Patent Grant
11283292
Embodiments of the subject matter described herein relate generally to computer systems, and more particularly, embodiments of the subject matter relate to methods and systems for monitoring and regulating environmental conditions and the corresponding energy usage at a site using an on-demand system.
Rising energy costs and the depletion of natural resources have motivated individuals and organizations to use energy more efficiently. Accordingly, utility companies have developed and deployed improved means for monitoring energy usage (e.g., smart meters or the like) and/or providing better feedback to users with the goal of facilitating more efficient energy consumption. However, in many existing systems, monitoring energy usage at a particular location, determining how electrical appliances at that location should be operated based on the energy usage, and effectuating that operation of those electrical appliances in real-time still requires a relatively high level of manual intervention that has prevented widespread real-time energy management.
A more complete understanding of the subject matter may be derived by referring to the detailed description and claims when considered in conjunction with the following figures, wherein like reference numbers refer to similar elements throughout the figures.
Embodiments of the subject matter described herein generally relate to managing, regulating, or otherwise controlling environmental conditions and corresponding energy consumption at a site in a substantially autonomous manner with little or no manual intervention. As described in greater detail below in the context of
When the on-demand application platform determines an action should be undertaken to modify an environmental condition at the site, the on-demand application platform signals or otherwise indicates the action to an actuator for an electrical appliance at the site that influences that environmental condition. The actuator, in turn, automatically operates the electrical appliance to consume energy (or alternatively, cease consuming energy) and thereby influence the environmental condition at the site. In this manner, environmental conditions at the site may be monitored and adjusted without manual interaction. In exemplary embodiments, the on-demand application platform stores or otherwise maintains the environmental measurement data for the site along with information pertaining to the status of the environmental appliances at the site in association with the site's tenant in a multi-tenant database, thereby allowing the on-demand application platform to generate or otherwise provide graphical user interface (GUI) displays depicting the environmental conditions at the site and/or the state of the electrical appliances at the site to a user associated with that tenant.
In exemplary embodiments, the sensor devices communicate with the on-demand application platform via a hub device deployed at the site, which establishes a wireless mesh network for transmitting data to and/or receiving data from the individual sensor devices. The hub device includes a network interface used to communicatively couple the hub device directly to another network (e.g., different than the wireless mesh network) that the on-demand application platform is also communicatively coupled to. As described in greater detail below in the context of
Turning now to
In the illustrated embodiment, the site 114 generally represents a physically distinct region that is associated with or otherwise corresponds to a tenant (e.g., a business, organization, or another entity) supported by the on-demand application platform 104 and/or database 108, such as, for example, a building (or a portion thereof), a venue, a place of business, a factory, or another facility or point of interest. In accordance with one or more embodiments, the site 114 has a fixed position and information pertaining to the position of the site 114 (e.g., the latitude and longitude of the site 114 and/or the altitude of the site 114) is stored or otherwise maintained by the database 108 in association with its tenant, as described in greater detail below.
In exemplary embodiments, the monitoring system 112 includes a plurality of devices 120, 122, 124, 126 that are located at the site 114 or are otherwise positioned within the confines of the site 114. The illustrated monitoring system 112 includes a first device 120 that is communicatively coupled to the network 110 and functions as a router or communications hub that facilitates communications between the remaining devices 122, 124, 126 of the monitoring system 112 and the application server 102 and/or application platform 104 via the network 110. Accordingly, for convenience, device 120 may alternatively be referred to herein as the hub device. As described below, the hub device 120 creates, establishes, or otherwise provides a wireless mesh network which is utilized to communicatively couple the remaining devices 122, 124, 126 to the hub device 120, and thereby, the network 110. For example, the devices 120, 122, 124, 126 may be communicatively coupled over a wireless mesh network in accordance with the ZigBee protocol, the IEEE 802.15 protocol, or a variant thereof. In this manner, the remaining devices 122, 124, 126 at the site 114 are indirectly coupled to the network 110 via the hub device 120. In accordance with one or more embodiments, each device 120, 122, 124, 126 includes a global positioning system (GPS) receiver or another suitable means for determining its own position and automatically transmits or otherwise provides its location to the application platform 104 upon that device 120, 122, 124, 126 being installed, enabled, powered on, or otherwise initialized at the site 114, wherein the application platform 104 utilizes the received position of a respective device 120, 122, 124, 126 to establish an association between the respective device 120, 122, 124, 126 and the site 114 and/or site tenant, as described in greater detail below. In alternative embodiments, the application platform 104 may utilize the location of the hub device 120 on the network 110 to establish an association between the respective device 120, 122, 124, 126 communicating via the hub device 120 and the site 114 and/or site tenant associated with the hub device 120. In yet other embodiments, the user may manually establish the association by manually defining the position of the respective device 120, 122, 124, 126 within the site 114 (e.g., conference room, kitchen, bathroom, living room, etc.), for example, when the device 120, 122, 124, 126 will have a fixed location at the site 114.
Still referring to
In the illustrated embodiment, the monitoring system 112 also includes an actuator device 126 coupled to an electrical appliance 128 at the site 114, and the electrical appliance 128 is capable of influencing, changing, modifying or otherwise adjusting one or more environmental conditions at or within the vicinity of the electrical appliance 128. For example, the electrical appliance 128 may be realized as a heating element (e.g., a heater or heating system, or the like), a ventilation element (e.g., a fan or the like), a cooling element (e.g., an air conditioner or air conditioning system, or the like), a lighting element (e.g., a lamp, a light bulb, or the like), a humidity regulating element (e.g., a humidifier, a dehumidifier, or the like), or another suitable device capable of influencing an environmental condition at the site 114. The actuator device 126 includes or is otherwise coupled to an actuating element that controls operation of the electrical appliance 128, and thereby regulates or otherwise controls the consumption of energy (or power), by the electrical appliance 128, from an energy source 130 associated with the site 114. For example, the energy source 130 may be realized as the mains electrical system (or grid power) at the site 114 and the actuator device 126 may include a relay that is coupled between the electrical appliance 128 and the energy source 130 to thereby control whether electrical energy from the grid is provided to the electrical appliance 128. As described in greater detail below, in exemplary embodiments, the hub device 120 receives, from the application server 102 and/or application platform 104 via the network 110, signals, commands, instructions, or another indication of how or whether the electrical appliance 128 should be operated. In turn, the hub device 120 signals, commands, or otherwise instructs the actuator device 126, via the wireless mesh network, to activate and/or deactivate its associated actuating element and thereby operate the electrical appliance 128 in the manner indicated by the application server 102 and/or application platform 104.
Still referring to
The client device 116 generally represents an electronic device coupled to the network 110 that is utilized by a user associated with (or belonging to) the tenant associated with the site 114 to access the application platform 104 and/or virtual application 106 on the application server 102. In practice, the client device 116 can be realized as any sort of personal computer, mobile telephone, tablet or other network-enabled electronic device that includes a display device, such as a monitor, screen, or another conventional electronic display, capable of graphically presenting data and/or information provided by the application platform 104 and/or the virtual application 106 along with a user input device, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touchscreen, or the like, capable of receiving input data and/or other information from the user of the client device 116. In the illustrated embodiment, the user manipulates the client device 116 to execute a client application 118, such as a web browser application, and contact the application server 102 and/or application platform 104 using a networking protocol, such as the hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) or the like. The application platform 104 authenticates or otherwise identifies the user and generates the virtual application 106 at run-time based upon information and/or data associated with the user and/or the user's tenant that is maintained by the database 108. In this regard, the virtual application 106 includes code, data and/or other dynamic web content provided to the client device 116 that can be parsed, executed or otherwise presented by the client application 118 running on the client device 116.
In accordance with one or more embodiments, the virtual application 106 provides GUI displays that include GUI elements adapted to allow the user to create, define, or otherwise modify one or more monitoring rules for environmental conditions at the site 114. In this regard, a monitoring rule is a set of one or more criteria for measurements of one or more environmental conditions from one or more sensor devices at a site that dictate or otherwise govern the manner in which an electrical appliance at that site should be operated to influence or otherwise modify an environmental condition at the site (e.g., when the electrical appliance should be activated and/or deactivated). Based on the association between the user's tenant and the monitoring system 112 at the site 114 maintained by the database 108, the application platform 104 may obtain information pertaining to the devices 122, 124, 126 and electrical appliances 128 at the site 114 from the database 108 and update the virtual application 106 to provide information pertaining to the number and type of sensor devices 122, 124, actuator devices 126, and electrical appliances 128 at the site along with GUI elements adapted to allow the user to define one or more monitoring rules, such as, for example, which environmental conditions are to be measured, which locations or sensor devices 122, 124 at the site 114 should make those measurements, how frequently those environmental conditions should be measured, and how the electrical appliances 128 at the site 114 should be operated based on the environmental measurement data for those environmental conditions at those locations at the site 114, and the like. As described in greater detail below, based on the monitoring rules defined by the user and/or tenant and the environmental measurement data received from the monitoring system 112 at the site 114, the application server 102 and/or application platform 104 automatically determines how a particular electrical appliance 128 at the site 114 should be operated and instructs the appropriate actuator device 126 to effectuate that operation of that electrical appliance 128. In this manner, the application server 102 and/or application platform 104 is capable of autonomously monitoring and regulating environmental conditions at the site 114 substantially in real-time (and thereby controlling the consumption of energy from the energy source 130 substantially in real-time) without manual intervention.
It should be understood that
In an exemplary embodiment, the site management process 200 begins by identifying a site to be managed by the on-demand system, establishing an association between the site and a tenant supported by the on-demand system, and establishing an association between a monitoring system and the site (tasks 202, 204). In accordance with one embodiment, the association between a tenant and a site to be managed may be indicated by a user associated with that tenant. For example, a user of the client device 116 may manipulate client application 118 to contact the application server 102 and/or application platform 104, which, in turn, generates an instance of the virtual application 106 within the client application 118 on the client device 116 based on data and/or information associated with the user and/or the user's tenant obtained from the database 108. The generated instance of the virtual application 106 may include GUI elements adapted to allow the user to input or otherwise provide information identifying a site 114 to be monitored, such as, for example, the street address of the site 114, the latitude and/or longitude of the site 114 or other GPS coordinates for the site 114, the altitude of the site 114 (e.g., the particular floors of a building), or the like. After the site 114 is defined, the application platform 104 stores or otherwise maintains the positional information and/or other identifying information that defines the site 114 in the database 108 in association with the user's tenant (e.g., using that tenant's unique identifier). In another embodiment, the association between a tenant and a site may be automatically identified by the application platform 104 in response to identifying the monitoring system 112 and/or devices 120, 122, 124, 126 as being positioned at a known location associated with the tenant. For example, the database 108 may store positional information pertaining to the location of a principal place of business of the tenant or another location associated with the tenant, wherein the application platform 104 identifies that location as the site to be monitored in response to identifying the monitoring system 112 and/or devices 120, 122, 124, 126 as being positioned at that location.
In exemplary embodiments, the application platform 104 establishes an association between the site 114 and the monitoring system 112 and/or devices 120, 122, 124, 126 after determining or otherwise identifying that the devices 120, 122, 124, 126 are positioned at the site 114. For example, in exemplary embodiments, when the hub device 120 is initially powered on or installed at the site 114 and communicatively coupled to the network 110, the hub device 120 obtains its position (e.g., using its associated GPS receiver) and provides its position to the application platform 104 via the network 110. In response, the application platform 104 automatically identifies the hub device 120 as being located at the site 114, for example, by comparing the position of the hub device 120 with positional information for known locations of tenants maintained by the database 108 and identifying the location of the site 114 as being the nearest to the position of the hub device 120 or identifying when the position of the hub device 120 is within a threshold distance of the site 114. In some embodiments, after determining the hub device 120 is located at the site 114, the application platform 104 may obtain the tenant identifier for the tenant associated with that site location and implement a table or another data structure that maintains an association between the tenant identifier for that site's tenant and an identifier associated with the hub device 120 (e.g., an address of the hub device 120 on the network 110) so that data and/or information received from the hub device 120 is mapped to that tenant and associated with that tenant in the database 108. In this manner, the application platform 104 may maintain an association between the hub device 120 of the monitoring system 112 and the tenant associated with the site 114. When the tenant is associated with multiple different sites, the application platform 104 and/or database 108 may also maintain an association between the hub device 120 and that particular site 114 using a unique site identifier associated with the site 114. In a similar manner, when remaining devices 122, 124, 126 initially establish communications with the hub device 120 via the wireless mesh network, each of the respective devices 122, 124, 126 may obtain its position and provide its position to the application platform 104 via the network 110 for association with the site 114 and/or site tenant. In alternative embodiments, the association between the monitoring system 112 and a tenant may be established manually, for example, by a user associated with the tenant utilizing the virtual application 106 and manipulating the client device 116 to input or otherwise provide information identifying the various devices 120, 122, 124, 126 that are or will be installed at the site 114.
In an exemplary embodiment, the site management process 200 continues by identifying, obtaining, or otherwise establishing one or more monitoring rules for the site being managed (task 206). As discussed above, a monitoring rule is a set of one or more criteria for one or more environmental conditions at the site that governs how one or more electrical appliances at a site should be operated to regulate environmental conditions at the site, and thereby, governs the corresponding energy usage associated with the site. For example, if the electrical appliance 128 is a heater, a monitoring rule for the site 114 may indicate that the heater should be powered or otherwise operated via the actuator device 126 when a temperature measurement obtained by one of the sensor devices 122, 124 falls below a threshold value, or conversely, that the heater should be powered off or otherwise deactivated via the actuator device 126 when a temperature measurement from one of the sensor devices 122, 124 exceeds another threshold value. As another example, when the electrical appliance 128 is a lamp proximate a particular sensor device 124, a monitoring rule may indicate that the lamp should be turned on via the actuator device 126 when that sensor device 124 detects motion, or conversely, that the lamp should be turned off when the sensor device 124 does not detect motion over a prescribed time period. It will be appreciated that there are numerous possible combinations of sensor devices, actuator devices, and electrical appliances, which, in turn, results in numerous possible monitoring rules that may be defined for a particular site. In addition to measurement criteria for environmental conditions, a monitoring rule may also include various timing criteria that dictate a duration over which the measurement criteria should be satisfied or violated before undertaking any action. For example, a monitoring rule may include timing criteria that indicates a temperature measurement should fall below a threshold value for a specified duration of time before the heater at the site is operated.
In a similar manner as described above, in exemplary embodiments, the application platform 104 generates or otherwise provides GUI elements within the virtual application 106 that are adapted to allow the user to define measurement criteria, timing criteria, and corresponding actions for the various monitoring rules to be associated with the site 114. For example, the application platform 104 may access the database 108 to obtain information pertaining to the types of sensor devices 122, 124, actuator devices 126 and/or electrical appliances 128 at the site 114 and/or their respective positions within the site 114 and generate GUI elements adapted to allow the user to define measurement criteria (e.g., threshold values and the like) for measurements of environmental condition(s) obtained from the sensor devices 122, 124, any desired timing criteria for those measurement criteria, and corresponding actions to be undertaken by the actuator devices 126 when the measurement data from the sensor devices 122, 124 satisfy the specified measurement criteria and/or timing criteria. After the user has defined the desired monitoring rules for the site 114, the application platform 104 stores or otherwise maintains information pertaining to the criteria and actions for those monitoring rules in the database 108 in association with the user's tenant and/or the site 114. In other embodiments, the application platform 104 may obtain default monitoring rules that are predefined by the manufacturer of a respective sensor device 122, 124 (e.g., from the database 108 and/or via the network 110) using an identifier associated with that respective sensor device 122, 124.
In accordance with one or more embodiments, the site management process 200 continues by configuring the devices of the monitoring system for operation in accordance with the monitoring rules (task 208). In this regard, the application platform 104 provides configuration information to the devices 120, 122, 124, 126 that is utilized by the respective devices 120, 122, 124, 126 to automatically configure themselves for operation in accordance with the monitoring rules for the site 114, as described in greater detail below in the context of
Still referring to
In response to determining an action should be undertaken to modify an environmental condition at a site, the site management process 200 continues by signaling or otherwise providing indication of that action to the actuator for the environmental appliance at the site that influences that environmental condition (task 214). In this manner, the application platform 104 effectuates the desired modification to the environmental condition, and thereby autonomously regulates the environmental condition in accordance with the monitoring rules. For example, continuing the above example where the electrical appliance 128 is a heater, the application platform 104 transmits or otherwise provides, to the hub device 120 via the network 110, an indication that the actuator device 126 should operate the heater 128 when the sensor device 124 detects motion and a temperature less than the threshold value, wherein the hub device 120 automatically transmits the indication to the actuator device 126 via the wireless mesh network. In response to receiving the indication from the application platform 104, the actuator device 126 operates the heater 128, for example, by operating a relay or switch (or another auxiliary actuating element associated with the actuator device 126) to provide power (or energy) from the energy source 130 to the heater 128. The heater 128 is thereby autonomously operated to generate heat and thereby increase the temperature in the vicinity of the sensor device 124 without manual interaction.
In exemplary embodiments, the site management process 200 continues by updating the on-demand database to store or otherwise maintain the received environmental measurement data for the site (task 216). For example, the application platform 104 may store the received environmental measurement data in the database 108 in a manner that maintains an association between the environmental measurement data and the tenant and/or site 114 (e.g., using the tenant identifier for the tenant associated with the site 114). Additionally, the application platform 104 may store information pertaining to the current state of the actuator devices 126 and/or the electrical appliances 128 at the site 114.
In accordance with one or more embodiments, the site management process 200 continues by generating or otherwise providing one or more graphical representations of the environmental data at the site (task 218). For example, the user of the client device 116 may manipulate one or more GUI elements provided by the virtual application 106 to indicate a desire view the environmental data or information pertaining to the site 114, wherein in response to receiving the indication of a desire to view the environmental data for the site 114, the application platform 104 utilizes the tenant identifier associated with the user of the client device 116 and/or a site identifier corresponding to the site 114 indicated by the user to retrieve, from the database 108, the environmental data for the site 114 and generates graphical representations of the environmental data, such as, for example, one or more tables, charts, graphs, or the like that visually depict the measured values for environmental conditions at the site 114 obtained by the sensor devices 122, 124 or the operational status of the actuator devices 126 and/or the electrical appliances 128 at the site 114. In some embodiments, the application platform 104 may utilize the information pertaining to the operating state of the actuator devices 126 and/or the electrical appliances 128 at the site 114 to calculate or otherwise determine an estimated energy usage for the site 114 and generate a graphical representation that visually depicts the estimated energy usage for the site 114.
As illustrated in
In exemplary embodiments, when a hub device 120 is subsequently powered on or installed at the site 114, the hub device 120 automatically creates or otherwise establishes a wireless mesh network, obtains its position, and communicates 306 its position along with a request for configuration information to the application server 102 via the network 110, as described in greater detail below in the context of the device initialization process 700 of
Still referring to
Likewise, in the illustrated embodiment of
As described above in the context of
After receiving the environmental measurement data from the hub device 120 at the site 114, using the association between the hub device 120 and the site 114 and/or the site tenant, the application platform 104 accesses 330 the database 108 to retrieve the monitoring rules for the site 114 and store the received environmental measurement data for the site 114 in association with the site 114 and/or site tenant. In other words, the application platform 104 updates the environmental measurement data for the site 114 maintained by the database 108 to include the most recently received environmental measurement data. As described above in the context of
Still referring to
As described above in the context of
In accordance with one embodiment, the user of the client device 116 manipulates a browser application (e.g., client application 118) to access the application platform 104 (e.g., by directing the browser application to an address on the network 110 that is associated with the application server 102), wherein the application platform 104 generates the virtual application 106 within the browser application that includes one or more GUI displays adapted to allow the user of the client device to select or otherwise indicate a desire to view or otherwise monitor information pertaining to the site 114 being managed (e.g., by selecting the ‘ENERGY CONSOLE’ tab 402). In response, the application platform 104 retrieves or otherwise obtains, from the database 108, identifying information for the various sensor devices 122, 124 at the site 114, the environmental measurement data obtained by those sensor devices 122, 124, and/or information pertaining to the status of the actuator devices 126 and/or electrical appliances 128 at the site 114 and generates or otherwise provides a graphical representation of the obtained information and/or data from the database 108 in the client application 118 on the client device 116. For example, in the illustrated embodiment, the application platform 104 generates or otherwise provides, for each sensor device, a graphical representation of the identification or name of the respective sensor device (e.g., ‘Sensor 1’ and the like), a graphical representation of the location of the respective sensor device within the site (e.g., ‘Conference Room’ and the like, which may be colloquially defined by a user), a graphical representation of the most recently measured value for motion in the vicinity of the respective sensor device, a graphical representation of the most recently measured value for temperature in the vicinity of the respective sensor device, and a graphical representation of the most recently measured value for luminance in the vicinity of the respective sensor device. As illustrated, the application platform 104 may also provide one or more selectable GUI elements 404 (e.g., buttons or the like) adapted to allow a user to indicate a desire to view additional graphical representations of the environmental measurement data for a particular sensor device, wherein in response to identifying selection of a GUI element, the application platform 104 generates additional graphical representations of the environmental measurement data for that sensor device, such as, for example, charts, graphs, or the like depicting previously measured values for environmental conditions in the vicinity of that sensor device relative to the most recently measured values for those environmental conditions. It should be appreciated that
Turning now to
In exemplary embodiments, the auxiliary substrate 608 is realized as a printed circuit board or another suitable electronics substrate having the auxiliary element 612 and the data storage element 614 affixed, mounted, formed, or otherwise provided thereon. In exemplary embodiments, the auxiliary substrate 608 includes conductive traces or the like adapted to couple the auxiliary element 612 and the memory 614 to the physical interface 616, and similarly, the primary substrate 602 includes conductive traces or the like adapted to couple the control module 604 to the physical interface 610. In this manner, the control module 604 is communicatively coupled to the auxiliary element 612 and the data storage element 614 when the substrates 602, 608 are coupled via the interfaces 610, 616. The data storage element 614 represents a non-transitory storage or other computer-readable media, such as ROM, that is capable of storing identification information indicating the type of auxiliary element 612 provided on the auxiliary substrate 608 and/or other programming instructions for execution on the control module 604. In this regard, the identification information maintained by the memory 614 is utilized to determine how to operate the auxiliary element 612, as described in greater detail below.
The control module 604 generally represents the combination of hardware, circuitry and/or other components that are affixed, mounted, formed, or otherwise provided on the primary substrate 602 and configured to support operation of the device 600 and execute the various functions and/or processing tasks described herein. In an exemplary embodiment, the control module 604 is realized as a microcontroller. However, it will be appreciated that the subject matter described herein is not limited to microcontrollers, and in other practical embodiments, the control module 604 may be realized as a processor, a controller, a microprocessor, a state machine, a content addressable memory, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array, any suitable programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof, designed to perform the functions described herein. In exemplary embodiments, the control module 604 includes a suitable amount of memory 618 or other non-transitory computer-readable storage media, such as ROM, that is capable of storing programming instructions that, when read and executed by the control module 604, cause the control module 604 to initiate or otherwise perform the device initialization process 700 of
In an exemplary embodiment, the device initialization process 700 is performed by a device 600 upon the device 600 being initially powered on, enabled, or otherwise installed at a site. The device initialization process 700 begins by obtaining information identifying a type of auxiliary element associated with the device (task 702). In this regard, when the control module 604 is initially powered on or otherwise enabled, the control module 604 automatically accesses the auxiliary memory 614 onboard the auxiliary substrate 608 to obtain identifying information for the auxiliary element 612 that is stored or otherwise maintained by the auxiliary memory 614. After obtaining the identifying information for the auxiliary element from the auxiliary memory, the device initialization process 700 continues by identifying or otherwise determining whether the auxiliary element is an interface for coupling the device 600 to a distinct network or communications medium different than the one supported by the wireless transceiver 606 based on the identifying information (task 704). In this regard, the control module 604 identifies whether the device 600 is capable of communicating over a network other than a wireless mesh network or other short range or personal area network supported by the wireless transceiver 606. For example, the control module 604 may determine the auxiliary element 612 is a network interface for a distinct network different from the wireless mesh network supported by the wireless transceiver 606 when the identifying information corresponds to a known identifier that is associated with Ethernet ports, IEEE 802.11 transceivers, cellular transceivers, or the like.
In exemplary embodiments, when the auxiliary element is a network interface to a network different than the network associated with the wireless transceiver 606, a respective device 600 automatically identifies itself as a hub device and automatically configures itself for subsequent operation in accordance with a site management process, such as the site management process 200 of
In exemplary embodiments, for the hub device, the device initialization process 700 continues by creating or otherwise establishing a mesh network for communicating with other sensor devices and/or actuator devices of the monitoring system at the site and subsequently routing or otherwise facilitating communications between the sensor devices and/or actuator devices and the application platform in accordance with the received communication configuration information (tasks 710, 712). In this regard, the control module 604 of the hub device 120 autonomously enables its wireless transceiver 606, sets its address on the wireless mesh network to a particular value, listens for signals from other devices 122, 124, 126 at the site 114 that include that address value in their header, and routes or otherwise transmits communications to/from the devices 122, 124, 126 over the network 110 in accordance with the communication configuration information. As described above, in response to receiving environmental measurement data from one of the sensor devices 122, 124 at the site 114, the hub device 120 may automatically store, buffer, or otherwise batch the environmental measurement data with additional environmental measurement data (either from the same sensor device or a different sensor device) before automatically transmitting the batched environmental measurement data to the application platform 104 via the network 110 with the desired upload frequency. For example, the individual sensor devices 122, 124 may be configured to obtain environmental measurement data at a first frequency or rate (e.g., every 5 minutes) while the communication configuration information indicates that the hub device 120 should upload or otherwise transmit environmental measurement data at a lesser frequency or rate (e.g., every 15 minutes), whereby the hub device 120 automatically batches a number of instances (e.g., 3 instances) of environmental measurement data from the sensor devices 122, 124 before transmitting the batched environmental measurement data to the application platform 104.
Still referring to
In exemplary embodiments, the device initialization process 700 continues with the respective sensor device automatically configuring itself so that it subsequently operates the auxiliary element to autonomously obtain environmental measurement data in accordance with the configuration information provided by the on-demand application platform (task 718). In this regard, the control module 604 of a respective sensor device 122, 124 configures itself to autonomously obtain environmental measurement data from the auxiliary element 612 at the sampling frequency indicated by the application platform 104 using the code, protocols, commands, or other instructions provided by the application platform 104, so that thereafter, the control module 604 autonomously operates its associated auxiliary element 612 in accordance with the sensor configuration information received from the on-demand application platform.
In exemplary embodiments, the device initialization process 700 may be performed for each device installed at a site and/or for each auxiliary element coupled to the control module and/or main electronics substrate of a respective device at a site. For example, a given device 600 may include multiple auxiliary substrates 608 that are physically coupled to the primary substrate 602, such that the control module 604 is communicatively coupled to multiple auxiliary elements 612 concurrently. Accordingly, for each respective auxiliary substrate 608 and/or auxiliary element 612, the control module 604 may obtain identifying information from the respective auxiliary memory 614 (e.g., task 702), obtain operating information for the respective auxiliary element 612 from the on-demand application platform 104 (e.g., task 716), and automatically configure itself to autonomously operate the respective auxiliary element 612 in accordance with the operating information provided by the application platform 104 (e.g., task 718). In this manner, the devices 120, 122, 124, 126 at the site 114 operate in conjunction with the application platform 104 to self-configure, so that an individual user need not configure or otherwise provision each device 120, 122, 124, 126 with the necessary software and/or other programming required to operate the respective device 120, 122, 124, 126 in accordance with the monitoring rules for the site 114 established by the tenant.
As used herein, a “tenant” or an “organization” should be understood as referring to a group of one or more users that shares access to common subset of the data within the multi-tenant database 830. In this regard, each tenant includes one or more users associated with, assigned to, or otherwise belonging to that respective tenant. To put it another way, each respective user within the multi-tenant system 800 is associated with, assigned to, or otherwise belongs to a particular tenant of the plurality of tenants supported by the multi-tenant system 800. Tenants may represent customers, customer departments, business or legal organizations, and/or any other entities that maintain data for particular sets of users within the multi-tenant system 800. For example, the application server 102 may be associated with one tenant supported by the multi-tenant system 800. Although multiple tenants may share access to the server 802 and the database 830, the particular data and services provided from the server 802 to each tenant can be securely isolated from those provided to other tenants. The multi-tenant architecture therefore allows different sets of users to share functionality and hardware resources without necessarily sharing any of the data 832 belonging to or otherwise associated with other tenants.
The multi-tenant database 830 is any sort of repository or other data storage system capable of storing and managing the data 832 associated with any number of tenants. The database 830 may be implemented using any type of conventional database server hardware. In various embodiments, the database 830 shares processing hardware 804 with the server 802. In other embodiments, the database 830 is implemented using separate physical and/or virtual database server hardware that communicates with the server 802 to perform the various functions described herein. In an exemplary embodiment, the database 830 includes a database management system or other equivalent software capable of determining an optimal query plan for retrieving and providing a particular subset of the data 832 to an instance of virtual application 828 in response to a query initiated or otherwise provided by a virtual application 828. The multi-tenant database 830 may alternatively be referred to herein as an on-demand database, in that the multi-tenant database 830 provides (or is available to provide) data at run-time to on-demand virtual applications 828 generated by the application platform 810.
In practice, the data 832 may be organized and formatted in any manner to support the application platform 810. In various embodiments, the data 832 is suitably organized into a relatively small number of large data tables to maintain a semi-amorphous “heap”-type format. The data 832 can then be organized as needed for a particular virtual application 828. In various embodiments, conventional data relationships are established using any number of pivot tables 834 that establish indexing, uniqueness, relationships between entities, and/or other aspects of conventional database organization as desired. Further data manipulation and report formatting is generally performed at run-time using a variety of metadata constructs. Metadata within a universal data directory (UDD) 836, for example, can be used to describe any number of forms, reports, workflows, user access privileges, business logic and other constructs that are common to multiple tenants. Tenant-specific formatting, functions and other constructs may be maintained as tenant-specific metadata 838 for each tenant, as desired. Rather than forcing the data 832 into an inflexible global structure that is common to all tenants and applications, the database 830 is organized to be relatively amorphous, with the pivot tables 834 and the metadata 838 providing additional structure on an as-needed basis. To that end, the application platform 810 suitably uses the pivot tables 834 and/or the metadata 838 to generate “virtual” components of the virtual applications 828 to logically obtain, process, and present the relatively amorphous data 832 from the database 830.
The server 802 is implemented using one or more actual and/or virtual computing systems that collectively provide the dynamic application platform 810 for generating the virtual applications 828. For example, the server 802 may be implemented using a cluster of actual and/or virtual servers operating in conjunction with each other, typically in association with conventional network communications, cluster management, load balancing and other features as appropriate. The server 802 operates with any sort of conventional processing hardware 804, such as a processor 805, memory 806, input/output features 807 and the like. The input/output features 807 generally represent the interface(s) to networks (e.g., to the network 845, or any other local area, wide area or other network), mass storage, display devices, data entry devices and/or the like. The processor 805 may be implemented using any suitable processing system, such as one or more processors, controllers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, processing cores and/or other computing resources spread across any number of distributed or integrated systems, including any number of “cloud-based” or other virtual systems. The memory 806 represents any non-transitory short or long term storage or other computer-readable media capable of storing programming instructions for execution on the processor 805, including any sort of random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash memory, magnetic or optical mass storage, and/or the like. The computer-executable programming instructions, when read and executed by the server 802 and/or processor 805, cause the server 802 and/or processor 805 to create, generate, or otherwise facilitate the application platform 810 and/or virtual applications 828 and perform one or more additional tasks, operations, functions, and/or processes described herein. It should be noted that the memory 806 represents one suitable implementation of such computer-readable media, and alternatively or additionally, the server 802 could receive and cooperate with external computer-readable media that is realized as a portable or mobile component or application platform, e.g., a portable hard drive, a USB flash drive, an optical disc, or the like.
The application platform 810 is any sort of software application or other data processing engine that generates the virtual applications 828 that provide data and/or services to the client devices 840. In a typical embodiment, the application platform 810 gains access to processing resources, communications interfaces and other features of the processing hardware 804 using any sort of conventional or proprietary operating system 808. The virtual applications 828 are typically generated at run-time in response to input received from the client devices 840. For the illustrated embodiment, the application platform 810 includes a bulk data processing engine 812, a query generator 814, a search engine 816 that provides text indexing and other search functionality, and a runtime application generator 820. Each of these features may be implemented as a separate process or other module, and many equivalent embodiments could include different and/or additional features, components or other modules as desired.
The runtime application generator 820 dynamically builds and executes the virtual applications 828 in response to specific requests received from the client devices 840. The virtual applications 828 are typically constructed in accordance with the tenant-specific metadata 838, which describes the particular tables, reports, interfaces and/or other features of the particular application 828. In various embodiments, each virtual application 828 generates dynamic web content that can be served to a browser or other client program 842 associated with its client device 840, as appropriate.
The runtime application generator 820 suitably interacts with the query generator 814 to efficiently obtain multi-tenant data 832 from the database 830 as needed in response to input queries initiated or otherwise provided by users of the client devices 840. In a typical embodiment, the query generator 814 considers the identity of the user requesting a particular function (along with the user's associated tenant), and then builds and executes queries to the database 830 using system-wide metadata 836, tenant specific metadata 838, pivot tables 834, and/or any other available resources. The query generator 814 in this example therefore maintains security of the common database 830 by ensuring that queries are consistent with access privileges granted to the user and/or tenant that initiated the request. In this manner, the query generator 814 suitably obtains requested subsets of data 832 accessible to a user and/or tenant from the database 830 as needed to populate the tables, reports or other features of the particular virtual application 828 for that user and/or tenant.
Still referring to
In exemplary embodiments, the application platform 810 is utilized to create and/or generate data-driven virtual applications 828 for the tenants that they support. Such virtual applications 828 may make use of interface features such as custom (or tenant-specific) screens 824, standard (or universal) screens 822 or the like. Any number of custom and/or standard objects 826 may also be available for integration into tenant-developed virtual applications 828. As used herein, “custom” should be understood as meaning that a respective object or application is tenant-specific (e.g., only available to users associated with a particular tenant in the multi-tenant system) or user-specific (e.g., only available to a particular subset of users within the multi-tenant system), whereas “standard” or “universal” applications or objects are available across multiple tenants in the multi-tenant system. The data 832 associated with each virtual application 828 is provided to the database 830, as appropriate, and stored until it is requested or is otherwise needed, along with the metadata 838 that describes the particular features (e.g., reports, tables, functions, objects, fields, formulas, code, etc.) of that particular virtual application 828. For example, a virtual application 828 may include a number of objects 826 accessible to a tenant, wherein for each object 826 accessible to the tenant, information pertaining to its object type along with values for various fields associated with that respective object type are maintained as metadata 838 in the database 830. In this regard, the object type defines the structure (e.g., the formatting, functions and other constructs) of each respective object 826 and the various fields associated therewith.
Still referring to
Referring again to
The foregoing description is merely illustrative in nature and is not intended to limit the embodiments of the subject matter or the application and uses of such embodiments. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any expressed or implied theory presented in the technical field, background, or the detailed description. As used herein, the word “exemplary” means “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any implementation described herein as exemplary is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other implementations, and the exemplary embodiments described herein are not intended to limit the scope or applicability of the subject matter in any way.
For the sake of brevity, conventional techniques related to networking, sensing, monitoring, signaling, and other functional aspects of the systems (and the individual operating components of the systems) may not be described in detail herein. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that embodiments may be practiced in conjunction with any number of system and/or network architectures, data transmission protocols, and device configurations, and that the system described herein is merely one suitable example. Furthermore, certain terminology may be used herein for the purpose of reference only, and thus is not intended to be limiting. For example, the terms “first”, “second” and other such numerical terms do not imply a sequence or order unless clearly indicated by the context.
Embodiments of the subject matter may be described herein in terms of functional and/or logical block components, and with reference to symbolic representations of operations, processing tasks, and functions that may be performed by various computing components or devices. Such operations, tasks, and functions are sometimes referred to as being computer-executed, computerized, software-implemented, or computer-implemented. In practice, one or more processing systems or devices can carry out the described operations, tasks, and functions by manipulating electrical signals representing data bits at accessible memory locations, as well as other processing of signals. The memory locations where data bits are maintained are physical locations that have particular electrical, magnetic, optical, or organic properties corresponding to the data bits. It should be appreciated that the various block components shown in the figures may be realized by any number of hardware, software, and/or firmware components configured to perform the specified functions. For example, an embodiment of a system or a component may employ various integrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements, digital signal processing elements, logic elements, look-up tables, or the like, which may carry out a variety of functions under the control of one or more microprocessors or other control devices. When implemented in software or firmware, various elements of the systems described herein are essentially the code segments or instructions that perform the various tasks. The program or code segments can be stored in a processor-readable medium or transmitted by a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave over a transmission medium or communication path. The “processor-readable medium” or “machine-readable medium” may include any non-transitory medium that can store or transfer information. Examples of the processor-readable medium include an electronic circuit, a semiconductor memory device, a ROM, a flash memory, an erasable ROM (EROM), a floppy diskette, a CD-ROM, an optical disk, a hard disk, a fiber optic medium, a radio frequency (RF) link, or the like. The code segments may be downloaded via computer networks such as the Internet, an intranet, a LAN, or the like. In this regard, the subject matter described herein can be implemented in the context of any computer-implemented system and/or in connection with two or more separate and distinct computer-implemented systems that cooperate and communicate with one another. In one or more exemplary embodiments, the subject matter described herein is implemented in conjunction with a virtual customer relationship management (CRM) application in a multi-tenant environment.
While at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in the foregoing detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vast number of variations exist. It should also be appreciated that the exemplary embodiment or embodiments described herein are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claimed subject matter in any way. Rather, the foregoing detailed description will provide those skilled in the art with a convenient road map for implementing the described embodiment or embodiments. It should be understood that various changes can be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the scope defined by the claims, which includes known equivalents and foreseeable equivalents at the time of filing this patent application. Accordingly, details of the exemplary embodiments or other limitations described above should not be read into the claims absent a clear intention to the contrary.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/187,217, filed Jun. 20, 2016, which claims the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/739,445, filed Jan. 11, 2013, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/589,178, filed Jan. 20, 2012, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.
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