SI25820A - Device of data hub and communication gateway - Google Patents

Abstract

The electronic device of the data junction and communication gateway is intended for the exchange of messages between sensors, actuators and other devices that use different communication interfaces and protocols. In addition, the device takes care of converting data into a common format and enriching it with metadata. The data stream is forwarded to the device to provide services and applications to the user or via the Internet versus cloud services. The device application is intended for aggregating data from various sources and adapting the structure of messages for transmission to other devices.

Description

DATA CENTER AND COMMUNICATION TRANSITION DEVICE

Field of technology

The invention relates to an electronic device for capturing and transmitting messages between the final sensor or. actuator devices and back-end control systems using different communication interfaces and protocols. The functionality of the data junction enables the exchange, aggregation and contextual enrichment of data, and the functionality of the communication gateway enables the transmission of data to services or applications through the selected interface and messaging protocol.

Demonstration of a technical problem

The term smart environment refers to the user's living or working environment equipped with various devices (eg 110, 109, 108, 107 and 105 in Figure 1) and systems (eg 100, 101, 102, 103, 104 and 106 in Figure 1), which are mutually coordinated and provide user-friendly services (120) for greater convenience. In this respect, smart objects are independent sensor and / or actuator devices, as well as household appliances and personal aids that contain a communication interface with the possibility of interaction. Different devices and systems are most often specific to individual manufacturers and offer a limited level of interoperability with other devices in the user's living or working environment. Such remote access (107 in Figure 1) typically uses its own communication technology and protocol data unit (PDU) (120) with sensor-actuator system # 5 (104). Similarly, system # 4 (103), which is basically controlled by the exchange of PDUs (118) as a result of the state of switches and buttons (108), in certain cases via a separate communication interface, protocol stack and PDU (117) has the possibility of interactions with cloud services. The analogy of the above examples also applies to assemblies with three or more assemblies, such as [system # 3 (102), display (109), PDU (115, 116)], [system # 2 (101),

-Ί remote control application (110), PDU (113, 114)], and [system # 1 (100), application on mobile phone / tablet (105), PDU (111, 112)].

With the ability to connect all devices in a smart environment, requirements are gradually changing from dedicated devices (110, 109, 108, 107 and 105) and systems (100, 101, 102, 103, 104 and 106) that communicate via various communication technologies, protocol funds and PDUs (111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120) and contain simple control functions as shown in Figure 1, where the data point is the user (120), in multifunction systems with full insight into the state of each device and the context of operation, as shown in Figure 2. The latter requires the adoption of the principles of aggregation and assembly at the level of software (applications, services, data) and hardware (wired and wireless interfaces, process capabilities, memory). Instead of managing each device via a dedicated interface (110, 109, 108, 107 and 105) or specific protocols (111, 113, 115, 117 and 119) in the case of remote Internet access, as shown in Figure 1, the use of a data center and communication gateway allows simultaneous and coordinated control of a number of different devices of a certain layout via a single user interface (105), as shown in Figure 2.

The device of the data junction (hub) and communication gateway (hereinafter HUB & GVV) (203), which is presented in Figure 2 as a function of the user's living / working environment and whose components are illustrated in Figure 3, is an electronic device that combines a multitude of communication technologies and protocols for wired and wireless access (eg ZigBee, Z-Wave, 6LoWPAN, M-BUS, Bluetooth, LoRa) and enables the transmission of messages via a serial interface (eg USB, RS-232) or a local network (eg .Ethernet, Wi-Fi). The device can also send messages to the end devices / systems (100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 106) of a certain layout via the local network (307) or the single user interface (105). Supporting a range of technologies, collecting data from a variety of sources and translating between messaging protocols, the HUB & GVV is designed for system integrators and service providers.

-3 An example of the use of the HUB & GVV device is the reading of electricity, gas or water consumption meters at prescribed intervals. Communication interface meters most commonly contain M-BUS or LoRa technology, and the exact messaging protocol may depend on the equipment manufacturer, region of use, or infrastructure manager. The implementation of the HUB & GVV device in this case would include radio interfaces for various frequency bands intended for industrial, scientific and medical use (ISM), which include the frequency bands 169 MHz, 315 MHz, 433, MHz, 868 MHz, 915 MHz and 2.4 GHz, the implementation M-BUS or LoRaVVAN protocol funds, the implementation of a protocol fund for communication with the collection center (eg TCP / IP) and support for various modes of operation (eg periodic dosing or data acquisition on request) and PDU structure.

State of the art

US20130242969 Portable device that operates as a multi-protocol gateway Communications gateway to a wireless network, 2013 US20100041333 Charging station that operates as an intermediary device between mobile devices and other devices, 2010 US20060133414 Wireless gateway for enabling wireless devices to discover and interact with various short-range services / devices, 2006

Known patented solutions are mostly designed to provide known services between predefined wireless access technologies. They also identify the possible appearance of a device for switching between wireless access technologies, either as portable devices or as an extension of a charging station for personal electronic devices.

None of the known patented solutions deals with the design of a device that at the same time serves as (i) a communication transition between different technologies that

-4 messaging uses different media (radio, wired, optical) and (ii) a data hub that converts data from messages into a common format and enriches it with meta-data such as device type and profile, manufacturer, address or. unique identifier, available resources, location, etc. The latter allows the design of the device of the data junction and communication gateway in the form of an expansion module to the device for the execution of services and applications (202 in Figure 2). In this way, the development of the user and infrastructure part of the entire system remains completely separate, and the device can be adapted to a specific layout or selected set of communication technologies.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION / DESCRIPTION OF THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM AND EMBODIMENTS

A schematic representation of the user's living / working environment with several smart devices connected to a common system via the HUB & GW device (203) is shown in Figure 2. The HUB & GVV device (203) represents a single point for connecting all devices or devices. subsystems of a specific layout, such as systems # 01 (100), # 02 (101), # 03 (102), # 04 (103), # 05 (104) and # 06 (106). As shown in Figure 2, the HUB & GVV device (203) is part of a wider central device (201) that also includes the services and applications functionalities (202) for the user. The separation of services and applications (202) from the functionality of the HUB & GVV device (203) enables an efficient division of the development of the user and infrastructure part of the entire system. The HUB & GVV (203) can be integrated in the central unit itself (201) or connected to it as an expansion module.

In order for the HUB & GVV (203) to act as a single point for connecting the various subsystems of an individual layout, it contains three key sets of components shown in Figure 3. The first set contains a set of wired, wireless and / or optical, open or protected communication interfaces (300, 307). which connect to all subsystems of an individual layout and are therefore typically within the reach of local area networks (LANs). The second set includes implementations of protocol funds (301, 306) for connection within the home network (HAN) and outside the Internet, which are specific to communication interfaces

-5 (300, 307) and connecting devices (309). The third set comprises a data junction and communication gateway application (302) consisting of a PDU parser (305), a knowledge base (303), and a buffer (304). The combination of technologies and interfaces illustrated in Figure 3 represents only one of the possible embodiments of the device and serves to explain the invention, but not necessarily to implement it.

The HUB & GVV (203) illustrated in Figure 3 is an electronic device which (i) via interfaces (300) and protocols (301) serves as an intermediary between sensors, actuators and other devices and (ii) via separate interfaces (307) and protocols (306). ) highlights data and resources against the Internet and cloud services or against a device with a user interface. Support for a variety of technologies such as ZigBee, Z-Wave, MBUS, LoRa, 6LoWPAN, WiFi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, etc. allows the HUB & GVV (203) to combine and coordinate the operation of connected devices (309) from different manufacturers, with various message formats, application profiles and communication interfaces used (300), such as wireless radio, wireless optical (eg infrared), power cable, pair , optical fiber or dedicated guide. Such hardware enables the development of software that is independent of the used system devices or versions of their program (firmware) and supports the implementation of object and event driven models, as the data is simultaneously exposed via various application protocols such as HTTP, CoAP, MQTT, AMQP, ΧΜΡΡ or others.

In the HUB & GVV (302) PDU application, the PDU (305) takes care of composing outgoing and disassembling incoming messages from different devices and storing data in a common format. Selected data are stored in the knowledge base (303), the actual data upon receipt or. and in the buffer (304) before sending the message. Examples of data stored by the knowledge base (303) for each connected device are the type and profile of the device, the address or. unique identifier, supported functionality set, available resources, manufacturer, program version and system-wide role. This data is used to record the context of data streams coming from connected devices.

- 6 The received PDUs are first transmitted to the parser (305) in the HUB & GVV (203), which converts the data into a common format and enriches it with context from the knowledge base (303), and then transmits them to services and applications via the appropriate interface (202). . The latter can be provided (i) on a relatively powerful dedicated computer device that is part of the home network, or the HUB & GVV is connected to it via a physical interface (such as 201 in Figure 2), or (ii) outside the home network in the form of public or private cloud services. In the case of a physical connection, data is transmitted using a serial line protocol such as USB or RS-232 (307), and in the case of a network typically via an Ethernet communication interface (307), using the TCP / IP protocol stack (306) and the application forwarding protocol. data (e.g. HTTP, CoAP, MQTT, AMQP, ΧΜΡΡ) (306). In special cases, the HUB & GVV (203) can also access services and applications via a protocol stack (306) and a wireless interface (307) to a 2G / 3G / 4G mobile cellular network.

In some embodiments, the HUB & GVV device (203) may also provide an application program interface (API) that allows the selection of the desired application layer protocol for data exchange. provides data fusion functionality, which allows you to sort messages by timestamp, device type and PDU type.

The invention is presented in detail in the following figures

Figure 1: Schematic representation of the user's normal living / working environment with several independent devices and systems, without the presence of a data center device and communication gateway.

Figure 2: Schematic representation of the user's living / working environment with several devices connected to a common system via a data center device and communication gateway.

-Ί Figure 3: Schematic representation of the components of the data center and communication gateway device with examples of technologies, protocols and interfaces used.

Claims (4)

PATENT APPLICATIONS 1. A device for collecting and processing states from smart objects (sensors, actuators, stand-alone devices) within the user's living / working environment, comprising: - Communication interfaces for connecting devices via various media and technologies. - Communication interfaces for connecting to the device services and applications for the user. - Communication interfaces for connecting to a mobile application or web service on the Internet. - Protocol funds of various communication technologies. - Message and data processing application. 2. A method for combining the function of a communication transition between different communication technologies and a data junction, which takes care of converting data into a common format and enriching it with metadata. 3. Implementation of an application programming interface for programming intended for setting the operation of the data center device and communication gateway and adjusting the format of the message exchange. 4. Knowledge base and the process of converting messages for transmission between otherwise incompatible devices or communication technologies.