Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W48/00—Access restriction; Network selection; Access point selection
  • H04W48/18—Selecting a network or a communication service

Definitions

• Various embodiments relate to a control apparatus and a method for controlling wireless data transmission of a sensor apparatus.
• the Internet of Things provides Internet connectivity to all kinds of sensor apparatuses.
• the sensor apparatus may be a stand-alone apparatus including one or more different kind of sensors, or any physical device or everyday object including the sensor(s).
• the sensor apparatus needs wireless data transmission.
• many different factors complicate the wireless data transmission in such an environment: performance quality, speed, error rate, retransmissions, flexibility, use of resources, ease of configuration, etc.
• FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 illustrate embodiments of a control apparatus for controlling wireless data transmission of a sensor apparatus
• FIG. 6 is a flow-chart illustrating embodiments of a method for controlling wireless data transmission of a sensor apparatus.
• FIG. 1 which illustrates embodiments of a control apparatus for controlling wireless data transmission of a sensor apparatus
• FIG. 6 which illustrates embodiments of a method for controlling wireless data transmission of a sensor apparatus.
• FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a general operation environment.
• the environment comprises: a control apparatus 100, one or more sensor apparatuses 120, 126, one or more wireless transceivers 130, 136, a communication network 140, a server apparatus 150, and a user apparatus 160.
• the sensor apparatus 120, 126 may be a so-called Internet of Things
• the sensor apparatus 120, 126 comprises a processor 122 and one or more sensors 124.
• the sensor apparatus 120, 126 may also comprise other parts such as battery to provide electric energy for its operation (or other power source or power interface) and a housing protecting electronics of the sensor apparatus 120, 126 from external influences (dust, moisture, mechanical shocks, etc.).
• the battery may be an electric battery converting stored chemical energy into electrical energy.
• the electric battery may be rechargeable.
• the sensor 124 may be a converter that measures a physical quantity and converts it into an electrical signal. Such physical quantities may relate to temperature, humidity, speed, acceleration, orientation, or some other physical quantity, for example.
• the sensor 124 may also receive some external data and pass it on, or generate some further data on the basis of the external data.
• the external data may relate to positioning, for example.
• the external data may include signal transmitted by satellites of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS), and/or location coordinates.
• GNSS global navigation satellite system
• the external data may also include signals and/or locations used in an indoor positioning system based on radio signals or other techniques (such as magnetic interferences caused by building structures), for example.
• the one or more wireless transceivers 130 are (communicatively) coupled with the sensor apparatus 120, and configured to operate using one or more of the following: a cellular radio network 142, a wireless local area network (WLAN) 144, a short-range radio network (such as Bluetooth) 146, a radio network 148 employing a subscriber identity module (SIM) 132, one or more subscriber identity modules 134 selected from among a plurality of subscriber identity modules coupled with the one or more wireless transceivers 130.
• SIM subscriber identity module
• the communication network 140 may comprise such wireless network infrastructure, but also wired network infrastructure (including, but not limited to, the Internet).
• the Applicant, Uros Oy, has invented many improvements for employing a plurality of subscriber identity modules (physical SIM or embedded SIM eSIM) in various patent applications and patents. These solutions may be applied by the one or more transceivers 130 to monitor, control, select and use the subscriber identity modules.
• subscriber identity modules physical SIM or embedded SIM eSIM
• the wireless data transmission 170 is implemented with a suitable cellular communication technology such as GSM, GPRS, EGPRS, WCDMA, UMTS, 3GPP, IMT, LTE, LTE-A, 3G, 4G, 5G etc. and/or with a suitable non-cellular communication technology such as Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi, WLAN, Zigbee, etc.
• a suitable cellular communication technology such as GSM, GPRS, EGPRS, WCDMA, UMTS, 3GPP, IMT, LTE, LTE-A, 3G, 4G, 5G etc.
• a suitable non-cellular communication technology such as Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi, WLAN, Zigbee, etc.
• Other applicable technologies include LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network), NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT), Sigfox, LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network), QT network, etc.
• the server apparatus 150 is the recipient of the wireless (sensor) data transmission 170, and comprises one or more processors 152 configured to process and/or redistribute the received wireless (sensor) data.
• the server apparatus 150 may be a networked computer server, which interoperates with the one or more sensor apparatuses 120, 126 according to a client-server architecture, a cloud computing architecture, a peer-to-peer system, or another applicable computing architecture.
• the user apparatus 160 may be a computer, laptop computer, tablet computer, phablet, mobile phone, smartphone, general-purpose mobile computing device, or some other electronic apparatus enabling user interaction with an interested party of the system of FIG. 1.
• An interested party may be interested in the produced sensor data, and, therefore, is allowed to communicate with the sensor apparatus 120, 126 and/or the server apparatus 150.
• the user apparatus 160 may be a general-purpose off-the-shelf computing device, as opposed to a purpose-build proprietary equipment, whereby research & development costs will be lower as only the special-purpose software (and not the hardware) needs to be designed, implemented and tested.
• the control apparatus 100 for controlling the wireless data transmission 170 of the sensor apparatus 120, 126 comprises a communication interface 110 configured to communicate with one or more wireless transceivers 130 coupled with the sensor apparatus 120.
• the control apparatus 100 also comprises one or more processors
• control apparatus 100 coupled with the communication interface 110, configured to cause the control apparatus 100 to perform a method for controlling the wireless data transmission 170 of the sensor apparatus 120, 126.
• the one or more processors 102 of the control apparatus 100 may be implemented with one or more microprocessors 102, and one or more memories 104 including computer program code 106.
• the one or more memories 104 and the computer program code 106 are configured to, with the one or more processors 102, cause performance of the data processing operations of the control apparatus 100.
• the term 'processor' 102 refers to a device that is capable of processing data.
• the control apparatus 100 may comprise several processors 102 such as parallel processors, a multicore processor, or a computing environment that simultaneously utilizes resources from several physical computer units (sometimes these are referred as cloud, fog or virtualized computing environments).
• processors 102 such as parallel processors, a multicore processor, or a computing environment that simultaneously utilizes resources from several physical computer units (sometimes these are referred as cloud, fog or virtualized computing environments).
• a person skilled in the art will consider the requirements set for the size and power consumption of the control apparatus 100, the necessary processing capacity, production costs, and production volumes, for example.
• the working memory and the non-volatile memory may be implemented by a random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), static RAM (SRAM), a flash memory, a solid state disk (SSD), PROM (programmable read-only memory), a suitable semiconductor, or any other means of implementing an electrical computer memory.
• RAM random-access memory
• DRAM dynamic RAM
• SRAM static RAM
• flash memory a solid state disk
• SSD solid state disk
• PROM programmable read-only memory
• suitable semiconductor or any other means of implementing an electrical computer memory.
• the computer program code 106 may be implemented by software.
• the software may be written by a suitable programming language, and the resulting executable code may be stored in the memory 104 and run by the processor 102.
• An embodiment provides a computer-readable medium 114 storing computer program code 106, which, when loaded into the one or more processors 102 and executed by one or more processors 102, causes the one or more processors 102 to perform a computer-implemented method for controlling the wireless data transmission 170 of the sensor apparatus 120, 126, which will be explained with reference to FIG. 6.
• the computer-readable medium 114 may comprise at least the following: any entity or device capable of carrying the computer program code 106 to the one or more processors 102, a record medium, a computer memory, a read-only memory, an electrical carrier signal, a telecommunications signal, and a software distribution medium.
• the computer- readable medium 114 may not be the telecommunications signal.
• the computer-readable medium 114 may be a computer-readable storage medium.
• the computer-readable medium 114 may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.
• the one or more processors 122, 152 of the sensor apparatus 120 and the server apparatus 150 may be implemented with similar technologies.
• the one or more wireless transceivers 130 may also comprise one or more processors.
• the control apparatus 100 may be a stand-alone control apparatus 100 as in FIG. 1, i.e., the control apparatus 100 is a separate unit as well as the sensor apparatus 120 and the one or more wireless transceivers 130.
• the control apparatus 100 is a part of a communication apparatus 200, which also comprises the one or more wireless transceivers 130.
• the communication apparatus 200 provides the wireless data transmission 170 as a service for the sensor apparatus 120.
• the sensor apparatus 120 may use this service as a black-box, i.e., the sensor apparatus 120 only provides the sensor data as user data for the communication apparatus 200, and the communication apparatus 200 manages transmission and protocol control data.
• the communication between the sensor apparatus 120 and the communication apparatus 200 may be implemented wirelessly (using a short- range radio transceiver, for example) or in a wired fashion (using an appropriate communication bus, for example).
• a part of the functionality of the control apparatus 100 may be provided by a remote control apparatus 202, which is accessible through the communication network 140.
• the control apparatus 100 is a part of an integrated apparatus 300, which also comprises the sensor apparatus 120 and the one or more wireless transceivers 130.
• the integrated apparatus 300 provides a ready-to-use solution that may be installed in a required location, and it only requires a battery, or some other internal/external power source in order to operate.
• Both the communication between the sensor apparatus 120 and the control apparatus 100, and the communication between the sensor apparatus 120 and the one or more wireless transceivers 130 may be implemented using an appropriate communication bus or a software interface, for example.
• a part of the functionality of the control apparatus 100 may be provided by a remote control apparatus 302, which is accessible through the communication network 140.
• the control apparatus 100 is remote from an installation site of the sensor apparatus 120. As the one or more wireless transceivers 130 are in the installation site, the control apparatus 100 communicates with the one or more transceivers 130 (and the sensor apparatus 120, if needed) through the communication network 140.
• the communication between the sensor apparatus 120 and the communication apparatus 400 may be implemented wirelessly (using a short-range radio transceiver, for example) or in a wired fashion (using an appropriate communication bus, for example).
• FIG. 5 another kind of integrated apparatus 500 comprising the sensor apparatus 120 and the one or more transceivers 130 is provided.
• the control apparatus 100 is accessible through the communication network 140.
• the communication between the sensor apparatus 120 and the one or more wireless transceivers 130 may be implemented using an appropriate communication bus or a software interface, for example.
• FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 also illustrate that the server apparatus 150 and the user apparatus 160 communicate through the communication network 140.
• the method starts in 600, and ends in 616. Note that the method may run as long as required (after the start-up of the control apparatus 100 until switching off) by looping from operations 608, 610, 612 or 614 back to 608 or even back to 602.
• the operations are not strictly in chronological order in FIG. 6, and some of the operations may be performed simultaneously or in an order differing from the given ones. Other functions may also be executed between the operations or within the operations and other data exchanged between the operations. Some of the operations or part of the operations may also be left out or replaced by a corresponding operation or part of the operation. It should be noted that no special order of operations is required, except where necessary due to the logical requirements for the processing order.
• a need 172 for the wireless data transmission 170 of the sensor apparatus 120 is detected.
• the need 172 comprises one or more of the following: a transmission schedule 620 for the wireless data transmission 170, a data amount 622 for the wireless data transmission 170, a destination address 624 for the wireless data transmission 170.
• the need 172 may be obtained from the sensor apparatus 120, or from the one or more transceivers 130, or from the server apparatus 150, or from the user apparatus 160.
• the destination address 624 for the wireless data transmission 170 may be an IP (Internet Protocol) address of the server apparatus 150.
• the need 172 may be set for the sensor apparatus 120 during the installation or in the beginning of the use.
• the need 172 may also be detected by monitoring transmission characteristics of the wireless data transmission 170 after start-up for a predetermined time such as one hour, one day, 24 hours, more than one day, etc.
• the need 172 may also be detected incrementally, i.e., the initial requirements are detected in the beginning of the operation, but some further requirements are detected during the consecutive operation of the sensor apparatus 120.
• the need 172 may also change during the operation, i.e., the need 172 may be re-detected.
• a configuration 132 for the wireless data transmission 170 of the sensor apparatus 120 is selected from among a plurality of configurations 108 for the wireless data transmission 170 of the sensor apparatus 120 based on the need.
• the one or more wireless transceivers 130 coupled with the sensor apparatus 120 are commanded to operate the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132.
• control apparatus 100 comprises an interception interface 112 configured to intercept the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132.
• the intercepted wireless data transmission 170, 174 is monitored according to the selected configuration 132 to produce monitoring data.
• the selected configuration 132 is replaced with a new configuration 636 selected from among the plurality of the configurations 108 based on the monitoring data.
• there may be plurality of configurations 108 which may be be predefined, but at least a part of the configurations 108 may be dynamically adjusted during the use to better match the operation environment and its changes.
• the communication interface 110 and the interception interface 112 may be different interfaces, but in some cases they may also the one and same interface.
• the communication interface 110 and the interception interface 112 may a bus interface or a software interface enabling local communication within the apparatus 200, 300, whereas in the embodiments of FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, the communication interface 110 and the interception interface 112 may be provided by a wireless transceiver capable of communicating remotely with one or more wireless transceivers 130.
• the monitoring data and/or the replacement 612 of the selected configuration 132 with the new configuration 636 is reported.
• the reporting 614 may be addressed to the server apparatus 150, and/or to the user apparatus 160.
• the reporting 614 may also include details of the transmission such as a time of the transmission, an amount of the data, repeatability, quality data, a time between the successive data packets, a deviation in an average data amount over a period of a predetermined length, a frequency of the communication, a detected random communication, a total transmission or communication time (as it may depend on the communication handshaking protocols, data checking and retransmission needs, etc.), transmission of overhead data on top of the original sensor data (overhead data means timing, address, protocol, retransmission, and/or synchronization data needed on top of the original sensor data to be sent), a number of transmission sessions per hour, day or week, etc.
• the monitoring 608 may be directed to various aspects of the wireless data transmission 170.
• an irregularity 638 in the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132 is detected based on the monitoring data.
• the selected configuration 132 is replaced with the new configuration 636 selected from among the plurality of the configurations 108 based on the irregularity 638.
• the irregularity 638 comprises one or more of the following: a missing 640 wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132, an abnormal schedule 642 of the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132, an abnormal amount 644 of the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132.
• the irregularity 638 may indicate some problem related to the selected configuration 132, whereby the change to the new configuration 636 may solve the problem.
• the irregularity 638 may also indicate a change in the operation of the sensor apparatus 120, whereby the change to the new configuration 636 may better match the changed need 172.
• the irregularity 638 is detected in 610 by comparing the monitoring data to a plan 646 for the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132.
• the plan 646 may comprise one or more parameters related to the nature of the transmission 170 such as a communication schedule, a (transferred) user data amount of the communication, etc, and the irregularity 638 may be detected if there is a detectable discrepancy (some parameter exceeding a predetermined threshold, or some other way to detect the irregular event) between the plan and the actual situation of the monitoring data.
• a forecast 648 for the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132 is detected in 610 based on the monitoring data gathered in the past, and, furthermore, the irregularity 638 is detected in 610 by comparing the present monitoring data with the forecast 648.
• the forecast 648 may presuppose that the communication 170 continues similarly as in the past, and the irregularity 638 is detected as the communication 170 turns out different.
• one or more performance metrics 650 of the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132 are detected in 610 based on the monitoring data, and the selected configuration 132 is replaced in 612 with the new configuration 636 selected from among the plurality of the configurations 108 based on the one or more performance metrics 650.
• the one or more performance metrics 650 comprise one or more of the following: a connection quality 652 of the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132, an error rate 654 of the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132, a retransmission rate 656 of the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132.
• the error rate 654 may be a bit error rate (BER), or some other parameter indicating the number of received bits of the wireless data transmission 170 that have been corrupted (due to noise, interference, distortion or bit synchronization errors in the transmission channel).
• the retransmission rate 656 may relate to packet retransmission in the automatic repeat request (ARQ) or any of its variations (such as hybrid ARQ, HARQ).
• a power consumption 658 of the one or more wireless transceivers 130 configured to perform the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132 is detected in 610 based on the monitoring data, and placing 612 the selected configuration 132 is replaced in 612 with the new configuration 636 selected from among the plurality of the configurations 108 based on the power consumption 658.
• the supply of the power may be critical (when using a battery) or at least affect the costs (when using mains supply)
• the power consumption of the one or more wireless transceivers 130 may be measured, and the most energy-efficient configuration 636 may be selected.
• the quality of the wireless data transmission 170 must remain at an acceptable level, whereby the selection of the configuration needs to optimize both the energy consumption and the transmission quality.
• the selected configuration 132 may use a cellular transceiver 130 with a relatively high power consumption, and the new configuration 636 may use a WLAN transceiver with a lower power consumption.
• the selected configuration 132 uses a SIM, which requires a relatively high transmission power as the accessed base station is relatively far away, whereas the new configuration 636 uses a SIM, which requires a lower power consumption as the accessed base station is nearer.
• the control plane data of the wireless data transmission 170 is monitored in 608, whereas the user plane data of the wireless data transmission 170 remains unmonitored in 608.
• the application layer (or layer 7) of the protocol stack used by the wireless data transmission 170 remains unmonitored in 608, whereas one or more of the lower layers 1-6 (physical layer, data link layer, network layer, transport layer, session layer, presentation layer) are monitored in 608.
• the control apparatus 100 may also provide the encryption as a service for the sensor apparatus 120.
• the control unit 100 manages the wireless data transmission 170 by using an optimal transmission channel is used and takes care of the transmission details so that the sensor apparatus 120 need not be interested in those.
• the embodiments described so far have mainly been concentrated on the wireless data transmission 170 of the single sensor apparatus 120.
• the one or more processors 102 are configured to cause the control apparatus 100 to control wireless data transmissions 170, 180 of a plurality of sensor apparatuses 120, 126 as a group based on information relating to the wireless data transmissions 170, 180 of the plurality of the sensor apparatuses 120, 126.
• the control of the group may start from the beginning by detecting similar needs 172 for the wireless data transmission 170, 180.
• the control of the group also continues during the use using the described embodiments.
• the optimization may be based on similar needs, the same geographical location, similar changes in the operation or operation environment, etc.
• the one or more processors 102 are configured to cause the control apparatus 100 to command 606 the one or more wireless transceivers 130 coupled with the sensor apparatus 120 to operate the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132 such that one or more parameters related to the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132 are optimized, wherein the one or more parameters comprise one or more of the following: a delay 628 of the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132, a loading rate 630 of resources used for the wireless data transmission 170 according to the selected configuration 132.
• the optimization may affect the individual apparatus 120, 130, but also the communication network 140.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Security & Cryptography (AREA)
• Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)

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• 2020
  • 2020-04-24 WO PCT/EP2020/061511 patent/WO2020229142A1/en unknown
  • 2020-04-24 EP EP20722530.1A patent/EP3970421A1/de not_active Withdrawn

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