SE1500502A1

SE1500502A1 - Snifferfunktionalitet i ett byggnadsautomationssystem

Info

Publication number: SE1500502A1
Application number: SE1500502A
Authority: SE
Inventors: Zhibo Pang; Gargi Bag; Morgan Johansson
Original assignee: Abb Technology Ltd
Priority date: 2015-12-07
Filing date: 2015-12-07
Publication date: 2015-12-09

Description

15 20 25 30 There is therefore a need for addressing some or all of the above- mentioned problems.

SUMMARY One object of the invention is to provide monitoring of links used in a communication network of a building automation system in order to locate possibly faulty links or faulty nodes.

This object is achieved by the invention according to claims 1, 9, 15 and 16.

The invention according to the above-mentioned aspects has a number of advantages. It allows the detecting of network performance and possible broken links and nodes in communication networks for building automation systems. The detection is also possible to be made in a fast and ef?cient way.

It should be emphasized that the term “comprises/comprising” when used in this speciñcation is taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components, but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will now be described in more detail in relation to the enclosed drawings, in which: ?g. 1 schematically shows a network sniffer device together with a number of nodes in a communication network for a building automation system, ?g. 2 shows a block schematic of some functionality in the wireless terminal, 10 15 20 25 30 ?g. 3 schematically shows a ?ow chart of method steps in a method of investigating communication in the communication network being performed by the network sniffer device, and ?g. 4 schematically shows a computer program product in the form of a CD ROM disc with a computer program performing the functionality of the network sniffer device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, speci?c details are set forth such as particular architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the invention may be practiced in other embodiments that depart from these speci?c details. In other instances, detailed descriptions of well-known devices, circuits and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the invention with unnecessary detail.

The invention is generally directed towards investigation of communication channels in a communication network providing communication in a home or residential building automation system. The communication network may with advantage be a wireless communication network, such as a wireless sensor and actuator network where building/ home automation devices are provided to enable energy efficient climate control, provide comfort and security to the residents in a building or a home. The wireless communication network comprises different actuators and sensors for the building/ home automation system. As an alternative the communication network may be a Wired communication network, such as a backbone network for automation system nodes.

Fig. 1 schematically shows a communication network in the form of a wireless communication network WCN 12 that comprises a group of nodes, 10 15 20 25 30 where the group here comprises three nodes. There is a ?rst node N1 14, a second node N2 16 and a third node N3 18. The number of nodes shown is just an example. It should be realized that there may be more and in fact also fewer nodes in the wireless communication network 12. The nodes perform sensor and actuator functions in the home or residential automation system. Furthermore, they are all able to communicate within the wireless communication network 12 using a wireless communication technology. The wireless communication technology may be any type of local wireless communication technology, such as IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN), Zigbee, Thread, EnOcean, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Bluetooth and Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications Ultra Low Energy (DECT ULE).

As can be seen in ?g. 1 the nodes are able to communicate with each other using communication channels. Merely as an example, there is here shown a first communication channel C1 between the ?rst and second nodes 14 and 16 and a second communication channel C2 between the ?rst and third nodes 14 and 18. It should be realized that there may be many more channels in the wireless communication network 12.

A user of such a home automation system will normally own or have access to a wireless terminal WT 10, such as a cellular phone or a portable computer such as a palm or lap top computer. Furthermore, it is possible to download software, such as an application, into the wireless terminal via a Webshop such as AppStore or GooglePlay. The wireless terminal 10 may furthermore be equipped with at least one wireless interface that is able to at least pick up signals sent according to the communication technology.

In ?g. 1 this is indicated through the wireless terminal connecting to or eavesdropping on the ?rst communication channel C1. The wireless terminal is one variation of a network sniffer device. The wireless terminal is thus one type of wireless communication device that may act as network sniffer device. 10 15 20 25 30 Fig. 2 shows a block schematic of some of the functionality in the wireless terminal 10 that acts a network sniffer device. The wireless terminal 10 comprises a ?rst wireless communication unit WCU 20 connected to a ?rst antenna 22, where the ?rst wireless communication unit 20 and antenna 22 together form a ?rst wireless interface WI1. There is also an optional second wireless communication unit WCU 24 connected to a second antenna 26, where the second wireless communication unit 24 and antenna 26 together form a second wireless interface WI2. It should here be realized that there need only be one wireless interface. There may also exist more wireless interfaces. However all are used for picking up communication in the wireless communication network and therefore also use the communication technology of the network 12. All the radio circuits 20 and 24 are furthermore connected to a traffic analysing unit TAU 28, which traf?c analysing unit 28 is ?nally connected to a user interface UI 30, via which a user may make inputs and be displayed various information. The user interface 30 may comprise a screen as well as a tactile user input unit such as a keyboard or a keypad. It may also be realized as a touch screen.

As was mentioned above, the wireless communication network 12 may be provided for an automation system in a home or in a building, where sensors and actuators are nodes in the system communicating wirelessly.

However connectivity of the wireless links between the nodes can degrade due to interference, obstructions and congestion in the wireless communication network. Also the nodes may become faulty, for instance if drained of power. It may also be of interest to know the network performance after setup of the automation system.

A person, such as a person handling maintenance in the building or the owner of a household may want to be able to identify such problems in an easy and efficient way. 10 15 20 25 30 Today it is often of interest to have various types of functions in wireless terminals such as in lap or palm top computers or in cellular phones, where such functionality may be provided in an application, for instance in a so-called App that may be downloaded from Web stores such as App Store or Google Play. This has the advantage of allowing such applications to be downloaded into virtually any type of wireless terminal.

However, the wireless communication network 12 that is used for realizing communication for an automation system does often not have the ability to investigate the communication on the communication channels with regard to network performance. It is therefore not easy to determine how the network is performing or even to ?nd out of links or nodes that are faulty.

It would therefore be bene?cial if such functionality could be implemented, for instance in an application in a wireless terminal.

An embodiment of the invention addressing the above-mentioned issue will now be described with reference also being made to ?g. 3, which shows a ?ow chart of method steps in a method of investigating the communication in the communication network being performed by the wireless terminal acting as network sniffer device.

The above-described user may note that there is a fault related to one of the nodes 14, 16 or 18 or one of the links in the wireless communication network 12, such as a link of one of the nodes being broken or a node failing, where a link may be implemented via a corresponding communication channel C1 or C2. Alternatively he or she may wish to investigate the network performance after the automation system has been setup. 10 15 20 25 30 In any of the above described situations, the user can start a “Sniffer” application running in the traffic analysing unit 28 of the wireless terminal 10, which sniffer will start the capture of diagnostic information.

The user may therefore start operation through triggering “Get Diagnostic Information” in the application running in the wireless terminal 10, which activation is typically performed via the user interface 30. The application running in the traf?c analysing unit 28 will then connect to at least one communication channel in the wireless communication network 12 using a wireless interface, step 32. In the examples shown in ?g. 1, the application only connects to one channel, the ?rst channel C1 between the ?rst and second nodes 14 and 16 and in this case uses the ?rst wireless interface WI1. It should be realized that it is possible to connect to more than one channel, for instance also to the second channel C2 between the ?rst and third node 14 and 18 as well as to more channels between the same two nodes.

The traf?c analysing unit 28 then investigates the communication on the channel C1 via the interface. More particularly it retrieves diagnostic information of communication on one or more links of the channel for determining possible faults and failures.

In case the channel comprises a data channel, the traf?c analysing unit 28 may for instance investigate headers of data packets on the channel, step 34, where the investigation may be the investigation about the source and destination ?elds of data packets. It may for instance investigate MAC addresses as well as IP addresses and port numbers in order to identify nodes that are involved in communication. It may also investigate acknowledgements, negative acknowledgements and requests for resending of packets. 10 15 20 25 30 In case there is signalling, such as over a dedicated signalling channel, the traf?c analysing unit 28 may additionally investigate link quality reporting on the signalling channel, step 36, where link quality reporting may comprise signal strength measurements, signal to interference and noise ratios, bit error rate BER, power headroom reports etc.

Based on these investigations the traf?c analysing unit 28 then determines the network performance and if there are any failures in the nodes or in the communication links, step 38. The source and destination addresses may be used to identify nodes and also links between the nodes, while the acknowledgements, negative acknowledgments, packet resending requests and link quality reporting may be used to identify links and nodes that have failed.

The analysis may involve identifying the source of a connectivity problem of the node, which can be due to congestion, interference from other wireless sources, obstructíon such as walls and failure of a node. The application in the traf?c analysing unit will thus identify any broken link or faulty node based on the gathered data or generally identify the network performance of nodes and links. The results of the analysis may furthermore be displayed by the traffic analysing unit 28 to the user via the user interface 30, step 40. Once the data is intercepted, the application in the traffic analysing unit 28 may display the network topology with the available links. The application in the traf?c analysing unit 28 will thereby display the procured and analysed information including any identi?ed broken link or faulty node, which will allow the user to take corrective meålSllfeS.

The user may for instance exchange a battery for a new one or may move an obstructing object or the network node. 10 15 20 25 30 In the example given above, the sniffer functionality was included in a wireless terminal such as mobile phone, which passively monitors one or more communication channels to identify faults such as communication failure, device failure etc. This functionality can be triggered when the wireless communication network does not behave as required by the user.

By having the diagnostic functionality and application in a mobile device, the user can identify the fault ef?ciently and quickly by positioning the device well in the network.

As an alternative it is possible that that the sniffer functionality may be included in a traffic distribution device in a backbone network of a building automation system, such as a router like a Local Area Network (LAN) router or a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) router connecting different types of networks, both wired and wireless. A traffic distribution device thereby acts as a network sniffer device. It can also be seen that a wireless traffic distribution device such as a WLAN router is another type of wireless communication device that may act as network sniffer device.

The sniffer functionality in the backbone router may then passively monitor one or more communication channels to investigate network performance, which investigation may also involve identifying faults such as communication failure, device failure etc. This functionality can also be triggered when network does not behave as required by the user.

By having the sniffer functionality in a traf?c distribution device located in the backbone network, a large portion of the automation system can be monitored.

The traf?c analysing unit may be provided in the form of a processor with associated program memory including computer program code for performing the functionality of the traf?c analysing unit. It may also be provided in the form of a digital signal processor (DSP), an application 10 15 20 10 speci?c integrated circuit (ASIC) or a ?eld-programmable gate array (FPGA).

A computer program may also be a computer program product, for instance in the form of a computer readable storage medium or data carrier, like a CD ROM disc or a memory stick, carrying such a computer program with the computer program code, which will implement the functionality of the above-described traf?c analysing unit when being loaded into a processor. One such computer program product in the form of a CD ROM disc 42 with the above-mentioned computer program code 44 for a network sniffer device is schematically shown in ?g. 4.

While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modi?cations and equivalent arrangements. Therefore the invention is only to be limited by the following claims.

Claims

1. 1 CLAIMS 1. A network sniffer device (10) for investigating communication in a 10 15 20 25 30 communication network (12) provided for a building automation system comprising a group of network nodes (14, 16, 18) comprising actuator and sensor nodes, the network sniffer device comprising: at least one communication interface (20, 22, 24, 26) for listening to traf?c in the communication network (10), and a traf?c analysing unit (28) con?gured to connect to at least one communication channel (C1) on the communication network (12) via said at least one communication interface, investigate the traf?c on the communication channel and determine network performance and possible failures of communication or nodes in the building automation system. . The network sniffer device (10) according to claim 1, wherein the traf?c comprises data packets and the traf?c analysing unit (28), when being con?gured to investigate traf?c, is con?gured to investigate the headers of data packets. . The network sniffer device according to claim 2, wherein the traf?c analysing unit (28) when investigating headers of packets is con?gured to investigate the source and destination ?elds of data packets. . The network sniffer device according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the traf?c analysing unit (28) when investigating headers of packets is con?gured to investigate acknowledgements, negative acknowledgements and requests for resending of packets. . The network sniffer device according to any previous claim, wherein the communication network is a wireless communication network, the l0 15 20 25 30 10. 11. 12 network sniffer device is a wireless communication device and the communication interface is a wireless communication interface. The network sniffer device according to claim 5, wherein the traf?c analysing unit is con?gured to investigate link quality reporting on said at least one communication channel. The network sniffer device according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the wireless communication device is a wireless terminal. The network sniffer device according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the wireless communication network is a wireless backbone network and the wireless communication device is a traf?c distribution device of the wired backbone network. The network sniffer device according to any of claims 1 - 4, wherein the communication network is a wired backbone network and the network sniffer device is a traf?c distribution device of the wired backbone network. The network sniffer device according to any previous claim, further comprising a user interface (30) and the traf?c analysing unit (28) is further con?gured to display results of the investigation to a user via the user interface (30). A method for investigating communication in a communication network (12) provided for a building automation system comprising a group of network nodes (14, 16, 18) comprising actuator and sensor nodes, the method being performed in a network sniffer device (10) and comprising: connecting (32) to at least one communication channel (C1) on the communication network (12), 10 15 20 25 30 13 investigating (34, 36) the traf?c on the communication channel, and determining (38) network performance and possible failures of communication or nodes in the building automation system. 12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the traf?c comprises data packets and the investigating of the traf?c comprises investigating (34) the headers of data packets. 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the investigating of headers of packets comprises investigating the source and destination ?elds of data packets. 14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, wherein the investigating of headers of packets comprises investigating acknowledgements, negative acknowledgements and requests for resending of packets. 15. The method according to any of claims 11 - 14, wherein the communication network is a wireless communication network and the investigating of the communication channel comprises investigating (36) link quality reporting on said at least one communication channel. 16. The method according to any of claims 12 - 15, further comprising displaying (40) results of the analysis to a user of the network sniffer device. 17. A computer program for investigating communication in a communication network (12) provided for a building automation system comprising a group of network nodes (14, 16, 18) comprising actuator and sensor nodes, the computer program comprising computer program code (44) which when run in a network sniffer device (10) , causes the network sniffer device (10) to: 10 14 connect to at least one communication channel on the communication network, investigate the traf?c on the communication channel (C1), and determine network performance and possible failures of communication or nodes in the building automation system. 18. A computer program product for investigating communication in a communication network (12) provided for a building automation system comprising a group of network nodes (14, 16, 18) comprising actuator and sensor nodes, said computer program product being provided on a data carrier (42) and comprising said computer program code (44) according to claim 17.