 8 illustrates an example block diagram of a computing device 800 that incorporates an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be described clearly and completely with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by a person skilled in the art without creative work belong to the protection scope of the present invention.

SUMMARY

Various embodiments of asset tracking tags and systems and methods of operating the same are disclosed herein. The embodiments may operate in a mesh network environment using various wireless protocols and technologies, including those defined below.

A mesh network is a machine communication system in which each client node (sender and receiver of data messages) of the network also relays data for the network. All client nodes collaboratively distribute data in the network. In some cases, a mesh network may also include designated routers and gateway nodes (e.g., nodes connected to external networks such as the internet), which may or may not be client nodes. These nodes are typically laptop computers, cell phones, or other wireless devices. The coverage area of a node working with a mesh network is sometimes referred to as a mesh cloud.

Mesh networks may relay messages using flooding or routing techniques. Flooding is a routing algorithm in which each incoming packet, unless addressed to the receiving node itself, is forwarded through each outbound link of the receiving node, excluding the node it is in. By routing, messages propagate through the network, jumping from one node to another, until reaching a destination. To ensure that all of its paths are available, the mesh network allows continuous connections and can be reconfigured around disconnected paths. In a mesh network, there is typically more than one path between a source node and a destination node in the network. A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is typically a mesh network. MANET also allows client nodes to be mobile.

A Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is a mesh network of wireless nodes. Wireless mesh networks may self-form and self-heal and may be implemented using a variety of wireless technologies, without limitation to any one technology or protocol. Each device in a mobile wireless mesh network is free to move and therefore changes its routing links between mesh nodes accordingly.

Mesh networks may be decentralized (without a central server) or centrally managed (with a central server). Both types are reliable and resilient, since each node only needs to transmit to the next node. The nodes act as routers, transmitting data from nearby nodes to nodes that are further away to achieve a single hop, resulting in a network that covers greater distances. The topology of the mesh network is also reliable, since each node is connected to several other nodes. If a node drops out of the network due to a hardware failure or moves out of wireless range, its neighboring nodes can quickly identify an alternate route using a routing protocol. Building automation network

Referring to fig. 1, a building automation and location-aware environment 100 includes an automation controller 104 and building automation devices 102, 106, and 108. The automation controller 104 may be a combination of hardware and software that functions as a central manager of the building automation system. The automation controller 104 may be configured to control equipment (e.g., plant robots) and indoor environments (e.g., lighting, heating, etc.) as well as track assets and other tasks within a building. The automation controller 104 may be mounted on a server and may be located on-site or off-site. Further, the automation controller 104 may be networked with the building automation devices 102, 106, 108, each of which may provide an access point for a mesh network. The building automation devices 102, 106, 108 may have a fixed location (e.g., wall-mounted wireless router) or may be mobile (e.g., mobile phone or tablet).

Fig. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a system 200 for integrating building automation with location awareness using wireless mesh technology. The system 200 may operate in accordance with the process 300. The system 200 includes the node 220, the node 226, the node 204, the node 214, and the node 208.

The node 220 includes a tracking tag 224 and an access point 222. The node 226 includes an access point 228 and a tracking tag 230. The node 204 includes a tracking tag 202 and an access point 206. The node 208 includes an access point 210 and a tracking tag 212. The node 214 includes an access point 216 and a tracking tag 218. Each node is able to communicate through its respective access point and therefore can be part of a reliable and resilient mesh network, as each node only needs to transmit to the next node.

The system 200 may be built on an existing automation network with each node in the network having an access point and a tracking tag. The high density of asset access points allows for more accurate tracking of nodes and tags.

The system 200 utilizes a building automation infrastructure to track assets within a building independent of the supplier. Furthermore, smartphones can be used with beacons to self-locate within a building. These devices may act as access points for beacon data, in conjunction with each other, allowing for relative positioning of the smart phone, asset, and device.

To be tracked and located, each "dumb" device in the facility requires a tag or module to identify the asset as a network node.

If some event occurs, the node may load preset logic to activate a particular operation on the "dumb" device to which it is connected. For example, if the device is brought outside of a designated area, the node may inform the apparatus to sound an alarm.

This enables integration of access control and monitoring. This integration greatly improves the efficiency of these systems by allowing event-based tracking and alerts so that events can be prioritized and automatically generated alerts are available to security authorities, which is particularly important for applications that are very response time sensitive. Such real-time location monitoring is also useful for workflow optimization and monitoring and asset tracking, thereby reducing problems with lost inventory or items being unable to be located.

Label information transmission

Fig. 3 shows a flow 300 for utilizing building automation wireless mesh integration with location awareness. In block 302, the process 300 receives a tag signal from a tracking tag having a mesh node. In block 304, the flow 300 forwards the label data from the mesh node to the gateway. In block 306, the process 300 transfers the tag data from the gateway to the application layer in the server. In block 308, the process 300 computes tag information using an application layer in the server. In block 310, the process 300 communicates the tag information to the gateway. In block 312, the process 300 sends the tag information to the node. In completion block 314, the process 300 ends.

Fig. 4 illustrates one embodiment of a system 400 for integrating building automation with location awareness using wireless mesh technology. The system 400 includes a server 402, a gateway 404, a device 406, a node 408, a node 410, a device 412, a tracking tag 416, and an application layer 418.

These modules may identify as nodes on the mesh network and receive information from the devices to which it is connected and collect temperature, data status, and device status.

Each module may have controls to operate the dumb device to which it is connected, to remotely control the automation of the device and to read information therefrom. The module can control lighting color, temperature and brightness, heating and cooling, and can read humidity, carbon monoxide, smoke, humidity and other sensors.

The tracking tags 416 will be picked up by the nodes, which relay their relative location information to the central server 402. The central processor will aggregate all information and calculate the possible locations of the tracking tags 416.

Fig. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a system 500 for integrating building automation with location awareness using wireless mesh technology. The system 500 includes the node 508, the node 510, the node 512, the node 514, the node 516, the gateway 504, the gateway 506, the application layer 518, and the automation controller 502.

The node 512 includes a physical/data layer 522 and an application layer 520.

The node 512 receives signals from the node 510 and the node 508 at the physical/data layer 522. The physical/data layer 522 processes the signal data at the application layer 520 and may read the differences in signal strength to help determine the location of node 512 relative to node 510 and node 508. The node 512 transmits node data including a node location, an identification number, and settings. The node 512, node 510 and node 508 communicate with the gateway 504. The node 514 and the node 516 are in communication with the gateway 506. The gateway 506 and the gateway 504 pick up and aggregate data from their respective nodes and can determine relative location and signal strength. By utilizing hierarchical aggregation, learning at the cloud level becomes possible. Location awareness

Fig. 6 illustrates one embodiment of a system 600 for integrating building automation with location awareness using wireless mesh technology. The system 600 includes a tracked object 602, a node 604, a node 606, a node 608, a signal 610, a signal 612, a signal 614, and a smartphone 616.

The nodes listen for signals from other nodes and tags on the mesh network and relay this information to the gateway. The gateway may self-locate with signal strength and signal angle of arrival (directional antenna) from nodes and tags on the mesh network.

The node 606, 608, or 604 may be designated as an "anchor" that may help to efficiently determine the location and identity of other tracked objects relative to themselves.

Polymeric layer

Fig. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a system 700 for integrating building automation with location awareness using wireless mesh technology. The system 700 includes a cloud 718. The cloud tier 718 includes an enterprise tier 702. The enterprise tier 702 includes a venue tier 726 and a venue tier 736. The venue floor 736 includes floor 720 and floor 704. The floor 704 includes a node 712, a node 714, and a node 716. The floor 720 includes node 706, node 708, and node 710. Venue level 726 includes node 728, node 730, and node 732.

The system 700 may aggregate data through an aggregation layer based on the location of the nodes. For data from nodes within a multi-floor facility, data from node 706, node 708, node 710 may be aggregated to floor 720. Data from node 714, node 712, and node 716 may be aggregated to floor 704. Data from floor 704 and floor 720 is aggregated into venue floor 736 for the facility in which floor 704 and floor 720 are located. Data from node 728, node 730, and node 732 may be aggregated into place layer 726, and place layer 736 and place layer 726 may be aggregated into enterprise layer 702, which enterprise layer 702 may be further aggregated into cloud layer 718.

Hardware

FIG. 8 illustrates an example block diagram of a computing device 800 incorporating embodiments of the invention. FIG. 8 depicts only a machine system that performs aspects of the technical flow described herein, and does not limit the scope of the claims. Other variations, modifications, and alternatives may be recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art. In one embodiment, the computing device 800 generally includes a monitor or graphical user interface 802, a data processing system 820, a communication network interface 812, an input device 808, an output device 806, and so forth.

As shown in FIG. 8, the data processing system 820 may include one or more processors 804 which communicate with a number of peripheral devices via a bus subsystem 818. These peripheral devices may include input devices 808, output devices 806, a communication network interface 812, and storage subsystems such as volatile memory 810 and non-volatile memory 814.

The volatile memory 810 and/or the non-volatile memory 814 may store computer-executable instructions and thus form logic 822 that, when applied to and executed by the processor 804, implements an embodiment of the processes disclosed herein.

The input device 808 includes devices and mechanisms for inputting information to the data processing system 820. These may include a keyboard, keypad, touch screen incorporated into a monitor or graphical user interface 802, audio input devices such as voice recognition systems, microphones, and other types. In various embodiments, the input device 808 may be a computer mouse, trackball, trackpad, joystick, wireless remote control, drawing pad, voice command system, eye tracking system, or the like. The input device 808 typically allows a user to select objects, icons, control areas, text, etc. appearing on the monitor or graphical user interface 802 by a command such as clicking a button or the like.

The output devices 806 include devices and mechanisms for outputting information from the data processing system 820. These may include speakers, printers, infrared light emitting diodes, etc., as is well known in the art.

The communications network interface 812 provides an interface to a communications network (e.g., communications network 816) and devices external to the data processing system 820. The communication network interface 812 may serve as an interface for receiving and transmitting data from and to other systems. Examples of the communication network interface 812 may include an ethernet interface, a modem (telephone, satellite, cable, integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)), (asynchronous) Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), firewire, USB, a wireless communication interface such as bluetooth or WiFi, a near field communication wireless interface, a cellular interface, and so forth.

The communications network interface 812 may be coupled to the communications network 816 by an antenna, cable, or the like. In some embodiments, the communications network interface 812 may be physically integrated on a circuit board of the data processing system 820, or may be used in software or firmware in some cases, such as a "soft modem" or the like.

The computing device 800 may include logic that may enable communications over a network using protocols such as HTTP, TCP/IP, RTP/RTSP, IPX, UDP, and the like.

The volatile memory 810 and the non-volatile memory 814 are examples of tangible media configured to store computer readable data and instructions to implement various embodiments of the processes described herein. Other types of tangible media include removable memory (e.g., pluggable USB storage devices, mobile device SIM cards), optical storage media (e.g., compact disc read only memory (CD-ROMS), digital Video Disc (DVD)), semiconductor memory (e.g., flash memory), non-transitory Read Only Memory (ROMS), battery backed volatile memory, network storage devices, etc. The volatile memory 810 and the non-volatile memory 814 are configured to store the basic programming and data structures that provide the functionality for the disclosed processes and other embodiments within the scope of the present invention.

Logic 822 to implement embodiments of the invention may be stored in the volatile memory 810 and/or the non-volatile memory 814. The software may be read from the volatile memory 810 and/or the non-volatile memory 814 and executed by the processor 804 the volatile memory 810 and the non-volatile memory 814 may also provide a repository for storing data for the software.

The volatile memory 810 and the non-volatile memory 814 can include a number of memories including a main Random Access Memory (RAM) for storing instructions and data during program execution and a Read Only Memory (ROM) in which read only non-transitory instructions are stored. The volatile memory 810 and the non-volatile memory 814 include a file storage subsystem that can provide persistent (non-volatile) storage for program and data files. The volatile memory 810 and the non-volatile memory 814 may comprise a removable storage system, such as a removable flash memory.

Bus subsystem 818 provides a mechanism for the various components and subsystems of data processing system 820 to communicate with one another as desired. Although the communication network interface 812 is depicted schematically as a single bus, a number of different buses may be utilized in some embodiments of the bus subsystem 818.

It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the computing device 800 may be a mobile device such as a smartphone, desktop computer, laptop computer, rack-mounted computer system, computer server, or tablet computer. The computing device 800 may be a collection of multiple networked computing devices, as is known in the art. In addition, the computing device 800 typically includes operating system logic (not shown), the type and nature of which are well known in the art.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are a variety of logical embodiments by which the processes and/or systems described herein can be implemented (e.g., hardware, software, or firmware), and that the preferred vehicle will vary with the context in which the processes are deployed. If the implementer determines that speed and accuracy are paramount, the implementer will opt for a hardware or firmware implementation; alternatively, if flexibility is critical, the implementer may opt for a separate software implementation; alternatively, the implementer may opt for some combination of hardware, software, or firmware. Thus, there are many possible embodiments that may implement the procedures described herein, none of which is inherently superior to the other in that any vehicle to be used may vary depending on the environment in which the embodiment is located and the specific concerns (e.g., speed, flexibility, or predictability) of the implementer, both of which may vary. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the optical aspects of an embodiment may involve optically-oriented hardware, software, and/or firmware.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that logic may be distributed among one or more devices and/or may be comprised of a combination of memory, media, processing circuitry and controllers, other circuitry, and the like. Thus, for the sake of clarity and accuracy, logic may not always be explicitly shown in the drawings of devices and systems, even though it may inherently exist therein. The techniques and flows described herein may be implemented by logic distributed among one or more computing devices. The particular distribution and selection of logic will vary depending upon the implementation.

Various embodiments of devices or processes have been described above in detail through the use of block diagrams, flowcharts, or examples. To the extent that such block diagrams, flowcharts, or examples contain one or more functions or operations, it will be understood by those within the art that each function or operation within such block diagrams, flowcharts, or examples can be implemented, individually and/or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software, firmware, or virtually any combination thereof. Some of the subject matter described herein may be implemented in an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), or other integrated format. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that some aspects of the embodiments of the disclosure may be implemented, in whole or in part, as efficiently as one or more computer programs running on one or more processing devices (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more computer systems), as one or more programs running on one or more processors (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more microprocessors), as firmware, or as virtually any combination of the foregoing. Those skilled in the art will also recognize that designing a circuit or writing code for software or firmware incorporating the present disclosure will be well within the skill of those in the art. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the mechanisms of the subject matter are capable of being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that an illustrative embodiment of the subject matter applies equally regardless of the particular type of signal bearing media used to carry out the distribution. Examples of signal bearing media include, but are not limited to, the following: recordable type media such as floppy disks, hard disk drives, compact disk read only memories (CD ROMs), digital magnetic tapes, flash drives, SD cards, solid state fixed or removable memory, and computer memory.

In a general sense, those skilled in the art will recognize that various aspects described herein, which may be implemented individually or collectively in various hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof, are contemplated as being of various types to comprise a circuit.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that it is common within the art to describe devices or processes in the manner described herein, and then use standard engineering practices to integrate such devices or processes into larger systems. At least a portion of the devices or processes described herein may be integrated into a network processing system through a reasonable amount of experimentation. Various embodiments are described herein and presented by way of example, but not limitation.

References to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, although they may. Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description, the terms "comprise," comprising, "and the like are intended to be inclusive, rather than exclusive or exhaustive, that is," including, but not limited to. Terms used in the singular or plural number also include the plural or singular number, respectively, unless the singular or plural is explicitly defined. Furthermore, the terms "herein," "above," "below," and similar terms, as used herein, refer to the entire application, and not to any particular portions of the application. When the claim uses the word "or" to refer to a list containing two or more items, then all interpretations of the word are covered: any item in the list, all items in the list, and any combination of items in the list, unless one or the other is explicitly defined. . For any terms not explicitly defined herein, they have the conventional meaning commonly understood by those of skill in the relevant art

Definition of

Various terms are used herein, and unless explicitly defined herein, they are intended to have their ordinary meaning in the relevant art.

"circuitry" herein refers to circuitry having at least one discrete circuit, circuitry having at least one integrated circuit, circuitry having at least one application specific integrated circuit, circuitry forming a general purpose computing device configured by a computer program (e.g., a general purpose computer configured by a computer program that runs at least in part the processes or devices described herein, or a microprocessor configured by a computer program that runs at least in part the processes or devices described herein), circuitry forming a memory device (e.g., in the form of random access memory), or circuitry forming a communication device (e.g., a modem, a communication switch, or an optoelectronic device).

"firmware" herein refers to software logic, specifically processor-executable instructions stored in read-only memory or media.

"hardware" herein refers to logic, particularly analog or digital circuitry.

"logic" herein refers to machine memory circuitry, non-transitory machine-readable media, and/or circuitry. Through its material and/or material energy configuration, the logic includes control and/or program signals, and/or settings and values (e.g., resistance, impedance, capacitance, inductance, current/voltage ratings, etc.) that can be used to affect the operation of the device. Magnetic media, electronic circuitry, electrical and optical storage (volatile and non-volatile), and firmware are all examples of logic. Logic specifically excludes signals alone or in combination with software per se (but does not exclude machine memory comprising software and thereby creating a material arrangement).

A "programmable device" herein refers to an integrated circuit designed to be configured and/or reconfigured after manufacture. The term "programmable processor" is another name for programmable device herein. The programmable device may include a programmable processor such as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), configurable Hardware Logic (CHL), and/or any other type of programmable device. The configuration of programmable devices is typically specified using computer code or data such as Hardware Description Language (HDL), e.g., verilog, VHDL, etc. A programmable device may include an array of programmable logic blocks and a hierarchy of reconfigurable interconnects that allow the programmable logic blocks to be coupled to each other according to descriptions in HDL code. Each programmable logic block may be configured to perform a complex combinational function or simply a simple logic gate, such as an and xor logic block. In most FPGAs, the logic blocks also include memory elements, which can be simple latches, flip-flops (hereinafter also referred to as "flip-flops"), or more complex memory blocks. Depending on the length of the interconnect between different logic blocks, signals may arrive at the inputs of the logic blocks at different times.

"software" herein refers to logic in machine memory (e.g., read/write volatile or non-volatile memory or medium) as processor-executable instructions.

Wireless protocol

System embodiments disclosed herein may utilize a variety of wireless communication technologies, including but not limited to the following:

herein "6LowPAN" refers to the acronym for IPv6 (internet protocol version 6) over low power wireless personal area networks. It is a wireless standard for low power radio communication applications that require wireless internet connectivity at relatively low data rates for devices with limited physical size. The 6L0WPAN uses the RFC6282 standard for header compression and segmentation. This protocol is used for various network media including bluetooth smart (2.4 GHz) or ZigBee or low power RF (sub-1 GHz), and thus the data rate and range may vary depending on the network media used.

"Low energy (BLE) Bluetooth or Bluetooth Intelligence" herein refers to a wireless personal area network technology that is intended to reduce power consumption and cost while maintaining a communication range similar to that of conventional Bluetooth. As with conventional bluetooth, the frequency of use is 2.4GHz (industrial, scientific and medical band), the maximum range is typically 50-150m, and data rates are up to 1Mbps.

By "cellular" herein is meant a communication network in which the last link is wireless. The network is distributed over terrestrial areas called cells and uses one of the following criteria: GSM/GPRS/EDGE (2G), UMTS/HSPA (3G), LTE (4G). The frequency is typically one of 900/1800/1900/2100 MHz. The maximum range of GSM is 35 km; the longest HSPA is 200 kilometers, and the standard data downloading rate is as follows: 35-170kps (GPRS), 120-384Kbps (EDGE), 384Kbps-2Mbps (UMTS), 600Kbps-10Mbps (HSPA), 3-10Mbps (LTE).

"LoRaWAN" herein refers to a low power wide area network, a Media Access Control (MAC) protocol for wide area networks that provides low cost, low power, mobile, and secure two-way communication for large networks of up to millions of devices. LoRaWAN can use a variety of frequencies, ranging from about 2-5 kilometers (urban environment) to 15 kilometers (suburban environment), with data rates of 0.3-50kbps.

"NFC" herein refers to "near field communication," which is a subset of RFID (radio frequency identification) technology. NFC is standardized in ECMA-340 and ISO/IEC 18092. When an NFC device is within range (10 cm), it uses electromagnetic induction between two loop antennas. NFC uses the 13.56MHz (ISM) frequency. The data rate is 106-424kbit/s.

"SigFox" in this context refers to a cellular system that enables remote devices to connect using ultra-narrow band (UNB) technology and Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) to encode data. With 900MHz frequency, the range is 30-50 km in rural environments, 3-10 km in urban environments, and data rates are 10-1000bps.

"thread" herein refers to a wireless mesh network standard that utilizes ieee802.15.4 for MAC (medium access control) and physical layers, IETF IPv6 and 6L0W-PAN (IVP 6). Thread operates at 250kbps in the 2.4GHz band. Versions of IEEE802.15.4-2006 under this specification are used for thread stacking.

"Weightless" herein refers to an open machine-to-machine protocol that spans the physical layer and the mac layer. The working frequency is as follows: fractional bandwidth of 200MHz to 1GHz (900 MHz (ISM) 470-790MHz (white space)) band: <8% (for continuous tuning). Ranging up to 10 kilometers and data rates ranging from a few bps to 100kbps. Herein, "WiFi" refers to an 802.11 family based wireless network standard that consists of a family of half-duplex over-the-air modulation techniques using the same basic protocol. The frequencies used include the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, which range around 50 meters. The maximum data rate is 600Mbps, but more typically 150-200Mbps, depending on the channel frequency and the number of antennas used (the latest 802.11-ac standard should provide data speeds of 500Mbps to 1 Gbps).

"Z-Wave" herein refers to a wireless standard for reliable low-delay transmission of small data packets. The Z-Wave employs the Z-Wave alliance ZAD12837/ITU-T G.9959 standard, operates at 900MHz (part 15 unlicensed ISM) in the United states, and is modulated by Manchester channel coding. The range of Z-Wave is 30m, and the data rate is up to 100kbit/s.

The "ZigBee" herein refers to a wireless networking standard for low power, low data rate, and low cost applications. The Zigbee protocol is based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.4 standard. The standard defines a short-range, low-power, low-data-rate wireless interface for small devices with limited power, CPU and memory resources. The Zigbee has the operation frequency of 2.4GHz, the operation range of 10-100m and the data rate of 250kbps.

It should be noted that, in the description of the present invention, the terms "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "front", "back", etc. indicate the orientation or position relationship of the structure of the present invention based on the drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the present invention, but do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

The terms "first" and "second" in the present technical solution are only used to distinguish the same or similar structures or the corresponding structures having similar functions, and are not the arrangement of the importance of the structures, nor are they the order, or comparison of the sizes, or other meanings.

In addition, unless expressly stated or limited otherwise, the terms "mounted" and "connected" are to be construed broadly, e.g., the connection may be a fixed connection, a removable connection, or an integral connection; can be mechanically or electrically connected; the two structures can be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, and the two structures can be communicated with each other. To those skilled in the art, the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention can be understood in relation to the present scheme in specific terms according to the general idea of the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. A system for providing location awareness in a building automation system, characterized by: the system comprises:

a first plurality of nodes of a first mesh network of devices on a first floor of a building, the first plurality of nodes aggregating tag signals at a first floor gateway of the building automation system;

a second plurality of nodes of a second mesh network of devices of a second floor of the building that aggregate the tag signals at a second floor gateway of the building automation system;

a premises gateway of the building that aggregates the tag signals aggregated by the first floor gateway and the second floor gateway into tag data and transmits the tag data to a cloud server that processes the tag data to compute a tracking tag location and mobility and to initiate allocation of the tag location and mobility to the first and second plurality of nodes.

2. A system for providing location awareness in a building automation system as set forth in claim 1, wherein: the tracking tag location is associated with a floor.

3. A system for providing location awareness in a building automation system as set forth in claim 1, wherein: including identifying a tracking tag location relative to one or more of the smartphone, tracking object, or device.

4. A system for providing location awareness in a building automation system as set forth in claim 1, wherein: the tracking tag location is associated with a control module on the device.

5. A system for providing location awareness in a building automation system as set forth in claim 1, wherein: including remotely controlling the device through one or both of the first mesh network and the second mesh network.

6. System for providing location awareness in a building automation system according to claim 1 or 5, characterised in that: the device is a lighting device.

7. A system for providing location awareness in a building automation system as set forth in claim 1 or 5, characterized in that: including controlling the device for one or more of lighting color, lighting brightness, and lighting temperature.

8. A system for providing location awareness in a building automation system as set forth in claim 1 or 5, characterized in that: at least one device of the first plurality of nodes or the second plurality of nodes is a mobile device.

9. A system for providing location awareness in a building automation system as set forth in claim 1, wherein: the first mesh network and the second mesh network conform to a bluetooth low energy standard.

10. A system for providing location awareness in a building automation system as set forth in claim 1, wherein: the tracking tag is coupled to an object to be tracked.

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