Patent Application
20160036908
The various aspects described herein generally relate to adaptive advertisements that embedded devices may discover and use to connect to host devices, and in particular, to selectively processing different advertisement types that the embedded devices receive from one or more host devices willing to host the embedded devices such that the embedded devices may adaptively attach to a particular host device according to properties associated with the host device and/or requirements associated with the embedded devices.
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computers and computer networks that use a standard Internet protocol suite (e.g., the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP)) to communicate with each other. The Internet of Things (IoT) is based on the idea that everyday objects, not just computers and computer networks, can be readable, recognizable, locatable, addressable, and controllable via an IoT communications network (e.g., an ad-hoc system or the Internet).
A number of market trends are driving development of IoT devices. For example, increasing energy costs are driving governments' strategic investments in smart grids and support for future consumption, such as for electric vehicles and public charging stations. Increasing health care costs and aging populations are driving development for remote/connected health care and fitness services. A technological revolution in the home is driving development for new “smart” services, including consolidation by service providers marketing ‘N’ play (e.g., data, voice, video, security, energy management, etc.) and expanding home networks. Buildings are getting smarter and more convenient as a means to reduce operational costs for enterprise facilities.
There are a number of key applications for the IoT. For example, in the area of smart grids and energy management, utility companies can optimize delivery of energy to homes and businesses while customers can better manage energy usage. In the area of home and building automation, smart homes and buildings can have centralized control over virtually any device or system in the home or office, from appliances to plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) security systems. In the field of asset tracking, enterprises, hospitals, factories, and other large organizations can accurately track the locations of high-value equipment, patients, vehicles, and so on. In the area of health and wellness, doctors can remotely monitor patients' health while people can track the progress of fitness routines.
Accordingly, in the near future, increasing development in IoT technologies will lead to numerous IoT devices surrounding a user at home, in vehicles, at work, and many other locations and personal spaces. Due at least in part to the potentially large number of heterogeneous IoT devices and other physical objects that may be in use within a controlled IoT network, which may interact with one another and/or be used in many different ways, well-defined and reliable communication interfaces are generally needed to connect the various heterogeneous IoT devices such that the various heterogeneous IoT devices can be appropriately configured, managed, and communicate with one another to exchange information. In that context, various efforts have been made to provide environments that allow distributed applications to run across different device classes and emphasize mobility, security, and dynamic configuration independent from any underlying operating system, hardware, and/or software on the devices in the environment. However, embedded systems that may have substantial prevalence in IoT environments are designed to provide specific functionality running on a microcontroller embedded within a larger device. As such, because an embedded system typically only performs a specific function or a small number of specific functions, embedded systems are often designed with limited memory size, processor speed, available power, peripherals, and so on in order to reduce the size and cost associated with the product. In other words, because embedded systems tend to have constrained operating environments, embedded systems typically lack the resources that may be needed to support multithreading, many network connections, and other requirements associated with distributed programming environments. Nonetheless, substantial benefits may be realized from connecting embedded systems and other devices with constrained operating environments in distributed programming environments.
The following presents a simplified summary relating to one or more aspects disclosed herein. As such, the following summary should not be considered an extensive overview relating to all contemplated aspects, nor should the following summary be regarded to identify key or critical elements relating to all contemplated aspects or to delineate the scope associated with any particular aspect. Accordingly, the following summary has the sole purpose to present certain concepts relating to one or more aspects disclosed herein in a simplified form to precede the detailed description presented below.
According to various exemplary aspects, the disclosure generally relates to adaptive advertisements that embedded devices may discover and selectively process to connect to a particular host device and thereby join a proximity-based distributed bus. In particular, host devices may generally transmit multiple advertisements to signal a willingness to host one or more embedded devices, which may selectively process the advertisements to adaptively connect to a particular host device according to properties associated with the host devices and/or requirements associated with the embedded devices. Furthermore, the host devices may have overload thresholds that control whether the host devices should be “discoverable” such that the advertisements may be dynamically adjusted (or suspended) according to current load status and connected embedded devices may be redirected to another target host device to shed load when the current load status exceeds the overload threshold. More particularly, a particular embedded device may receive advertisements from one or more host devices, select one of the host devices based on information included in the advertisements, and connect to the selected host device to join a proximity-based distributed bus. For example, according to various aspects, each advertisement may include one or more properties associated with the respective host device such that the host device may be selected based on a local decision tree that the embedded device uses to filter the one or more properties associated with each host device (e.g., each embedded device may have a different decision tree used to filter the properties associated with each host device). In another example, each advertisement may include an index derived from one or more weighting factors applied to the one or more properties associated with the respective host device such that the embedded device may select the host device based on which host device has a highest index. Furthermore, according to various aspects, the advertisements received from each host device may include a first advertisement having a first type and a second advertisement having a second type in an unsolicited mode, wherein the advertisements having the first type each include the properties associated with the respective host device and the advertisements having the second type each include the index derived from the weighting factors applied to the properties associated with the respective host device. Alternatively, in a solicited mode, the embedded device may request advertisements that have either the first type or the second type from each host device, wherein each host device may only transmit advertisements having the first type or the second type to the requesting embedded device depending on what advertisement type the embedded device requested. Furthermore, according to various aspects, the host devices may each dynamically adjust one or more of the advertisements having the first type or the advertisements having the second type based on current loads associated therewith. Further still, the embedded device may receive a redirection message that the selected host device may transmit to the embedded device in response to determining that a current load associated therewith exceeds an overload threshold, wherein the redirection message may include information associated with a target host device and the embedded device may then connect to the target host device identified in the redirection message.
According to various aspects, a method for adaptive advertisement discovery and selection may comprise, among other things, receiving advertisements from one or more host devices, selecting a host device based on information included in the advertisements, and connecting to the selected host device to join a proximity-based distributed bus.
According to various aspects, an embedded device may comprise a receiver configured to receive advertisements from one or more host devices and one or more processors configured to select a host device based on information included in the advertisements and connect to the selected host device to join a proximity-based distributed bus.
According to various aspects, an apparatus may comprise means for receiving advertisements from one or more host devices, means for selecting a host device based on information included in the advertisements, and means for connecting to the selected host device to join a proximity-based distributed bus.
According to various aspects, a computer-readable storage medium may have computer-executable instructions recorded thereon, wherein executing the computer-executable instructions on an embedded device having one or more processors may cause the one or more processors to receive advertisements from one or more host devices, select a host device based on information included in the advertisements, and connect to the selected host device to join a proximity-based distributed bus.
Other objects and advantages associated with the various aspects disclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.
A more complete appreciation of aspects of the disclosure and many of the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings which are presented solely for illustration and not limitation of the disclosure, and in which:
Various aspects and embodiments are disclosed in the following description and related drawings to show specific examples relating to exemplary aspects and embodiments. Alternate aspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the pertinent art upon reading this disclosure, and may be constructed and practiced without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. Additionally, well-known elements will not be described in detail or may be omitted so as to not obscure the relevant details of the aspects and embodiments disclosed herein.
The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments. Likewise, the term “embodiments” does not require that all embodiments include the discussed feature, advantage or mode of operation.
The terminology used herein describes particular embodiments only and should not be construed to limit any embodiments disclosed herein. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Those skilled in the art will further understand that the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” and/or “including,” when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
Further, many aspects are described in terms of sequences of actions to be performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. Those skilled in the art will recognize that various actions described herein can be performed by specific circuits (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)), by program instructions being executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of both. Additionally, these sequence of actions described herein can be considered to be embodied entirely within any form of computer readable storage medium having stored therein a corresponding set of computer instructions that upon execution would cause an associated processor to perform the functionality described herein. Thus, the various aspects described herein may be embodied in a number of different forms, all of which have been contemplated to be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. In addition, for each of the aspects described herein, the corresponding form of any such aspects may be described herein as, for example, “logic configured to” perform the described action.
As used herein, a client device, referred to herein as a host device, an embedded device, a user equipment (UE), or the like, may be mobile or stationary, and may communicate with a radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the terms “client device,” “host device,” “embedded device,” and variants thereof may be interchangeable and refer to an “access terminal,” an “AT,” a “wireless device,” a “subscriber device,” a “subscriber terminal,” a “subscriber station,” a “user terminal” (or UT), a “mobile terminal,” a “mobile station,” a “mobile device,” and variations thereof. Generally, client devices can communicate with a core network via the RAN, and through the core network the client devices can be connected with external networks such as the Internet. Of course, other mechanisms of connecting to the core network and/or the Internet are also possible for the client devices, such as over wired access networks, Wi-Fi networks (e.g., based on IEEE 802.11, etc.) and so on. Client devices can be embodied by any of a number of types of devices including but not limited to PC cards, compact flash devices, external or internal modems, wireless or wireline phones, and so on. A communication link through which client devices can send signals to the RAN is called an uplink channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). A communication link through which the RAN can send signals to client devices is called a downlink or forward link channel (e.g., a paging channel, a control channel, a broadcast channel, a forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein the term traffic channel (TCH) can refer to either an uplink/reverse or downlink/forward traffic channel.
As used herein, the term “Internet of Things device” (or “IoT device”) may refer to any object (e.g., an appliance, a sensor, etc.) that has an addressable interface (e.g., an Internet protocol (IP) address, a Bluetooth identifier (ID), a near-field communication (NFC) ID, etc.) and can transmit information to one or more other devices over a wired or wireless connection. An IoT device may have a passive communication interface, such as a quick response (QR) code, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag, an NFC tag, or the like, or an active communication interface, such as a modem, a transceiver, a transmitter-receiver, or the like. An IoT device can have a particular set of attributes (e.g., a device state or status, such as whether the IoT device is on or off, open or closed, idle or active, available for task execution or busy, and so on, a cooling or heating function, an environmental monitoring or recording function, a light-emitting function, a sound-emitting function, etc.) that can be embedded in and/or controlled/monitored by a central processing unit (CPU), microprocessor, ASIC, or the like, and configured for connection to an IoT network such as a local ad-hoc network or the Internet. For example, IoT devices may include, but are not limited to, refrigerators, toasters, ovens, microwaves, freezers, dishwashers, dishes, hand tools, clothes washers, clothes dryers, furnaces, air conditioners, thermostats, televisions, light fixtures, vacuum cleaners, sprinklers, electricity meters, gas meters, etc., so long as the devices are equipped with an addressable communications interface for communicating with the IoT network. IoT devices may also include cell phones, desktop computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc. Accordingly, the IoT network may be comprised of a combination of “legacy” Internet-accessible devices (e.g., laptop or desktop computers, cell phones, etc.) in addition to devices that do not typically have Internet-connectivity (e.g., dishwashers, etc.).
As used herein, the term “host device” may generally refer to any suitable client device that has sufficient memory resources, available energy, computing power, and other resources and capabilities to run an operating system that can support multiple processes and multiple threads and thereby run an appropriate daemon, bus router, or other process that can provide an attachment to a proximity-based distributed bus and thereby enable direct peer-to-peer (P2P) or device-to-device (D2D) communication with other devices attached to the proximity-based distributed bus.
As used herein, the term “embedded device” may generally refer to any suitable client device that lacks sufficient resources to run a daemon, bus router, or other process needed to attach to a proximity-based distributed bus that supports direct peer-to-peer (P2P) or device-to-device (D2D) communication with other devices attached to the proximity-based distributed bus. For example, an “embedded device” may generally refer to a client device designed to provide specific or limited functionality running on a microcontroller embedded within a larger device such that embedded devices often have limited memory size, processor speed, available power, peripherals, user interfaces, or all of the above.
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In the wireless communications system 100 shown in
According to various aspects,
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The Internet 275 includes a number of routing agents and processing agents (not shown in
In
The access point 225 may be connected to the Internet 275 via, for example, an optical communication system, such as FiOS, a cable modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, or the like. The access point 225 may communicate with IoT devices 210-220 and the Internet 275 using the standard Internet protocols (e.g., TCP/IP).
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In accordance with various aspects,
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In various embodiments, the supervisor device 230 may generally observe, monitor, control, or otherwise manage the various other components in the wireless communications system 200B. For example, the supervisor device 230 can communicate with an access network (e.g., access point 225) over air interface 208 and/or a direct wired connection 209 to monitor or manage attributes, activities, or other states associated with the various IoT devices 210-220 in the wireless communications system 200B. The supervisor device 230 may have a wired or wireless connection to the Internet 275 and optionally to the IoT server 270 (shown as a dotted line). The supervisor device 230 may obtain information from the Internet 275 and/or the IoT server 270 that can be used to further monitor or manage attributes, activities, or other states associated with the various IoT devices 210-220. The supervisor device 230 may be a standalone device or one of IoT devices 210-220, such as computer 220. The supervisor device 230 may be a physical device or a software application running on a physical device. The supervisor device 230 may include a user interface that can output information relating to the monitored attributes, activities, or other states associated with the IoT devices 210-220 and receive input information to control or otherwise manage the attributes, activities, or other states associated therewith. Accordingly, the supervisor device 230 may generally include various components and support various wired and wireless communication interfaces to observe, monitor, control, or otherwise manage the various components in the wireless communications system 200B.
The wireless communications system 200B shown in
For example, the one or more passive IoT devices 205 may include a coffee cup passive IoT device 205 and an orange juice container passive IoT device 205 that each have an RFID tag or barcode. A cabinet IoT device (not shown) and the refrigerator IoT device 216 may each have an appropriate scanner or reader that can read the RFID tag or barcode to detect when the coffee cup passive IoT device 205 and/or the orange juice container passive IoT device 205 have been added or removed. In response to the cabinet IoT device detecting the removal of the coffee cup passive IoT device 205 and the refrigerator IoT device 216 detecting the removal of the orange juice container passive IoT device 205, the supervisor device 230 may receive one or more signals that relate to the activities detected at the cabinet IoT device and the refrigerator IoT device 216. The supervisor device 230 may then infer that a user is drinking orange juice from the coffee cup passive IoT device 205 and/or likes to drink orange juice from the coffee cup passive IoT device 205.
Although the foregoing describes the passive IoT devices 205 as having some form of RFID tag or barcode communication interface, the passive IoT devices 205 may include one or more devices or other physical objects that do not have such communication capabilities. For example, certain IoT devices may have appropriate scanner or reader mechanisms that can detect shapes, sizes, colors, and/or other observable features associated with the passive IoT devices 205 to identify the passive IoT devices 205. In this manner, any suitable physical object may communicate an identity and one or more attributes associated therewith, become part of the wireless communications system 200B, and be observed, monitored, controlled, or otherwise managed with the supervisor device 230. Further, passive IoT devices 205 may be coupled to or otherwise made part of the wireless communications system 200A in
In accordance with various aspects,
The wireless communications system 200C shown in
The IoT devices 210-218 make up an IoT device group 260. The IoT device group 260 may comprise a group of locally connected IoT devices, such as the IoT devices connected to a user's home network. Although not shown, multiple IoT device groups may be connected to and/or communicate with each other via an IoT SuperAgent 240 connected to the Internet 275. At a high level, the supervisor device 230 manages intra-group communications, while the IoT SuperAgent 240 can manage inter-group communications. Although shown as separate devices, the supervisor device 230 and the IoT SuperAgent 240 may be, or reside on, the same device (e.g., a standalone device or an IoT device, such as computer 220 in
Each IoT device 210-218 can treat the supervisor device 230 as a peer and transmit attribute/schema updates to the supervisor device 230. When an IoT device needs to communicate with another IoT device, the IoT device can request the pointer to that IoT device from the supervisor device 230 and then communicate with the target IoT device as a peer. The IoT devices 210-218 communicate with each other over a peer-to-peer communication network using a common messaging protocol (CMP). As long as two IoT devices are CMP-enabled and connected over a common communication transport, they can communicate with each other. In the protocol stack, the CMP layer 254 is below the application layer 252 and above the transport layer 256 and the physical layer 258.
In accordance with various aspects,
The Internet 275 is a “resource” that can be regulated using the concept of the IoT. However, the Internet 275 is just one example of a resource that is regulated, and any resource could be regulated using the concept of the IoT. Other resources that can be regulated include, but are not limited to, electricity, gas, storage, security, and the like. An IoT device may be connected to the resource and thereby regulate the resource, or the resource could be regulated over the Internet 275.
IoT devices can communicate with each other to regulate their use of a resource 280. For example, IoT devices such as a toaster, a computer, and a hairdryer may communicate with each other over a Bluetooth communication interface to regulate their use of electricity (the resource 280). As another example, IoT devices such as a desktop computer, a telephone, and a tablet computer may communicate over a Wi-Fi communication interface to regulate their access to the Internet 275 (the resource 280). As yet another example, IoT devices such as a stove, a clothes dryer, and a water heater may communicate over a Wi-Fi communication interface to regulate their use of gas. Alternatively, or additionally, each IoT device may be connected to an IoT server, such as IoT server 270, which has logic to regulate their use of the resource 280 based on information received from the IoT devices.
In accordance with various aspects,
The wireless communications system 200E includes two IoT device groups 260A and 260B. Multiple IoT device groups may be connected to and/or communicate with each other via an IoT SuperAgent connected to the Internet 275. At a high level, an IoT SuperAgent may manage inter-group communications among IoT device groups. For example, in
According to one aspect of the disclosure,
While internal components of UEs such as the UEs 300A and 300B can be embodied with different hardware configurations, a basic high-level UE configuration for internal hardware components is shown as platform 302 in
Accordingly, one embodiment can include a UE (e.g., UE 300A, 300B, etc.) including the ability to perform the functions described herein. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the various logic elements can be embodied in discrete elements, software modules executed on a processor or any combination of software and hardware to achieve the functionality disclosed herein. For example, ASIC 308, memory 312, API 310 and local database 314 may all be used cooperatively to load, store and execute the various functions disclosed herein and thus the logic to perform these functions may be distributed over various elements. Alternatively, the functionality could be incorporated into one discrete component. Therefore, the features of the UEs 300A and 300B in
The wireless communication between the UEs 300A and/or 300B and the RAN can be based on different technologies, such as CDMA, W-CDMA, time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), GSM, or other protocols that may be used in a wireless communications network or a data communications network. As discussed in the foregoing and known in the art, voice transmission and/or data can be transmitted to the UEs from the RAN using a variety of networks and configurations. Accordingly, the illustrations provided herein are not intended to limit the embodiments disclosed herein and are merely to aid in the description of aspects of the disclosed embodiments.
According to various aspects,
As shown in
While internal components of IoT devices, such as IoT device 400A, can be embodied with different hardware configurations, a basic high-level configuration for internal hardware components is shown as platform 402 in
Accordingly, various aspects can include an IoT device (e.g., IoT device 400A) including the ability to perform the functions described herein. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the various logic elements can be embodied in discrete elements, software modules executed on a processor (e.g., processor 408) or any combination of software and hardware to achieve the functionality disclosed herein. For example, transceiver 406, processor 408, memory 412, and I/O interface 414 may all be used cooperatively to load, store and execute the various functions disclosed herein and thus the logic to perform these functions may be distributed over various elements. Alternatively, the functionality could be incorporated into one discrete component. Therefore, the features of the IoT device 400A in
The passive IoT device 400B shown in
Although the foregoing describes the passive IoT device 400B as having some form of RF, barcode, or other I/O interface 414, the passive IoT device 400B may comprise a device or other physical object that does not have such an I/O interface 414. For example, certain IoT devices may have appropriate scanner or reader mechanisms that can detect shapes, sizes, colors, and/or other observable features associated with the passive IoT device 400B to identify the passive IoT device 400B. In this manner, any suitable physical object may communicate an identity and one or more attributes associated therewith and be observed, monitored, controlled, or otherwise managed within a controlled IoT network.
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Generally, unless stated otherwise explicitly, the phrase “logic configured to” as used herein is intended to refer to logic at least partially implemented with hardware, and is not intended to map to software-only implementations that are independent of hardware. Also, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the configured logic or “logic configured to” in the various blocks are not limited to specific logic gates or elements, but generally refer to the ability to perform the functionality described herein (either via hardware or a combination of hardware and software). Thus, the configured logics or “logic configured to” as illustrated in the various blocks are not necessarily implemented as logic gates or logic elements despite sharing the word “logic.” Other interactions or cooperation between the logic in the various blocks will become clear from a review of the aspects described below in more detail.
The various embodiments may be implemented on any of a variety of commercially available server devices, such as server 600 illustrated in
In general, as noted above, IP based technologies and services have become more mature, driving down the cost and increasing availability of IP, which has allowed Internet connectivity to be added to more and more types of everyday electronic objects. As such, the IoT is based on the idea that everyday electronic objects, not just computers and computer networks, can be readable, recognizable, locatable, addressable, and controllable via the Internet. In general, with the development and increasing prevalence of the IoT, numerous proximate heterogeneous IoT devices and other physical objects that have different types and perform different activities (e.g., lights, printers, refrigerators, air conditioners, etc.) may interact with one another in many different ways and be used in many different ways. As such, due to the potentially large number of heterogeneous IoT devices and other physical objects that may be in use within a controlled IoT network, well-defined and reliable communication interfaces are generally needed to connect the various heterogeneous IoT devices such that the various heterogeneous devices can communicate with one another and exchange information. Accordingly, the following description generally outlines an exemplary communication framework that may support discoverable device-to-device (D2D) or peer-to-peer (P2P) services that can enable direct D2D communication among heterogeneous devices in a distributed programming environment according to the various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein.
In general, user equipment (UE) (e.g., telephones, tablet computers, laptop and desktop computers, vehicles, etc.), can be configured to connect with one another locally (e.g., Bluetooth, local Wi-Fi, etc.), remotely (e.g., via cellular networks, through the Internet, etc.), or according to suitable combinations thereof. Furthermore, certain UEs may also support proximity-based D2D communication using certain wireless networking technologies (e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, etc.) that support one-to-one connections or simultaneously connections to a group that includes several devices directly communicating with one another. To that end,
A base station 710 may provide communication coverage for a macro cell, a pico cell, a femto cell, and/or other cell types. A macro cell may cover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius) and may allow unrestricted access by devices 720 with service subscription. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allow unrestricted access by devices 720 with service subscription. A femto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and may allow restricted access by devices 720 having association with the femto cell (e.g., devices 720 in a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG)). In the example shown in
Network controller 730 may couple to a set of base stations 710 and may provide coordination and control for these base stations 710. Network controller 730 may be a single network entity or a collection of network entities that can communicate with the base stations via a backhaul. The base stations may also communicate with one another (e.g., directly or indirectly via wireless or wireline backhaul). DHCP server 740 may support D2D communication, as described below. DHCP server 740 may be part of wireless network 700, external to wireless network 700, run via Internet Connection Sharing (ICS), or any suitable combination thereof. DHCP server 740 may be a separate entity (e.g., as shown in
Devices 720 may be dispersed throughout wireless network 700, and each device 720 may be stationary or mobile. A device 720 may also be referred to as a node, user equipment (UE), a station, a mobile station, a terminal, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, etc. A device 720 may be a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a laptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a smart phone, a netbook, a smartbook, a tablet, etc. A device 720 may communicate with base stations 710 in the wireless network 700 and may further communicate peer-to-peer with other devices 720. For example, as shown in
In the description herein, WAN communication may refer to communication between a device 720 and a base station 710 in wireless network 700 (e.g., for a call with a remote entity such as another device 720). A WAN device is a device 720 that is interested or engaged in WAN communication. In general, the terms “peer-to-peer” or “P2P” communication and “device-to-device” or “D2D” communication as used herein refers to direct communication between two or more devices 720, without going through any base station 710. For simplicity, the description provided herein uses the term “device-to-device” or “D2D” to refer to such direct communication, although those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terms “peer-to-peer,” “P2P,” “device-to-device,” and “D2D” may be interchangeable in the various aspects and embodiments described herein.
According to various embodiments, a D2D device is a device 720 that is interested or engaged in D2D communication (e.g., a device 720 that has traffic data for another device 720 within proximity of the D2D device). Two devices may be considered to be within proximity of one another, for example, if each device 720 can detect the other device 720. In general, a device 720 may communicate with another device 720 either directly for D2D communication or via at least one base station 710 for WAN communication.
In various embodiments, direct communication between D2D devices 720 may be organized into D2D groups. More particularly, a D2D group generally refers to a group of two or more devices 720 interested or engaged in D2D communication and a D2D link refers to a communication link for a D2D group. Furthermore, in various embodiments, a D2D group may include one device 720 designated a D2D group owner (or a D2D server) and one or more devices 720 designated D2D clients that are served by the D2D group owner. The D2D group owner may perform certain management functions such as exchanging signaling with a WAN, coordinating data transmission between the D2D group owner and D2D clients, etc. For example, as shown in
In various embodiments, D2D communication may occur only within a D2D group and may further occur only between the D2D group owner and the D2D clients associated therewith. For example, if two D2D clients within the same D2D group (e.g., devices 720g and 720i) desire to exchange information, one of the D2D clients may send the information to the D2D group owner (e.g., device 720h) and the D2D group owner may then relay transmissions to the other D2D client. In various embodiments, a particular device 720 may belong to multiple D2D groups and may behave as either a D2D group owner or a D2D client in each D2D group. Furthermore, in various embodiments, a particular D2D client may belong to only one D2D group or belong to multiple D2D group and communicate with D2D devices 720 in any of the multiple D2D groups at any particular moment. In general, communication may be facilitated via transmissions on the downlink and uplink. For WAN communication, the downlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from base stations 710 to devices 720, and the uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from devices 720 to base stations 710. For D2D communication, the D2D downlink refers to the communication link from D2D group owners to D2D clients and the D2D uplink refers to the communication link from D2D clients to D2D group owners. In various embodiments, rather than using WAN technologies to communicate D2D, two or more devices may form smaller D2D groups and communicate D2D on a wireless local area network (WLAN) using technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi Direct. For example, D2D communication using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, or other WLAN technologies may enable D2D communication between two or more mobile phones, game consoles, laptop computers, or other suitable communication entities.
According to various aspects,
In various embodiments, the distributed bus 840 may be supported by a variety of transport protocols (e.g., Bluetooth, TCP/IP, Wi-Fi, CDMA, GPRS, UMTS, etc.). For example, according to various aspects, a first device 810 may include a distributed bus node 812 and one or more local endpoints 814, wherein the distributed bus node 812 may facilitate communications between local endpoints 814 associated with the first device 810 and local endpoints 824 and 834 associated with a second device 820 and a third device 830 through the distributed bus 840 (e.g., via distributed bus nodes 822 and 832 on the second device 820 and the third device 830). As will be described in further detail below with reference to
According to various aspects,
In various embodiments, the bus nodes 912 and 922 may perform a suitable discovery mechanism at 954. For example, mechanisms for discovering connections supported by Bluetooth, TCP/IP, UNIX, or the like may be used. At 956, the local endpoint 914 on Device A 910 may request to connect to an entity, service, endpoint etc., available through bus node 912. In various embodiments, the request may include a request-and-response process between local endpoint 914 and bus node 912. At 958, a distributed message bus may be formed to connect bus node 912 to bus node 922 and thereby establish a D2D connection between Device A 910 and Device B 920. In various embodiments, communications to form the distributed bus between the bus nodes 912 and 922 may be facilitated using a suitable proximity-based D2D protocol (e.g., the AllJoyn™ software framework designed to enable interoperability among connected products and software applications from different manufacturers to dynamically create proximal networks and facilitate proximal D2D communication). Alternatively, in various embodiments, a server (not shown) may facilitate the connection between the bus nodes 912 and 922. Furthermore, in various embodiments, a suitable authentication mechanism may be used prior to forming the connection between bus nodes 912 and 922 (e.g., SASL authentication in which a client may send an authentication command to initiate an authentication conversation). Still further, at 958, bus nodes 912 and 922 may exchange information about other available endpoints (e.g., local endpoints 834 on Device C 830 in
In various embodiments, at 960, bus node 912 and bus node 922 may use obtained information associated with the local endpoints 924 and 914, respectively, to create virtual endpoints that may represent the real obtained endpoints available through various bus nodes. In various embodiments, message routing on the bus node 912 may use real and virtual endpoints to deliver messages. Further, there may one local virtual endpoint for every endpoint that exists on remote devices (e.g., Device A 910). Still further, such virtual endpoints may multiplex and/or de-multiplex messages sent over the distributed bus (e.g., a connection between bus node 912 and bus node 922). In various embodiments, virtual endpoints may receive messages from the local bus node 912 or 922, just like real endpoints, and may forward messages over the distributed bus. As such, the virtual endpoints may forward messages to the local bus nodes 912 and 922 from the endpoint multiplexed distributed bus connection. Furthermore, in various embodiments, virtual endpoints that correspond to virtual endpoints on a remote device may be reconnected at any time to accommodate desired topologies of specific transport types. In such embodiments, UNIX based virtual endpoints may be considered local and as such may not be considered candidates for reconnection. Further, TCP-based virtual endpoints may be optimized for one hop routing (e.g., each bus node 912 and 922 may be directly connected to each other). Still further, Bluetooth-based virtual endpoints may be optimized for a single pico-net (e.g., one master and n slaves) in which the Bluetooth-based master may be the same bus node as a local master node.
In various embodiments, the bus node 912 and the bus node 922 may exchange bus state information at 962 to merge bus instances and enable communication over the distributed bus. For example, in various embodiments, the bus state information may include a well-known to unique endpoint name mapping, matching rules, routing group, or other suitable information. In various embodiments, the state information may be communicated between the bus node 912 and the bus node 922 instances using an interface with local endpoints 914 and 924 communicating with using a distributed bus based local name. In another aspect, bus node 912 and bus node 922 may each may maintain a local bus controller responsible for providing feedback to the distributed bus, wherein the bus controller may translate global methods, arguments, signals, and other information into the standards associated with the distributed bus. The bus node 912 and the bus node 922 may communicate (e.g., broadcast) signals at 964 to inform the respective local endpoints 914 and 924 about any changes introduced during bus node connections, such as described above. In various embodiments, new and/or removed global and/or translated names may be indicated with name owner changed signals. Furthermore, global names that may be lost locally (e.g., due to name collisions) may be indicated with name lost signals. Still further, global names that are transferred due to name collisions may be indicated with name owner changed signals and unique names that disappear if and/or when the bus node 912 and the bus node 922 become disconnected may be indicated with name owner changed signals.
As used above, well-known names may be used to uniquely describe local endpoints 914 and 924. In various embodiments, when communications occur between Device A 910 and Device B 920, different well-known name types may be used. For example, a device local name may exist only on the bus node 912 associated with Device A 910 to which the bus node 912 directly attaches. In another example, a global name may exist on all known bus nodes 912 and 922, where only one owner of the name may exist on all bus segments. In other words, when the bus node 912 and bus node 922 are joined and any collisions occur, one of the owners may lose the global name. In still another example, a translated name may be used when a client is connected to other bus nodes associated with a virtual bus. In such embodiments, the translated name may include an appended end (e.g., a local endpoint 914 with well-known name “org.foo” connected to the distributed bus with Globally Unique Identifier “1234” may be seen as “G1234.org.foo”).
In various embodiments, the bus node 912 and the bus node 922 may communicate (e.g., broadcast) signals at 966 to inform other bus nodes of changes to endpoint bus topologies. Thereafter, traffic from local endpoint 914 may move through virtual endpoints to reach intended local endpoint 924 on Device B 920. Further, in operation, communications between local endpoint 914 and local endpoint 924 may use routing groups. In various embodiments, routing groups may enable endpoints to receive signals, method calls, or other suitable information from a subset of endpoints. As such, a routing name may be determined by an application connected to a bus node 912 or 922. For example, a D2D application may use a unique, well-known routing group name built into the application. Further, bus nodes 912 and 922 may support registering and/or de-registering of local endpoints 914 and 924 with routing groups. In various embodiments, routing groups may have no persistence beyond a current bus instance. In another aspect, applications may register for their preferred routing groups each time they connect to the distributed bus. Still further, groups may be open (e.g., any endpoint can join) or closed (e.g., only the creator of the group can modify the group). Yet further, a bus node 912 or 922 may send signals to notify other remote bus nodes or additions, removals, or other changes to routing group endpoints. In such embodiments, the bus node 912 or 922 may send a routing group change signal to other group members whenever a member is added and/or removed from the group. Further, the bus node 912 or 922 may send a routing group change signal to one or more endpoints that disconnect from the distributed bus without the one or more endpoints first removing themselves from the routing group.
According to various aspects,
However, in certain cases, embedded devices may lack sufficient resources to run a local bus router. Accordingly,
More particularly, the embedded devices 1020, 1025 may connect to the host device 1030 according to a discovery and connection process that may be conceptually similar to the discovery and connection process between clients and services, wherein the host device 1030 may advertise a well-known name (e.g., “org.alljoyn.BusNode”) that signals an ability or willingness to host the embedded devices 1020, 1025. In one use case, the embedded devices 1020, 1025 may simply connect to the “first” host device that advertises the well-known name. However, if the embedded devices 1020, 1025 were to simply connect to the first host device that advertises the well-known name, the embedded devices 1020, 1025 may not have any knowledge about the type associated with the host device (e.g., whether the host device 1030 is a mobile device, a set-top box, an access point, etc.), nor would the embedded devices 1020, 1025 have any knowledge about the load status on the host device. Accordingly, in other use cases, the embedded devices 1020, 1025 may adaptively connect to the host device 1030 based on information that the host devices 1010, 1030 provide when advertising the ability or willingness to host other devices (e.g., embedded devices 1020, 1025), which may thereby join the proximity-based distributed bus according to properties associated with the host devices 1010, 1030 (e.g., type, load status, etc.) and/or requirements associated with the embedded devices 1020, 1025 (e.g., a ranking table that expresses a preference to connect to a host device from the same manufacturer).
More particularly, according to various aspects,
Furthermore, in various embodiments, an embedded device 1130n that runs the type-agnostic client application 1132 may process type-i advertisements 1116 and/or type-p advertisements 1118 and connect to a particular host device 1110 according to the decision tree used to filter and/or prioritize the type-p advertisements 1118 and/or a particular host device 1110 having the highest index among all received type-i advertisements 1116 depending on the particular properties associated with the host device(s) 1110 and/or requirements associated with the embedded device 1130n. Further still, in use cases where one or more of the embedded devices 1130 arrive on the network 1120 after one or more host devices 1110 or other routing nodes, the embedded device(s) 1130 may broadcast a query with a payload that indicates the type associated therewith and the host devices 1110 may only transmit advertisements 1116, 1118 that match the supported type in response to the broadcasted query from the embedded device(s) 1130. As such, the embedded device(s) 1130 may then process the transmitted advertisement(s) 1116 and/or 1118 in substantially the same manner as when both advertisement types 1116, 1118 are received (e.g., when the host device(s) 1110 arrives on the network 1120 after the embedded device(s) 1130). Furthermore, as will be described in further detail below with respect to
According to various aspects,
For example,
Accordingly, as noted above, an embedded device running a type-i client application may simply select a particular host device having the highest index among all received type-i advertisements, whereas an embedded device running type-p client application may connect to a particular host device according to a decision tree that may be used to filter or otherwise prioritize type-p advertisements that are received from one or more host devices. In the latter context,
According to one aspect of the disclosure,
According to one aspect of the disclosure,
According to one aspect of the disclosure,
In various embodiments, the communications device 1700 can additionally comprise a memory 1708 operatively coupled to the processor 1706, wherein the memory 1708 can store received data, data to be transmitted, information related to available channels, data associated with analyzed signal and/or interference strength, information related to an assigned channel, power, rate, or the like, and any other suitable information for estimating a channel and communicating via the channel. In one aspect, the memory 1708 can include one or more local endpoint applications 1710, which may seek to communicate with endpoint applications, services, etc., on the communications device 1700 and/or other communications devices (not shown) through a distributed bus module 1730. The memory 1708 can additionally store protocols and/or algorithms associated with estimating and/or utilizing a channel (e.g., performance based, capacity based, etc.).
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the memory 1708 and/or other data stores described herein can be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or can include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. By way of illustration, and not limitation, nonvolatile memory can include read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), or flash memory. Volatile memory can include random access memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of illustration and not limitation, RAM is available in many forms such as synchronous RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct Rambus RAM (DRRAM). The memory 1708 in the subject systems and methods may comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.
In various embodiments, the distributed bus module 1730 associated with the communications device 1700 can further facilitate establishing connections with other devices. The distributed bus module 1730 may further comprise a bus node module 1732 to assist the distributed bus module 1730 with managing communications between multiple devices. In one aspect, the bus node module 1732 may further include an object naming module 1734 to assist the bus node module 1732 in communicating with endpoint applications associated with other devices. Still further, the distributed bus module 1730 may include an endpoint module 1736 to assist the local endpoint applications 1710 in communicating with other local endpoints and/or endpoint applications accessible on other devices through an established distributed bus. In another aspect, the distributed bus module 1730 may facilitate inter-device and/or intra-device communications over multiple available transports (e.g., Bluetooth, UNIX domain-sockets, TCP/IP, Wi-Fi, etc.). Accordingly, in one embodiment, the distributed bus module 1730 and the endpoint applications 1710 may be used to establish and/or join a proximity-based distributed bus over which the communication device 1700 can communicate with other communication devices in proximity thereto using direct device-to-device (D2D) communication. For example, if the communications device 1700 corresponds to a host device as described herein, the distributed bus module 1732 may manage the segment of the distributed bus hosted on the communications device 1700. However, if the communications device 1700 corresponds to an embedded device as described herein, the distributed bus module 1732 may connect to another host device to attach to the segment of the distributed bus hosted thereon, in which case the communications device 1700 may not include the bus node module 1732, the local endpoint module 1736, and/or not implement certain functionality that the bus node module 1732 and/or the local endpoint module 1736 would otherwise provide in a host device having more substantial resources.
Additionally, in one embodiment, the communications device 1700 may include a user interface 1740, which may include an input mechanism 1742 for generating inputs into the communications device 1700, and an output mechanism 1744 for generating information for consumption by the user of the communications device 1700. For example, the input mechanism 1742 may include one or more mechanisms such as a key or keyboard, a mouse, a touch-screen display, a microphone, etc. Further, for example, the output mechanism 1744 may include a display, an audio speaker, a haptic feedback mechanism, a Personal Area Network (PAN) transceiver etc. In the illustrated aspects, the output mechanism 1744 may include an audio speaker operable to render media content in an audio form, a display operable to render media content in an image or video format and/or timed metadata in a textual or visual form, or other suitable output mechanisms. However, in one embodiment, a headless communications device 1700 may not include certain input mechanisms 1742 and/or output mechanisms 1744 because headless devices generally refer to computer systems or device that have been configured to operate without a monitor, keyboard, and/or mouse.
Furthermore, in various embodiments, the communications device 1700 may include one or more sensors 1750 that can obtain various measurements relating to a local environment associated with the communications device 1700. For example, in various embodiments, the sensors 1750 may include an accelerometer, gyroscope, or other suitable sensors that can obtain measurements that relate to inflicted motion at the communications device 1700. In another example, the sensors 1750 may include appropriate hardware, circuitry, or other suitable devices that can obtain measurements relating to internal and/or ambient temperature, power consumption, local radio signals, lighting, and/or other local and/or ambient environmental variables.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.
Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted to depart from the scope of the present disclosure.
The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration).
The methods, sequences and/or algorithms described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in RAM, flash memory, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in an IoT device. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.
In one or more exemplary aspects, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes CD, laser disc, optical disc, DVD, floppy disk and Blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically and/or optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.
While the foregoing disclosure shows illustrative aspects of the disclosure, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various changes and modifications could be made herein without departing from the scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims. The functions, steps and/or actions of the method claims in accordance with the aspects of the disclosure described herein need not be performed in any particular order. Furthermore, although elements of the disclosure may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated.
The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/032,308, entitled “ADAPTIVE ADVERTISEMENT BY HOST DEVICES AND DISCOVERY BY EMBEDDED DEVICES,” filed Aug. 1, 2014, assigned to the assignee hereof, and hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62032308 | Aug 2014 | US |
