WO2011025358A1

WO2011025358A1 - Method and system for handling mote and sensor devices in wireless sensor network

Info

Publication number: WO2011025358A1
Application number: PCT/MY2010/000146
Authority: WO
Inventors: Abdul Rahim Abdul Hamid; Ahmad Nizar Harun; Ahmad Rizal Ahmad Bokhari; Badrul Hisham Ibrahim; Ismail Mat Yusoff; Mohamad Faisal Jaafar Ng; Mohamed Rawidean Mohd Kassim; Rosli Mohd Din; Shamsul Effendy Kamaruddin; Siti Sarah Ramli; Wan Hasmi Wan Kamal
Original assignee: Mimos Berhad
Priority date: 2009-08-24
Filing date: 2010-08-17
Publication date: 2011-03-03
Also published as: MY155919A

Abstract

The present invention discloses a system and method for use in handling at least one sensor device (20) and at least one mote device (30), collector device (40), a gateway device (50) and an application device (60). The arrangement provided based on the preferred embodiments of the present invention allows the sensor device (20) to be separated from the mote device (30). The selected sensor device (20) for the respective application device (60) checks -in the network upon suitably prompted or requested by the mote device (30). In order to establish connection, both sensor device (20) and mote device (30) provide their identifications to the gateway device (50) for reference during operation.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR HANDLING MOTE AND SENSOR DEVICES IN

WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the devices used in wireless sensor networks, and more particularly to a method and system for use in managing or handling mote and sensors within a wireless sensor network.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

The development of motes, as one of the most low cost, low- power computational related device, often involves challenges particularly related to enhancing its functional capabilities, compatibility with other devices and providing effortless maintenance characteristics.

Motes are commercially available and may be used for various purposes, at which additional devices may be coupled to the respective mote so as to serve the desired function. Applications which may require the capabilities of motes include analyzing the properties of an object or material, monitoring an object and the development of an object, military purposes and detection of materials or compounds. A collection of motes for sending and receiving may be provided for certain applications, wherein these motes may communicate with each other thereby forming a network. It is further an established fact that the use of motes have replaced numerous prior art tools for the respective application, at which in many occasions these tools would turn out to be less effective or rather laborious when it comes to assembling components or maintenance .

Being one of the unique technologies of sensing objects and materials, each mote within a network may be coupled with at least one sensor for sending and receiving signals or data during use. Accordingly, in the event that the mote is connected to a wireless network, such combination is typically considered as a single device thereby provided with a single unique identifier. Replacements of sensors within the network may be required for certain applications, which results to replacement of the mote device due to- the assigned single identifier. In the event that frequent replacement of sensors is required, the necessity to also replace the mote device may be rather cumbersome.

Based on the above, it would be highly desirable to provide method and system at which the sensor can operate as a single unit and thus allowing replacement of sensor at any point of time devoid the necessity to replace the mote device when the need arises. It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide a method and system for use in handling mote and sensor devices within a wireless sensor network, whereby said devices are able to operate separately and thus enabling removal or replacement of sensor at any point of time within said network.

It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a method and system for use in handling mote and sensor devices within a wireless sensor network, whereby there is included the steps for checking -in of mote and sensor device so as to enable separate operation of mote and sensor devices.

It is another object of the present invention to provide and method for use in handling mote and sensor devices within a wireless sensor network, whereby the sensor device is assigned with an identifier and thus can be removed or replaced at any point of time within said network. Further objects and advantages of the present invention may become apparent upon referring to the preferred embodiments of the present invention as shown in the accompanying drawings and as described in the following description. SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The present invention discloses a method for use in a network comprising at least one sensor device (20), at least one mote device (30) and a gateway device (50) said method comprising the steps of: providing identification of sensor device (20) to the mote device (30); providing identification information of mote device (30) to the gateway device (50) requesting a sensor device (20) to check-in within the network; receiving confirmation from said sensor device (20) to check-in within the network; providing identification information in relation to the sensor device (20) to the gateway device (50); storing the identification information of both sensor device (20) and mote device (30) .

In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided A system for use in a wireless sensor network comprising: at least one sensor device (20);

at least one mote device (30); at least one gateway device (50) at least one application device (60) characterized in that the sensor device (20) is configured to be separated from the mote device (30) and said sensor device (20) checks-in to operate within the network upon requested by the mote device

(30) . BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be more understood by reference to the description below taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings herein:

FIG 1 provides the overall architecture of the present invention in accordance with a preferred embodiment; FIG 2 shows a flowchart of the steps involved for the components of the present invention in providing their information to the gateway device in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; FIG 3 shows a flowchart of the steps involved for the sensor device to inform or provide the mote device the check- in packet within the network, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and FIG 4 shows the general operational view of the method and system of the present invention in accordance with a preferred embodiment . DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In line with the above summary, the following description of a number of specific and alternative embodiments is provided to understand the inventive features of the present invention. It shall be apparent to one skilled in the art, however that this invention may be practiced without such specific details.

The exemplifications which may be provided within the specification are meant to better elucidate the effectiveness of the present invention and therefore should not be construed as limiting the scope of protection.

In essence, the present invention provides a method and system based on the use of mote and sensor devices within a wireless sensor network. The present invention allows effective operational handling of a plurality of motes and sensors within a wireless sensor network. FIG 1 provides the overall architecture of the present invention in accordance with a preferred embodiment; whereby the main components include at least one sensor device (20), at least one mote device (30), at least one collector device (40) and a gateway device (50) . These components are connected in a manner such that they effectively operate to comply with the requirements of the desired device application (60). It should be noted here that the sensor device (20) is a separate device from the network, thereby is assigned with a unique identifier within the network. In accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the sensor device (20) comprises a unique identifier which is recognized and thus can be used by the application device (60) for identifying the position or location of the sensor device (20), as opposed to the current systems, whereby the location of mote device (30) is typically used by the application device within a network. Accordingly, with the arrangement of the present invention, the sensor device (20) is established as a single or separate device thus allowing effortless replacing of sensors when necessary.

It is further noted that the gateway device (50) is configured to comprise a form of mapping table and other suitable identification information related to the sensor tip device (20) and mote device (30) for use by the application device (60) so as to enable receiving or sending of data to or from the sensor device (20) and mote device (30) . This information may be conveyed to the gateway device (50) prior to checking in the network. Such data may be established based on the steps as seen in FIG 2. FIG 2 shows a flowchart on the steps involved for a sensor device (20) and the mote device (30) in providing their information to the gateway device (50). The respective mote device (30) sends a check-in packet which contains identification information to the gateway device (50) and upon received the gateway device (50) sends a form of notification to the mote device (30) . It is preferred that the mote device (30) may sent repeating requests for receipt confirmation to the gateway device (50) it in the event that a response is not received within a predetermined period of time, (Tl) . The gateway device (50) then proceeds to store said information for use by the application device (60) when necessary.

Similar to that of the mote device (30), information packet of the sensor device (20) is sent to the gateway (50) . The gateway device (50) then proceeds to generate a form of notification to acknowledge the information which is received from the mote device (30) . Information received is suitably stored to a mapping table and thus sensor device (20) checking in is completed. An example of the mapping table is appended below:

TABLE 1

Mapping Table

A_n M_n N_n

**It is noted that sensor tip device Identifier A_n can only appear once in the mapping table and that Mn and Nn always appear as a pair in the mapping table and this pair can appear many times in the table, i.e. (M_n, N_n) = (M_m, N_m)

The mapping table in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises information in relation to the identifications of device (20) and mote device (30). The primary function of the mapping table is to provide a form of reference for application devices. For instance, if application device (60) of the network requires information or data a certain sensor device (20), the gateway device (50) will refer to the mapping table to obtain data of the suitably mote device (30) at which the selected sensor device (20) may be attached to, and subsequently sends a request for connection with said sensor device (20) to the respective mote device (30) . The mote device (30) then accordingly sends a request for checking in the network to the said sensor device (20) . In another circumstance, the gateway device (50) may need to check as to whether a certain mote device (30) has changed its network address. In this process, the gateway device (50) may request for its network address, and updates the mapping table accordingly.

It is further preferred that the sensor device (20) provides its check-in packet to the mote device (30) . FIG 3 shows a flowchart of the steps involved for a sensor device (20) to inform or provide the mote device (30) its check in packet. As suitably shown, the sensor device (20) receives a check-in request from the mote device (30) and acknowledges receipt. A check-in packet is then sent to the mote device (30) and the sensor device (20) check-in process is completed.

FIG 4 provides the general operational view of the method and system of the present invention in accordance with a preferred embodiment. In effect, the sensor device (20) is requested or instructed to check in within the network. Such request is preferably sent by at least one mote device (30) which may include a router. In the event that the sensor device (20) accepts the request, the mote device (30) proceeds to send the respective sensor device (20) check-in package which comprises information in relation to the respective sensor device (20) to the gateway device (50) . If the sensor device (20) rejects the request as sent by the mote device (30), continuous requests are sent by the mote device (30) within a predetermined period of T2, and at the same time reports to the gateway device (50) on the rejected request. It is preferred that the sensor device (20) checks in only if the request is accepted.

In the event that the sensor device (20) accepts the request, a mote check in request packet is sent from the mote device

(30) to the gateway device (50), whereby the gateway device (50) sends a form of notification to the mote device (30) upon receipt the said package. The mote device (30) may send repeating check in requests to gateway device (50) within a predetermined period of time T2, if there is no form of acknowledgement received from the gateway device (50). The package may contain a unique MAC address and a dynamic network

^• address.

Upon acknowledged by the gateway device (50), the checking in process by the sensor device (20) is successfully completed.

It should be noted that the method and system of the present invention can be used for handling a plurality of sensor devices (20) and mote devices (30) for checking -in to a plurality of sensor networks. In this type of handling motes and devices, the sensor device (20) may want to register its identifier with the assistance of a gateway device (50) through a plurality of sensor networks, said networks may comprise of a plurality motes (30) which may be connected to a collector device (40). Accordingly, the gateway device (50) which is connected to the collector device (40) may be connected to a plurality of application devices (60).

Having thus described the preferred embodiments of the present invention, it should be noted by the person skilled in the relevant art that there may be modifications within the scope of invention. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments as illustrated therein, but is limited by the following claims.

Claims

1. A method for use in a network comprising at least one sensor device (20), at least one mote device (30) and a gateway device (50) said method comprising the steps of:

providing identification of sensor device (20) to the mote device (30) ;

providing identification information of mote device (30) to the gateway device (50)

requesting a sensor device (20) to check-in within the network;

receiving confirmation from said sensor device (20) to check- in within the network;

providing identification information in relation to the sensor device (20) to the gateway device (50); and

storing the identification information of both sensor device

(20) and mote device (30) .

2. The method as claimed in Claim 1 further comprising the steps of providing identification information in relation to the mote device (30) to the gateway device (50) .

3. The method as claimed in Claim 1 further comprising the steps of confirming receipt of the identification information in relation to the sensor device (20) and mote device (30).

4. The method as claimed in Claims 1 to 3 further comprising the step of sending repeating requests within a predetermined period of time for confirmation of receipt of identification information of sensor device (20) to the mote device (30) .

5. The method as claimed in Claims 1 to 4 further comprising the step of sending repeating requests within a predetermined period of time for confirmation of receipt of identification information of mote device (30) to the gateway device (50).

6. The method as claimed in Claims 1 to 5 further comprising the step of sending repeating requests within a predetermined period of time for confirmation of receipt of identification information of sensor device (20) to the gateway device (50).

7. The method as claimed in Claims 1 to 6 wherein the identification information comprises unique MAC address and dynamic network address.

8. The method as claimed in Claims 1 to 7 wherein the method can be used to manage a plurality of sensor devices (20) and mote devices (30) through a plurality of wireless sensor networks .

9. The method as claimed in Claims 1 to 8 wherein the method further comprising storing the identification information and accessing said information for reference.

10. The method as claimed in Claims 1 to 9 wherein said method is for use in a wireless sensor network.

11. A system for use in a wireless sensor network comprising: at least one sensor device (20);

at least one mote device (30) ;

at least one gateway device (50); and

at least one application device (60),

characterized in that the sensor device (20) is configured to be separated from the mote device (30) and said sensor device (20) checks-in to operate within the network upon requested by the mote device (30) .

12. The system as claimed in Claim 11 wherein the gateway device (50) stores current identification information of both the mote device (30) and sensor device (20).

13. The system as claimed in Claim 11 to 12 wherein the gateway device (50) stores the information in the form of a mapping table.