JP2019071603A - APPARATUS, METHOD AND PROGRAM FOR TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING DATA TO AND FROM IoT DEVICE - Google Patents

Abstract

To achieve overhead reduction in an apparatus for transmitting and receiving data to and from an IoT device in order to accelerate the spread of IoT.SOLUTION: First, in an IoT device 110, some event occurs. The IoT device 110 generates a message to be transmitted, and transmits, via SMS, the message to a phone number of a first server 101, which is stored in the IoT device 110. The first server 101 notifies the IoT terminal 110, as needed, of having received SMS data including the message, and thereafter delivers the SMS data to a second server 102. On the basis of a destination identifier included in the message of the SMS data, the second server 102 specifies a destination with reference to associations between destination identifiers includable in the SMS data and destinations. The second server 102 transmits, to a third external server 123, a portion obtained by excluding the destination identifier from the message or the whole message including the destination identifier.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus, method, and program for transmitting and receiving data with an IoT device.

  With the development of sensing technology and communication technology, the number of devices connected to computer networks is increasing, and the concept of Internet of Things in which everything is networked is spreading. Hereinafter, not only the Internet but also networked devices are called "IoT devices".

  An IoT device can connect to a network and send collected data to a server, storage, etc., or receive data distribution from a server, but for that purpose a secure connection is established with the server It must be. As one method, the same or corresponding authentication information for performing communication by a predetermined communication method is provided in advance to both the server and the device, and for example, software that operates when the device is powered on is relevant. The authentication information may be used to establish a connection with the server.

  When the power of the IoT device into which the SIM card is inserted is turned on, the IoT device is in a state of being attached to the cellular network through the authentication by the HLR / HSS of the IMSI written in the SIM card. When data communication is performed by packet switching after being attached to the cellular network, additional GTP connection is performed, and data can be transmitted and received by IP communication with the server.

  However, in the case of the above-described communication method, a large overhead is generated for data that is originally intended to be transmitted and received. As an example, when it is considered to transmit 11 octets of log data as shown in FIG. 1 to a server from an IoT device capable of GPS tracking, establishment of GTP connection, establishment of TCP socket, HTTP POST request, HTTP POST Hundred octets of data processing are required: response, disconnection of TCP socket, and disconnection of GTP connection. This overhead is directly linked to power consumption in IoT devices, and has a significant impact on continuous operation time.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and its object is to provide an apparatus, method, and program for transmitting and receiving data with an IoT device in order to accelerate the spread of IoT. It is about trying to reduce.

  In order to achieve such an object, a first aspect of the present invention is an apparatus for transmitting or receiving data with an IoT device, which receives SMS data including a message from the IoT device. And a second server for specifying a transmission destination of the message or the data corresponding thereto based on the SMS data, the second server including the transmission destination and an IP network. It is characterized by performing communication.

  Further, according to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the transmission destination is identified with reference to the correspondence between a transmission destination identifier that may be included in the SMS data and the transmission destination. Do.

  Further, according to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the transmission destination identifier is included in the SMS data as a part of a message.

  Further, according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect, the transmission destination identifier is a predetermined number of digits or a number or a symbol smaller than the predetermined number of digits.

  Further, according to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to fourth aspects, the message is in binary format.

  Further, according to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect, the second server develops the SMS message into a text format and transmits it to the transmission destination.

  Further, according to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in any of the first to sixth aspects, the second server expresses an instruction from the external server to the IoT device by communication on an IP network. Receiving the data and passing the data to the first server, the first server transmits SMS data including the data or the data corresponding thereto in a message to the IoT device; The server is characterized in that data from the IoT device has not been received for a predetermined time or more when transmitting the SMS data.

  An eighth aspect of the present invention is an apparatus for transmitting or receiving data with an IoT device, comprising: receiving signaling data including a message from the IoT device by signaling on a cellular network And a second server for specifying a transmission destination of the message or data corresponding thereto based on the signaling data, the second server communicating with the transmission destination on the IP network It is characterized by doing.

  Also, a ninth aspect of the present invention is a method for transmitting or receiving data with an IoT device, comprising: receiving signaling data including a message from the IoT device by signaling on a cellular network. And identifying a transmission destination of the message or data corresponding thereto based on the signaling data, and transmission to the transmission destination is performed on an IP network.

  A tenth aspect of the present invention is a program for causing a computer to execute a method for transmitting or receiving data with an IoT device, the method comprising: from the IoT device, a cellular network Receiving the signaling data including the message by the signaling, and identifying the transmission destination of the message or the corresponding data based on the signaling data, and the transmission to the transmission destination is IP It is characterized in that it is performed on a network.

  In order to achieve such an object, according to an aspect of the present invention, when using SMS with limited capacity for communication between the IoT device and the external server, the destination such as the URL of the external server is used as it is. By introducing a destination identifier of a digit or symbol of a predetermined number of digits or less, and converting the identifier into a destination on the SMS data receiving side, instead of describing it in data, with various external services Significant overhead reduction can be realized without losing cooperation.

It is a figure which shows an example of the log data by GPS tracking. Fig. 1 shows an apparatus according to a first embodiment of the invention; It is a figure which shows the flow of data transmission from the IoT apparatus concerning the 1st Embodiment of this invention to an external server. It is a figure which shows the sequence of instruction transmission from an external server to an IoT apparatus concerning 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First Embodiment
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. When the SIM card 111 is inserted in the IoT device 110, the inventors greatly compress overhead while performing complex processing as well as IP communication even if using SMS instead of IP communication with large overhead. Found that it is possible.

  The device 100 receives the SMS data from the IoT device 110 into which the SIM card 111 is inserted, and the transmission destination of the message included in the SMS data or the data corresponding thereto based on the SMS data. And a second server 102 that identifies the As a transmission destination, an external server that provides various services is possible, and complex processing can be realized. In FIG. 2, the first external server 121, the second external server 122, and the third external server 123 are shown. While communication between the IoT device 110 and the device 100 is performed by SMS in a cellular network, IP communication can be performed between the device 100 and an external server.

  The device 100 can be a communication device of an MNO (mobile communication carrier), and a communication device of an MVNO (virtual mobile communication carrier) in a form of providing a wireless communication service by connecting to the MNO communication infrastructure. It can also be done. Between MNO and MVNO, MVNE (Virtual Mobile Communication Service Provider), which provides support services for smooth operation of MVNO, intervenes, and MVNE connects to MNO's communication infrastructure to provide wireless communication service May have a communications infrastructure to In this case, the device 100 may be an MVNE communication device. Also, the first server 101 included in the device 100 may be a communication infrastructure of different operators, such as a communication device of MNO, and the second server 102 may be a communication device of MVNE or MVNO.

  The first server 101 is a server called SMS Center (SMSC) for sending or receiving SMS messages, and the second server 102 receives SMS data from the first server 101 including messages as body data. Receive and process the message appropriately, and send it to the appropriate receiver. The first server 101 and the second server 102 may each be one or more instances on a public cloud or a private cloud, and in particular the second server 102 may be divided into a plurality of instances depending on the function It may be appropriate to design. It is also conceivable that the first server 101 is responsible for part or all of the functions of the second server 102.

  Here, in the present specification, a "cloud" refers to a system capable of dynamically provisioning and providing computing resources such as CPU, memory, storage, network bandwidth, and the like according to demand on a network. For example, the cloud can be used by AWS or the like. Also, "public cloud" refers to a cloud that can be used by multiple tenants.

  The IoT device 110 may be any device having a required communication function, and may have an identification number such as IMSI for connecting to a cellular network. Although connection to a packet switched network (PS) is necessary to perform IP communication in a cellular network, connection to a circuit switched network (CS) is sufficient for communication by SMS, so it is necessary to connect to a PS. It enables the adoption of simplified equipment that eliminates the functions required for the connection of

  Although this specification mainly describes an example in which the SIM card is inserted into the IoT device 110, the identification number such as IMSI is not only stored in the physical SIM card 111, but also the IoT device One or more IMSIs are stored on a semiconductor chip (also referred to as “eSIM”) incorporated in 110, software is installed in a secure area in a module of IoT device 110, and one or more of the software is installed on the software. A plurality of IMSIs may be stored, and various modes may be considered in which the IoT device 110 holds the identification number directly or indirectly. In addition to the identification number such as IMSI, the IoT device 110 stores a telephone number such as its own MSISDN and a telephone number such as the MSISDN of the first server 101 that is an SMSC.

  The first external server 121, the second external server 122, and the third external server 123 can each be of various uses. For example, data can be sent via HTTP to the company server of the company operating IoT device 110, data can be securely stored via HTTP over SSL / TLS, and second server 102 is an instance or server on the cloud. In some cases, there is an application of transferring data to an instance or server of the same cloud or another cloud. Setting information such as a transmission destination server, credentials, and a protocol to be used can be stored in the device 100 for each SIM card, and data transmitted by SMS can be transferred according to the setting information.

  Each device described herein is not limited to a physically single device, but may be a plurality of mutually accessible devices. In addition, for the second server 102, a communication unit 102-1 such as a communication interface, a processing unit 102-2 such as a processor or CPU, and a storage unit 102-3 including a storage device or storage medium such as a memory or a hard disk To realize each function by executing in the processing unit 102-2 a program for performing each process stored in a storage device or storage medium accessible from the storage unit 102-3 or the second server 102. The other devices can be realized by similar hardware, as illustrated as being capable of. The program may include one or more programs, and may be recorded on a computer readable storage medium to be a non-transitory program product.

  FIG. 3 shows a sequence of data transmission from an IoT device to an external server according to the first embodiment of the present invention. First, an event occurs in the IoT device 110 (S301). For example, there is an example in which the timer is activated and the information acquired by the sensor of the IoT device 110 is to be transmitted to the third external server 123.

  The IoT device 110 generates a message in which the acquired information is described, and transmits it by SMS to the telephone number of the first server 101 stored in advance in the IoT device 110 (S302). The message includes a transmission destination identifier for identifying the third external server 123 to which at least a part of the message or data corresponding to the message is to be transmitted. The destination identifier may be a four digit number, such as 1001, 1002, 1003, 2000, etc., and more generally may be a predetermined number of digits or less than a predetermined number of digits or symbols. . The message format that can be sent by SMS is very limited, such as 140 octets, so it is desirable to use binary format.

  The first server 101 delivers the SMS data to the second server 102 after notifying the IoT terminal 110 that the SMS data including the message has been received as necessary (S303) (S304) . At this time, the identification number stored in the IoT terminal 110 or the telephone number of the IoT terminal 110 which is a determinable transmission source based on the identification number may be included in the SMS data.

  The second server 102 refers to the correspondence between the transmission destination identifier that can be included in the SMS data and the transmission destination based on the transmission destination identifier included in the message of the SMS data, and specifies the transmission destination (S305). ). The destination can be a URL on an IP network, and often has several tens of octets. When the message is in binary format, the second server 102 is expanded to a format generally used widely on the server side, for example, a text-based format such as JSON or XML, so as to be easily handled by the third server 123 as a transmission destination. (S306).

  The second server 102 transmits, to the third external server 123, a part of the message excluding the transmission destination identifier or the entire message including the transmission destination identifier (S307). As an example, the transmission can transmit at least a part of the message or data corresponding to this by an HTTP POST request in JSON format or the like.

  Each device may be inactive upon receiving or transmitting results for each transmission as indicated by the dotted lines in FIG. The period during which each device is active is indicated by a vertically long rectangle.

  As mentioned above, it is unrealistic to use SMS with limited capacity for communication between IoT devices and external servers, since the destinations such as URLs of external servers occupy a large proportion of the capacity. By introducing a destination identifier of a digit or symbol of a predetermined number of digits or less, and converting the identifier into a destination on the receiving side of SMS data, communication by SMS becomes practically possible, and various external Significant overhead reductions can be achieved without compromising service coordination. In addition, when the server side is exposed to the outside, security is generally required to require a client for authentication credentials from the client, and transmission of this information over SMS also requires overhead and However, in the present embodiment, this information can be held on the server side, and this information can be reduced by applying the information as appropriate. For this purpose, the correspondence between the destination or the destination identifier and the credential may be held in the device 100.

  In the above description, the transmission destination is identified based on the transmission destination identifier, but the telephone number of the transmission source included or added to the SMS data in addition to or in place of the transmission destination identifier. Alternatively, the transmission destination may be identified based on at least a part of the SMS data message.

  In the present embodiment, data transmission from the IoT device 110 to the device 100 to the first server 101 is performed by SMS on the cellular network, but this does not necessarily limit the spirit of the present invention to only SMS. It is also conceivable to employ signaling on cellular networks other than SMS. In this case, the data received by the first server 101 is called “signaling data”, and more specifically, the client can transmit, and the received server side uniquely identifies the identification number used for the transmission. And can be defined as data that can be identified securely. For example, the signaling data may include messages by USSD.

  In addition, if there is no description of “only” such as “based only on xx”, “according to xx only”, and “in the case of xx only”, additional information may be used in this specification. Note that it is assumed that also

  Furthermore, to be on the safe side, each method, program, terminal, device, server or system (hereinafter referred to as “method or the like”) may have aspects that perform operations different from the operations described in the present specification. The aspect is directed to the same operation as any of the operations described herein, and the existence of an operation different from the operations described herein means that the respective methods of the present invention It is added that it is not out of the scope of the embodiment.

Second Embodiment
In the second embodiment, for example, an instruction such as data acquisition is issued from an external server as a premise of transmission of sensor data exemplified in the first embodiment. Data resulting from the operation according to the instruction can be transmitted to the external server in the flow described in the first embodiment.

  FIG. 4 shows a sequence of transmission of an instruction from the external server to the IoT device according to the second embodiment of the present invention. First, some event occurs in the second external server 122 (S401). For example, since the administrator of the IoT device 110 is concerned about the condition on the terminal side, it is conceivable that the IoT device 110 presses a button for executing a process of acquiring sensor data.

  The second external server 122 passes an instruction for the IoT device 110 to the Web API as a body data, using the device identifier for identifying the IoT device 110 as a parameter (S402). The device identifier may be a telephone number of the IoT device 110, or may be an identification number such as IMSI, a device name, or the like.

  If the received command is in text format, the Web API may convert this into binary format as needed (S 403). Then, when the device identifier is other than the telephone number, the Web API refers to the correspondence between the device identifier and the telephone number to specify the telephone number of the IoT device 110, and the second server 102 The telephone number and the instruction to the IoT device 110 or the corresponding data are passed (S404). Although FIG. 2 does not show a server or an instance for providing the Web API, this may be provided separately from the second server 102 or may be provided at the second server 102. Also, the web server on a separate server or instance may be included as a second server 102.

  The second server 102 transmits, to the first server 101, a transmission request for SMS data in which the transmission destination is the telephone number of the IoT device 110, the command for which the message has been received, or the corresponding data (S405). At this time, the transmission source of the SMS data is the telephone number assigned to the first server 101 that is the SMSC, and the management that performed the instruction from the second external server 122 or the second external server 122 that issued the instruction The message may also include an external source identifying the party or an identifier representing it.

  The first server 101 transmits the SMS data including the data representing the command or the data corresponding thereto in the message to the IoT device 110 (S406). The IoT device 110 returns a receipt confirmation response as necessary (S407), and executes processing according to the command (S408).

  Here, the method according to the present embodiment is characterized in that the IoT device is not required to be always on-line to receive an instruction or instruction that does not know when it will fly. In the case of IP communication instead of communication by SMS, in general, a device such as NAT intervenes with the server, and can not be directly accessed from the server, and the server can be accessed each time a TCP / UDP session is established. And by creating state information and maintaining it in each device such as firewall and NAT on the route, access from the server is enabled. And since state information is generally implemented in soft state and has a fixed expiration date, a technique called keepalive that sends empty data from the device before the expiration date and maintains the state information Is often used. And the need for keepalive is a big overhead.

  On the other hand, in the communication by SMS, since the modem in the dormant mode can be woken up by paging to notify the arrival of a message, the first server 101 according to the present embodiment periodically or intermittently sends an IoT device 110 It is possible to transmit SMS data at an arbitrary timing and execute an instruction without transmitting data. From the viewpoint of the first server 101, since keepalive is unnecessary, SMS data can be transmitted even if data from the IoT device 110 has not been received for a predetermined time or more. For example, in IP communication, it is often difficult to access from a server at any timing without performing keepalive for several minutes or more or several minutes or more, but according to this embodiment, the IoT device 110 It is not necessary to transmit data over such a long period of time.

  More specifically, the data transmission frequency for keepalive depends on the expiration date of the state information in each device on the network path, so it can not be decided in general, but in the network that it does not manage, the setting is It is necessary to set in accordance with the shortest equipment in order to maintain stability and continuity, because it may change. Especially with IoT, which is often used in IoT, timers that maintain the state are often short compared to TCP, which is often used in applications where sessions last for a long time, and keepalive needs to be performed frequently for tens of seconds to several minutes is there.

  As an example, consider a case where a Registration Update request is sent as keepalive to the server every one minute so that the server can execute a data acquisition command at any timing using OMA LWM 2M.

  Assuming that the request size is 80 octets and the response size is 80 octets, the amount of communication for keepalive per day is 230,400 octets, about 7 MB in January, and the cost can not be ignored when the number of devices is large. Let

  Furthermore, if the device is battery powered, the device and modem must always be active to perform this communication, significantly shortening battery lifetime. SMS commands waiting for commands in sleep mode and active when sending commands, consumes power for SMS communication, and is always active for sending data frequently for keepalive There is a difference of several tens of times and several hundreds of times with IP communication that must be continued.

100 device 101 first server 102 second server 102-1 communication unit 102-2 processing unit 102-3 storage unit 110 IoT device 111 SIM card 121 first external server 122 second external server 123 third external server server

Claims (6)

A device for transmitting or receiving data with an IoT device,
A first server for receiving signaling data including a message from the IoT device by signaling on a cellular network;
And a second server for specifying a transmission destination of the message or data corresponding to the message based on the signaling data.
The signaling data includes, as a part of the message, a destination identifier represented by a predetermined digit number or a number or symbol less than the predetermined digit number,
The apparatus is characterized in that the transmission destination is specified by the second server with reference to the correspondence between a transmission destination identifier that may be included in the signaling data and a transmission destination.   The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second server communicates with the destination on an IP network.   The apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the message is in binary format. The second server receives data representing an instruction to the IoT device from an external server by communication on an IP network, and delivers the data to the first server.
The apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first server transmits, to the IoT device, signaling data that includes the data or data corresponding thereto in a message. A method for transmitting or receiving data with an IoT device, comprising
Receiving signaling data including a message from the IoT device by signaling on a cellular network;
Identifying a transmission destination of the message or data corresponding to the message based on the signaling data.
The signaling data includes, as a part of the message, a destination identifier represented by a predetermined digit number or a number or symbol less than the predetermined digit number,
The method is characterized in that the transmission destination is specified by the second server with reference to the correspondence between a transmission destination identifier that can be included in the signaling data and a transmission destination. A program for causing a computer to execute a method for transmitting or receiving data with an IoT device, the method comprising:
Receiving signaling data including a message from the IoT device by signaling on a cellular network;
Identifying a transmission destination of the message or data corresponding to the message based on the signaling data.
The signaling data includes, as a part of the message, a destination identifier represented by a predetermined digit number or a number or symbol less than the predetermined digit number,
The program is characterized in that the transmission destination is specified by the second server with reference to the correspondence between a transmission destination identifier that can be included in the signaling data and a transmission destination.

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