WO2017125141A1

WO2017125141A1 - Massive machine type communication (mtc) maintenance management

Info

Publication number: WO2017125141A1
Application number: PCT/EP2016/051068
Authority: WO
Inventors: Joakim Axmon; Peter Alriksson; Johan Eker; Bengt Lindoff
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ)
Priority date: 2016-01-20
Filing date: 2016-01-20
Publication date: 2017-07-27

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for managing a plurality of devices connected in a network, wherein each device comprises a finite resource, said method comprising: receiving a first activity report from a first device; designating at least one second device, by determining a correlation between an activity report of the second device with the activity report of the first device; detecting an event; reconfiguring the operation of the first device; and reconfiguring the operation of the second device so that at least a further activity report to be received from the first device is instead received from the second device. Also disclosed is a server for managing a plurality of devices connected in a network.

Description

MASSIVE MACHINE TYPE COMMUNICATION (MTC) MAINTENANCE

MANAGEMENT Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to the field of network communication. More particularly, it relates to machine type communication maintenance within a network grid. Background

The current vision about machine type communication devices predicts that 26 billion devices may be connected to internet (internet of things) by 2020, typically ranging from consumers of huge bandwidth down to sensors, actuators and meters operating on e.g. battery, solar and/or wind power, and sparsely reporting:

environmental parameters (e.g. temperature, carbon dioxide levels, wind and water flow, lighting conditions), consumption (e.g. gas, power, water; utilization of finite resources), utilization (e.g. volume treated by an air pollution filter, volume treated by a water filter or treatment device), and machine operation time for machine including moving parts e.g. ball bearings and sprockets); or controlling (directly or indirectly): environmental variables (e.g. ventilation, lighting, temperature) or operation (water treatment, air pollution treatment), just to mention a few examples.

All such meters, sensors and actuators should preferably be as cheap as possible. Typically, a feature application may depend on sensor grids, i.e. the application may not rely only on a single sensor input, but on a grid (matrix/vector) of sensor inputs. One example of such a grid may e.g. be a weather station having multiple sensors for measuring parameters such as air pressure, temperature, humidity, etc. A data center then typically uses the sensor inputs in order to produce a weather forecast.

Furthermore, all such meters, sensors and actuators have finite life time and assuming future services based on a large set of such low cost sensors and actuators, there is a high likelihood that the maintenance cost will be dominant.

Means for planning maintenance and performing (re)configuration of massively deployed machine type communication (MTC) devices to maximize system or service lifetime are therefore urgently needed in order for the technology shift from manual reporting to automated reporting to be a success. Without such means there may not be an incentive for massive MTC deployment.

In US patent application US20130290057 a method is described where a maintenance signal is received from a first remote system located at a first remote location. It is determined whether a maintenance need exists for other remote systems in the area by polling them. If it is detected that other systems need service, maintenance is scheduled to be carried out for the first and the other systems.

US application US2013268890 describes a system for maintaining medical devices by providing a summary of a maintenance status of the medical devices and a maintenance alert module which provides a list of medical devices that are in need of maintenance, and what type of maintenance.

However, none of the above mentioned applications allows for proactive maintenance, nor do they take into consideration on how to deal with maintenance of devices having finite resources.

Hence, there exists a need for enhanced methods of MTC maintenance of wireless finite resource devices as well as a need for methods enabling efficient management and maintenance of machine type communication.

Summary

It should be emphasized that the term "comprises/comprising" when used in this specification 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.

It is an object of some embodiments to mitigate at least some of the above disadvantages and to provide methods for efficient management and maintenance of machine type communication of a plurality of devices connected in a network.

According to a first aspect, this is achieved by a method for managing a plurality of devices connected in a network, wherein each device comprises a finite resource. The method comprises receiving a first activity report from a first device and designating at least one second device by determining an activity correlation between an activity report of the second device with the activity report of the first device. The method also comprises detecting an event, reconfiguring the operation of the first device and reconfiguring the operation of the second device so that at least a further activity report to be received from the first device is instead received from the second device. A finite resource may e.g. in some embodiments be a battery, interchangeable hardware parts, light bulbs or LEDs or any other resource having a limited life time.

In some embodiments, the activity report may comprise one or more sensor readings.

In some embodiments, the activity correlation may be based on a function of a plurality of second devices, wherein the further activity report to be received from the first device is instead received and collated from the plurality of second devices.

In some embodiments, detecting the event may comprise receiving a first utilization message from the first device, wherein the utilization message indicates a relative depletion of the finite resource of the first device, such as when the resource has been depleted to 5 %, 10 %, 15 % or 20 %, or when the resources has been depleted to below 50 % of the surrounding or correlated devices' (average) current level.

E.g. in some embodiments, the first device may detect that it is running low on battery or that a sensor is malfunctioning due to broken parts, and send a utilization message indicating the problem.

In some embodiments, detecting the event may comprise that a second activity report received from the first device does not correlate above a correlation threshold with a second activity report received from the second device.

If there is no (or low) such activity correlation between the first and the second measurement report, that may e.g. be an indication that an error has occurred in the first device. The first device may e.g. be broken or in any other way malfunctioning.

The activity correlation threshold may in some embodiments be set such that if an activity correlation between the activity reports is less than 40% then that is an indication that the first device is malfunctioning. Other thresholds are of course possible and may be dynamically set based on locations and/or functionality of the devices.

In some embodiments, the method may further comprise reconfiguring the operation of the first device by changing a time interval for transmitting an activity report.

In some embodiments, the method may further comprise reconfiguring the operation of the first device by changing a time interval for performing an activity.

In some embodiments, the method may further comprise generating a logical map based on a device correlation between said first device and at least one second device, wherein said device correlation corresponds to a logical distance in said logical map so that a high correlation corresponds to a short logical distance. In some embodiments, a short logical distance indicates a short physical distance.

In some embodiments, the logical map may be multidimensional in that it is based on more than one correlation.

In some embodiments, the determining of at least one second device may comprise determining a second device being at a short logical distance from the first device.

In some embodiments, a short logical distance may be below a threshold logical distance.

E.g., in some embodiments, if the logical distance is measured in physical distance, then in some applications a distance of less than 2 m may be determined to be a short distance. The threshold logical distance may then be set to 2 m.

In some embodiments, the short logical distance may be the shortest logical distance between the first device and the second device.

In some embodiments, a reconfiguration may be performed at an application level.

In some embodiments, the reconfiguration may be performed by sending a configuration message to a network node gateway, wherein the network node is a cellular network node and further device configuration is made through Radio Access Network - RAN- signaling.

In some embodiments, the RAN signaling may be made by Radio Resource Control - RRC - configuration.

In some embodiments, the utilization message for the first device may indicate a higher utilization than a utilization message received from the second device.

In some embodiments, the first device may be a sensor and the activity report may be a sensor reading.

A second aspect is a server for managing a plurality of devices connected in a network, wherein each device comprises a finite resource, wherein the server comprises a controller and wherein the controller is configured to:

receive a first activity report from a first device;

designate at least one second device, by determining an activity correlation between an activity report of the second device with the activity report of the first device;

detect an event; reconfigure the operation of the first device; and

reconfigure the operation of the second device so that at least a further activity report to be received from the first device is instead received from the second device.

In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to base the activity correlation on a function of a plurality of second devices, and wherein the further activity report to be received from the first device is instead received and collated from the plurality of second devices.

In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to detecting the event by receiving a first utilization message from the first device, and wherein the utilization message indicates a relative depletion of the finite resource of the first device.

In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to detecting the event by determining that a second activity report received from the first device does not correlate above a correlation threshold with a second activity report received from the second device whereby an error has possibly occurred in the first device.

In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to reconfigure the operation of the first device by changing a time interval for transmitting the activity report.

In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to reconfigure the operation of the first device by changing a time interval for performing an activity.

In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to generate a logical map based on a device correlation between said first device and at least a second device, wherein said device correlation corresponds to a logical distance in said logical map so that a high correlation corresponds to a short logical distance.

In some embodiments, a short logical distance indicates a short physical distance.

In some embodiments, said logical map is multidimensional in that it is based on more than one correlation.

In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to determine of at least one second device by determining a second device being at a short logical distance from the first device.

In some embodiments, a short logical distance is below a threshold logical distance. In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to perform the reconfiguration at an application level.

In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to perform the reconfiguration by sending a configuration message to a network node gateway, wherein the network node is a cellular network node and further device configuration is made through Radio Access Network - RAN- signaling.

In some embodiments, the RAN signaling is made by Radio Resource Control - RRC - configuration.

In some embodiments, the utilization message for the first device indicates a higher utilization than a utilization message received from the second device.

In some embodiments, the first device is a sensor and the activity report is a sensor reading.

In some embodiments, the second aspect may additionally have features identical with, or corresponding to, any of the various features as explained above for the first aspect.

An advantage of some embodiments is that maintenance can be handled more efficiently since information on device utilization is used.

Another advantage of some embodiments is that a MTC device or other devices in its vicinity can be reconfigured to change their operation/utilization in order to prolong the total system time for the overall system.

Another advantage of some of the embodiments is that scheduling of maintenance is simplified and thus becomes more efficient and cost effective.

Another advantage of some of the embodiments is that overall maintenance need is reduced in a system.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Further objects, features and advantages will appear from the following detailed description of embodiments, with reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is schematic drawings illustrating a device;

Fig. 2 is schematic drawing illustrating a device controller;

Fig. 3A and 3B each schematically illustrates logical maps according to some embodiments; Fig. 4 is a schematic drawing illustrating a network scenario according to some embodiments;

Fig. 5 is a schematic drawing illustrating a logical map according to some embodiments; and

Fig. 6 is a schematic drawing illustrating a server according to some embodiments.

Detailed Description

In the following, embodiments will be described where MTC maintenance is enhanced by correlating activity reports received from different devices. The device(s) may in this disclosure also be referred to as Wireless Finite Resource Device, WFRD.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example arrangement 100 of a WFRD according to some embodiments.

The arrangement 100 comprises a battery (BAT) 110, an application processor (AP) 120, a communication processor (CP) 130, radio frequency circuitry (RF) 140, an antenna 150, a memory (MEM) 160, and one or more peripheral devices (PER. DEV.) 170.

The communication processor 130 may in some embodiments comprise components such as modem, protocol stack, radio, baseband and similar.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example arrangement 220 of an application processor of a

WFRD. The arrangement 220 may e.g. in some embodiments be a zoom in of the application processor 120 in Fig. 1.

The arrangement 200 comprises a central processing unit (CPU) 221, a radio interface layer (RIL) 222, an input/output interface for peripherals (I/O PER) 223, and a power monitor circuitry (MON) 124.

The application processor is configured to monitor the activity of the peripherals by means of the input/output interface for peripherals 223. The peripherals may e.g. be devices such as sensor(s), actuator(s), meter(s), reporter(s) and such.

The application processor may cause a WFRD to transmit activity reports to a controller, e.g. a server in a cloud (not shown), comprising sensor readings from the peripherals. The power monitor circuit may monitor the level of a battery powering the device, e.g. the battery 110 in Fig. 1. The information on battery level may also be transmitted to the controller.

Several WFRDs may be deployed within a network. In some embodiments of the invention, a centralized server node (e.g. the server receiving activity reports as described in Fig. 2) is controlling, and configuring the set of WFRDs. The configuring may be made "over the top" i.e. on application level in some embodiments, and the server may be owned by a third party player hence independent of the operator controlling the NW infrastructure. In other embodiments, the server node may be controlled by the operator and the configuring messages over air interface may be done on RAN level, i.e. as RRC configuration messages.

The WFRDs and their sensors may be deployed within the network at varying physical distances and the server may be configured to control parameters such as the sensor rate, measurement reporting, measurement object to measure, etc. for each respective sensor in the network or grid.

The relation between the sensor measurements for different sensors is initially unknown. However as the server receives and stores sensor data comprised in the activity reports from the WFRDs in a data base, it may correlate the respective sensor measurements to each other and thus learning the relation by generating a logical map based on the correlation between a first WFRD and at least one second WFRD.

The correlation may e.g. be an activity correlation determining utilization, or it may be a device correlation determining physical distance. Other correlations are possible, e.g. network type, device type, etc.

The correlation may correspond to a logical distance in the logical map so that a high correlation corresponds to a short logical distance.

Suitably, correlation between data can be mathematically detected using conventional regression techniques.

Since logical distances between WFRDs and corresponding sensors may vary depending on what, or how many, correlations are taken into account, the logical map may function as a tool for keeping track on correlations and how they affect distances, which in turn enables efficient maintenance.

Fig. 3A and 3B illustrates how logical distance between devices may vary when one correlation is used to determine the logical map (Fig. 3A), and when more than one correlation is used to determine the logical map (Fig. 3B). Fig. 3 A illustrates the logical distance between 3 devices, Dl, D2 and D3. The distance dl indicated the logical distance between Dl and D2 and distance d2 indicated the logical distance between Dl and D3 in a one dimensional logical map, i.e. the map is based on one correlation, e.g. physical distance between devices. As seen in the figure, the logical distance is shortest between Dl and D2. The correlation may e.g. be physical distance, and the logical map thus illustrates how far apart the sensors are located.

However, Fig. 3B illustrates the how the logical distance changes between the devices D 1 , D2 and D3 when more than one correlation is taken into account. Having more than one correlation leads to a multidimensional logical map. The correlations may e.g. be physical distance and utilization level.

As can be seen in Fig. 3B, D2 is located a longer distance from Dl than D3. The two figures show that a device that is closest to another in a one-dimensional map (Fig. 3A), may not be the closest in a multidimensional map (Fig. 3B), where correlations are based on more than one parameter.

In some embodiments, the parameters may be one or more of surrounding temperature, air pressure, latency, topology, resource utilization or the like.

Fig. 4 illustrates a network scenario in which nine different WFRDs are connected to three different base stations, all of which are connected to a device controller (also referred to as server in this disclosure) 400 in a cloud.

Devices Dl, D2, and D3 are connected to a first base station 401. Devices D4 and D5 are connected to a second base station 402. Devices D6, D7, D8 and D9 are connected to a third base station 403. In some embodiments, the devices D1-D9 may be the devices as described in conjunction with any of the Figs. 1-3.

The server 400 may receive a first activity report from a first device, e.g. Dl, and may further designate at least one second device, e.g. D2, by determining an activity correlation between an activity report of the second device with the activity report of the first device.

The server 400 may further detect an event. The event may e.g. be that the first device indicates malfunctioning by reporting low battery level, or loss of sensor function. In some embodiments, detecting the event may comprise receiving a first utilization message from the first device, wherein the utilization message indicates a relative depletion of the finite resource of the first device. E.g. the battery level may not be alarmingly low, but in relation to the other devices in the vicinity it is much lower. The other devices may in such case take over (measurement/reporting) activities in order for the first device to save some power.

In some embodiments, detecting the event may comprise that a second activity report received from the first device does not correlate above a correlation threshold with a second activity report received from the second device. This is an indication that something is amiss with the first device.

The correlation threshold may e.g. be set such that the reports should have a correlation of at least 60% as a larger discrepancy indicates that something is amiss with the first device (or the second device). The correlation threshold may be dynamically set based on e.g. sensor function, distance between devices/sensors and amount of devices in the area. E.g. sensors in close proximity should have a high correlation, and the threshold may thus be set such that correlation should be at 90%>, whereas sensors that are far apart may be allowed a less correlation e.g. 40%.

In some embodiments, the servers may learn suitable values for the correlation threshold during normal operation of the network. E.g. the servers may take note of the correlation threshold value during normal operation and store them for future use.

As a response to detecting an event, the server 400 may reconfigure the operation of the first device and reconfigure the operation of the second device so that at least a further activity report which is to be received from the first device is instead received from the second device. Thus, the second device takes over the function of the first device, i.e. performs the same sensor measurements, and reports the measurements comprised in activity reports to the server.

In some embodiments, the correlation may be based on a function of a plurality of second devices, e.g. the devices D2-D3, wherein the further activity report to be received from the first device is instead received and collated from the plurality of second devices.

In some embodiments, the further activity report may be received from a second device not being connected to the same NW node. E.g., if the operation of D3 fails for some reason, then D2 may together with D4 represent the best correlation to D3, leading to that D2 and D4 takes over the activities which D3 should have performed.

In some embodiments, reconfiguring the operation of the first device may comprise changing a time interval for transmitting the activity report, which will save on power consumption for the first device. In some embodiments, reconfiguring the operation of the first device may comprise changing a time interval for performing an activity.

The server may use the information comprised in the collated activity reports in order to estimate the remaining life-time expectancy of the WFRD(s). The information can be used for proactive planning of maintenance, e.g. identify which areas to focus on and when (1 month, 6 months, etc.) Moreover it can be used by a service provider to determine strategy for the replacements - perhaps it is beneficial to change all WFRDs in an area when already being there to replace one.

In some embodiments, the WFRD may be configured and re-configured remotely with thresholds for reporting, where the reporting threshold specifies the utilization level(s) at which a utilization status report is to be sent.

In some embodiments, the WFRD may be configured and re-configured remotely with periodical reporting of the utilization status.

In some embodiments, the WFRD may be configured and re-configured remotely with triggered periodical reporting of utilization status.

In some embodiments, the WFRD may be pre-configured with any of the aforementioned reporting modes.

In some embodiments, the WFRD may be configured with one threshold upon which the utilization status shall be indicated on the device or sensor e.g. a flashing red LED or a buzzer indicating that the device or part of the device needs to be replaced, and another threshold where a utilization status report is to be sent to the server.

In some embodiments reporting of instantaneous utilization level ratio (i.e. duty cycle, revolutions per minute etc.) may be enabled. Or the reporting may be in addition to reporting of utilization status according to any of the aforementioned embodiments.

In all above mentioned embodiments, the server may also upon reception of utilization level status message compile messages sent to other remote

nodes/servers/devices informing that a subset of the sensors (that is associated to respective remote node/server/device) needs to be replaced, or devices/part of devices need to be replaced.

As mentioned above, the correlation between the activity reports of the devices may be used by the server to generate a logical map, where the correlation corresponds to a logical distance in said logical map so that a high correlation corresponds to a short logical distance (compare to Figs. 3A and 3B). Such a map is illustrated in Fig. 5. In Fig. 5, correlation is based on sensor reading which indicates physical distance between devices Dl, D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8 and D9 (D1-D9 may in some embodiments be the same devices as described in conjunction with any of Figs. 1-4) and sensor utilization.

Dl stands alone and has to be serviced alone and there is subsequently no redundancy fore Dl. This indicates to the server that an additional sensor/device should be added to the vicinity of Dl .

D2 and D6 are close together but do not share the same utilization level, thus D6 can be used to compensate for D2. For the same reason D5 may also compensate for D2.

D3 and D4 are close together both regarding correlation based on sensor reading and correlation based on utilization, and may thus receive service at the same time. This is also applicable for D5 and D6.

D7, D8 and D9 are virtually overlapping, and having all three sensors are thus redundant. One of the sensors could be removed, or relocated, possibly to back up Dl instead.

The logical map may in some embodiments be configured such that a short logical distance between devices corresponds to a short physical distance between the devices.

In some embodiments, as shown in Fig. 5, the logical map may be

multidimensional in that it is based on more than one correlation.

In some embodiments, the logical map may be utilized in order to determine the at least one second device by choosing a device being at a short logical distance from the first device.

E.g. in Fig. 5, D4 may be chosen as the second device for taking over activity reporting from D3 if D3 is malfunctioning or indicates that its finite resources are depleting.

In some embodiments, a short logical distance is deemed as short by the server if it is below a threshold logical distance. The threshold may be dynamically set based on parameters such as network type, or cell size.

In some embodiments, the threshold may be set based on determined correlations while the network is operating normally. In some embodiments, the server may determine that a short logical distance is the shortest logical distance among all of the devices. In the example of Fig. 5, the server would deem nodes D7-D9 to have the shortest logical distance.

Fig. 6 illustrates an example arrangement 600 of a server 601 according to some embodiments.

The server 601 comprises a controller (CNTR) 602, a transceiver (RX/TX) 603, an operation module (OP) 604 and a logical map generator (MAP) 605.

The server 601 may for example in some embodiments be the server as described in conjunction with any of the Figs. 1-5.

The server 601 may be configured for managing a plurality of devices connected in a network, wherein each device comprises a finite resource and wherein the server comprises the controller 602.

The controller 602 may be configured to cause the transceiver 603 to receive a first activity report from a first device (e.g. the WFRD as described in any of the Figs. 1-5).

The controller 602 may further be configured to designate at least one second device, by determining an activity correlation between an activity report of the second device with the activity report of the first device and detect an event.

Based on the detected event, the controller 602 may cause the operation module 604 to reconfigure the operation of the first device and to reconfigure the operation of the second device so that at least a further activity report to be received from the first device is instead received from the second device.

The controller 602 may in some embodiments be further configured to cause the map generator 605 to generate a logical map based on a device correlation between said first device and at least a second device, wherein said device correlation corresponds to a logical distance in said logical map so that a high correlation corresponds to a short logical distance.

The logical map may e.g. be the logical map described in any of the Figs. 3 and/or 5.

Furthermore, in some embodiments, the server, upon reception of a utilization level report or activity report from a first device indicating high utilization level, may reconfigure the operation of the sensors based on the logical map and utilization reports from one or more second device. In some embodiments, the first device is a sensor, and the activity report is a sensor reading. The server may for example

a. Lower sensing rate (i.e. how often to do measurements)

b. Lower reporting rate of sensor values

The server may also reconfigure another sensor associated to the sensor/device having high utilization level, to change its operation. For instance that sensor may

a. increase sensor rate

b. increase/adapt measurement reporting rate

c. measure another entity/object

Associated here may for instance be a second sensor in close vicinity or a second sensor along the route from the first sensor to the server in case of device-to- device operation or non-ideal backhaul.

In some embodiments the server may, while monitoring the reported utilization status of a group of co-located sensors, re-configure sensors (e.g. re-distribute tasks) to maintain the same utilization status for all sensors in the group. This is particularly useful if the group of sensors is at a remote or otherwise inaccessible location whereby changing devices/parts of devices is associated with significant cost. Changing parts of all sensors in the group at the same time is more economical, but at the same time it is desirable that each WFRD is used to its full capacity. Examples include but are not limited to: devices mounted on roof tops or masts, devices monitoring environmental parameters far away from infrastructure, devices mounted where traffic would have to be diverted during maintenance therefore causing inconvenience and potentially secondary costs.

In some embodiments, the server may instruct the devices to perform a reconfiguration which is performed at an application level (compare with Figs. 1 and 2).

According to some embodiments, the RAN signaling may be made through Radio Resource Control - RRC - configuration.

The method described herein may e.g. be used for control of electric windmill power generators. The described embodiments and their equivalents may be realized in software or hardware or a combination thereof. They may be performed by general-purpose circuits associated with or integral to a communication device, such as digital signal processors (DSP), central processing units (CPU), co-processor units, field- programmable gate arrays (FPGA) or other programmable hardware, or by specialized circuits such as for example application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC). All such forms are contemplated to be within the scope of this disclosure.

Embodiments may appear within an electronic apparatus (such as a wireless communication device, power generators or other electronics) comprising

circuitry/logic or performing methods according to any of the embodiments.

Reference has been made herein to various embodiments. However, a person skilled in the art would recognize numerous variations to the described embodiments that would still fall within the scope of the claims. For example, the method

embodiments described herein describes example methods through method steps being performed in a certain order. However, it is recognized that these sequences of events may take place in another order without departing from the scope of the claims.

Furthermore, some method steps may be performed in parallel even though they have been described as being performed in sequence.

In the same manner, it should be noted that in the description of embodiments, the partition of functional blocks into particular units is by no means limiting.

Contrarily, these partitions are merely examples. Functional blocks described herein as one unit may be split into two or more units. In the same manner, functional blocks that are described herein as being implemented as two or more units may be implemented as a single unit without departing from the scope of the claims.

Hence, it should be understood that the details of the described embodiments are merely for illustrative purpose and by no means limiting. Instead, all variations that fall within the range of the claims are intended to be embraced therein.

Claims

1. A Method for managing a plurality of devices connected in a network, wherein each device comprises a finite resource, said method comprising:

receiving a first activity report from a first device;

designating at least one second device, by determining an activity correlation between an activity report of the second device with the activity report of the first device;

detecting an event;

reconfiguring the operation of the first device; and

reconfiguring the operation of the second device so that at least a further activity report to be received from the first device is instead received from the second device.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the activity correlation is based on a function of a plurality of second devices, wherein the further activity report to be received from the first device is instead received and collated from the plurality of second devices.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein detecting the event comprises receiving a first utilization message from the first device, and wherein the utilization message indicates a relative depletion of the finite resource of the first device.

4. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein detecting the event comprises that a second activity report received from the first device does not correlate above a correlation threshold with a second activity report received from the second device whereby an error has possibly occurred in the first device.

5. The method according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising reconfiguring the operation of the first device by changing a time interval for transmitting the activity report.

6. The method according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising reconfiguring the operation of the first device by changing a time interval for performing an activity.

7. The method according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising generating a logical map based on a device correlation between said first device and at least a second device, wherein said device correlation corresponds to a logical distance in said logical map so that a high correlation corresponds to a short logical distance.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein a short logical distance indicates a short physical distance.

9. The method according to any of the claims 7 or 8, wherein said logical map is multidimensional in that it is based on more than one correlation.

10. The method according to any of the claims 7, 8 or 9, wherein the determining of at least one second device comprises determining a second device being at a short logical distance from the first device.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein a short logical distance is below a threshold logical distance.

12. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein a reconfiguration is performed at an application level.

13. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein a reconfiguration is performed by sending a configuration message to a network node gateway, wherein the network node is a cellular network node and further device configuration is made through Radio Access Network - RAN- signaling.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the RAN signaling is made by Radio Resource Control - RRC - configuration.

15. The method according to any of claims 3 to 14 wherein the utilization message for the first device indicates a higher utilization than a utilization message received from the second device.

16. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the first device is a sensor and the activity report is a sensor reading.

17. A server for managing a plurality of devices connected in a network, wherein each device comprises a finite resource, wherein the server comprises a controller and wherein the controller is configured to :

receive a first activity report from a first device;

detect an event;

reconfigure the operation of the first device; and

18. The server according to claim 17, wherein the controller is further configured to base the activity correlation on a function of a plurality of second devices, and wherein the further activity report to be received from the first device is instead received and collated from the plurality of second devices.

19. The server according to claiml7 or 18, wherein the controller is further configured to detecting the event by receiving a first utilization message from the first device, and wherein the utilization message indicates a relative depletion of the finite resource of the first device.

20. The server according to any of the claims 17-19, wherein the controller is further configured to detecting the event by determining that a second activity report received from the first device does not correlate above a correlation threshold with a second activity report received from the second device whereby an error has possibly occurred in the first device.

21. The server according to any of the claims 17-20, wherein the controller is further configured to reconfigure the operation of the first device by changing a time interval for transmitting the activity report.

22. The server according to any of the claims 17-21, wherein the controller is further configured to reconfigure the operation of the first device by changing a time interval for performing an activity.

23. The server according to any of the claims 17-22, wherein the controller is further configured to generate a logical map based on a device correlation between said first device and at least a second device, wherein said device correlation corresponds to a logical distance in said logical map so that a high correlation corresponds to a short logical distance.

24. The server according to claim 23, wherein a short logical distance indicates a short physical distance.

25. The server according to any of the claims 23 or 24, wherein said logical map is multidimensional in that it is based on more than one correlation.

26. The server according to any of the claims 23, 24 or 25, wherein the controller is further configured to determine of at least one second device by determining a second device being at a short logical distance from the first device.

27. The server according to claim 26, wherein a short logical distance is below a threshold logical distance.

28. The server according to any of the claims 17-27, wherein the controller is further configured to perform the reconfiguration at an application level.

29. The server according to any of the claims 17-28, wherein the controller is further configured to perform the reconfiguration by sending a configuration message to a network node gateway, wherein the network node is a cellular network node and further device configuration is made through Radio Access Network - RAN- signaling.

30. The server according to claim 29, wherein the RAN signaling is made by Radio Resource Control - RRC - configuration.

31. The server according to any of claims 19 to 30 wherein the utilization message for the first device indicates a higher utilization than a utilization message received from the second device.

32. The server according to any of the claims 17-31, wherein the first device is a sensor and the activity report is a sensor reading.