Patent Grant
9326307
This disclosure relates to efficient communication to enable various devices, including low-power or sleepy devices, to communicate in a home network or similar environment.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present techniques, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Network-connected devices appear throughout homes. Some of these devices are often capable of communicating with each other through a single network type (e.g., WiFi connection) using a transfer protocol. It may be desired to use less power intensive connection protocols for some devices that are battery powered or receive a reduced charge. However, in some scenarios, devices connected to a lower power protocol may not be able to communicate with devices connected to a higher power protocol (e.g., WiFi).
Moreover, numerous electronic devices are now capable of connecting to wireless networks. For example, smart meter technology employs a wireless network to communicate electrical energy consumption data associated with residential properties back to a utility for monitoring, billing, and the like. As such, a number of wireless networking standards are currently available to enable electronic devices to communicate with each other. Some smart meter implementations, for instance, employ Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN) to enable electronic devices to communicate with a smart meter. However, the currently available wireless networking standards such as 6LoWPAN may not be generally well equipped to support electronic devices dispersed throughout a residence or home for one or more practical scenarios. That is, the currently available wireless networking standards may not efficiently connect all electronic devices of a network in a secure yet simple, consumer-friendly manner in view of one or more known practical constraints. Moreover, for one or more practical scenarios, the currently available wireless networking standards may not provide an efficient way to add new electronic devices to an existing wireless network in an ad hoc manner.
Additionally, when providing a wireless network standard for electronic devices for use in and around a home, it would be beneficial to use a wireless network standard that provides an open protocol for different devices to learn how to gain access to the network. Also, given the number of electronic devices that may be associated with a home, it would be beneficial that the wireless network standard be capable of supporting Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) communication such that each device may have a unique IP address and may be capable of being accessed via the Internet, via a local network in a home environment, and the like. Further, it would be beneficial for the wireless network standard to allow the electronic devices to communicate within the wireless network using a minimum amount of power. With these features in mind, it is believed that one or more shortcomings is presented by each known currently available wireless networking standard in the context of providing a low power, IPv6-based, wireless mesh network standard that has an open protocol and can be used for electronic devices in and around a home. For example, wireless network standards such as Bluetooth®, Dust Networks®, Z-wave®, WiFi, and ZigBee® fail to provide one or more of the desired features discussed above.
Bluetooth®, for instance, generally provides a wireless network standard for communicating over short distances via short-wavelength radio transmissions. As such, Bluetooth's® wireless network standard may not support a communication network of a number of electronic devices disposed throughout a home. Moreover, Bluetooth's® wireless network standard may not support wireless mesh communication or IPv6 addresses.
As mentioned above, the wireless network standard provide by Dust Networks® may also bring about one or more shortcomings with respect to one or more features that would enable electronic devices disposed in a home to efficiently communicate with each other. In particular, Dust Networks'® wireless network standard may not provide an open protocol that may be used by others to interface with the devices operating on Dust Networks' network. Instead, Dust Networks® may be designed to facilitate communication between devices located in industrial environments such as assembly lines, chemical plants, and the like. As such, Dust Networks′0 wireless network standard may be directed to providing a reliable communication network that has pre-defined time windows in which each device may communicate to other devices and listen for instructions from other devices. In this manner, Dust Networks′® wireless network standard may require sophisticated and relatively expensive radio transmitters that may not be economical to implement with consumer electronic devices for use in the home.
Like Dust Networks'® wireless network standard, the wireless network standard associated with Z-wave® may not be an open protocol. Instead, Z-wave's® wireless network standard may be available only to authorized clients that embed a specific transceiver chip into their device. Moreover, Z-wave's® wireless network standard may not support IPv6-based communication. That is, Z-wave's® wireless network standard may require a bridge device to translate data generated on a Z-wave® device into IP-based data that may be transmitted via the Internet.
Referring now to ZigBee's® wireless network standards, ZigBee® has two standards commonly known as ZigBee® Pro and ZigBee® IP. Moreover, ZigBee® Pro may have one or more shortcomings in the context of support for wireless mesh networking Instead, ZigBee® Pro may depend at least in part on a central device that facilitates communication between each device in the ZigBee® Pro network. In addition to the increased power requirements for that central device, devices that remain on to process or reject certain wireless traffic can generate additional heat within their housings that may alter some sensor readings, such as temperature readings, acquired by the device. Since such sensor readings may be useful in determining how each device within the home may operate, it may be beneficial to avoid unnecessary generation of heat within the device that may alter sensor readings. Additionally, ZigBee® Pro may not support IPv6 communication.
Referring now to ZigBee® IP, ZigBee® IP may bring about one or more shortcomings in the context of direct device-to-device communication. ZigBee® IP is directed toward the facilitation of communication by relay of device data to a central router or device. As such, the central router or device may require constant powering and therefore may not represent a low power means for communications among devices. Moreover, ZigBee® IP may have a practical limit in the number of nodes (i.e., ˜20 nodes per network) that may be employed in a single network. Further, ZigBee® IP uses a “Ripple” routing protocol (RPL) that may exhibit high bandwidth, processing, and memory requirements, which may implicate additional power for each ZigBee® IP connected device.
Like the ZigBee® wireless network standards discussed above, WiFi's wireless network may exhibit one or more shortcomings in terms of enabling communications among devices having low-power requirements. For example, WiFi's wireless network standard may also require each networked device to always be powered up, and furthermore may require the presence of a central node or hub. As known in the art, WiFi is a relatively common wireless network standard that may be ideal for relatively high bandwidth data transmissions (e.g., streaming video, syncing devices). As such, WiFi devices are typically coupled to a continuous power supply or rechargeable batteries to support the constant stream of data transmissions between devices. Further, WiFi's wireless network may not support wireless mesh networking Even so, WiFi sometimes may offer better connectivity than some lower-powered protocols.
A summary of certain embodiments disclosed herein is set forth below. It should be understood that these aspects are presented merely to provide the reader with a brief summary of these certain embodiments and that these aspects are not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure. Indeed, this disclosure may encompass a variety of aspects that may not be set forth below.
Systems and methods are provided for efficient communication through a fabric network of devices in a home environment or similar environment. For example, an electronic device may efficiently control communication to balance power and reliability concerns, may efficiently communicate messages to certain preferred networks by analyzing Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) packet headers that use an Extended Unique Local Address (EULA), may efficiently communicate software updates and status reports throughout a fabric network, and/or may easily and efficiently join a fabric network.
For instance, an electronic device may include memory or storage storing instructions to operate a network stack, a processor to execute the instructions, and a network interface to join a network-connected fabric of devices and communicate a message to a target device of the fabric of devices using the network stack. The network stack may include an application layer to provide an application payload with data to be transmitted in the message, a platform layer to encapsulate the application payload in a general message format of the message, a transport layer to selectably transport the message using either User Datagram Protocol (UDP) or Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and a network layer to communicate the message using Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) via one or more networks. These networks may include, for example, an 802.11 wireless network, an 802.15.4 wireless network, a powerline network, a cellular network, and/or an Ethernet network. Moreover, the application layer, the platform layer, the transport layer, and/or the network layer may determine a property of the manner of communication of the message to the target node based at least in part on a type of the message, the network over which the message is to be sent, a distance over which the message may travel through the fabric, power consumption behavior of the electronic device, power consumption behavior of the target device, and/or power consumption behavior of an intervening device of the fabric of devices that is to communicate the message between the electronic device and the target device. Further, varying the property of the manner of communication may cause the electronic device, the target device, and/or the intervening device to consume different amounts of power and cause the message to more reliably or less reliably reach the target node.
In another example, a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium may include to be executed by a first electronic device communicably coupled to other electronic devices of a fabric of devices in a home environment. The instructions may include those to receive an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) message at the first electronic device from a second electronic device over a first network of the fabric of devices. The message may be bound for a target electronic device. The instructions may further include instructions to identify an Extended Unique Local Address encoded in an IPv6 header of the message. Here, the Extended Unique Local Address may indicate that a second network is preferred to reach the target electronic device. The instructions also may include instructions to communicate the message through the fabric of devices toward the target electronic device using second network based at least in part on the Extended Unique Local Address.
A method for transferring a software update over a fabric network may include sending an image query message from a first device in the fabric network to a second device in the fabric network or a local or remote server. The image query message may include information regarding software stored on the first device and transfer capabilities of the first device. An image query response may be received by the first device from the second device or the local or remote server. The image query response may indicate whether the software update is available and includes download information having a uniform resource identifier (URI) to enable the first device to download the software update. The image query message may include sender information regarding software stored on a sender device and transfer capabilities of the sender device and an update priority. Using the URI, the software update may be downloaded at the first device from the sender device. The software may be downloaded at a time based at least in part on the update priority and network traffic in the fabric network, and may be downloaded in a manner based at least in part on common transfer capabilities indicated in the image query and the image query response.
In a further example, a tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium may store a status reporting format. The status reporting format may include a profile field to indicate a status update type of a plurality of status update types, a status code to indicate a status being reported—the status code may be interpreted in a manner based at least in part on the status update type—and a next status field to indicate whether an additional status is included in a status report formed using the status reporting format.
Another example of an electronic device includes memory to store instructions to enable the first electronic device to pair with a fabric network comprising a second electronic device, a processor to execute the instructions, and a network interface to access 802.11 and 802.15.4 logical networks. The instructions may include instructions to establish communication with the second electronic device via a first 802.15.4 logical network. The second electronic device may be paired with the fabric network and may communicate with a service via another logical network in the fabric network. The instructions may also include instructions to receive network configuration information from the service via the second electronic device to enable the first electronic device to join a first 802.11 logical network and to establish communication over the first 802.11 logical network, connect to the service via the first 802.11 logical network, and register to pair with the fabric network via communication with the service.
Various refinements of the features noted above may be used in relation to various aspects of the present disclosure. Further features may also be incorporated in these various aspects as well. These refinements and additional features may be used individually or in any combination. For instance, various features discussed below in relation to one or more of the illustrated embodiments may be incorporated into any of the above-described aspects of the present disclosure alone or in any combination. The brief summary presented above is intended only to familiarize the reader with certain aspects and contexts of embodiments of the present disclosure without limitation to the claimed subject matter.
Various aspects of this disclosure may be better understood upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings in which:
One or more specific embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below. These described embodiments are only examples of the presently disclosed techniques. Additionally, in an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but may nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.
When introducing elements of various embodiments of the present disclosure, the articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. Additionally, it should be understood that references to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” of the present disclosure are not intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additional embodiments that also incorporate the recited features.
As used herein the term “HVAC” includes systems providing both heating and cooling, heating only, cooling only, as well as systems that provide other occupant comfort and/or conditioning functionality such as humidification, dehumidification and ventilation.
As used herein the terms power “harvesting,” “sharing” and “stealing,” when referring to home devices, refer to deriving power from a power transformer through the equipment load without using a direct or common wire source directly from the transformer.
As used herein the term “thermostat” means a device or system for regulating parameters such as temperature and/or humidity within at least a part of an enclosure. The term “thermostat” may include a control unit for a heating and/or cooling system or a component part of a heater or air conditioner. As used herein the term “thermostat” can also refer generally to a versatile sensing and control unit (VSCU unit) that is configured and adapted to provide sophisticated, customized, energy-saving HVAC control functionality while at the same time being visually appealing, non-intimidating, elegant to behold, and delightfully easy to use.
As used herein, the term “hazard detector” refers to any home device that can detect evidence of fire (e.g., smoke, heat, carbon monoxide) and/or other hazardous conditions (e.g., extreme temperatures, buildup of dangerous gases).
This disclosure relates to efficient communication that may be used by devices communicating with each other in a home environment. The efficient communication of this disclosure may enable a fabric of devices and/or services to communicate in the home environment. Indeed, consumers living in homes may find it useful to coordinate the operations of various devices within their home such that all of their devices are operated efficiently. For example, a thermostat device may be used to detect a temperature of a home and coordinate the activity of other devices (e.g., lights) based on the detected temperature. The thermostat device may detect a temperature that may indicate that the temperature outside the home corresponds to daylight hours. The thermostat device may then convey to the light device that there may be daylight available to the home and that thus the light should turn off. In another example, a smart hazard detector may be able to detect environmental conditions that indicate occupancy. The thermostat device may query the hazard detector for these environmental conditions and vary its operation accordingly. In addition to efficiency, consumers may generally prefer user-friendly devices that involve a minimum amount of set up or initialization. That is, consumers may generally prefer devices that are fully operational after performing a few number initialization steps, especially those that may be performed by almost any individual regardless of age or technical expertise.
To effectively and efficiently communicate data between each other within the home environment, the devices may use a fabric network that includes one or more logical networks to manage communication between the devices. That is, the efficient fabric network may enable numerous devices within a home to communicate with each other using one or more logical networks. The fabric network may be supported by an efficient communication scheme involving, for example, an efficient network layer, an efficient platform layer, and/or an efficient application layer to manage communication. The fabric network may support Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) communication such that each connected device may have a unique local address (ULA). In some examples, the IPv6 communications may employ an Extended Unique Local Address (EULA). Moreover, to enable each device to integrate with a home, it may be useful for each device to communicate within the network using low amounts of power. That is, by enabling devices to communicate using low power, the devices may be placed anywhere in a home without being coupled to a continuous power source (e.g., battery-powered).
On a relatively lower layer of the communication protocol (e.g., the network layer), the fabric efficient network layer may establish a communication network in which numerous devices within a home may communicate with each other via a wireless mesh network. The communication network may support Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) communication such that each connected device may have a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. Moreover, to enable each device to integrate with a home, it may be useful for each device to communicate within the network using low amounts of power. That is, by enabling devices to communicate using low power, the devices may be placed anywhere in a home without being coupled to a continuous power source.
The efficient network layer may thus establish a procedure in which data may be transferred between two or more devices such that the establishment of the communication network involves little user input, the communication between devices involves little energy, and the communication network, itself, is secure. In one embodiment, the efficient network layer may be an IPv6-based communication network that employs Routing Information Protocol-Next Generation (RIPng) as its routing mechanism and a Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) protocol as its security mechanism. As such, the efficient network layer may provide a simple means for adding or removing devices to a home while protecting the information communicated between the connected devices.
On relatively higher layers of the communication protocol (e.g., the platform and/or application layers), the fabric of devices may be created and maintained. These layers may enable parametric software updates and status reports throughout the fabric. These layers may also provide communication that may be aware of certain network power constraints, such as the power constraints of “sleepy” or battery-powered devices, and may communicate messages with these factors in mind.
As such, embodiments of this disclosure relate to systems and methods a fabric network that includes one or more logical networks that enables devices connected to the fabric to communicate with each other using a list of protocols and/or profiles known to the devices. The communications between the devices may follow a typical message format that enables the devices to understand communications between the devices regardless of which logical networks the communicating devices are connected to in the fabric. Within the message format, a payload of data may be included for the receiving device to store and/or process. The format and the contents of the payload may vary according to a header within the payload that indicates a profile (including one or more protocols) and/or a type of message that is being sent according to the profile.
According to some embodiments, two or more devices in a fabric may communicate using status reporting protocols or profiles. For example, in certain embodiments, a status reporting protocol or schema may be included in a core profile that is available to devices connected to the fabric. Using the status reporting protocol, devices may send or request status information to or from other devices in the fabric.
Similarly, in certain embodiments, two or more devices in a fabric may communicate using update software protocols or profiles. In some embodiments, the update software protocol or schema may be included in a core profile that is available to devices connected to the fabric. Using the update software protocol, devices may request, send, or notify the presence of updates within the fabric.
In certain embodiments, two or more devices in a fabric may communicate using data management protocols or profiles. In some embodiments, the data management protocol or schema may be included in a core profile that is available to devices connected to the fabric. Using the update data management protocol, devices may request, view, or track node-resident information that is stored in other devices.
Furthermore, in certain embodiments, two or more devices in a fabric may transfer data using bulk data transfer protocols or profiles. In some embodiments, the bulk data transfer protocol or schema may be included in a core profile that is available to devices connected to the fabric. Using the bulk data transfer protocol, devices may initiate, send, or receive bulk data using any logical networks in the fabric. In certain embodiments, either a sending or a receiving device using the bulk data transfer protocol may be able to “drive” a synchronous transfer between the devices. In other embodiments, the bulk transfer may be performed with an asynchronous transfer.
By way of introduction,
The sensors 12, in certain embodiments, may detect various properties such as acceleration, temperature, humidity, water, supplied power, proximity, external motion, device motion, sound signals, ultrasound signals, light signals, fire, smoke, carbon monoxide, global-positioning-satellite (GPS) signals, radio-frequency (RF), other electromagnetic signals or fields, or the like. As such, the sensors 12 may include temperature sensor(s), humidity sensor(s), hazard-related sensor(s) or other environmental sensor(s), accelerometer(s), microphone(s), optical sensors up to and including camera(s) (e.g., charged coupled-device or video cameras), active or passive radiation sensors, GPS receiver(s) or radiofrequency identification detector(s). While
One or more user-interface components 14 in the device 10 may receive input from the user and/or present information to the user. The received input may be used to determine a setting. In certain embodiments, the user-interface components may include a mechanical or virtual component that responds to the user's motion. For example, the user can mechanically move a sliding component (e.g., along a vertical or horizontal track) or rotate a rotatable ring (e.g., along a circular track), or the user's motion along a touchpad may be detected. Such motions may correspond to a setting adjustment, which can be determined based on an absolute position of a user-interface component 104 or based on a displacement of a user-interface components 104 (e.g., adjusting a set point temperature by 1 degree F. for every 10° rotation of a rotatable-ring component). Physically and virtually movable user-interface components can allow a user to set a setting along a portion of an apparent continuum. Thus, the user may not be confined to choose between two discrete options (e.g., as would be the case if up and down buttons were used) but can quickly and intuitively define a setting along a range of possible setting values. For example, a magnitude of a movement of a user-interface component may be associated with a magnitude of a setting adjustment, such that a user may dramatically alter a setting with a large movement or finely tune a setting with s small movement.
The user-interface components 14 may also include one or more buttons (e.g., up and down buttons), a keypad, a number pad, a switch, a microphone, and/or a camera (e.g., to detect gestures). In one embodiment, the user-interface component 14 may include a click-and-rotate annular ring component that may enable the user to interact with the component by rotating the ring (e.g., to adjust a setting) and/or by clicking the ring inwards (e.g., to select an adjusted setting or to select an option). In another embodiment, the user-interface component 14 may include a camera that may detect gestures (e.g., to indicate that a power or alarm state of a device is to be changed). In some instances, the device 10 may have one primary input component, which may be used to set a plurality of types of settings. The user-interface components 14 may also be configured to present information to a user via, e.g., a visual display (e.g., a thin-film-transistor display or organic light-emitting-diode display) and/or an audio speaker.
The power-supply component 16 may include a power connection and/or a local battery. For example, the power connection may connect the device 10 to a power source such as a line voltage source. In some instances, an AC power source can be used to repeatedly charge a (e.g., rechargeable) local battery, such that the battery may be used later to supply power to the device 10 when the AC power source is not available.
The network interface 18 may include a component that enables the device 10 to communicate between devices. In one embodiment, the network interface 18 may communicate using an efficient network layer as part of its Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. In one embodiment, the efficient network layer, which will be described in more detail below with reference to
The processor 20 may support one or more of a variety of different device functionalities. As such, the processor 20 may include one or more processors configured and programmed to carry out and/or cause to be carried out one or more of the functionalities described herein. In one embodiment, the processor 20 may include general-purpose processors carrying out computer code stored in local memory (e.g., flash memory, hard drive, random access memory), special-purpose processors or application-specific integrated circuits, combinations thereof, and/or using other types of hardware/firmware/software processing platforms. Further, the processor 20 may be implemented as localized versions or counterparts of algorithms carried out or governed remotely by central servers or cloud-based systems, such as by virtue of running a Java virtual machine (JVM) that executes instructions provided from a cloud server using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) or similar protocols. By way of example, the processor 20 may detect when a location (e.g., a house or room) is occupied, up to and including whether it is occupied by a specific person or is occupied by a specific number of people (e.g., relative to one or more thresholds). In one embodiment, this detection can occur, e.g., by analyzing microphone signals, detecting user movements (e.g., in front of a device), detecting openings and closings of doors or garage doors, detecting wireless signals, detecting an IP address of a received signal, detecting operation of one or more devices within a time window, or the like. Moreover, the processor 20 may include image recognition technology to identify particular occupants or objects.
In certain embodiments, the processor 20 may also include a high-power processor and a low-power processor. The high-power processor may execute computational intensive operations such as operating the user-interface component 14 and the like. The low-power processor, on the other hand, may manage less complex processes such as detecting a hazard or temperature from the sensor 12. In one embodiment, the low-power processor may wake or initialize the high-power processor for computationally intensive processes.
In some instances, the processor 20 may predict desirable settings and/or implement those settings. For example, based on the presence detection, the processor 20 may adjust device settings to, e.g., conserve power when nobody is home or in a particular room or to accord with user preferences (e.g., general at-home preferences or user-specific preferences). As another example, based on the detection of a particular person, animal or object (e.g., a child, pet or lost object), the processor 20 may initiate an audio or visual indicator of where the person, animal or object is or may initiate an alarm or security feature if an unrecognized person is detected under certain conditions (e.g., at night or when lights are off).
In some instances, devices may interact with each other such that events detected by a first device influences actions of a second device. For example, a first device can detect that a user has pulled into a garage (e.g., by detecting motion in the garage, detecting a change in light in the garage or detecting opening of the garage door). The first device can transmit this information to a second device via the efficient network layer, such that the second device can, e.g., adjust a home temperature setting, a light setting, a music setting, and/or a security-alarm setting. As another example, a first device can detect a user approaching a front door (e.g., by detecting motion or sudden light pattern changes). The first device may, e.g., cause a general audio or visual signal to be presented (e.g., such as sounding of a doorbell) or cause a location-specific audio or visual signal to be presented (e.g., to announce the visitor's presence within a room that a user is occupying).
By way of example, the device 10 may include a thermostat such as a Nest® Learning Thermostat. Here, the thermostat may include sensors 12 such as temperature sensors, humidity sensors, and the like such that the thermostat may determine present climate conditions within a building where the thermostat is disposed. The power-supply component 16 for the thermostat may be a local battery such that the thermostat may be placed anywhere in the building without regard to being placed in close proximity to a continuous power source. Since the thermostat may be powered using a local battery, the thermostat may minimize its energy use such that the battery is rarely replaced.
In one embodiment, the thermostat may include a circular track that may have a rotatable ring disposed thereon as the user-interface component 14. As such, a user may interact with or program the thermostat using the rotatable ring such that the thermostat controls the temperature of the building by controlling a heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) unit or the like. In some instances, the thermostat may determine when the building may be vacant based on its programming. For instance, if the thermostat is programmed to keep the HVAC unit powered off for an extended period of time, the thermostat may determine that the building will be vacant during this period of time. Here, the thermostat may be programmed to turn off light switches or other electronic devices when it determines that the building is vacant. As such, the thermostat may use the network interface 18 to communicate with a light switch device such that it may send a signal to the light switch device when the building is determined to be vacant. In this manner, the thermostat may efficiently manage the energy use of the building.
Keeping the foregoing in mind,
The depicted structure 32 includes a number of rooms 38, separated at least partly from each other via walls 40. The walls 40 can include interior walls or exterior walls. Each room 38 can further include a floor 42 and a ceiling 44. Devices can be mounted on, integrated with and/or supported by the wall 40, the floor 42, or the ceiling 44.
The home environment 30 may include a plurality of devices, including intelligent, multi-sensing, network-connected devices that may integrate seamlessly with each other and/or with cloud-based server systems to provide any of a variety of useful home objectives. One, more or each of the devices illustrated in the home environment 30 may include one or more sensors 12, a user interface 14, a power supply 16, a network interface 18, a processor 20 and the like.
Example devices 10 may include a network-connected thermostat 46 such as Nest® Learning Thermostat—1st Generation T100577 or Nest® Learning Thermostat—2nd Generation T200577 by Nest Labs, Inc. The thermostat 46 may detect ambient climate characteristics (e.g., temperature and/or humidity) and control a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system 48. Another example device 10 may include a hazard detection unit 50 such as a hazard detection unit by Nest®. The hazard detection unit 50 may detect the presence of a hazardous substance and/or a hazardous condition in the home environment 30 (e.g., smoke, fire, or carbon monoxide). Additionally, an entryway interface devices 52, which can be termed a “smart doorbell”, can detect a person's approach to or departure from a location, control audible functionality, announce a person's approach or departure via audio or visual means, or control settings on a security system (e.g., to activate or deactivate the security system).
In certain embodiments, the device 10 may include a light switch 54 that may detect ambient lighting conditions, detect room-occupancy states, and control a power and/or dim state of one or more lights. In some instances, the light switches 54 may control a power state or speed of a fan, such as a ceiling fan.
Additionally, wall plug interfaces 56 may detect occupancy of a room or enclosure and control supply of power to one or more wall plugs (e.g., such that power is not supplied to the plug if nobody is at home). The device 10 within the home environment 30 may further include an appliance 58, such as refrigerators, stoves and/or ovens, televisions, washers, dryers, lights (inside and/or outside the structure 32), stereos, intercom systems, garage-door openers, floor fans, ceiling fans, whole-house fans, wall air conditioners, pool heaters 34, irrigation systems 36, security systems, and so forth. While descriptions of
In addition to containing processing and sensing capabilities, each of the example devices described above may be capable of data communications and information sharing with any other device, as well as to any cloud server or any other device that is network-connected anywhere in the world. In one embodiment, the devices 10 may send and receive communications via the efficient network layer that will be discussed below with reference to
In one embodiment, a wireless router 60 may further communicate with the devices 10 in the home environment 30 via the wireless mesh network. The wireless router 60 may then communicate with the Internet 62 such that each device 10 may communicate with a central server or a cloud-computing system 64 through the Internet 62. The central server or cloud-computing system 64 may be associated with a manufacturer, support entity or service provider associated with a particular device 10. As such, in one embodiment, a user may contact customer support using a device itself rather than using some other communication means such as a telephone or Internet-connected computer. Further, software updates can be automatically sent from the central server or cloud-computing system 64 to the devices (e.g., when available, when purchased, or at routine intervals).
By virtue of network connectivity, one or more of the devices 10 may further allow a user to interact with the device even if the user is not proximate to the device. For example, a user may communicate with a device using a computer (e.g., a desktop computer, laptop computer, or tablet) or other portable electronic device (e.g., a smartphone) 66. A webpage or application may receive communications from the user and control the device 10 based on the received communications. Moreover, the webpage or application may present information about the device's operation to the user. For example, the user can view a current set point temperature for a device and adjust it using a computer that may be connected to the Internet 62. In this example, the thermostat 46 may receive the current set point temperature view request via the wireless mesh network created using the efficient network layer.
In certain embodiments, the home environment 30 may also include a variety of non-communicating legacy appliances 68, such as old conventional washer/dryers, refrigerators, and the like which can be controlled, albeit coarsely (ON/OFF), by virtue of the wall plug interfaces 56. The home environment 30 may further include a variety of partially communicating legacy appliances 70, such as infra-red (IR) controlled wall air conditioners or other IR-controlled devices, which can be controlled by IR signals provided by the hazard detection units 50 or the light switches 54.
As mentioned above, each of the example devices 10 described above may establish a wireless mesh network such that data may be communicated to each device 10. Keeping the example devices of
Generally, the efficient network layer may be part of an Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model 90 as depicted in
Keeping this in mind, the physical layer 92 may provide hardware specifications for devices that may communicate with each other. As such, the physical layer 92 may establish how devices may connect to each other, assist in managing how communication resources may be shared between devices, and the like.
The data link layer 94 may specify how data may be transferred between devices. Generally, the data link layer 94 may provide a way in which data packets being transmitted may be encoded and decoded into bits as part of a transmission protocol.
The network layer 96 may specify how the data being transferred to a destination node is routed. The network layer 96 may also provide a security protocol that may maintain the integrity of the data being transferred.
The transport layer 98 may specify a transparent transfer of the data from a source node to a destination node. The transport layer 98 may also control how the transparent transfer of the data remains reliable. As such, the transport layer 98 may be used to verify that data packets intended to transfer to the destination node indeed reached the destination node. Example protocols that may be employed in the transport layer 98 may include Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP).
The platform layer 100 may establish connections between devices according to the protocol specified within the transport layer 98. The platform layer 100 may also translate the data packets into a form that the application layer 102 may use. The application layer 102 may support a software application that may directly interface with the user. As such, the application layer 102 may implement protocols defined by the software application. For example, the software application may provide serves such as file transfers, electronic mail, and the like.
Referring now to
In one embodiment, the network layer 96 may specify that data may be routed between devices using Routing Information Protocol-Next Generation (RIPng). RIPng is a routing protocol that routes data via a wireless mesh network based on a number of hops between the source node and the destination node. That is, RIPng may determine a route to the destination node from the source node that employs the least number of hops when determining how the data will be routed. In addition to supporting data transfers via a wireless mesh network, RIPng is capable of supporting IPv6 networking traffic. As such, each device 10 may use a unique IPv6 address to identify itself and a unique IPv6 address to identify a destination node when routing data. Additional details with regard to how the RIPng may send data between nodes will be described below with reference to
As mentioned above, the network layer 96 may also provide a security protocol that may manage the integrity of the data being transferred. Here, the efficient network layer may secure data transferred between devices using a Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) protocol. Generally, Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol is commonly used to protect data transfers via the Internet. However, in order for the TLS protocol to be effective, the TLS protocol may transport data using a reliable transport channel such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). DTLS provides a similar level of security for transferred data while supporting unreliable transport channels such as User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Additional details with regard to the DTLS protocol will be described below with reference to
The network layer 96 depicted in
Referring now to
The following discussion of the method 120 will be described with reference to
At block 124, the requesting device 10 may receive a message from the respective device 10 that may include all of the routes included in the respective memory of the respective device 10. The routes may be organized in a routing table that may specify how each node in the wireless mesh network 80 may be connected to each other. That is, the routing table may specify which intermediate nodes data may be transferred to such that data from a source node to a destination node. Referring back to the example above and to
Initially, each node may know the nodes in which it may have a direct connection (i.e., zero hops). For example, initially, node 2 may just know that it is directly connected to node 1, node 3, and node 4. However, after receiving N1's routes 142, N3 's routes 146, and N4's routes 148, the processor 20 of node 2 may build a routing table that includes all of the information included with N1's routes 142, N3 's routes 146, and N4's routes 148. As such, the next time node 2 receives a request for its routes or routing table (i.e., N2 's routes 144), node 2 may send a routing table that includes N1's routes 142, N2 's routes, N3 's routes 146, and N4's routes 148.
Keeping this in mind and referring back to
By using the RIPng routing scheme, each device 10 may independently determine how data should be routed to a destination node. Conventional routing schemes such as “Ripple” Routing Protocol (RPL) used in 6LoWPAN devices, on the other hand, may route data through a central node, which may be the only node that knows the structure of the wireless mesh network. More specifically, the RPL protocol may create a wireless mesh network according to a directed acyclic graph (DAG), which may be structured as a hierarchy. Located at the top of this hierarchy may include a border router, which may periodically multicasts requests to lower level nodes to determine a rank for each of the node's connections. In essence, when data is transferred from a source node to a destination node, the data may be transferred up the hierarchy of nodes and then back down to the destination node. In this manner, the nodes located higher up the hierarchy may route data more often than the nodes located lower in the hierarchy. Moreover, the border router of the RPL system may also be operating more frequently since it controls how data will be routed via the hierarchy. In the conventional RPL system, in contrast to the RIPng system taught here, some nodes may route data on a more frequent basis simply due to its location within the hierarchy and not due to its location with respect to the source node and the destination node. These nodes that route data more often under the RPL system may consume more energy and thus may not be a suitable to implement with the devices 10 in the home environment 30 that operate using low power. Moreover, as mentioned above, if the border router or any other higher-level node of the RPL system corresponds to the thermostat 46, the increased data routing activity may increase the heat produced within the thermostat 46. As a result, the temperature reading of the thermostat 46 may incorrectly represent the temperature of the home environment 30. Since other devices 10 may perform specific operations based on the temperature reading of the thermostat 46, and since the thermostat 46 may send commands to various devices 10 based on its temperature reading, it may be beneficial to ensure that the temperature reading of the thermostat 46 is accurate.
In addition to ensuring that none of the devices 10 routes data a disproportionate amount of times, by using the RIPng routing scheme, new devices 10 may be added to the wireless mesh network with minimum effort by the user. For example,
After establishing a routing scheme using the RIPng routing scheme, ELoWPAN 110 may employ a DTLS protocol to secure data communications between each device 10 in the home environment 30. As mentioned above, by using the DTLS protocol instead of a TLS protocol, ELoWPAN 110 may enable the transport layer 98 to send data via TCP and UDP. Although UDP may be generally more unreliable as compared to TCP, UDP data transfers employs a simple communication scheme without having dedicated transmissions channels or data paths set up prior to use. As such, new devices 10 added to the wireless mesh network 80 may use UDP data transfers to effectively communicate to other devices 10 in the wireless mesh network more quickly. Moreover, UDP data transfers generally use less energy by the device 10 that is sending or forwarding the data since there is no guarantee of delivery. As such, the devices 10 may send non-critical data (e.g., presence of a person in a room) using the UDP data transfer, thereby saving energy within the device 10. However, critical data (e.g., smoke alarm) may be sent via TCP data transfer to ensure that the appropriate party receives the data. To reiterate, using a DTLS security scheme with ELoWPAN 110 may help facilitate UDP and TCP data transfers.
Keeping the foregoing in mind, ELoWPAN 110 may employ the DTLS protocol to secure the data communicated between the devices 10. In one embodiment, the DTLS protocol may secure data transfers using a handshake protocol. Generally, the handshake protocol may authenticate each communicating device using a security certificate that may be provided by each device 10.
Referring to
In conventional data communication security protocols such as Protocol for Carrying Authentication for Network Access (PANA) used in 6LoWPAN devices, each device 10 may authenticate itself with a specific node (i.e., authentication agent). As such, before data is transferred between any two devices 10, each device 10 may authenticate itself with the authentication agent node. The authentication agent node may then convey the result of the authentication to an enforcement point node, which may be co-located with the authentication agent node. The enforcement point node may then establish a data communication link between the two devices 10 if the authentications are valid. Moreover, in PANA, each device 10 may communicate with each other via an enforcement point node, which may verify that the authentication for each device 10 is valid.
As such, by using the DTLS protocol rather than PANA to secure data transfers between nodes, the efficient network layer may avoid using an authorization agent node, an enforcement point node, or both excessively. That is, no one node using the efficient network layer may be processing authentication data for each data transfer between nodes in the wireless mesh network. As a result, the nodes using the efficient network layer may conserve more energy as compared to the authorization agent node or the enforcement point node in the PANA protocol system.
Keeping this in mind,
After establishing the connection between node 1 and node 2, the device at node 1 may again send the message 202 to the device 10 at node 2. The device 10 at node 2 may then respond with a message 208, which may include a hello message from node 2, a certificate 194 from node 2, a key exchange from node 2, and a certificate request for node 1. The hello message in the message 208 may include cipher suites, hash and compression algorithms, and a random number. The certificate 194 may be the security certificate embedded within the device 10 by the trusted manufacturer 192 as discussed above with reference to
In response to the message 208, the device 10 at node 1 may send message 210 that may include a certificate 194 from node 1, a key exchange from node 1, a certificate verification of node 2, and a change cipher spec from node 1. In one embodiment, the device 10 at node 1 may use the certificate 194 of node 2 and the key exchange from node 1 to verify the certificate 194 of node 2. That is, the device 10 at node 1 may verify that the certificate 194 received from node 2 is valid based on the certificate 194 of node 2 and the key exchange from node 1. If the certificate 194 from node 2 is valid, the device 10 at node 1 may send the change cipher spec message to the device 10 at node 2 to announce that the communication channel between the two nodes is secure.
Similarly, upon receiving the message 210, the device 10 at node 2 may use the certificate 194 of node 1 and the key exchange from node 2 to verify the certificate 194 of node 1. That is, the device 10 at node 2 may verify that the certificate 194 received from node 1 is valid based on the certificate 194 of node 1 and the key exchange from node 2. If the certificate 194 from node 1 is valid, the device 10 at node 2 may also send the change cipher spec message to the device 10 at node 1 to announce that the communication channel between the two nodes is secure.
After establishing that the communication channel is secure, the device 10 at node 1 may send a group-wise network key 214 to the device 10 at node 2. The group-wise network key 214 may be associated with the ELoWPAN 110. In this manner, as new devices join the ELoWPAN 110, devices previously authorized to communicate within the ELoWPAN 110 may provide the new devices access to the ELoWPAN 110. That is, the devices previously authorized to communicate within the ELoWPAN 110 may provide the group-wise network key 214 to the new devices, which may enable the new devices to communicate with other devices in the ELoWPAN 110. For example, the group-wise network key 214 may be used to communicate with other devices that have been properly authenticated and that have previously provided with the group-wise network key 214. In one embodiment, once the change cipher spec message has been exchanged between the device 10 at node 1 and the device 10 at node 2, identification information such as model number, device capabilities, and the like may be communicated between the devices. However, after the device 10 at node 2 receives the group-wise network key 214, additional information such as data from sensors disposed on the device 10, data analysis performed by the device 10, and the like may be communicated between devices.
By embedding the security certificate within the device 10 during the manufacturing process, the device 10 may not involve the user with establishing security or authentication processes for the device 10. Moreover, since the device 10 may ensure that data is securely transferred between nodes based on a handshake protocol as opposed to a central authentication agent node, the security of the data transfers in the wireless mesh network 80 may not rely on a single node for security. Instead, the efficient network layer may ensure that data may be securely transferred between nodes even when some node becomes unavailable. As such, the efficient network layer may be much less vulnerable to security issues since it does not rely on a single node for securing data messages.
Using the above-described ELowPAN 110 and/or any other suitable IPv6 logical networks, efficient platform and/or application layers may be used to generate a fabric of devices in a home environment or similar environments. The fabric of devices may enable many generally local devices to communicate, sharing data and information, invoking methods on one another, parametrically providing software updates through the network, and generally communicating messages in an efficient, power-conscious way.
Fabric-Device Interconnection
As discussed above, a fabric may be implemented using one or more suitable communications protocols, such as IPv6 protocols. In fact, the fabric may be partially or completely agnostic to the underlying technologies (e.g., network types or communication protocols) used to implement the fabric. Within the one or more communications protocols, the fabric may be implemented using one or more network types used to communicatively couple electrical devices using wireless or wired connections. For example, certain embodiments of the fabric may include Ethernet, WiFi, 802.15.4, ZigBee, ISA100.11a, WirelessHART, MiWi™, power-line networks, and/or other suitable network types. Within the fabric devices (e.g., nodes) can exchange packets of information with other devices (e.g., nodes) in the fabric, either directly or via intermediary nodes, such as intelligent thermostats, acting as IP routers. These nodes may include manufacturer devices (e.g., thermostats and smoke detectors) and/or customer devices (e.g., phones, tablets, computers, etc.). Additionally, some devices may be “always on” and continuously powered using electrical connections. Other devices may have partially reduced power usage (e.g., medium duty cycle) using a reduced/intermittent power connection, such as a thermostat or doorbell power connection. Finally, some devices may have a short duty cycle and run solely on battery power. In other words, in certain embodiments, the fabric may include heterogeneous devices that may be connected to one or more sub-networks according to connection type and/or desired power usage.
A. Single Network Topology
The network 1002 includes one or more nodes 1004, 1006, 1008, 1010, 1012, 1014, and 1016, referred to collectively as 1004-1016. Although the illustrated network 1002 includes seven nodes, certain embodiments of the network 1002 may include one or more nodes interconnected using the network 1002. Moreover, if the network 1002 is a WiFi network, each of the nodes 1004-1016 may be interconnected using the node 1016 (e.g., WiFi router) and/or paired with other nodes using WiFi Direct (i.e., WiFi P2P).
B. Star Network Topology
Although the illustrated fabric 1018 includes fourteen nodes, each referred to individually by reference numbers 1024-1052, respectively, it should be understood that the fabric 1018 may include any number of nodes. Communication within each network 1020, 1022, or 1024, may occur directly between devices and/or through an access point, such as node 1042 in a WiFi/Ethernet network. Communications between periphery network 1022 and 1024 passes through the hub network 1020 using inter-network routing nodes. For example, in the illustrated embodiment, nodes 1034 and 1036 are be connected to the periphery network 1022 using a first network connection type (e.g., 802.15.4) and to the hub network 1020 using a second network connection type (e.g., WiFi) while the node 1044 is connected to the hub network 1020 using the second network connection type and to the periphery network 1024 using a third network connection type (e.g., power line). For example, a message sent from node 1026 to node 1052 may pass through nodes 1028, 1030, 1032, 1036, 1042, 1044, 1048, and 1050 in transit to node 1052.
C. Overlapping Networks Topology
D. Fabric Network Connection to Services
In addition to communications between devices within the home, a fabric (e.g., fabric 1000) may include services that may be located physically near other devices in the fabric or physically remote from such devices. The fabric connects to these services through one or more service end points.
In certain embodiments, the service 1074 may also connect to a consumer device 1088, such as a phone, tablet, and/or computer. The consumer device 1088 may be used to connect to the service 1074 via a fabric, such as fabric 1076, an Internet connection, and/or some other suitable connection method. The consumer device 1088 may be used to access data from one or more end points (e.g., electronic devices) in a fabric either directly through the fabric or via the service 1074. In other words, using the service 1074, the consumer device 1088 may be used to access/manage devices in a fabric remotely from the fabric.
E. Communication Between Devices in a Fabric
As discussed above, each electronic device or node may communicate with any other node in the fabric, either directly or indirectly depending upon fabric topology and network connection types. Additionally, some devices (e.g., remote devices) may communicate through a service to communicate with other devices in the fabric.
i. Unique Local Address
As discussed above, data transmitted within a fabric received by a node may be redirected or passed through the node to another node depending on the desired target for the communication. In some embodiments, the transmission of the data may be intended to be broadcast to all devices. In such embodiments, the data may be retransmitted without further processing to determine whether the data should be passed along to another node. However, some data may be directed to a specific endpoint. To enable addressed messages to be transmitted to desired endpoints, nodes may be assigned identification information.
Each node may be assigned a set of link-local addresses (LLA), one assigned to each network interface. These LLAs may be used to communicate with other nodes on the same network. Additionally, the LLAs may be used for various communication procedures, such as IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Protocol. In addition to LLAs, each node may be assigned a unique local address (ULA). In some embodiments, this may be referred to as an Extended Unique Local Address (EULA) because it contains information regarding the fabric of devices as well as a preferred network over which to reach a device through the fabric.
The fabric ID 1103 is a unique 64-bit identifier used to identify a fabric. The fabric ID 1103 may be generated at creation of the associated fabric using a pseudo-random algorithm. For example, the pseudo-random algorithm may 1) obtain the current time of day in 64-bit NTP format, 2) obtain the interface ID 1104 for the device, 3) concatenate the time of day with the interface ID 1104 to create a key, 4) compute and SHA-1 digest on the key resulting in 160 bits, 5) use the least significant 40 bits as the global ID 1100, and 6) concatenate the ULA and set the least significant bit to 1 to create the fabric ID 1103. In certain embodiments, once the fabric ID 1103 is created with the fabric, the fabric ID 1103 remains until the fabric is dissolved.
The global ID 1100 identifies the fabric to which the node belongs. The subnet ID 1102 identifies logical networks within the fabric. The subnet ID F3 may be assigned monotonically starting at one with the addition of each new logical network to the fabric. For example, a WiFi network may be identified with a hex value of 0x01, and a later connected 802.15.4 network may be identified with a hex value of 0x02 continuing on incrementally upon the connection of each new network to the fabric.
Finally, the ULA 1098 includes an interface ID 1104 that includes 64 bits. The interface ID 1104 may be assigned using a globally-unique 64-bit identifier according to the IEEE EUI-64 standard. For example, devices with IEEE 802 network interfaces may derive the interface ID 1104 using a burned-in MAC address for the devices “primary interface.” In some embodiments, the designation of which interface is the primary interface may be determined arbitrarily. In other embodiments, an interface type (e.g., WiFi) may be deemed the primary interface, when present. If the MAC address for the primary interface of a device is 48 bits rather than 64-bit, the 48-bit MAC address may be converted to a EUI-64 value via encapsulation (e.g., organizationally unique identifier encapsulating). In consumer devices (e.g., phones or computers), the interface ID 1104 may be assigned by the consumer devices' local operating systems.
ii. Routing Transmissions Between Logical Networks
As discussed above in relation to a star network topology, inter-network routing may occur in communication between two devices across logical networks. In some embodiments, inter-network routing is based on the subnet ID 1102. Each inter-networking node (e.g., node 1034 of
Additionally, inter-network routing nodes may regularly transmit Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP) router advertisement messages on the hub network to alert consumer devices to the existence of the hub network and allow them to acquire the subnet prefix. The router advertisements may include include one or more route information options to assist in routing information in the fabric. For example, these route information options may inform consumer devices of the existence of the periphery networks and how to route packets the periphery networks.
In addition to, or in place of route information options, routing nodes may act as proxies to provide a connection between consumer devices and devices in periphery networks, such as the process 1105 as illustrated in
iii. Consumer Devices Connecting to a Fabric
To join a fabric, a consumer device may discover an address of a node already in the fabric that the consumer device wants to join. Additionally, if the consumer device has been disconnected from a fabric for an extended period of time may need to rediscover nodes on the network if the fabric topology/layout has changed. To aid in discovery/rediscovery, fabric devices on the hub network may publish Domain Name System-Service Discovery (DNS-SD) records via mDNS that advertise the presence of the fabric and provide addresses to the consumer device
Data Transmitted in the Fabric
After creation of a fabric and address creation for the nodes, data may be transmitted through the fabric. Data passed through the fabric may be arranged in a format common to all messages and/or common to specific types of conversations in the fabric. In some embodiments, the message format may enable one-to-one mapping to JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) using a TLV serialization format discussed below. Additionally, although the following data frames are described as including specific sizes, it should be noted that lengths of the data fields in the data frames may be varied to other suitable bit-lengths.
A. Security
Along with data intended to be transferred, the fabric may transfer the data with additional security measures such as encryption, message integrity checks, and digital signatures. In some embodiments, a level of security supported for a device may vary according to physical security of the device and/or capabilities of the device. In certain embodiments, messages sent between nodes in the fabric may be encrypted using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) block cipher operating in counter mode (AES-CTR) with a 128-bit key. As discussed below, each message contains a 32-bit message id. The message id may be combined with a sending nodes id to form a nonce for the AES-CTR algorithm. The 32-bit counter enables 4 billion messages to be encrypted and sent by each node before a new key is negotiated.
In some embodiments, the fabric may insure message integrity using a message authentication code, such as HMAC-SHA-1, that may be included in each encrypted message. In some embodiments, the message authentication code may be generated using a 160-bit message integrity key that is paired one-to-one with the encryption key. Additionally, each node may check the message id of incoming messages against a list of recently received ids maintained on a node-by-node basis to block replay of the messages.
B. Tag Length Value (TLV) Formatting
To reduce power consumption, it is desirable to send at least a portion of the data sent over the fabric that compactly while enabling the data containers to flexibly represents data that accommodates skipping data that is not recognized or understood by skipping to the next location of data that is understood within a serialization of the data. In certain embodiments, tag-length-value (TLV) formatting may be used to compactly and flexibly encode/decode data. By storing at least a portion of the transmitted data in TLV, the data may be compactly and flexibly stored/sent along with low encode/decode and memory overhead, as discussed below in reference to Table 7. In certain embodiments, TLV may be used for some data as flexible, extensible data, but other portions of data that is not extensible may be stored and sent in a understood standard protocol data unit (PDU).
Data formatted in a TLV format may be encoded as TLV elements of various types, such as primitive types and container types. Primitive types include data values in certain formats, such as integers or strings. For example, the TLV format may encode: 1, 2, 3, 4, or 8 byte signed/unsigned integers, UTF-8 strings, byte strings, single/double-precision floating numbers (e.g., IEEE 754-1985 format), boolean, null, and other suitable data format types. Container types include collections of elements that are then sub-classified as container or primitive types. Container types may be classified into various categories, such as dictionaries, arrays, paths or other suitable types for grouping TLV elements, known as members. A dictionary is a collection of members each having distinct definitions and unique tags within the dictionary. An array is an ordered collection of members with implied definitions or no distinct definitions. A path is an ordered collection of members that described how to traverse a tree of TLV elements.
As illustrated in
In embodiments having the control byte, the control byte may be sub-divided into an element type field and a tag control field. In some embodiments, the element type field includes 5 lower bits of the control byte and the tag control field occupies the upper 3 bits. The element type field indicates the TLV element's type as well as the how the length field 1124 and value field 1126 are encoded. In certain embodiments, the element type field also encodes Boolean values and/or null values for the TLV. For example, an embodiment of an enumeration of element type field is provided in Table 1 below.
The tag control field indicates a form of the tag in the tag field 1122 assigned to the TLV element (including a zero-length tag). Examples, of tag control field values are provided in Table 2 below.
In other words, in embodiments having a control byte, the control byte may indicate a length of the tag.
In certain embodiments, the tag field 1122 may include zero to eight bytes, such as eight, sixteen, thirty two, or sixty four bits. In some embodiments, the tag of the tag field may be classified as profile-specific tags or context-specific tags. Profile-specific tags identify elements globally using a vendor Id, a profile Id, and/or tag number as discussed below. Context-specific tags identify TLV elements within a context of a containing dictionary element and may include a single-byte tag number. Since context-specific tags are defined in context of their containers, a single context-specific tag may have different interpretations when included in different containers. In some embodiments, the context may also be derived from nested containers.
In embodiments having the control byte, the tag length is encoded in the tag control field and the tag field 1122 includes a possible three fields: a vendor Id field, a profile Id field, and a tag number field. In the fully-qualified form, the encoded tag field 1122 includes all three fields with the tag number field including 16 or 32 bits determined by the tag control field. In the implicit form, the tag includes only the tag number, and the vendor Id and profile number are inferred from the protocol context of the TLV element. The core profile form includes profile-specific tags, as discussed above. Context-specific tags are encoded as a single byte conveying the tag number. Anonymous elements have zero-length tag fields 1122.
In some embodiments without a control byte, two bits may indicate a length of the tag field 1122, two bits may indicate a length of the length field 1124, and four bits may indicate a type of information stored in the value field 1126. An example of possible encoding for the upper 8 bits for the tag field is illustrated below in Table 3.
As illustrated in Table 3, the upper 8 bits of the tag field 1122 may be used to encode information about the tag field 1122, length field 1124, and the value field 1126, such that the tag field 112 may be used to determine length for the tag field 122 and the length fields 1124. Remaining bits in the tag field 1122 may be made available for user-allocated and/or user-assigned tag values.
The length field 1124 may include eight, sixteen, thirty two, or sixty four bits as indicated by the tag field 1122 as illustrated in Table 3 or the element field as illustrated in Table 2. Moreover, the length field 1124 may include an unsigned integer that represents a length of the encoded in the value field 1126. In some embodiments, the length may be selected by a device sending the TLV element. The value field 1126 includes the payload data to be decoded, but interpretation of the value field 1126 may depend upon the tag length fields, and/or control byte. For example, a TLV packet without a control byte including an 8 bit tag is illustrated in Table 4 below for illustration.
As illustrated in Table 4, the first line indicates that the tag field 1122 and the length field 1124 each have a length of 8 bits. Additionally, the tag field 1122 indicates that the tag type is for the first line is a container (e.g., the TLV packet). The tag field 1124 for lines two through six indicate that each entry in the TLV packet has a tag field 1122 and length field 1124 consisting of 8 bits each. Additionally, the tag field 1124 indicates that each entry in the TLV packet has a value field 1126 that includes a 32-bit floating point. Each entry in the value field 1126 corresponds to a floating number that may be decoded using the corresponding tag field 1122 and length field 1124 information. As illustrated in this example, each entry in the value field 1126 corresponds to a temperature in Fahrenheit. As can be understood, by storing data in a TLV packet as described above, data may be transferred compactly while remaining flexible for varying lengths and information as may be used by different devices in the fabric. Moreover, in some embodiments, multi-byte integer fields may be transmitted in little-endian order or big-endian order.
By transmitting TLV packets in using an order protocol (e.g., little-endian) that may be used by sending/receiving device formats (e.g., JSON), data transferred between nodes may be transmitted in the order protocol used by at least one of the nodes (e.g., little endian). For example, if one or more nodes include ARM or ix86 processors, transmissions between the nodes may be transmitted using little-endian byte ordering to reduce the use of byte reordering. By reducing the inclusion of byte reordering, the TLV format enable devices to communicate using less power than a transmission that uses byte reordering on both ends of the transmission. Furthermore, TLV formatting may be specified to provide a one-to-one translation between other data storage techniques, such as JSON+ Extensible Markup Language (XML). As an example, the TLV format may be used to represent the following XML Property List:
As an example, the above property list may be represented in tags of the above described TLV format (without a control byte) according to Table 5 below.
Similarly, Table 6 illustrates an example of literal tag, length, and value representations for the example XML Property List.
The TLV format enables reference of properties that may also be enumerated with XML, but does so with a smaller storage size. For example, Table 7 illustrates a comparison of data sizes of the XML Property List, a corresponding binary property list, and the TLV format.
By reducing the amount of data used to transfer data, the TLV format enables the fabric 1000 transfer data to and/or from devices having short duty cycles due to limited power (e.g., battery supplied devices). In other words, the TLV format allows flexibility of transmission while increasing compactness of the data to be transmitted.
C. General Message Protocol
In addition to sending particular entries of varying sizes, data may be transmitted within the fabric using a general message protocol that may incorporate TLV formatting. An embodiment of a general message protocol (GMP) 1128 is illustrated in
i. Packet Length
In some embodiments, the GMP 1128 may include a Packet Length field 1130. In some embodiments, the Packet Length field 1130 includes 2 bytes. A value in the Packet Length field 1130 corresponds to an unsigned integer indicating an overall length of the message in bytes, excluding the Packet Length field 1130 itself. The Packet Length field 1130 may be present when the GMP 1128 is transmitted over a TCP connection, but when the GMP 1128 is transmitted over a UDP connection, the message length may be equal to the payload length of the underlying UDP packet obviating the Packet Length field 1130.
ii. Message Header
The GMP 1128 may also includes a Message Header 1132 regardless of whether the GMP 1128 is transmitted using TCP or UDP connections. In some embodiments, the Message Header 1132 includes two bytes of data arranged in the format illustrated in
The Message Header 1132 also includes an Encryption Type field 1162. The Encryption Type field 1162 includes four bits that specify which type of encryption/integrity checking applied to the message, if any. For example, 0x0 may indicate that no encryption or message integrity checking is included, but a decimal 0x1 may indicate that AES-128-CTR encryption with HMAC-SHA-1 message integrity checking is included.
Finally, the Message Header 1132 further includes a Signature Type field 1164. The Signature Type field 1164 includes four bits that specify which type of digital signature is applied to the message, if any. For example, 0x0 may indicate that no digital signature is included in the message, but 0x1 may indicate that the Elliptical Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) with Prime256v1 elliptical curve parameters is included in the message.
iii. Message Id
Returning to
iv. Source Node Id
In certain embodiments, the GMP 1128 may also include a Source Node Id field 1136 that includes eight bytes. As discussed above, the Source Node Id field 1136 may be present in a message when the single-bit S Flag 1158 in the Message Header 1132 is set to 1. In some embodiments, the Source Node Id field 1136 may contain the Interface ID 1104 of the ULA 1098 or the entire ULA 1098. In some embodiments, the bytes of the Source Node Id field 1136 are transmitted in an ascending index-value order (e.g., EUI[0] then EUI[1] then EUI[2] then EUI[3], etc.).
v. Destination Node Id
The GMP 1128 may include a Destination Node Id field 1138 that includes eight bytes. The Destination Node Id field 1138 is similar to the Source Node Id field 1136, but the Destination Node Id field 1138 corresponds to a destination node for the message. The Destination Node Id field 1138 may be present in a message when the single-bit D Flag 1160 in the Message Header 1132 is set to 1. Also similar to the Source Node Id field 1136, in some embodiments, bytes of the Destination Node Id field 1138 may be transmitted in an ascending index-value order (e.g., EUI[0] then EUI[1] then EUI[2] then EUI[3], etc.).
vi. Key Id
In some embodiments, the GMP 1128 may include a Key Id field 1140. In certain embodiments, the Key Id field 1140 includes two bytes. The Key Id field 1140 includes an unsigned integer value that identifies the encryption/message integrity keys used to encrypt the message. The presence of the Key Id field 1140 may be determined by the value of Encryption Type field 1162 of the Message Header 1132. For example, in some embodiments, when the value for the Encryption Type field 1162 of the Message Header 1132 is 0x0, the Key Id field 1140 may be omitted from the message.
An embodiment of the Key Id field 1140 is presented in
The Key Id field 1140 also includes a Key Number field 1168 that includes twelve bits that correspond to an unsigned integer value that identifies a particular key used to encrypt the message out of a set of available keys, either shared or fabric keys.
vii. Payload Length
In some embodiments, the GMP 1128 may include a Payload Length field 1142. The Payload Length field 1142, when present, may include two bytes. The Payload Length field 1142 corresponds to an unsigned integer value that indicates a size in bytes of the Application Payload field. The Payload Length field 1142 may be present when the message is encrypted using an algorithm that uses message padding, as described below in relation to the Padding field.
viii. Initialization Vector
In some embodiments, the GMP 1128 may also include an Initialization Vector (IV) field 1144. The IV field 1144, when present, includes a variable number of bytes of data. The IV field 1144 contains cryptographic IV values used to encrypt the message. The IV field 1144 may be used when the message is encrypted with an algorithm that uses an IV. The length of the IV field 1144 may be derived by the type of encryption used to encrypt the message.
ix. Application Payload
The GMP 1128 includes an Application Payload field 1146. The Application Payload field 1146 includes a variable number of bytes. The Application Payload field 1146 includes application data conveyed in the message. The length of the Application Payload field 1146 may be determined from the Payload Length field 1142, when present. If the Payload Length field 1142 is not present, the length of the Application Payload field 1146 may be determined by subtracting the length of all other fields from the overall length of the message and/or data values included within the Application Payload 1146 (e.g., TLV).
An embodiment of the Application Payload field 1146 is illustrated in
In addition, the Application Payload field 1146 includes a Profile Id field 1176. The Profile Id 1176 indicates a “theme of discussion” used to indicate what type of communication occurs in the message. The Profile Id 1176 may correspond to one or more profiles that a device may be capable of communicating. For example, the Profile Id 1176 may indicate that the message relates to a core profile, a software update profile, a status update profile, a data management profile, a climate and comfort profile, a security profile, a safety profile, and/or other suitable profile types. Each device on the fabric may include a list of profiles which are relevant to the device and in which the device is capable of “participating in the discussion.” For example, many devices in a fabric may include the core profile, the software update profile, the status update profile, and the data management profile, but only some devices would include the climate and comfort profile. The APVersion field 1170, Message Type field 1172, the Exchange Id field, the Profile Id field 1176, and the Profile-Specific Header field 1176, if present, may be referred to in combination as the “Application Header.”
In some embodiments, an indication of the Profile Id via the Profile Id field 1176 may provide sufficient information to provide a schema for data transmitted for the profile. However, in some embodiments, additional information may be used to determine further guidance for decoding the Application Payload field 1146. In such embodiments, the Application Payload field 1146 may include a Profile-Specific Header field 1178. Some profiles may not use the Profile-Specific Header field 1178 thereby enabling the Application Payload field 1146 to omit the Profile-Specific Header field 1178. Upon determination of a schema from the Profile Id field 1176 and/or the Profile-Specific Header field 1178, data may be encoded/decoded in the Application Payload sub-field 1180. The Application Payload sub-field 1180 includes the core application data to be transmitted between devices and/or services to be stored, rebroadcast, and/or acted upon by the receiving device/service.
x. Message Integrity Check
Returning to
xi. Padding
The GMP 1128 may also include a Padding field 1150. The Padding field 1150, when present, includes a sequence of bytes representing a cryptographic padding added to the message to make the encrypted portion of the message evenly divisible by the encryption block size. The presence of the Padding field 1150 may be determined by whether the type of encryption algorithm (e.g., block ciphers in cipher-block chaining mode) indicated by the Encryption Type field 1162 in the Message Header 1132 uses cryptographic padding.
xii. Encryption
The Application Payload field 1146, the MIC field 1148, and the Padding field 1150 together form an Encryption block 1152. The Encryption block 1152 includes the portions of the message that are encrypted when the the Encryption Type field 1162 in the Message Header 1132 is any value other than 0x0.
xiii. Message Signature
The GMP 1128 may also include a Message Signature field 1154. The Message Signature field 1154, when present, includes a sequence of bytes of variable length that contains a cryptographic signature of the message. The length and the contents of the Message Signature field may be determined according to the type of signature algorithm in use and indicated by the Signature Type field 1164 of the Message Header 1132. For example, if ECDSA using the Prime256v1 elliptical curve parameters is the algorithm in use, the Message Signature field 1154 may include two thirty-two bit integers encoded in little-endian order.
Profiles and Protocols
As discussed above, one or more schemas of information may be selected upon desired general discussion type for the message. A profile may consist of one or more schemas. For example, one set of schemas of information may be used to encode/decode data in the Application Payload sub-field 1180 when one profile is indicated in the Profile Id field 1176 of the Application Payload 1146. However, a different set of schemas may be used to encode/decode data in the Application Payload sub-field 1180 when a different profile is indicated in the Profile Id field 1176 of the Application Payload 1146.
Additionally, in certain embodiments, each device may include a set of methods used to process profiles. For example, a core protocol may include the following profiles: GetProfiles, GetSchema, GetSchemas, GetProperty, GetProperties, SetProperty, SetProperties, RemoveProperty, RemoveProperties, RequestEcho, NotifyPropertyChanged, and/or NotifyPropertiesChanged. The Get Profiles method may return an array of profiles supported by a queried node. The GetSchema and GetSchemas methods may respectively return one or all schemas for a specific profile. GetProperty and GetProperties may respectively return a value or all value pairs for a profile schema. SetProperty and SetProperties may respectively set single or multiple values for a profile schema. RemoveProperty and RemoveProperties may respectively attempt to remove a single or multiple values from a profile schema. RequestEcho may send an arbitrary data payload to a specified node which the node returns unmodified. NotifyPropertyChange and NotifyPropertiesChanged may respectively issue a notification if a single/multiple value pairs have changed for a profile schema.
To aid in understanding profiles and schemas, a non-exclusive list of profiles and schemas are provided below for illustrative purposes.
A. Status Reporting
A status reporting schema is presented as the status reporting frame 1182 in
i. Profile Field
In some embodiments, the profile field 1184 includes four bytes of data that defines the profile under which the information in the present status report is to be interpreted. An embodiment of the profile field 1184 is illustrated in
ii. Status Code
In certain embodiments, the status code field 1186 includes sixteen bits that encode the status that is being reported. The values in the status code field 1186 are interpreted in relation to values encoded in the vendor Id sub-field 1192 and the profile Id sub-field 1194 provided in the profile field 1184. Additionally, in some embodiments, the status code space may be divided into four groups, as indicated in Table 8 below.
Although Table 8 identifies general status code ranges that may be used separately assigned and used for each specific profile Id, in some embodiments, some status codes may be common to each of the profiles. For example, these profiles may be identified using a common profile (e.g., core profile) identifier, such as 0x00000000.
iii. Next Status
In some embodiments, the next status code field 1188 includes eight bits. The next status code field 1188 indicates whether there is following status information after the currently reported status. If following status information is to be included, the next status code field 1188 indicates what type of status information is to be included. In some embodiments, the next status code field 1188 may always be included, thereby potentially increasing the size of the message. However, by providing an opportunity to chain status information together, the potential for overall reduction of data sent may be reduced. If the next status field 1186 is 0x00, no following status information field 1190 is included. However, non-zero values may indicate that data may be included and indicate the form in which the data is included (e.g., in a TLV packet).
iv. Additional Status Info
When the next status code field 1188 is non-zero, the additional status info field 1190 is included in the message. If present, the status item field may contain status in a form that may be determined by the value of the preceding status type field (e.g., TLV format)
B. Software Update
The software update profile or protocol is a set of schemas and a client/server protocol that enables clients to be made aware of or seek information about the presence of software that they may download and install. Using the software update protocol, a software image may be provided to the profile client in a format known to the client. The subsequent processing of the software image may be generic, device-specific, or vendor-specific and determined by the software update protocol and the devices.
i. General Application Headers for the Application Payload
In order to be recognized and handled properly, software update profile frames may be identified within the Application Payload field 1146 of the GMP 1128. In some embodiments, all software update profile frames may use a common Profile Id 1176, such as 0x0000000C. Additionally, software update profile frames may include a Message Type field 1172 that indicates additional information and may chosen according to Table 9 below and the type of message being sent.
Additionally, as described below, the software update sequence may be initiated by a server sending the update as an image announce or a client receiving the update as an image query. In either embodiment, an Exchange Id 1174 from the initiating event is used for all messages used in relation to the software update.
ii. Protocol Sequence
1. Service Discovery
In some embodiments, the protocol sequence 1196 begins with a software update profile server announcing a presence of the update. However, in other embodiments, such as the illustrated embodiment, the protocol sequence 1196 begins with a service discovery 1202, as discussed above.
2. Image Announce
In some embodiments, an image announce message 1204 may be multicast or unicast by the software update server 1200. The image announce message 1204 informs devices in the fabric that the server 1200 has a software update to offer. If the update is applicable to the client 1198, upon receipt of the image announce message 1204, the software update client 1198 responds with an image query message 1206. In certain embodiments, the image announce message 1204 may not be included in the protocol sequence 1196. Instead, in such embodiments, the software update client 1198 may use a polling schedule to determine when to send the image query message 1206.
3. Image Query
In certain embodiments, the image query message 1206 may be unicast from the software update client 1198 either in response to an image announce message 1204 or according to a polling schedule, as discussed above. The image query message 1206 includes information from the client 1198 about itself. An embodiment of a frame of the image query message 1206 is illustrated in
a. Frame Control
The frame control field 1218 includes 1 byte and indicates various information about the image query message 1204. An example of the frame control field 128 is illustrated in
b. Product Specification
The product specification field 1220 is a six byte field. An embodiment of the product specification field 1220 is illustrated in
c. Vendor Specific Data
The vendor specific data field 1222, when present in the image query message 1206, has a length of a variable number of bytes. The presence of the vendor specific data field 1222 may be determined from the vendor specific flag 1232 of the frame control field 1218. When present, the vendor specific data field 1222 encodes vendor specific information about the software update client 1198 in a TLV format, as described above.
d. Version Specification
An embodiment of the version specification field 1224 is illustrated in
e. Locale Specification
In certain embodiments, the locale specification field 1226 may be included in the image query message 1206 when the locale specification flag 1234 of the frame control 1218 is 1. An embodiment of the locale specification field 1226 is illustrated in
f. Integrity Types Supported
An embodiment of the integrity types field 1228 is illustrated in
The integrity type list field 1252 may contain at least one element from Table 10 or other additional values not included.
g. Update Schemes Supported
An embodiment of the schemes supported field 1230 is illustrated in
Upon receiving the image query message 1206, the software update server 1200 uses the transmitted information to determine whether the software update server 1200 has an update for the software update client 1198 and how best to deliver the update to the software update client 1198.
4. Image Query Response
Returning to
An embodiment of a frame of the image query response 1208 is illustrated in
a. Query Status
The query status field 1258 includes a variable number of bytes and contains status reporting formatted data, as discussed above in reference to status reporting. For example, the query status field 1258 may include image query response status codes, such as those illustrated below in Table 12.
b. URI
The URI field 1260 includes a variable number of bytes. The presence of the URI field 1260 may be determined by the query status field 1258. If the query status field 1258 indicates that an update is available, the URI field 1260 may be included. An embodiment of the URI field 1260 is illustrated in
c. Integrity Specification
The integrity specification field 1262 may variable in length and present when the query status field 1258 indicates that an update is available from the software update server 1198 to the software update client 1198. An embodiment of the integrity specification field 1262 is illustrated in
d. Update Scheme
The update scheme field 1264 includes eight bits and is present when the query status field 1258 indicates that an update is available from the software update server 1198 to the software update client 1198. If present, the update scheme field 1264 indicates a scheme attribute for the software update image being presented to the software update server 1198.
e. Update Options
The update options field 1266 includes eight bits and is present when the query status field 1258 indicates that an update is available from the software update server 1198 to the software update client 1198. The update options field 1266 may be sub-divided as illustrated in
The update condition field 1278 includes three bits that may be used to determine conditional factors to determine when or if to update. For example, values in the update condition field 1278 may be decoded using the Table 14 below.
The report status flag 1280 is a single bit that indicates whether the software update client 1198 should respond with a download notify message 1210. If the report status flag 1280 is set to 1 the software update server 1198 is requesting a download notify message 1210 to be sent after the software update is downloaded by the software update client 1200.
If the image query response 1208 indicates that an update is available. The software update client 1198 downloads 1210 the update using the information included in the image query response 1208 at a time indicated in the image query response 1208.
5. Download Notify
After the update download 1210 is successfully completed or failed and the report status flag 1280 value is 1, the software update client 1198 may respond with the download notify message 1212. The download notify message 1210 may be formatted in accordance with the status reporting format discussed above. An example of status codes used in the download notify message 1212 is illustrated in Table 15 below.
In addition to the status reporting described above, the download notify message 1208 may include additional status information that may be relevant to the download and/or failure to download.
6. Notify Response
The software update server 1200 may respond with a notify response message 1214 in response to the download notify message 1212 or an update notify message 1216. The notify response message 1214 may include the status reporting format, as described above. For example, the notify response message 1214 may include status codes as enumerated in Table 16 below.
In addition to the status reporting described above, the notify response message 1214 may include additional status information that may be relevant to the download, update, and/or failure to download/update the software update.
7. Update Notify
After the update is successfully completed or failed and the report status flag 1280 value is 1, the software update client 1198 may respond with the update notify message 1216. The update notify message 1216 may use the status reporting format described above. For example, the update notify message 1216 may include status codes as enumerated in Table 17 below.
In addition to the status reporting described above, the update notify message 1216 may include additional status information that may be relevant to the update and/or failure to update.
C. Data Management Protocol
Data management may be included in a common profile (e.g., core profile) used in various electronic devices within the fabric or may be designated as a separate profile. In either situation, the device management protocol (DMP) may be used for nodes to browse, share, and/or update node-resident information. A sequence 1284 used in the DMP is illustrated in
i. View Request
Although a view request message 1290 requests to view node-resident data, the type of request may be determined by the message type field 1172, as discussed above. Accordingly each request type may include a different view request frame.
1. Snapshot Request
A snapshot request may be sent by the viewing node 1286 when the viewing node 1286 desires an instantaneous view into the node-resident data on the viewed node 1288 without requesting future updates. An embodiment of a snapshot request frame 1292 is illustrated in
As illustrated in
A schema path is a compact description for a data item or container that is part of a schema resident on the nodes. For example,
Using Table 19 and the Foo profile of
If the viewing node 1286 desires to receive an entire data set defined in a profile schema (e.g. Foo profile schema of
2. Watch Request
If the viewing node 1286 desires more than a snapshot, the viewing node 1286 may request a watch request. A watch request asks the viewed node 1288 to send updates when changes are made to the data of interest in viewed node 1288 so that viewing node 1286 can keep a synchronized list of the data. The watch request frame may have a different format than the snapshot request of
3. Periodic Update Request
A third type of view may also be requested by the viewing node 1286. This third type of view is referred to as a periodic update. A periodic update includes a snapshot view as well as periodic updates. As can be understood, a periodic update request may be similar to the snapshot request with additional information determining the update period. For example, an embodiment of a periodic update request frame 1320 is depicted in
4. Refresh Request
When the viewing node 1286 desires to receive an updated snapshot, the viewing node 1286 may send a view request message 1290 in the form of a refresh request frame 1330 as illustrated in
5. Cancel View Request
When the viewing node 1286 desires to cancel an ongoing view (e.g., periodic update or watch view), the viewing node 1286 may send a view request message 1290 in the form of a cancel view request frame 1332 as illustrated in
ii. View Response
Returning to
iii. Update Request
As discussed above, in some embodiments, the viewed node 1288 may send updates to the viewing node 1286. These updates may be sent as an update request message 1344. The update request message 1344 may include a specified format dependent upon a type of update request. For example, an update request may be an explicit update request or a view update request field that may be identified by the Message Id 1172.
1. Explicit Update Request
An explicit update request may be transmitted at any time as a result of a desire for information from another node in the fabric 1000. An explicit update request may be formatted in an update request frame 1346 illustrated in
The update handle field 1348 includes two bytes that may be populated with random or sequential numbers with uniqueness checks to identify an update request or responses to the request. The path list length field 1350 includes two bytes that indicate a length of the path list field 1352. The path list field 1352 is a variable length field that indicates a sequence of paths, as described above. The data item list field 1354 may be formatted similar to the data item list field 1242.
2. View Update Request
A view update request message may be transmitted by a node that has previously requested a view into a schema of another node or a node that has established a view into its own data on behalf of another node. An embodiment of a view update request frame 1356 illustrated in
The update item list field 1364 includes a variable number of bytes and lists the data items constituting the updated values. Each updated item list may include multiple update items. The individual update items are formatted accordingly to the update item frame 1366 illustrated in
The item timestamp field 1370 includes four bytes and indicates the elapsed time (e.g., in seconds) from the change until the update being communicated was made. If more than one change has been made to the data item, the item timestamp field 1370 may indicate the most recent or the earliest change. The data item field 1372 is a variable length field encoded in TLV format that is to be received as the updated information.
iv. Update Response
After an update is received, a node (e.g., viewing node 1286) may send an update response message 1374. The update response message 1374 may be encoded using an update response frame 1376 illustrated in
D. Bulk Transfer
In some embodiments, it may be desirable to transfer bulk data files (e.g., sensor data, logs, or update images) between nodes/services in the fabric 1000. To enable transfer of bulk data, a separate profile or protocol may be incorporated into one or more profiles and made available to the nodes/services in the nodes. The bulk data transfer protocol may model data files as collections of data with metadata attachments. In certain embodiments, the data may be opaque, but the metadata may be used to determine whether to proceed with a requested file transfer.
Devices participating in a bulk transfer may be generally divided according to the bulk transfer communication and event creation. As illustrated in
Bulk data transfer may occur using either synchronous or asynchronous modes. The mode in which the data is transferred may be determined using a variety of factors, such as the underlying protocol (e.g., UDP or TCP) on which the bulk data is sent. In connectionless protocols (e.g., UDP), bulk data may be transferred using a synchronous mode that allows one of the nodes/services (“the driver”) to control a rate at which the transfer proceeds. In certain embodiments, after each message in a synchronous mode bulk data transfer, an acknowledgment may be sent before sending the next message in the bulk data transfer. The driver may be the sender 1402 or the receiver 1406. In some embodiments, the driver may toggle between an online state and an offline mode while sending messages to advance the transfer when in the online state. In bulk data transfers using connection-oriented protocols (e.g., TCP), bulk data may be transferred using an asynchronous mode that does not use an acknowledgment before sending successive messages or a single driver.
Regardless of whether the bulk data transfer is performed using a synchronous or asynchronous mode, a type of message may be determined using a Message Type 1172 in the Application Payload 1146 according the Profile Id 1176 in the Application Payload. Table 22 includes an example of message types that may be used in relation to a bulk data transfer profile value in the Profile Id 1176.
i. SendInit
An embodiment of a SendInit message 1420 is illustrated in
The transfer control field 1422 includes a byte of data illustrated in
The range control field 1424 includes a byte of data such as the range control field 1424 illustrated in
Returning to
The start offset field 1430, when present, has a length indicated by the BigExtent flag 1470. The value of the start offset field 1430 indicates a location within the file to be transferred from which the sender 1402 may start the transfer, essentially allowing large file transfers to be segmented into multiple bulk transfer sessions.
The length field 1432, when present, indicates a length of the file to be transferred if the definite length field 1474 indicates that the file has a definite length. In some embodiments, if the receiver 1402 receives a final block before the length is achieved, the receiver may consider the transfer failed and report an error as discussed below.
The file designator field 1434 is a variable length identifier chosen by the sender 1402 to identify the file to be sent. In some embodiments, the sender 1402 and the receiver 1406 may negotiate the identifier for the file prior to transmittal. In other embodiments, the receiver 1406 may use metadata along with the file designator field 1434 to determine whether to accept the transfer and how to handle the data. The length of the file designator field 1434 may be determined from the file designator length field 1426. In some embodiments, the SendInit message 1420 may also include a metadata field 1480 of a variable length encoded in a TLV format. The metadata field 1480 enables the initiator to send additional information, such as application-specific information about the file to be transferred. In some embodiments, the metadata field 1480 may be used to avoid negotiating the file designator field 1434 prior to the bulk data transfer.
ii. SendAccept
A send accept message is transmitted from the responder to indicate the transfer mode chosen for the transfer. An embodiment of a SendAccept message 1500 is presented in
iii. SendReject
When the receiver 1206 rejects a transfer after a SendInit message, the receiver 1206 may send a SendReject message that indicates that one or more issues exist regarding the bulk data transfer between the sender 1202 and the receiver 1206. The send reject message may be formatted according to the status reporting format described above and illustrated in
In some embodiments, the send reject message 1520 may include a next status field 1524. The next status field 1524, when present, may be formatted and encoded as discussed above in regard to the next status field 1188 of a status report frame. In certain embodiments, the send reject message 1520 may include an additional information field 1526. The additional information field 1526, when present, may store information about an additional status and may be encoded using the TLV format discussed above.
iv. ReceiveInit
A ReceiveInit message may be transmitted by the receiver 1206 as the initiator. The ReceiveInit message may be formatted and encoded similar to the SendInit message 1480 illustrated in
v. ReceiveAccept
When the sender 1202 receives a ReceiveInit message, the sender 1202 may respond with a ReceiveAccept message. The ReceiveAccept message may be formatted and encoded as the ReceiveAccept message 1540 illustrated in
vi. ReceiveReject
If the sender 1202 encounters an issue with transferring the file to the receiver 1206, the sender 1202 may send a ReceiveReject message formatted and encoded similar to a SendReject message 48 using the status reporting format, both discussed above. However, the status code field 1522 may be encoded/decoded using values similar to those enumerated as indicated in the Table 24 below.
vii. BlockQuery
A BlockQuery message may be sent by a driving receiver 1202 in a synchronous mode bulk data transfer to request the next block of data. A BlockQuery impliedly acknowledges receipt of a previous block of data if not explicit Acknowledgement has been sent. In embodiments using asynchronous transfers, a BlockQuery message may be omitted from the transmission process.
viii. Block
Blocks of data transmitted in a bulk data transfer may include any length greater than 0 and less than a max block size agreed upon by the sender 1202 and the receiver 1206.
ix. BlockEOF
A final block in a data transfer may be presented as a Block end of file (BlockEOF). The BlockEOF may have a length between 0 and the max block size. If the receiver 1206 finds a discrepancy between a pre-negotiated file size (e.g., length field 1432) and the amount of data actually transferred, the receiver 1206 may send an Error message indicating the failure, as discussed below.
x. Ack
If the sender 1202 is driving a synchronous mode transfer, the sender 1202 may wait until receiving an acknowledgment (Ack) after sending a Block before sending the next Block. If the receiver is driving a synchronous mode transfer, the receiver 1206 may send either an explicit Ack or a BlockQuery to acknowledge receipt of the previous block. Furthermore, in asynchronous mode bulk transfers, the Ack message may be omitted from the transmission process altogether.
xi. AckEOF
An acknowledgement of an end of file (AckEOF) may be sent in bulk transfers sent in synchronous mode or asynchronous mode. Using the AckEOF the receiver 1206 indicates that all data in the transfer has been received and signals the end of the bulk data transfer session.
xii. Error
In the occurrence of certain issues in the communication, the sender 1202 or the receiver 1206 may send an error message to prematurely end the bulk data transfer session. Error messages may be formatted and encoded according to the status reporting format discussed above. For example, an error message may be formatted similar to the SendReject frame 1520 of
The specific embodiments described above have been shown by way of example, and it should be understood that these embodiments may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms. It should be further understood that the claims are not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed, but rather to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of this disclosure.
Efficient Communication Use Cases and Power Awareness
The efficient IPv6 802.15.4 network protocol and/or the efficient platform protocol discussed above may enable power-efficient operation in a home environment. As will be discussed below, in one example, such communication may include communicating an IPv6 packet to traverse a particular preferred network. Additionally or alternatively, properties of the manner of communication, such as the type of transport protocol—TCP or UDP—used to transport the message, may also be selectable. For example, to provide for greater reliability but less power savings, TCP may be selected, while to provide greater power savings but less reliability, UDP may be selected.
Smart Communication Using IPv6 Packet Header Fields
As indicated above, the fields available in an IPv6 packet header may be used in the system of this disclosure to convey information regarding a target node of a fabric 1000 that is targeted to receive a message. For instance, as seen in
The EULA information of the subnet field 1604 and the fabric ID field 1606 can be used to efficiently communicate IPv6 packets through the fabric 1000 toward a target node. In an example shown in
The various nodes 1026, 1028, 1030, 1034, and 1042 are shown in
A flowchart 1650 of
In some examples, the network over which the IPv6 packet has been received may be different from the network indicated by the subnet field 1604. In
Selection of the Transport Protocol or Preferred Target Network Based on the Desired Reliability of the Message
Judicious selection of the transport protocol (e.g., TCP or UDP) and/or a preferred target node network used to send the IPv6 packets may also lead to efficient network usage. Indeed, while TCP is more reliable than UDP, the reliability of TCP stems from its use of handshaking and acknowledgments when transmitting messages, many of which are absent in UDP. The additional reliability of TCP, however, may increase the cost of sending a message in terms of power consumed. Indeed, there is an additional cost in power due to the handshaking and acknowledgments of TCP. In addition, using TCP will cause dropped packets to be resent until they have been confirmedly received, consuming additional power at all devices that suffer dropped packets.
As such, it may be desirable to send messages by UDP unless there are reasons that reliability is preferred over power efficiency. For instance, as shown in a flowchart 1670 of
A first factor that may affect the desired reliability of the transport protocol is the type of the message that is going to be sent. A very high reliability may be desired when the message is an alarm message, such as a message indicating that a hazard has been detected. A high reliability may be less valuable than power savings, however, when the message represents sensor data or certain device status data.
A second factor that may affect the desired reliability of the transport protocol is the type of network over which the message is to be sent. When the message will primarily traverse an 802.15.4 network, for example, this may imply that power savings may be more beneficial than reliability. When the message will primarily or entirely traverse a WiFi network, however, this may imply that the power savings may be less valuable and reliability may be more valuable.
A third factor that may affect the desired reliability of the transport protocol is the distance over which the message may travel through the fabric 1000 to reach the target node. The distance may represent, for instance, the number of “hops” to reach the target node, the number of different types of networks that may be traversed to reach the target node, and/or an actual distance through the network.
A fourth factor that may affect the desired reliability of the transport protocol is the power sensitivity of the devices that may be used to communicate the message to the target node. When all or substantially all of such devices are always-on or are supplied by an external power source, higher reliability may be preferable to power savings. When one or many of the devices are low-power, sleepy, and/or battery powered devices, power savings may be preferable when the message is not especially urgent.
A fifth factor that may affect the desired reliability of the transport protocol is the type of the target end node of the message. In one example, when the target end node is a service, whether local or remote, a higher reliability may be desired. Thus, in this case, TCP may be preferred over UDP. In another example, a higher reliability may be preferred when the target end node is a remote service, but less reliability and greater power savings may be called for when the target end node is a local service. In other examples, the type of service may be considered. That is, for some services, reliability may be preferred over power savings, while for other services, power savings may be preferred over reliability. To provide just one example, to communicate with a service used to provide weather information, a relatively lower reliability may be desired as compared to power savings. On the other hand, to communicate with a service used to provide a software update, higher reliability may be preferred over power savings.
The device may consider one or more of these factors in any suitable way. In one example, the factors may be assigned a weight and reliability determination may be based on the total weighting of the factors. In other examples, certain factors may have a higher priority than other factors. In such an example, an urgent message may always be considered to have more desired reliability over power savings, while the desirability of reliability for non-urgent messages may depend on other factors. As such, when power savings is desired over reliability (decision block 1676), the device may send the message via UDP (block 1678) to save power despite lower reliability. When more reliability is desired over power savings (decision block 1676), the device may send the message via TCP (block 1680) to have increased reliability despite higher power consumption.
Although the above method has been discussed with reference to a selection of sending the message using TCP or UDP, it should be appreciated that the present communication system may efficiently adjust any number of properties of the manner of communication to balance desired reliability with power consumption. For example, in some embodiments, when a higher reliability is desired, a higher-power network (e.g., WiFi) may be preferred, while when a lower reliability and higher power savings is desired, a lower-power network (e.g., 802.15.4) may be preferred. The sending node may, for example, select a different preferred network to note in the subnet field 1604 of the IPv6 packet header 1600, thereby causing the message to be communicated, when possible, through that selected network.
Additional Use Cases
The fabric 1000 of connected devices discussed above may be used in a variety of manners. One example may involve using one device to invoke a method on another device. Another example may involve propagating a message, such as a hazard alarm, over various devices of the fabric. It should be understood that these use cases are intended to provide examples and are not intended to be exhaustive.
Invoking a Method from One Device on Another
In one case, a device in one area of the fabric 1000 may invoke a particular method on another compatible device. One example appears in a diagram 1700 of
When one of the devices of the fabric, such as the first device 1702 desires to perform a method (shown in
The method invoked by the first device 1702 on the second device 1704 may be any of a number of methods that may be useful to a home network. In one example, the first device 1702 may request environmental sensor data from the second device 1704. The environmental sensor data may indicate motion, temperature, humidity, and so forth. The environmental sensor data may be used by the first device 1702 to determine occupancy for security, for example, or to determine various temperatures currently located around a house. In another example, the first device 1702 may request user interface input information from the second device 1704. For instance, the first device 1702 may request an indication of recent thermostat temperature setpoints to ascertain information regarding the recent desired comfort settings of the occupants.
Propagating a Message to Various Devices of the Fabric
In some situations, it may be desirable to propagate a message to multiple devices of the fabric. For example, as shown in a diagram 1720 of
The action of the diagram 1720 begins when an event 1730 (e.g., fire) is detected by the garage device 1722. The garage device 1722 may propagate a network wake message 1732 to the dining room device 1724, which may issue a reply 1734 accordingly. The dining room device 1724 may temporarily wake up from its sleepy state to an awake, always-on state. The dining room device 1724 may also propagate a network wake message 1736 to the front door device 1726, which may reply 1738 likewise while propagating another network wake message 1740 to the hallway device 1728.
Having woken the devices of the fabric, the garage device 1722 may output an alarm 1744 associated with the event 1730 and may issue an alarm notification message 1746 to the dining room device 1724. The alarm notification message 1746 may indicate the type of event and the originating device (e.g., event occurring in the garage), among other things. The dining room device 1724 may output a corresponding alarm 1748 and forward an alarm notification message to the front door device 1726, which may itself begin to output an alarm 1752. The front door device 1726 may also forward an alarm notification message to the hallway device 1728.
The hallway device 1728 may display an interface message 1756 to enable a user to respond to the alarm. In the meantime, messages may continue to be propagated across the fabric. These include additional network wake and reply messages 1758, 1760, 1762, 1764, and 1766, and additional alarm notification messages 1768, 1770, and 1772. When a user provides user feedback 1774 on the hallway device 1728 requesting that the alarm be silenced (in the understanding, for example, that the alarm is false or due to non-hazardous conditions), the hallway device 1728 may respond by sending an alarm silence message 1776 that may be propagated over the fabric 1000 to all of the devices. The alarm silence message 1776 may reach the front door device 1726, which may silence its alarm 1778 and issue a further alarm silence message 1780 to the dining room device 1724. In response, the dining room device 1724 may silence its alarm 1782 and issue a further alarm silence message to the garage device 1722, which may in turn silence its alarm 1786.
After causing the devices 1726, 1724, and 1722 to silence their alarms, the hallway device 1728 may cause the devices 1726, 1724, and 1722 to reenter a sleepy, low-power state. Specifically, the hallway device 1728 may issue network sleep message 1790 to the front door device 1726, which may enter a sleepy state after issuing a network sleep message 1792 to the dining room device 1724. The dining room device 1724 may correspondingly enter a sleepy state after issuing a network sleep message 1794 to the garage device 1722. Upon receipt of the network sleep message 1794, the garage device 1722 may enter the low-power, sleepy state.
Joining or Creating a Fabric
The protocols discussed above can be used to join or create a fabric 1000 of devices in a home network or similar environment. For example,
Joining or Creating a Fabric Using an Internet Connection to a Service
Turning first to a flowchart 1800 shown in
The user may also elect, via the application on the client device, to add a new device to the fabric 1000 (block 1812). Based on whether there is currently an existing fabric 1000 associated with the user or based on any other suitable criteria (decision block 1814), the application may choose to create a new fabric 1000 (block 1816) or to add the new device to an existing fabric 1000 (block 1818).
When the application chooses to add the new device to an existing fabric 1000 (block 1818), the application may determine whether the devices of the network are in an awake rather than sleepy state (decision block 1820), waking the devices (block 1822) if not awake. The user may select a particular existing device of the network to use in a joining process by, for example, pressing a button (block 1824). The existing device may provide fabric joining information to the application on the client device (block 1826). For instance, the application on the client device may establish a secure session with the existing device using a fabric 1000 authentication token. The application may use requests (e.g., GetNetworkConfiguration and/or aGetFabricConfiguration) to obtain from the existing device network configuration information and/or fabric 1000 configuration information. The application may save this information for later use.
The application may further instruct the user to wake the new device (block 1828) by, for example, pressing a button on the new device (block 1830). The method then may progress to block (A) 1832, which continues on
Alternatively, when a new fabric 1000 is to be created, the application on the client device may connect directly to the new device using a WiFi connection. Thus, the application on the client device may instruct the user to switch to a WiFi connection (block 1836). The user may switch WiFi networks on their client device to establish a peer-to-peer WiFi connection with the new device (block 1838). For example, the new device may have associated with it a unique WiFi SSID name on the back of the new device. The application on the client device may probe for the new device by repeatedly attempting to connect to a previously determined rendezvous address (e.g., as provided to the application by the configuration information from the service or as encoded in the application).
With either of these connections established, the application on the client device may detect the new device and display a serial number provided by the new device (block 1840). At this time, the application may also validate that the new device has installed on it certain security features identifying the device as authentically validated and having proper permissions to join the fabric. These security features may be the same as or in addition to the DTLS security certificates discussed above.
Using either connection, the user may facilitate an authentication procedure when the application on the client device instructs the user to scan a QR code or other code associated with the new device (e.g., printed on the new device or on a card provided with the new device) (block 1842). The user may enter the code by scanning or typing the code into the application (block 1844). This code information may be provided to the new device, which may use the code to confirm that the application is being used authentically by a user in possession of the new device. The new device may, for example, validate the code using a built-in check digit. The new device may indicate when the code has been entered incorrectly with a corresponding reply. The application may establish a secure session with the new device using any suitable protocol, including the Weave PASE protocol, using the supplied pairing code as a password (block 1848). Having established the secure connection to the new device, the application on the client device may issue a request to arm a failsafe regimen on the new device (e.g., ArmConfigurationFailsafe) (block 1850). By arming the failsafe regimen, the new device may revert to certain original configurations if the joining process does not complete by some timeout value. The application may also determine whether the new device belongs to another existing fabric 1000 by issuing a suitable request (e.g., GetFabricState) (decision block 1852). If so, the application may instruct the new device to leave the other existing fabric 1000 by issuing another request (e.g., LeaveFabric) (block 1854).
In a case in which the new device is to form a new fabric 1000 with the existing device (decision block 1856), the application may instruct the new device to enumerate a list of WiFi networks visible to the new device (e.g., via an EnumerateVisibleNetworks request) (block 1858). Upon instruction from the application (block 1860), the user then may select from among these networks or may enter the WiFi network that the new device is to join (block 1862). The user may also enter an appropriate password to join the WiFi network (block 1864). The method may further progress to block (B) 1866, which continues on
With the new device now connected to the Internet via the WiFi connection, if a new fabric 1000 is being created (block 1876), the application may instruct the user to return to the fabric 1000 (e.g., the user's home) WiFi connection (block 1878). The user may change the WiFi network being used by the client device to the WiFi connection used by the fabric 1000 (block 1880).
Whether creating a new fabric 1000 or joining an existing one, the application may instruct the new device to do so at this point (block 1882). That is, the application may instruct the new device to create a new fabric 1000 (e.g., via a CreateFabric request) or may instruct the new device to join the existing fabric 1000 (e.g., via a JoinExistingFabric request). In the case of joining an existing fabric, the application may inform the new device of the existing device (e.g., via a RegisterNewFabricMember request to the new device). In either case, the application may configure the new device to communicate with the service (e.g., the Nest® service) by sending a request (e.g., a RegisterService request) that contains service configuration information (e.g., Weave™ Service Configuration information).
Using the service configuration information, the new device may register with the service (block 1884). For example, the new device may connect to the service using a service node ID and DNS name from the service configuration information. The new device may register with the service using a certificate installed on the new device and a private key. The new device may send a message (e.g., a PairDeviceToAccount message) to the service containing the service account identification associated with the fabric 1000 and an account pairing token obtained from the service configuration information. Using this information, the service may validate the account pairing token and may associate the new device with the user's service account associated with the fabric. At this point, the new device may be understood by the service to form a part of the fabric 1000 and may appear as an associated device when the user logs into the service. The service may respond to the message from the new device (e.g., the PairDeviceToAccount message), may destroy its copy of the account pairing token, and may respond to the message previously sent to the application (e.g., the RegisterService request).
In response, to finalize the joining of the new device to the existing fabric 1000 or the new fabric, the application may cancel the joining failsafe mechanism by sending a corresponding message to the new device (e.g., a DisarmConfigurationFailsafe request) (block 1886). The new device thereafter may receive this request to disarm the configuration failsafe (block 1888). Pairing of the new device to the existing device in either a new fabric 1000 or an existing fabric 1000 may now be considered complete. The application on the client device thus may offer the user instructions for additional setup settings (block 1890) that the user may select from (block 1892). These may include, for example, continuing to pair additional devices or exiting setup.
Joining or Creating a Fabric without a WiFi Connection to the Internet
A new device may join or create a fabric 1000 without necessarily having access to a WiFi connection to a service or the Internet. For example, as shown in
In some cases, device-to-device fabrics may be easier to form than WiFi fabrics, involving user participation only in that the may user press buttons on two devices within a short period of time. The device-to-device joining process described by
Note that the device-to-device joining process may not be used to join a new device into an existing WiFi fabric 1000 in some embodiments. For this, the user may follow the WiFi joining process discussed above with reference to
The device-to-device joining process may begin when, as shown by a flowchart 1900 of
When not a member of an existing WiFi fabric, the first device (e.g., Device 1) may begin certain initialization procedures when activated as in block 1902. For example, Device 1 may start a counter that increments with time (e.g., multiple times a second). This counter will later be used to determine which device is of two device has priority in establishing a fabric, if appropriate. Device 1 also may create an 802.15.4 wireless network, which may be called the 802.15.4 joining network (block 1904). This 802.15.4 joining network may be a generally unique, unsecured network. For example, the 802.15.4 joining network may use a generally unique ELoWPAN 110 network name containing the following information: (a) a string identifying the network as a joining network, (b) the first device's node id, and (c) a flag indicating whether the device is part of a fabric. When the joining network is established, Device 1 may also assign itself two IPv6 addresses in the joining network (block 1906). These may include, for example: (a) an IPv6 ULA or EULA with a distinct prefix, which may be called the rendezvous prefix, and an interface identifier derived from the device's MAC address, and (b) an IPv6 ULA or EULA with the rendezvous prefix and an interface identifier of 1, which may be called the rendezvous address.
Device 1 then may continuously scan for an 802.15.4 network created by another device (block 1908). Indeed, in parallel to or after the acts of blocks 1902-1908, a second device (Device 2) may perform the above acts itself (block 1910). Either Device 1 or Device 2 may detect the other's joining network (block 1912). Depending on certain characteristics of the device—Device 1 or Device 2—that is first to detect the other, the devices may perform an initiating device process (e.g., as shown in
The device that performs the initiating device process of
As seen in a flowchart 1920, the initiating device process of
When the initiating device receives a Join Existing Fabric request, the initiating device may leave its current fabric, if appropriate, and may reinitialize itself as an independent device, and may make itself part of the existing fabric 1000 with the responding device, using the information in the Join Existing Fabric request (block 1930). The initiating device may send a Join Existing Fabric response to the responding device indicating it is now a member of the existing fabric 1000 (block 1932).
When the initiating device receives a Solicit Joining request, the initiating device may respond in different manners depending on whether it is an independent device or a member of an existing fabric, but in either case may send fabric 1000 information in a Join Existing Fabric request (block 1934). For example, when the initiating device is an independent device, the initiating device may create a new fabric 1000 by generating a new fabric id and corresponding fabric security information, may make itself part of the new fabric, and may send a Join Existing Fabric request to the responding device. The Join Existing Fabric request may contain the information for the new fabric. Otherwise, if the device is a member of a fabric, the device may send a Join Existing Fabric request to the responding device that contains the information for the existing fabric 1000 that the initiating device is a member of. The initiating device then may wait for, and receive, a Join Existing Fabric response from the responding device when the responding device joins the fabric 1000 of the initiating device.
The responding device process of
If the responding device is an independent device and is not in an existing fabric 1000 (decision block 1954), the responding device may create a new fabric 1000 by generating a new fabric id and corresponding fabric security information (block 1956). The responding device may make itself part of the new fabric 1000 (block 1958). The responding device then may send a Join Existing Fabric request to the initiating device that contains the information for the new fabric 1000 of the responding device (block 1960). The responding device may wait for the Join Existing Fabric response from the initiating device.
Otherwise, upon receipt of the Solicit Joining message (block 1952), if the responding device is in an existing fabric 1000 (decision block 1954), the responding device may adopt a different behavior. Specifically, if the responding device is in a fabric, the responding device may inspect the Solicit Joining message (block 1962). The responding device may inspect the discriminator value (the counter value of the initiating device) and the ‘is member of fabric’ flag in the Solicit Joining
Otherwise, if the Solicit Joining message indicates that the initiating device is not a member of a fabric 1000 or if the discriminator value is greater than or equal to the counter started by the responding device when it woke up (decision block 1964), the responding device may send a Join Existing Fabric request to the initiating device that contains the information for the fabric 1000 of the responding device (block 1974). The responding device may wait for the Join Existing Fabric response from the initiating device.
If the Solicit Joining message indicates that the initiating device is a member of a fabric 1000 or if the discriminator value is less than the counter started by the responding device when it woke up (decision block 1964), the responding device may leave its current fabric 1000 and reinitializes itself as an independent device (block 1966). The responding device may further send a Solicit Joining message to the initiating device (block 1968) and may wait for a Join Existing Fabric request from the initiating device. Upon receiving the Join Existing Fabric request from the initiating device (block 1970), the responding device may make itself part of the new fabric 1000 using the information in the Join Existing Fabric request (block 1972). The responding device may also send a Join Existing Fabric response indicating it is now a member of the existing fabric 1000 of the initiating device.
The specific embodiments described above have been shown by way of example, and it should be understood that these embodiments may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms. It should be further understood that the claims are not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed, but rather to cover modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of this disclosure.
This application is a Continuation Application of, and claims priority to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/926,335, entitled “Efficient Communication for Devices of a Home Network”, filed Jun. 25, 2013, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.
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