WO2018228883A1 - Système et procédé pour relayer un trafic à saut unique sur des réseaux à sauts multiples sans fil - Google Patents

Système et procédé pour relayer un trafic à saut unique sur des réseaux à sauts multiples sans fil Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2018228883A1
WO2018228883A1 PCT/EP2018/064866 EP2018064866W WO2018228883A1 WO 2018228883 A1 WO2018228883 A1 WO 2018228883A1 EP 2018064866 W EP2018064866 W EP 2018064866W WO 2018228883 A1 WO2018228883 A1 WO 2018228883A1
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WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
hop network
network protocol
hop
data
ble
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PCT/EP2018/064866
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English (en)
Inventor
Xiangyu Wang
Luca Zappaterra
Bozena Erdmann
Armand Michel Marie Lelkens
Gerhardus Engbertus Mekenkamp
Peter Deixler
Bas Driesen
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Philips Lighting Holding B.V.
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Publication of WO2018228883A1 publication Critical patent/WO2018228883A1/fr

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L69/00—Network arrangements, protocols or services independent of the application payload and not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
    • H04L69/22—Parsing or analysis of headers
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
    • H04L67/01—Protocols
    • H04L67/10—Protocols in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network
    • H04L67/104—Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
    • H04L67/01—Protocols
    • H04L67/12—Protocols specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
    • H04L67/125—Protocols specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks involving control of end-device applications over a network
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
    • H04W4/80—Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W8/00—Network data management
    • H04W8/005—Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W84/00—Network topologies
    • H04W84/18—Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W88/00—Devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations or access point devices
    • H04W88/02—Terminal devices
    • H04W88/04—Terminal devices adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Definitions

  • the invention relates to the field of communication over wireless multi-hop mesh-type networks, such as - but not limited to - ZigBee networks, for use in various different applications for home, office, retail, hospitality and industry.
  • wireless multi-hop mesh-type networks such as - but not limited to - ZigBee networks
  • BLE Bluetooth Low Energy
  • An example of BLE network may consist of a mobile telephone device as master device which can provide Internet connectivity to an ecosystem of resource constrained devices such as sensors, wearables, and building automation devices.
  • ZigBee networks represent another type of low-power/low-cost wireless networks, which allow multi-hop communication among devices in a mesh topology.
  • ZigBee devices offer reduced power consumption and cost, together with mesh networking capability, which make them suitable for use in large-scale deployments. Examples of application of ZigBee mesh networks include home automation, building automation, retail services, smart energy meeting, and wireless indoor lighting systems.
  • ZigBee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios.
  • Major benefit of the ZigBee technology is its vertical integration, i.e. availability of a complete standardized protocol stack from IEEE 802.15.4 for the lower layers to network layer to application layer specification, as opposed to other wireless network technologies, such as Thread, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
  • ZigBee networks are widely used in different applications, such as home, retail, and industry/office. Applications include wireless light switches, lamps, thermostats, various sensors, electrical meters with in-home displays, traffic management systems, and other consumer and industrial equipment that requires short-range low-rate wireless data transfer. Its low power consumption limits transmission distances to 10-100m line-of-sight, depending on power output and
  • ZigBee devices can transmit data over long distances by passing data through a mesh network of intermediate devices.
  • the so-called ZigBee Light Link (ZLL) standard is a low-power mesh network standard used by connected lighting systems.
  • the ZLL stack consists of four layers: physical (PHY), medium access control (MAC), network (NWK), and application (APL).
  • PHY physical
  • MAC medium access control
  • NWK network
  • APL application
  • BLE One of the main limitations of BLE consists in the fact that it only implements single-hop communication between a master device and a number of slave devices in communication range of the master, which only covers a limited area of a few meters.
  • ZigBee mesh network A possible disadvantage of the ZigBee mesh network is the existence of many communicating nodes, resulting in traffic intense periods, e.g. during route discovery, leading to internal interference.
  • a solution is provided to extend the coverage and availability of a wireless single-hop network by relaying single-hop messages on a wireless multi-hop network, leveraging the combined single-hop/multi-hop capability of wireless combo devices that can seamlessly bridge between the two networks.
  • a mobile device will be able to interact with a remote lighting or IoT devices via a single-hop link between it and a neighboring lighting or IoT device located close to the mobile device.
  • beaconing devices with only single-hop radio capability forming a wireless mesh network which operates independently of a multi-hop lighting network may use combo lighting devices with combined single-hop/multi-hop capability of the multi-hop lighting network as a networking fall back in case of connectivity problems on their mesh network.
  • the described fail-over approach via an alternative communication channel could also be relevant for sensors of security systems.
  • multi-hop and single-hop operation modes of the forwarding apparatus may be alternated, so as to receive the data of the wireless single-hop network protocol during the single-hop operation mode.
  • the forwarding apparatus is capable of receiving data of the wireless single-hop network protocol after a certain delay time determined by the length of the multi-hop operation mode.
  • the data packet of the wireless multi-hop network protocol with the encapsulated data of the single-hop protocol may be marked as containing single-hop traffic.
  • the data packet of the multi-hop network protocol may be marked by using a reserved header bit, a dedicated endpoint, or a tunnel cluster identification of the single-hop protocol. This measure ensures that the destination node is able to recognize that the received data packet of the multi-hop network protocol contains data of the single- hop network protocol and can forward this data to a corresponding single-hop network interface.
  • a routing table entry may be established at the forwarding apparatus, which matches a received specification of the destination device to a corresponding network destination of the wireless multi-hop network. The routing table entry provides a routing link for routing the data of the single-hop network protocol through the wireless multi-hop network to the destination device.
  • an ephemeral character of an established route to the destination device may be indicated in a route request of the multi-hop network protocol. Thereby, it is indicated that the routes only need to exist as long as the wireless single-hop connection is established.
  • a remaining packet space of the data packet of the multi-hop network protocol may be used for conveying information about a source route. This measure provides the advantage that the source route can be removed after the wireless single-hop connection to the source device has been terminated.
  • a source device of the received data of the single-hop network protocol may be indicated in a route request of the multi-hop network protocol as an actual source of the route request, and a network leave command of the multi-hop network protocol may be sent upon termination of a connection with the source device. Thereby, the source route will automatically get removed.
  • network broadcast of the received data of the single-hop network protocol may be performed with higher protocol layer filtering based on addresses of the single-hop network protocol.
  • virtual applications representing the destination device and a source device of the received data of the single-hop network protocol towards each other may be provided in the forwarding apparatus.
  • the data of the single-hop network protocol is simply tunneled through the wireless multi-hop network and all interactions towards the respective devices of the wireless multi-hop network can be done through stacks and radios of the single-hop network protocol.
  • the source device of the data of the single-hop network protocol may be adapted to select the combined radio device based on a known device identifier or its signal strength. Thereby, a combo radio device that is easy to connect can be selected.
  • a network address of the destination device may be determined by triggering a device or service discovery action, and the determined network address may be added to the indication that the data of the single-hop network protocol is intended to be forwarded to the destination device via the wireless multi-hop network.
  • the source device of the single-hop network data can provide the network address of the destination device together with the data.
  • the data of the single-hop network protocol may be generated in accordance with a sustainable packet size and throughput of the multi-hop network protocol or in accordance with fragmentation or partitioning capabilities of the multi-hop network protocol. This measure ensures that data forwarding is adapted to and optimized for the multi-hop network protocol.
  • connection parameters may be controlled so as to increase a duty cycle of the single-hop network protocol at the selected combined radio device during the forwarding of the data packet of the multi-hop network protocol.
  • the above apparatuses may be implemented based on discrete hardware circuitries with discrete hardware components, integrated chips, or arrangements of chip modules, or based on signal processing devices or chips controlled by software routines or programs stored in memories, written on a computer readable media, or downloaded from a network, such as the Internet.
  • radio chips or chip modules have evolved, in which functionality is moved towards software.
  • high-frequency functions (specifically on the physical protocol layer (PHY layer), e.g., the actual channel modulation) may still be implemented in hardware, while lower- frequency functionality is implemented in software (specifically on the Medium Access Control layer (MAC layer) and above).
  • PHY layer physical protocol layer
  • MAC layer Medium Access Control layer
  • certain hardware components of the PHY layer may be reused for different radio functionalities.
  • the claimed single-hop communication unit and the claimed multi-hop communication unit which are described as separate units in the following embodiments, may in practice be implemented in a single hardware component, e.g., based on different software routines.
  • the two communication units may be implemented as so-called software radio's wherein radio functionality at and above the MAC layer is mapped towards a software layer and wherein PHY layer functionality, which may e.g. include the actual channel modulation, are still primarily implemented in hardware.
  • a software radio device capable of operating in multiple-modes, when in use for single-hop communication (e.g. BLE or Bluetooth radio), the device is still configured to operate as a single hop communication unit and when in use for multi-hop communication (e.g. Zigbee radio) it is still configured to operate as a multi-hop
  • Fig. 1 shows a schematic architecture of a multi-hop lighting network used to extend the coverage of an external device with single-hop radio technology according to various embodiments
  • Fig. 2 shows a signaling and processing diagram of a relaying procedure according to a first embodiment
  • Fig. 3 shows a protocol stack structure of devices involved in a relaying procedure according to a second embodiment.
  • Embodiments of the present invention are now described based on a ZigBee network as an example of a multi-hop technology based wireless network and a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connection as an example of a single-hop technology based wireless point-to-point connection.
  • ZigBee ZigBee network
  • BLE Bluetooth Low Energy
  • BLE Bluetooth Low Energy
  • ZigBee ZigBee
  • combined radio devices also called “combo devices” with BLE and ZigBee transmission capability are used as an example for providing extended coverage.
  • the present invention is equally applicable to any other combination of wireless single-hop technology (e.g. BLE, Infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), wireless local area communication (Wi-Fi)) and wireless multi-hop technology (e.g. ZigBee PRO, Thread, WirelessHART, SmartRF, CityTouch, IP500, and any other mesh or tree based technology).
  • wireless single-hop technology e.g. BLE, Infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), wireless local area communication (Wi-Fi)
  • wireless multi-hop technology e.g. ZigBee PRO, Thread, WirelessHART, SmartRF, CityTouch, IP500, and any other mesh or tree based technology.
  • Fig. 1 shows a schematic architecture of a multi-hop ZigBee lighting network 200 used to extend the coverage of an external BLE device 10 with single-hop radio technology according to various embodiments.
  • the multi-hop ZigBee lighting network 200 is connected to then external BLE device (master device) 10 via a point-to-point connection (single-hop link (SHL)).
  • Each connected lighting system consists of at least one smart luminaire device (e.g. light bulb) 20 and a bridge (not shown, also referred to as gateway or hub) that is used as a ZigBee transceiver to communicate with the luminaire devices 20.
  • the bridge may connect to a home router via Ethernet or WiFi.
  • the connected luminaire devices 20 can be physically turned on and off using regular light switches 23. To turn on or off as well as to change color and brightness of the light, a manufacturer- or third-party app on a mobile device (or a computer) may be required.
  • the user can use the app to send commands via the Internet and/or home router to the bridge, which translates the commands into ZigBee command frames and transmits them to the luminaire devices 20.
  • the coverage or range of the single-hop connection (point-to-point connection) over Bluetooth of the BLE master device (tablet, smartphone, etc.) 10 can be extended by relaying data via ZigBee-BLE combined-radio device (combo devices).
  • the external BLE master device 10 creates a single- hop wireless link with a BLE slave interface of a BLE/ZigBee combined radio or combo radio device 22 within reach and transmits 101 its BLE data packets to the BLE/ZigBee combo radio device 22 with two communication units (one for establishing a multi-hop link (MHL) 102, i.e., ZigBee in the exemplary embodiments, and one for establishing a single- hop link (SHL), i.e., BLE in the exemplary embodiments).
  • MHL multi-hop link
  • SHL single- hop link
  • the BLE/ZigBee combo radio device 22 forwards the BLE traffic to its intended destination through ZigBee multi-hop mesh networking.
  • the intended receiver node receives the BLE traffic on the ZigBee interface and proceeds to de-capsulate and forward the traffic to its BLE interface.
  • the BLE device 10 sends BLE packets to the BLE/ZigBee combo radio device 22 that receives the BLE packets during alternating short time intervals where it is operating as BLE slave device.
  • An intended ultimate receiver device 25 of a resultant relay path 110 can be specified in the BLE packets.
  • the BLE/ZigBee combo radio device 22 encapsulates the received BLE packets as payload into ZigBee-formatted packets and sends the ZigBee packets with the BLE payload towards the intended receiver device 25 through the multi-hop ZigBee lighting network 200.
  • the intended receiver device 25 may also have a BLE/ZigBee combo radio functionality and receives the BLE packets encapsulated as ZigBee traffic and proceeds to de-capsulate them. Then, it forwards the de- capsulated BLE packets to its BLE interface. This way, the BLE device 10 only needs to connect to the ZigBee lighting network 200 at one node, and can reach multiple devices from there, without the need of re-connecting.
  • Fig. 2 shows a signaling and processing diagram of a relaying procedure according to a first embodiment, where the external device 10 of Fig. 1 is used as BLE master (BLE-M) and the combo radio device 22 of Fig. 1 within the BLE coverage area is selected and used as BLE slave (BLE-SL) with additional ZigBee (ZB) communication unit.
  • BLE-M BLE master
  • BLE-SL BLE slave
  • ZB ZigBee
  • the BLE master device (BLE-M) 10 establishes a BLE link (point- to-point connection) to the selected BLE slave device 22 (BLE-SL ZB) within its limited BLE coverage, which is a combo radio device having a ZigBee interface that is already part of the distributed ZigBee lighting network. More specifically, the BLE master device 10 can select a slave device that is easy to connect to, e.g. it is easily identifiable, it has a device identifier visibly printed or is a lamp that can link to indicate established BLE connection, it (i.e. its device identifier) is known to the BLE master device 10 from previous exchanges, it is further away from other nodes and thus easy to discern via its signal strength, it is further away from other nodes, thus unlikely to be involved in heavy ZigBee traffic, etc.
  • a slave device that is easy to connect to e.g. it is easily identifiable, it has a device identifier visibly printed or is a lamp that can link to indicate established BLE connection,
  • the BLE master device 10 sends traffic to the selected BLE slave device 22 indicating that the traffic is destined to a remote BLE target device (BLE/ZB T) 25, to be reached via ZigBee mesh networking.
  • the relay indication may be implicit or explicit.
  • the address of the remote BLE target device 25 may be known already, e.g. from a floor plan or a commissioning file.
  • the BLE master device 10 may need to be able to trigger device or service discovery actions.
  • Extensions to existing BLE protocols may be added to indicate the remote destination of the traffic, which will be used by the BLE/ZigBee combo radio device 22 to forward the traffic to its ZigBee interface.
  • extensions to either of the BLE and ZigBee protocols may be required to align or map addressing schemes.
  • the BLE master device 10 which intends to relay traffic over ZigBee should generate traffic in accordance with the sustainable packet size and throughput of ZigBee technology.
  • it could use fragmentation or partitioning capabilities of the ZigBee network, as long as supported by the selected BLE slave device 22 and the remote BLE target device 25.
  • the selected BLE/ZigBee combo radio device 22 receives the BLE packets as it alternates its modes of operation over time between BLE and ZigBee.
  • the capability of conventional BLE/ZigBee combo radio devices to operate in BLE/ZigBee dual mode is currently available also for resource constrained devices and it can be safely assumed that synchronization and buffering mechanisms are in place such that no relevant impacts on the traffic sent/received are created by the dual-mode alternating operations.
  • the selected BLE/ZigBee combo radio device 22 receives packets on its BLE slave interface and recognizes in step 203, e.g., from the added relay indication, that the traffic is destined for a remote destination which should be reached via ZigBee mesh networking. It then proceeds in step 203 to encapsulate the received BLE packets as payload into ZigBee-formatted packets and adds a destination address derived from the relay indication. Then, in step 204, it sends the ZigBee packets in step 204 towards the intended receiver device 25 through the multi-hop ZigBee mesh network. ZigBee packets can be marked (e.g.
  • the maximum BLE packet size is 20 Bytes
  • multiple BLE packets could be aggregated and carried over the same ZigBee payload which can hold up to 101 Bytes of network layer payload (in case of encapsulation performed at the network level, the value may need adapting depending on the actual level of encapsulation).
  • a routing table entry can exist (or be established on demand) on the
  • the BLE/ZigBee combo radio device 22 to initiate a routing of BLE traffic over the ZigBee mesh network.
  • the routing table matches the remote destination specified by the BLE source node (i.e. the BLE master device 10) to the corresponding ZigBee network destination.
  • the BLE/ZigBee combo radio device 22 proceeds to route the ZigBee packets encapsulating the BLE traffic over the multi-hop ZigBee network to reach the remote destination (i.e. the BLE target device 25).
  • the routes between the selected BLE slave device (i.e. the BLE/ZigBee combo radio device 22) and the remote destination (i.e. the BLE target device 25) are most likely ephemeral, since they only need to exist when the BLE master device 10 is connected to the ZigBee mesh network, which are typically brief intervals of network commissioning, (re-)configuration, diagnostics and maintenance or personal control. To take this into account, the ephemeral character could be indicated at the time of route
  • source routes could be used between the selected BLE slave (i.e. the BLE/ZigBee combo radio device 22) and the remote BLE device (i.e. the BLE target device 25) and removed by the selected BLE slave when the connection to the BLE master is terminated.
  • the short packet size of BLE communication will allow to use the remaining ZigBee packet space for source route information.
  • a new command for removing the route could be added.
  • the selected BLE slave may indicate the BLE master as the actual source of the Route Request message and send a proper ZigBee NWK Leave command upon termination of the connection with the BLE master. This way, the route will automatically get removed.
  • the actual address of the BLE master can be used for that purpose, or an alias address can be employed instead.
  • network broadcast with higher-layer filtering based on the BLE addresses can be performed. This way, clogging routing tables with ephemeral entries for the BLE -targeting routes can be prevented.
  • the connection is operational faster, since no time is spent for address mapping, device discovery and/or route establishment, and instead the broadcast message to be filtered by receivers can be sent out directly.
  • the routes may be kept operational despite the BLE master being temporarily disconnected, e.g., they may need to be pro-actively re-discovered, to guarantee instantaneous control when the BLE master reconnects.
  • the intended remote destination i.e. BLE target device 25
  • the intended remote destination i.e. BLE target device 25
  • BLE/ZigBee combo radio functionality receives the packets transmitted in step 204 on its ZigBee interface, which are marked (e.g. using reserved bit in ZigBee header, a dedicated endpoint, a BLE tunnel ClusterlD, etc.) to be forwarded to its BLE interface. It then proceeds in step 205 to detect the marking and remove the ZigBee headers. Then, it forwards the payload containing the BLE packet(s) in step 206 to its BLE interface which can then decode the BLE traffic in a conventional manner.
  • marked e.g. using reserved bit in ZigBee header, a dedicated endpoint, a BLE tunnel ClusterlD, etc.
  • the proposed relaying procedure works in mixed networks, i.e. in networks where the intermediate routers are ZigBee routers only, instead of combined BLE/ZigBee devices.
  • Additional security may be employed for the communication between the BLE master device 10 and the remote BLE target device 25 and/or the BLE master device 10 and the selected BLE slave device (i.e. BLE/ZigBee combo radio device 22), as may be required e.g. for commissioning or diagnostic actions.
  • BLE/ZigBee combo radio device 22 i.e. BLE/ZigBee combo radio device 22
  • the BLE master device 10 can control various connection parameters, e.g., transmit power and duty cycle, so that the BLE duty cycle of the selected BLE slave can be increased, while the BLE duty cycle of other devices in the ZigBee network can be decreased (since there is no BLE master communicating with them directly), to accommodate for smoother propagation of the ZigBee messages that carry encapsulated Bluetooth commands of the BLE master.
  • An advantage of the first embodiment is that not all devices in the ZigBee network need to be ZigBee/BLE combo radio devices.
  • the BLE master device 10 can select one of the combo devices at the transmitting end to relay the BLE communication, and the target ZigBee or BLE device 25 can be temporarily placed in the vicinity of a selected BLE/ZigBee combo device at the receiving end.
  • Fig. 3 shows a protocol stack structure of radio devices involved in a relaying procedure according to a third embodiment.
  • a first BLE device (A) 10 such as a mobile phone, is a physical device with a BLE radio unit 1020.
  • a combo radio device (B) 22 in the middle has a combo interface of both BLE and ZigBee radio units (2222, 2232) that work in fast time-multiplexed mode.
  • the combo device 22 further has both BLE stack 2221 and ZigBee stack 2231.
  • a ZigBee target device (C) 25 has a ZigBee radio unit 2532, but it also contains a virtual BLE application C 2510 and a BLE stack 2521.
  • the combo device 22 behaves as if there were two BLE devices towards the BLE device 10, namely a BLE device (B) which is the BLE endpoint of the combo device 22, and a virtual BLE device (C). However, it is not the endpoint for the communication between the BLE device 10 and device C applications 2510 of the target device 25.
  • B BLE device
  • C virtual BLE device
  • the BLE radio unit 2222 of the combo radio device 22 Whenever there are BLE packets received from the BLE device 10 at the BLE radio unit 2222 of the combo radio device 22, it will use the ZigBee stack 2231 and the ZigBee radio 2232 to encapsulate the BLE packets and send them via the ZigBee network 200 towards the final endpoint, which is the device C application 2510 of the target device 25.
  • the packet is received by a ZigBee radio unit 2532 and goes through a ZigBee stack 2531 where it is de-capsulated, and is then processed by the BLE stack 2521 and finally reaches the endpoint which is BLE device C application 2510.
  • the BLE device C application 2510 may want to send information to the BLE device 10.
  • it will format its message via the BLE stack 2521 and tunnel the packet(s) of the message via the ZigBee stack 2531 , the ZigBee radio unit 2531 and the ZigBee network 200 towards a BLE virtual device A application 2212 that is provided on the combo radio device 22.
  • the virtual device A application 2212 on the combo radio device 22 receives the packet(s) it will do a proper formatting and simply forward the packet(s) to the BLE device 10 as if it was the actual BLE device C application 2510.
  • the setup of the representation of BLE device 10 and the BLE target device 25 by corresponding virtual device A & C applications 2212 on the combo radio device 22 is prepared or programmed before the start of the communication illustrated above..
  • the tunneling of BLE packets over ZigBee protocol can be achieved by means of e.g. using (a) reserved bit(s) in a ZigBee NWK layer packet header, a dedicated endpoint, or a BLE tunnel ClusterlD, etc.
  • combo radio device 22 contains the virtual device application 2212 representing the BLE device 10 and the target device 25 towards the device C and A applications 1010 and 2510, all interactions between the BLE Device 10 and the combo radio device 22 are processed through the BLE protocol stacks and radios, including BLE connection setup between them. Similar, between virtual device A application 2212 and device C application 2510, all interactions are processed through the BLE protocol via the BLE stack on the respective device, only that the BLE packets are tunneled via the ZigBee network 200 rather than actual BLE radios.
  • a third embodiment is described, where the BLE traffic is directed to a final ZigBee node or broadcasted/multicasted to multiple ZigBee nodes using ZigBee networking.
  • the third embodiment differs from the first embodiment by the fact that the BLE traffic is delivered to a ZigBee node as final destination, instead of a remote BLE device.
  • the main differences with respect to the previous embodiments are described.
  • the BLE master device When the BLE master device sends traffic to the BLE slave device, it instead indicates that the traffic is destined to a remote ZigBee device (or possibly multiple devices if specifying a multicast/broadcast address) to be reached via ZigBee mesh networking.
  • the existing BLE protocols can be adapted or extended to indicate the remote destination of the traffic as a ZigBee address, which will be used by the BLE/ZigBee combo radio device to forward the traffic to the final ZigBee destination via its ZigBee interface.
  • the BLE master device obtains the ZigBee destination address which may be known at the time of network installation or based on a method for discovering/mapping the addressing schemes of both protocols or based on identifiers clearly visible on the device, e.g. printed on the housing, etc.
  • the selected BLE/ZigBee combo radio device receives packets on its
  • BLE slave interface which indicate that the traffic is destined to a remote ZigBee destination that should be reached via ZigBee mesh networking. It then proceeds to remove the BLE headers, encapsulates the BLE payload into ZigBee-formatted packets, extracts the ZigBee destination from the BLE frame, and inserts it as the ZigBee network destination in the ZigBee packets. Then, it sends the packets towards the intended receiver through the multi- hop ZigBee mesh network. It may or may not indicate that the message actually originates from the BLE master, e.g. by using the master's address as a source address or using an alias instead. Finally, the relaying operation terminates when the traffic is delivered via ZigBee networking to the final ZigBee remote destination.
  • the BLE master device or the selected BLE slave device, may need to discover or verify the BLE capabilities of the remote target device.
  • the remote target device is BLE-capable, encapsulated BLE communication can be sent.
  • the selected BLE slave may translate the BLE message into ZigBee messages.
  • communication between the BLE master and "normal" ZigBee nodes of the ZigBee network or remote BLE devices outside the coverage area of the BLE master can be achieved by transferring BLE traffic as payload of ZigBee packets, so that BLE transmission is relayed over ZigBee nodes. Additionally, ZigBee traffic can be transferred over the BLE link by using additional fields in BLE packets.
  • a system and method have been described, by which the coverage of a wireless single-hop network (e.g. BLE network) can be extended by relaying messages of the wireless single-hop network on a wireless multi-hop network (e.g. ZigBee mesh network), benefitting from a combined single-hop/multi-hop (e.g. BLE/ZigBee) capability of wireless combo devices which can seamlessly bridge between the two wireless networks.
  • a BLE device sends traffic to a BLE/ZigBee combo radio device that forwards the traffic towards an intended BLE receiver device through the multi-hop ZigBee mesh network.
  • the single-hop network e.g. BLE network
  • a multi-hop network e.g. ZigBee mesh network
  • the proposed commissioning or joining or network integration procedures can be applied to and possibly standardized in other types of wireless multi-hop networks and with other types of messages and control fields.
  • the invention can be applied in any product that implements a wireless multi-hop network (e.g. ZigBee or others) interfacing with a single- hop network (e.g. BLE or others).
  • a wireless multi-hop network e.g. ZigBee or others
  • a single- hop network e.g. BLE or others.
  • An example includes a large-scale ZigBee lighting network where single light-points are commissioned using a mobile device such as smartphone or tablet via BLE.
  • this invention applies to any product that implements a ZigBee network interfacing with a BLE network.
  • An example include a large-scale ZigBee lighting network where single light-points can be contacted using a mobile device such as smartphone or tablet via BLE (e.g. Cheetah or similar).
  • BLE and ZigBee combined radio is used as an example throughout this document, the invention is equally applicable to any other combination of wireless single hop technology (e.g. BLE, IR, NFC, Wi-Fi) with wireless multi-hop technology (e.g. ZigBee PRO, Thread, WirelessHART, SmartRF, CityTouch, and any other mesh or tree based technology).
  • wireless single hop technology e.g. BLE, IR, NFC, Wi-Fi
  • wireless multi-hop technology e.g. ZigBee PRO, Thread, WirelessHART, SmartRF, CityTouch, and any other mesh or tree based technology.
  • a single unit or device may fulfill the functions of several items recited in the claims.
  • the mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.
  • the described operations like those indicated in Figs. 2 to 7 can be implemented as program code means of a computer program and/or as dedicated hardware.
  • the computer program may be stored and/or distributed on a suitable medium, such as an optical storage medium or a solid-state medium, supplied together with or as part of other hardware, but may also be distributed in other forms, such as via the Internet or other wired or wireless telecommunication systems.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Computer Networks & Wireless Communication (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Computing Systems (AREA)
  • General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Medical Informatics (AREA)
  • Computer Security & Cryptography (AREA)
  • Mobile Radio Communication Systems (AREA)

Abstract

La présente invention concerne un système et un procédé permettant d'étendre la couverture d'un réseau sans fil à saut unique (par exemple, un réseau BLE) en relayant des messages du réseau sans fil à saut unique sur un réseau sans fil à sauts multiples (par exemple, un réseau maillé ZigBee), bénéficiant d'une capacité combinée saut unique/sauts multiples (par exemple, BLE/ZigBee) de dispositifs combinés sans fil qui peuvent établir un pont sans discontinuité entre les deux réseaux sans fil. À titre d'exemple, un dispositif BLE envoie du trafic à un dispositif radio combiné BLE/ZigBee qui transmet le trafic vers un dispositif récepteur BLE prévu par l'intermédiaire du réseau maillé ZigBee à sauts multiples. De cette manière, le réseau à saut unique (par exemple, un réseau BLE) peut tirer parti de la couverture étendue fournie par un réseau à sauts multiples (par exemple, un réseau maillé ZigBee).
PCT/EP2018/064866 2017-06-12 2018-06-06 Système et procédé pour relayer un trafic à saut unique sur des réseaux à sauts multiples sans fil WO2018228883A1 (fr)

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JP7489400B2 (ja) 2019-03-14 2024-05-23 シグニファイ ホールディング ビー ヴィ 信頼性強化のための複合ネットワーク技術によるレシーバ中心の通信
WO2020263708A1 (fr) * 2019-06-24 2020-12-30 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Dispositif portable pour commander des dispositifs de point d'extrémité
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WO2021069357A1 (fr) 2019-10-08 2021-04-15 Signify Holding B.V. Procédé et appareil permettant de commander une passerelle temporaire pour des besoins de données ad hoc
WO2021122089A1 (fr) * 2019-12-17 2021-06-24 Signify Holding B.V. Découverte d'itinéraire dans des réseaux à nœuds combo
WO2021224089A1 (fr) * 2020-05-07 2021-11-11 Signify Holding B.V. Mise en service efficace d'un système de commande sans fil
JP7450762B2 (ja) 2020-05-07 2024-03-15 シグニファイ ホールディング ビー ヴィ 無線制御システムの効率的なコミッショニング
JP2023515723A (ja) * 2020-05-07 2023-04-13 シグニファイ ホールディング ビー ヴィ 無線制御システムの効率的なコミッショニング
WO2021245019A1 (fr) 2020-06-02 2021-12-09 Signify Holding B.V. Communication fiable et sensible à la sécurité dans un réseau sans fil hybride

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