SYSTEM, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LINKING ELECTRONIC SHELF LABEL WITH PRODUCT

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the field of communication system, method and apparatus of electronic shelf labels (ESL). More particularly, the present invention relates to a novel and improved system, method and apparatus for linking an electronic shelf label with a product and thus updating the product information to a display of the electronic shelf label.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In general, in stores such as supermarkets and convenience stores, product information is printed on a paper label tagged on a shelf. If the product is replaced by another new product, the original paper label needs to be removed from the shelf and a new paper label carrying new product information needs to be printed and be tagged on the shelf afterwards. Typically, the product information on the paper label contains selling price, logo, product item and the like. Since the above stores have at least hundreds or thousands of products, the update of all the paper labels in the stores costs a lot of time and manpower. Therefore, the adoption of the electronic shelf label eliminates the time of printing paper labels and the time of tagging the paper labels on shelves, thus improving the efficiency of the update of product information in the above stores.

When a product is replaced by another new product on the shelf, the corresponding electronic shelf label needs to update the production information of the new product on its display. Thus, a portable terminal is necessary for a user to scan the barcode of the new product and the MAC address of the corresponding electronic shelf label, so that the link information between the new product and the corresponding electronic shelf label can be established. Since each electronic shelf label has its own MAC address, the portable terminal is used to sequentially link each of the products on the shelves to its corresponding electronic shelf label. In a traditional way, after the user checks and updates all the products on the shelves in the store, the user will bring the portable terminal back to a management center and connect the portable terminal to a service daemon. All the link information in the portable terminal is transmitted to the service daemon to form a link table or update the link table.

In a next step, if the service daemon has already had all the product information of the products, such as all the selling prices of the products, the service daemon is able to actively update the product information to each of the electronic shelf labels that is linked with one new product. If the service daemon still lacks certain items in the product information, such as certain selling prices or logos, the service daemon can actively ask a database connected with a POS system to send back the packets of the lacked items, so that the service daemon has the complete product information to update the product information to each of the electronic shelf labels that is linked with one new product. Instead, the service daemon can also passively waits for the database to send back the packets of the lacked items in a period of time.

In view of the above, since the user can only update the link table to the service daemon every time after checking all the products on the shelves, this kind of update to the link table is an “offline” way of update.

However, if there is a WiFi deployment in the store, the user is able to send back the link information while checking the products on the shelves and thus form or update the link table in an “online” way.

The “offline” way of update is not able to allow the user to check the product while at the same time updating the product information to the display of the corresponding electronic shelf label. In addition, if the user links some electronic shelf labels to the wrong products or just forgets to link some electronic shelf labels to the products, the mistakes can only be discovered after the portable terminal is connected with the service daemon. Extra time and manpower are needed to correct the aforementioned mistakes.

On the other hand, the “online” way of update is limited to the coverage of the WiFi deployment. Furthermore, if the ESL system adopts Zigbee transmission, the interference between WiFi and Zigbee is significant to some extent.

Regarding the aforementioned considerations, the invention provides an online portable terminal that can be integrated into the network topology of the ESL system and transmit the link information through an AP to the service daemon, so that the user can utilize the network coverage of the ESL system and update the product information to the display of the corresponding electronic shelf label while checking the product on the shelf. In addition, the portable terminal in the invention is a low-cost, small-size, simple-designed and user-friendly product, and it even provides error reporting mechanism to the backend, such as the service daemon and/or an ESL management system.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides a novel ESL system utilizing a portable terminal to transmit the link information of a new product so as to update a link table and thus update the product information to a display of a corresponding electronic shelf label.

In one embodiment, the ESL system comprises: an access point having a first communication module, wherein the first communication module transmits downlink data and receives uplink data wirelessly in a first frequency; a plurality of electronic shelf labels, each having a second communication module, wherein the second communication module receives the downlink data and transmits the uplink data wirelessly in a second frequency; a portable terminal having a third communication module and a scanning module, wherein the scanning module scan an ID information of a product and an ID information of an electronic shelf label, and wherein the third communication module transmits a link information between the product and the electronic shelf label to the access point in the first frequency; and a service daemon, wherein the service daemon receives the uplink data from the access point in a third frequency and receives the link information in the third frequency.

In one embodiment, an method for linking a product with an electronic shelf label in an electronic shelf label system comprises: scanning an ID information of the product and scanning an ID information of the electronic shelf label; establishing a link information between the product and the electronic shelf label; transmitting the link information from an portable terminal to an access point wirelessly in a first frequency; transmitting the link information from the access point to a service daemon wireless in a frequency different from the first frequency; updating a link table in the service daemon; transmitting a product information of the product from the service daemon to the access point in the frequency different from the first frequency; transmitting the product information of the product from the access point to the electronic shelf label via an internal network; updating a display of the electronic shelf label based on the product information of the product.

In one embodiment, a portable terminal in an electronic shelf label system comprises a scanning module that can scan an ID information of a product and scan an ID information of an electronic shelf label; a control module electrically connected to the scanning module, wherein the control module is configured to establish a link information between the product and the electronic shelf label; and a communication module electrically connected the control module and wirelessly communicating with an access point, wherein the communication module wirelessly transmits the link information in a first frequency different from a frequency between the access point and a service daemon.

It should be understood, however, that this summary may not contain all aspects and embodiments of the present invention, that this summary is not meant to be limiting or restrictive in any manner, and that the invention as disclosed herein will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to encompass obvious improvements and modifications thereto.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings illustrate one or more embodiments of the invention and together with the written description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like elements of an embodiment, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of the network topology according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a timing diagram of the time-slotted wireless communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of the network scan and join process according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 4
a˜4d are a series of diagrams illustrating various frame formats utilized in the network topology according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a format of Network ID according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a timing diagram of beacon transmission according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7
a is a timing diagram of multiple beacon transmission according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7
b is a timing diagram of multiple beacon transmission according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 8
a˜8b are a series of timing diagrams that illustrate wake-up duration and calibration of an ED based on multiple beacon transmission according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a timing diagram of null beacon transmission according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10
a˜10d are a series of schematic illustration of TDMA mechanism for downlink transmission in dual frequencies according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of router slot assignment algorithm according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a schematic illustration of an ESL system utilizing time-slotted wireless communication in dual frequencies according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a schematic illustration of an ESL system having a portable terminal according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a schematic illustration of the update of a link table.

FIG. 16 is a schematic illustration of an AP communicating with a portable terminal and a service daemon.

FIG. 17 is a flow chart of error reporting mechanism in an ESL system.

In accordance with common practice, the various described features are not drawn to scale and are drawn to emphasize features relevant to the present disclosure. Like reference characters denote like elements throughout the figures and text.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” or “includes” and/or “including” or “has” and/or “having” when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, regions, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, regions, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

It will be understood that the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. It will also be understood that, although the terms first, second, third etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, parts and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, parts and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, part or section from another element, component, region, layer or section. Thus, a first element, component, region, part or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of the present invention.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and the present disclosure, and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

Further details of an ESL system suitable for use in conjunction with the present invention are found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/955,001 filed Jul. 31, 2013 entitled “System, Method and Apparatus for Time-Slotted Wireless Communication Utilizing Dual Frequencies”, European Patent application No. EP13178814.3 filed Jul. 31, 2013 entitled “System, Method and Apparatus for Time-Slotted Wireless Communication Utilizing Dual Frequencies”, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/955,002 filed Jul. 31, 2013 entitled “Multiple Beacon Transmission”, European Patent application No. EP13178812.7 filed Jul. 31, 2013 entitled “Multiple Beacon Transmission”, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/955,003 filed Jul. 31, 2013 entitled “Null Beacon Transmission”, European Patent application No. EP13178813.5 filed Jul. 31, 2013 entitled “Null Beacon Transmission”, all of which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

The description will be made as to the embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in FIGS. 1˜17. Reference will be made to the drawing figures to describe the present invention in detail, wherein depicted elements are not necessarily shown to scale and wherein like or similar elements are designated by same or similar reference numeral through the several views and same or similar terminology.

First, a time-slotted wireless communication method and system that utilizes dual frequencies to effectively manage transaction time and to reduce power consumption of end nodes is described herein. The aforementioned communication method and system is suitable for an ESL system that contains an access point, a plurality of routers and a plurality of electronic shelf labels, and the electronic shelf labels are regarded as the end nodes.

Network Topology

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of the network topology of the time-slotted communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the network topology is a two-layer tree. The parent node of Layer 1 is AP (access point), the roof node of the network topology. AP is defined to control the whole network of the time-slotted communication system and is responsible to allocate resources as well as transmit or receive data. In addition, AP is able to equip WiFi module and/or TCP/IP module to connect with the back-end management system. In another point of view, it means that the network of the time-slotted communication system (hereinafter referred to as internal network) can connect with the Internet. Router 1 to Router N are the child nodes of Layer 1 as well as the parent nodes of Layer 2, and EDs (End Device) 101˜10n, 201˜20n . . . N01˜N0n are the child nodes of Layer 2 as well as the leaf nodes (end nodes) in the network topology.

In the aforementioned network topology, AP is able to connect with the network topology with the Internet and is able to transmit the data from the internal network to the Internet/back-end management system or from the Internet/back-end management system to the internal network. For example, in a electronic shelf label system, the back-end management system may transmit a large amount of data (such as prices of the merchandise items) to the internal network, and AP is responsible for collecting the data, in a way of buffer, and then transmit the data to the lower nodes, Routers 1˜N, step by step in different time slots. The reason why AP can be a buffer is that, usually the transmission rate of Internet is higher than that of the internal network. In addition, AP is able to transmit AP Beacon and let all the lower nodes in Layer 1, such as Routers 1˜N or a repeater, to know the existence of the internal network and identify the internal network afterwards. Moreover, AP Beacon arranges that, in each of the time slots, AP should transmit the data to a specific lower node in Layer 1 (such as one of Routers 1˜N or a repeater) or receive the data transmitted from a specific lower node in Layer 1.

In the aforementioned network topology, Routers 1˜N are able to transmit the downlink data from AP to EDs and receive the uplink data from EDs to AP. In addition, Routers 1˜N are able to handle the activities of scan and join process when the internal network is initially formed. Also, Routers 1˜N are able to transmit Router Beacon and let all the lower nodes in Layer 2, such as EDs, to know the existence of the internal network and identify the internal network afterwards. Specifically, EDs 101˜10n are the lower nodes of Router 1, and EDs 201˜20n are the lower nodes of Router 2, EDs N01˜N0n are the lower nodes of Router N, etc. In addition, Router Beacon arranges that, in each of the time slots, a specific router should transmit the data to a specific lower node in Layer 2 (such as transmitting the data from Router 2 to ED 201) or receive the data transmitted from a specific lower node in Layer 2. Each router will create its own router beacon.

In the aforementioned network topology, each of the EDs is able to receive Router Beacon from their parent router and wakes up to transmit or receive the data in certain time slots corresponding to the indication of Router Beacon.

In the aforementioned network topology, Layer 1 adopts a first frequency to connect AP with Routers 1˜N, and Layer 2 adopts a second frequency to connect Routers 1˜N with their own lower nodes, such as Router 1 connected with EDs 101˜10n. The first frequency and the second frequency (hereinafter referred to as dual frequencies) belong to the same band of 900 MHz, with one ranging from 902˜915 MHz and the other ranging from 916˜927 MHz. It should be noticed that the band of 900 MHz ranges from 902 MHz to 928 MHz. One advantage of the adoption of the band of 900 MHz is that the communication range of 900 MHz is 400 m, longer than the communication range of 2.4 GHz, 100 m (Zigbee utilizes 2.4 GHz). Thus, the communication range of each of the devices in the internal network is 400 m, and the whole area coverage becomes much larger than the area coverage of Zigbee, if both of the internal network and Zigbee have the same amount of devices. In addition, the adoption of the band of 900 MHz can be replaced by the band of 400 MHz or 800 MHz. Also, it should be noticed that the band of 400 MHz ranges from 433.05 MHz to 434.79 MHz and the band of 800 MHz ranges from 866 MHz to 868 MHz. Another advantage is that the adoption of dual frequencies can improve system performance, doubling the transmission rate of the internal network. More details are described in the following paragraphs of FIGS. 10a˜d.

Time-Slotted Mechanism

FIG. 2 is a timing diagram of the time-slotted wireless communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2, each AP Beacon is transmitted after N time slots, such as Slot 1 to Slot N, and Round Period is thus defined as the duration between N^thAP Beacon (the last AP Beacon) and N+1^thAP Beacon (the present AP Beacon). The start point of Round Period can be the end point of N^thAP Beacon and the end point of Round Period can be the end point of N+1^thAP Beacon. However, the start point of Round Period can be the start point of N^thAP Beacon and the end point of Round Period can be the start point of N+1^thAP Beacon as well. Each time slot represents an amount of time, and the time slot is a time unit for Round Period to calculate its duration. The duration of Round Period may be seconds, minutes, or even hours, which depends on the application it involves in.

In, FIG. 2, Round Period is split into three periods: Period I (the first period), Period II (the second period), and Period III (the third period). Period I is the duration for child nodes to receive beacon information from the parent nodes. For example, each ED can receive Router Beacon broadcasted by its parent node (a router or a repeater) in any time slot of Period I. Also, each router can receive AP Beacon broadcasted by AP in any time slot of Period I.

Period II is the duration for child nodes to mainly receive data transmitted from the parent nodes. Specifically, Period II utilizes the concept of TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) to mainly transmit the downlink data from AP to the routers or from each of the routers to its EDs, with each time slot only assigned to a specific child node to receive the downlink data transmitted from its parent node in each layer. For example, if Slot 4 is assigned for AP to transmit the downlink data to Router 1, other routers cannot use Slot 4 to receive the downlink data from AP. The adoption of TDMA in downlink transmission of Period II is suitable for the internal network to transmit the downlink data from AP to the routers or from each of the routers to the router's EDs, especially when the length of the downlink data is long and the amount of the downlink data is large. For example, in an ESL system, the information of the downlink data may include the barcodes, prices, names, logos, figures of the merchandise items and thus each ESL usually needs at least 2400 Bytes to update the information on its display.

Though Period II utilizes the concept of TDMA to mainly transmit the downlink data from AP to the routers or from each of the routers to its EDs, Period II is able to transmit the uplink data to AP from the routers or to each of the routers from the router's EDs if some time slots in Period II need not to be used to transmit the downlink data. Under this condition, Period II utilizes the concept of CSMA/CA to transmit the uplink data.

Period III is duration for child nodes to transmit the uplink data to the parent nodes, and Period III utilizes the concept of CSMA/CA to transmit the uplink data to AP from the routers or to each of the routers from the router's EDs. For example, referring to FIG. 2, in Slot N−1 and Slot N, Routers 1˜N utilize CSMA/CA to transmit the uplink data to AP in the first frequency, and each of the EDs 101˜10N, 201˜20N, . . . N01˜N0n utilize CSMA/CA to transmit the uplink data to their parent Routers 1˜N, respectively, in the second frequency. The adoption of CSMA/CA in uplink transmission of Period III is suitable for the internal network to transmit the uplink data to AP from the routers or to each of the routers from the router's EDs, especially when the length of the uplink data is short and the amount of the downlink data is small. For example, in an ESL system, the uplink data of each ED is usually within 128 Bytes, 1/10 times of the downlink data of the ESL system.

In Round Period, the number of the time slots in each of Period I, Period II and Period III is adjustable respectively. For example, in an ESL system, the total time slots of Round Period can be 127, and Period I may have 2˜5 time slots for beacon broadcasting. As to Period II and Period III, Period II may have 2˜40 time slots and Period III can have the remaining time slots.

Network Scan/Join Process

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of the network scan and join process according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3, all the devices, including the routers and the EDs, need to go through this process to scan and join the internal network. The communication between AP and each of Routers 1˜N is in Layer 1, and the communication between each of Routers 1˜N and the router's child EDs is in Layer 2. In Layer 1, the router starts passively searches AP Beacon without sending packets to trigger its parent node to transmit data. Namely, the router is scanning AP Beacon. After scanning AP Beacon, the router transmits join request to AP in an assigned time slot of Period III, and the assigned time slot is assigned according to the payload of AP Beacon. After receiving join request, AP sends ACK packets to the router. Then, AP selects a Router ID to transmit back to the router, and this action represents join response. After receiving join response, the router sends ACK packets to AP.

In Layer 2, the ED starts passively searches Router Beacon without sending packets to trigger its parent node to transmit data. Namely, the ED is scanning Router Beacon. After scanning Router Beacon, the ED transmits join request to the router in an assigned time slot of Period III, and the assigned time slot is assigned according to the payload of Router Beacon. After receiving join request, the router sends ACK packet to the ED. Then, the router selects a Device ID to transmit back to the ED, and this action represents join response. After receiving join response, the ED sends ACK packages to the router, and the router transmit link status to inform AP of the successful connection between the router and the ED. After receiving link status, the AP sends ACK packets to the router. More details of the Router ID and the Device ID are described in the following paragraphs of FIG. 5.

Frame Formats

FIGS. 4
a˜4d are a series of diagrams illustrating various frame formats utilized in the network topology according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIGS. 4a˜4d, there are at least 4 major MAC frame formats defined: Control Frame, Normal Frame, Beacon Frame and ACK Frame.

Referring to FIG. 4a, Control Frame is used for connection construction and topology setup. There are at least 5 fields in Control Frame: Frame Control, Sequence Number, Destination Address, Source Address, and Payload. The field of Frame Control defines the frame type. For example, Bits 0˜2 can represent frame type, and 000 can be defined as Beacon Frame, 001 can be defined as Normal Frame, 010 can be defined as ACK Frame, and 011 can be defined as Control Frame. In addition, the field of Frame Control has another bit indicating whether the security is applied to the frame. Moreover, the field of Frame Control has other bits indicating whether the packet requires acknowledgement or needs frame compatibility check. Next, the field of Sequence Number is used to detect whether the packet is transmitted repeatedly, which happens when the ACK packet sent by a node is lost and thus the node receive repeated packets. The field of Source Address is used to indicate sender address and the field of Destination Address used to indicate receiver address.

Referring to FIG. 4b, Normal Frame is used to transmit the downlink and uplink data after connection construction and topology setup. There are at least 7 fields in Normal Frame: Frame Control, Sequence Number, Tree ID, Connection Ticket, Destination ID, Source ID, and Payload. Frame Control and Sequence Number of Normal Frame is the same as those of Control Frame. The field of Tree ID is used to indicate different tree topologies. The field of Connection Ticket is used for connection maintenance. A router can choose a unique connection ticket after joining the internal network. The router makes sure the connection ticket is unique by increasing the bit of the connection ticket every time the router restarts, and the length of Connection Ticket can be 1 Byte. Also, the router can make sure the connection ticket is a unique by randomly choosing the bit of the connection ticket every time the router restarts. When getting a normal packet with a mismatched connection ticket, the router will set the ticket error bit in the corresponding packet, so that the ED knows the connection is lost. Destination ID of Normal Frame can be the same as that of Control Frame. Also, Source ID of Normal Frame can be the same as that of Control Frame.

In addition, Destination ID of Normal Frame is able to adopt the format of Network ID, instead. Similarly, Source ID of Normal Frame is able to adopt the format of Network ID, instead. If Destination ID and/or Source ID adopt the format of Network ID, the network ID is assigned uniquely to a router or an ED by its parent node, AP or a router. In normal frame transmission, the use of Network ID has better transmission rate than the use of MAC Address because Network ID is shorter than MAC Address. The network ID should be chosen randomly to prevent collision when the EDs recover from disconnected state. More details of Network ID are described in the following paragraphs of FIG. 5.

Referring to FIG. 4c, Beacon Frame is used to indicate that, in each of the time slots of Period II of FIG. 2, AP is assigned to transmit or receive the data to or from one of Router 1˜N in Layer 1, and one of Routers 1˜N is assigned to transmit or receive the data to or from one of the router's child EDs in Layer 2. In other words, AP uses AP Beacon, in the format of Beacon Frame, to broadcast time slot assignment to Routers 1˜N, and each of Routers 1˜N uses Router Beacon, in the format of Beacon Frame, to broadcast time slot assignment to its child EDs. For example, Router 2 uses Router Beacon to broadcast time slot assignment of Period II to ED 201˜20n in Period I, so each of the child EDs knows in which time slot it needs to wake up to receive the downlink data or to transmit the uplink data. In FIG. 2, Beacon Frame is used in Period I, but if the start point of Round Period is the end of the duration of AP Beacon, Beacon Frame can be also used in the final time slot of Round Period.

There are at least 7 fields in Beacon Frame: Frame Control, Sequence Number, Source Address, Tree ID, Connection Ticket, Router ID, and Beacon Payload. Frame Control, Sequence Number and Source Address of Beacon Frame are the same as those of Control Frame. Tree ID and Connection Ticket of Beacon Frame are the same as those of Normal Frame. Router ID of Beacon Frame is used to let the child node receiving the beacon calculates the offset of a slice time (a time shift in the time slot). More details of Router ID and the calculation of the slice time are described in the following paragraphs of FIGS. 5 and 6.

As to Beacon Payload of Beacon Frame, there are at least 6 fields in Beacon Payload Profile ID, Beacon Slot, Total Slot, Slot Info, Current Slot Number, and Downlink Slot Assignment. The field of Profile ID defines the application field, so that the router or the ED will not join the network of different application fields. The field of Beacon Slot indicates the type of the device that transmits the beacon. For example, 000 can be defined as the AP, 001 can be defined as the router, and 010 can be defined as the repeater. In addition, the field of Beacon Slot also indicates the number of time slots that Period I of FIG. 2 has. Next, the field of Total Slot represents the number of the total time slots per Round Period. For example, the maximum value of Total Slot can be 127. The field of Slot Info not only defines the duration of the time slot but also defines a slice time. For example, the duration of the time slot can range from 0.2 to 2 seconds, and the slice time can range from 1 ms to 5 ms. More details of the slice time are described in the following paragraphs of FIG. 6. The field of Current Slot Number is used to identify the time slot of Period I in which the beacon is sent. The field of Downlink Slot Assignment is used to assign each of the time slots in Period II to a specific router of a specific ED. For example, in FIG. 2, Downlink Slot Assignment of AP Beacon can indicate that, in this round period, slot 4 is assigned to Router 1, so Router 1 will receive the downlink data from the AP in slot 4. Also, Downlink Slot Assignment of Router Beacon can indicate that, in this round period, slot 5 is assigned to ED 303, so ED 303 will wake up in slot 5 and receive the downlink data from its parent Router 3. In addition, the number of the time slots of Period II is bounded by the length of the field of Downlink Slot Assignment. Moreover, each byte (element) of the field of Downlink Slot Assignment in Router Beacon is able to indicate that a specific ED should wake up to receive the downlink data or to transmit the uplink data. However, some bytes can be reserved for other uses. For example, 0x00 can be used to represent inactive assignment. Thus, when the child EDs receive 0x00 in the field of Downlink Slot Assignment in Router Beacon, the child EDs will stay inactive. For example, when Router 5 uses slot 5 of Period II to transmit data to its child EDs, the other EDs, such as the EDs 401˜40n, may need to stay inactive, so Downlink Slot Assignment in Router Beacon of Router 4 will be 0x00. In addition, 0xff can be used to represent broadcast information. Namely, when the child nodes receives 0xff in the field of Downlink Slot Assignment in Router Beacon, all of the child nodes will wake up to wait for data transmission from their parent node. Moreover, 0xfe can be used to represent uplink transmission assignment. Thus, when the child node receive 0xfe in the field of Downlink Slot Assignment in Router Beacon, the child node will wake up to transmit the uplink data to its parent node.

Referring to FIG. 4d, ACK Frame is used for receiving node (receiver) to respond to sending node (sender). Frame Control and Sequence Number of Normal Frame is the same as those of Control Frame. The field of Flow Control is used to indicate that the receiving node is out of resource for further reception. When the sender received ACK with non-zero Flow Control field, it should stop transmitting for a period of time.

Network ID

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a format of Network ID according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 5, Network ID has two fields, Device ID (DID) and Router ID (RID). The length of each of DID and RID is 1 byte, so the length of Network ID is 2 bytes, shorter than MAC address (6 bytes) and thus reducing overhead. In addition, the value assignment of Network ID of the AP is all 0 in DID and RID. The value assignment of Network ID of a router is 0 in DID and a specific value assigned by the AP in RID. The value assignment of Network ID of an ED is a specific value assigned by the router in DID and a specific value assigned by the AP in RID. Since the length of each of DID and RID is 1 byte, the AP can use RID to tag 256 routers, and each router can use DID to tag 256 EDs. Therefore, the whole two-layer tree network topology can accommodate 256×256 devices.

Beacon Transmission

FIG. 6 is a timing diagram of beacon transmission according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 6, the duration of AP Beacon 6000 is Δ d1, and the duration of Router Beacons 6001, 6002 . . . 600n is Δ d2. Specifically, the number of Router Beacons in a time slot is based on the number of the routers in the internal network. Since AP Beacon and Router Beacon adopt the format of Beacon Frame, the duration Δ d1 is the same as the duration Δ d2. In addition, Router Beacon 6001 is sent by Router 1 to EDs 101, 102 . . . 10n, Router Beacon 6002 is sent by Router 2 to the EDs 201, 202, . . . 20n, and Router Beacon 6003 is sent by Router 3 to the EDs 301, 302, . . . 30n, etc. All the router beacons are broadcasted from the parent routers to their child EDs in time slot 1.

Δ d1 and Δ d2 is determined by the length of Beacon Frame and the transmission rate. For example, if the internal network adopts 900 MHz to transmit data, the transmission rate is 250K bits/s. Hence, for a beacon bringing 60˜120 Bytes, it takes 1˜5 ms to finish the transmission of the beacon, meaning that Δ d1 and Δ d2 range from 1 ms to 5 ms. Thus, to avoid collision of the router beacons in the second frequency of Layer II, the interval Δ T1, Δ T2, Δ T3, Δ T4 . . . Δ Tn needs to be larger than at least 5 ms, meaning that Δ T (Δ T1, Δ T2 . . . ) needs to be larger than Δ d (Δ d1 and Δ d2). Specifically, Δ T1, Δ T2, Δ T3, Δ T4 . . . can be defined as the same fixed interval, which can be referred to as Slice Time. Moreover, Δ T1 is adjustable according to the initial set up of the device, and Δ T2, Δ T3, Δ T4 . . . can still be defined as the same fixed interval, Slice Time. In the aspect of accumulated duration of Router Beacon, the duration of Δ Td of Router Beacon 600n is the sum of Δ T1, Δ T2, Δ T3 . . . Δ Tn. The start point of Δ Td is the start point of Round Period, and the end point of Δ Td is the end of Router Beacon 600n.

In FIG. 6, if the router beacons are transmitted in more than one time slot, the duration between a router beacon and next router beacon received by a specific router is the duration of a time slot. For example, Router Beacon 6001′ is the second beacon received by Router 1, and Δ Tr is the duration of Slot 1.

Multiple Beacon Transmission

FIG. 7
a is a timing diagram of multiple beacon transmission according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 7a, each time slot in Period I is used to transmit Router Beacons, and the number of the time slots of Period I in FIG. 7a is adjustable. For example, Period I may have 2˜5 time slots.

Regarding the mechanism of multiple beacon transmission, in each time slot of Period I, each router broadcasts a specific beacon to its child EDs. For example, Router Beacons 6001, 6001′, 6001″ are broadcasted from Router 1 to its child EDs, ED 101˜10n, in Period I. If Router Beacon 600n, 600n′, and 600n″ represent the router beacons transmitted by Router N, the main difference of Beacon Payload among Router Beacon 600n, 600n′, 600n″ is the field of Current Slot Number, which is used to identify the time slot that a router beacon of Router N is broadcasted in Period I. The fields of Downlink Slot Assignment in each of Router Beacons 600n, 600n′, 600n″ are all the same, and Router Beacons 600n, 600n′, 600n″ are used to assign each of the time slots in Period II to a specific ED of Router N. For example, Router Beacons 6001, 6001′, 6001″ may indicate that, ED 103 should wake up to receive the downlink data from Router 1 in the first slot of Period II, and ED 107 should wake up to receive the downlink data from Router 1 in the second slot of Period II . . . etc. In addition, Router Beacons 6001, 6001′, 6001″ may indicate that, the third slot of Period II is used to let the child EDs of Router 1 transmit the uplink data to Router 1 through CSMA/CA.

FIG. 7
b is a timing diagram of multiple beacon transmission according to another embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 7b, each time slot in Period I can be also used to transmit AP Beacons, such as AP Beacon 6000′ in Slot 1, 6000″ in Slot 2. In addition, the end point of each AP Beacon may define the start point of each time slot of Period I. For example, the end point of AP Beacon 6000′ defines the start point of Slot 2, and the end point of AP Beacon 6000″ defines the start point of Slot 3.

Wake-Up Duration of ED Based on Multiple Beacon Transmission

FIGS. 8
a˜8b are timing diagrams that illustrate wake-up duration and calibration of an ED based on multiple beacon transmission according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 8a, T_wakeis the duration that an ED needs to wake up to receive its parent Router's router beacon. T_offis the duration that the ED sleeps, and T_roundis the sum up of T_wakeand T_off. The duration of T_roundcan be the same as the duration of a round period.

Referring to FIG. 8a, in Slot 1 of Round Period 701, if an ED wake up to receive Router Beacon 6001 in the duration of T_wake, the maximum sleep time of the ED is T_round−T_wake, and the result is T_off. If the ED needs to receive the downlink data from its parent router or transmit the uplink data to its parent router in some time slots of Period II, the sleep time of the ED is T_round−T_wake−(Slot Time)×(the number of time slots that the ED needs to wake up in Period II), wherein Slot Time is defined as the duration of a time slot. In addition, if the ED also needs to transmit the uplink data to its parent router in some time slots of Period III, the sleep time of the ED is T_round−T_wake−(Slot Time)×(the number of time slots that the ED needs to wake up in Period II)−(Slot Time)×(the number of time slots that the ED needs to wake up in Period III). It should be noticed that, if the ED fails to receive Router Beacon 6001 in Slot 1, the ED needs to wake up till it receives Router Beacon 7001 in Round Period 702, because there is no Router Beacons 6001′, 6001″ . . . in other time slots of Period I.

Therefore, referring to FIG. 8b, if the ED fails to receive Router Beacon 6001 in Slot 1, the ED only needs to wake up till the ED receive Router Beacon 6001′ in Slot 2 of Round Period 701, and this duration is represented as T_wake. Similarly, if the ED fails to receive Router Beacons 6001 and 6001′, the ED only needs to wake up till the ED receive Router Beacon 6001″ in Slot 3 of Round Period 701. In addition, if Period I has m time slots, each slot can have a corresponding Router Beacon 600n, 600n′, 600n″ . . . 600n^(m−1)′ within its duration. It should be noticed that, it is unnecessary to have a corresponding router beacon in each time slot of Period I, and the number of the router beacons in Period I is adjustable. To sum up, the wake-up duration of an ED can be effectively reduced by the mechanism of multiple beacon transmission, and thus the power consumption of an ED can be effectively reduced.

Calibration of Wake-up Duration

In FIG. 8b, T_setin Slot 1 of Round Period 701 is the original wake-up duration set by the ED, and the duration of T_setis the same as that of T_wakeof FIG. 8a. In an example of FIG. 8b, T_wakeis longer than T_setbecause the ED fails to receive Router Beacon 6001 in Slot 1 but successfully receive Router Beacon 6001′ in Slot 2. When the ED receives Router Beacon 6001′, it will proceed an action of calibration if T_wake<(T_set+Slot Time). The reason why T_wake<(T_set+Slot Time) is that the timing of the router beacon and that of T_setis asynchronous, causing the ED losses Router Beacon 6001. In the aforementioned case, the duration of T_setwill be increased for adjustment. On the other hand, if T_wake>(T_set+Slot Time), it implies that there is collision between the router beacon and other packets in the air. Thus, in the case of T_wake>(T_set+Slot Time), the duration of T_setneeds not to be adjusted. Specifically, the comparison statement can be expanded. If the ED misses N−1 router beacons and receives Router Beacon 600n′ in Period I, the comparison is T_wake<(T_set+(N−1)×Slot Time). In this case, if T_wake<(T_set+(N−1)×Slot Time), the duration of T_setwill be increased for adjustment as well. Thus, the ED will be able to receive the first Router Beacon 7001 of the next Round Period 702 if there is no collision between Router Beacon 7001 and other packets in the air.

In a normal condition, the hardware of the ED will try to decrease the duration of T_setuntil the ED reaches the best set up of the duration of T_set. However, in the aforementioned cases, if T_wake<(T_set+Slot Time) or T_wake<(T_set+(N−1)×Slot Time), duration of T_setwill be increased, so that the ED will not miss the corresponding router beacon, such as Router Beacon 7001 in Slot 1, in the next round period. The range of T_setcan be set from 2 ms to 6 ms in some application fields, such as an ESL system. Therefore, the ED is able to self-calibrate through the above comparison and restore the router beacon in the next round period without scan and join process of the internal network.

Null Beacon Transmission

As mentioned in FIG. 1, the internal network has a two-layer tree network topology. If the internal network needs to maintain good connectivity, a router needs to restart if it consecutively misses AP Beacon in several round periods, such as 2 to 3 beacon periods. Once a router restarts due to the aforementioned case, the child EDs of the router will keep in a wake-up status and thus waste power for a period of time. Since all the devices in the internal network, including the AP, routers and EDs, need to be synchronized, the mechanism of null beacon transmission is designed to help the EDs reduce power consumption.

FIG. 9 is a timing diagram of null beacon transmission according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to an example of FIG. 9, if AP Beacon 8000 is lost in the air due to collision or interference, Router 101 will fail to receive AP Beacon 8000 and thus broadcast null beacons in Period I of Round Period 901, such as Router Beacon 8001, 8001′ . . . etc. The concept of null beacon transmission is similar to that of multi-beacon transmission, and the main difference is that, in each of the null beacons, the value of payload is 0, meaning that the child EDs need not to wake up in Round Period 901. Thus, in the next Round Period 902, if there is no collision or interference in the air, Router 101 will receive AP Beacon 9000, and Router 101 will broadcast Router Beacon 9001 to its child EDs to let them know which slot they should wake up to receive the downlink data or transmit the uplink data in Period II. In addition, if AP Beacon 9000 is also lost in the air, Router 101 will fail to receive AP Beacon 8000 and thus broadcast null beacons in Period I of Round Period 902, and the payload value of each of Router Beacon 9001, 9001′ . . . etc will be 0. It should be noticed that, the aforementioned case can be applied to all routers in the internal network.

Connection Ticket Based on Null Beacon Transmission

In another aspect, if AP Beacon 8000 is lost due to the restart of the AP, and AP Beacon 9000 is broadcasted by the AP and received by its child routers, the routers will check the field of connection ticket of AP Beacon 9000. If the value of connection ticket of AP Beacon 9000 is that of AP Beacon 8000 plus 1 or is different from that of AP Beacon 8000, the child routers will know that the AP has restarted, and the child routers need to rejoin the internal network. If the routers rejoin the internal network again, their child EDs will need to rejoin as well because the EDs need to be synchronized with the new timing of the internal network. Thus, before the routers confirm that they do need to rejoin the internal network, their child EDs will only receive null beacons broadcasted by their parent routers. More details of rejoin process of the routers can be referred to the description of FIG. 4.

TDMA Mechanism for Downlink Transmission in Dual Frequencies

FIGS. 10
a˜10d are schematic illustration of TDMA mechanism for downlink transmission in dual frequencies according to one embodiment of the present invention. To clearly illustrate the mechanism, FIG. 10a is exemplified by a simplified structure of FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 10a, there are Routers 1˜3 connected to the AP, ED 101 connected to Router 1, ED 201 connected to Router 2, and ED 301 connected to Router 3, constructing a two-layer tree network topology that utilizes a first frequency in Layer 1 and a second frequency in Layer 2. In FIGS. 10a˜10d, each Round Period is set up to have 15 time slots. In addition, Period I has 3 time slots, Period II has 10 time slots, and Period III has 2 time slots.

In FIG. 10a, after connection construction and topology setup, the first Round Period starts and AP broadcasts the first AP beacon containing an element sequence of Downlink Slot Assignment, which indicated that each of the time slots of Period II will be assigned to let AP transmit the downlink data to one of Routers 1˜3, or to let Routers 1˜3 transmit the uplink data to AP. For example, Downlink Slot Assignment has the assignment of {D1, D1, D2, D2, fe, fe, fe, fe, fe, fe}, indicating that Router 1 needs to prepare for receiving the downlink data from AP in Slots 4 and 5 according to the assignment of D1, and Router 2 needs to wake up for receiving the downlink data from AP in Slots 6 and 7 according to the assignment of D2. As to Slot 8 to Slot 13, AP is able to receive the uplink data transmitted by each of Routers 1˜3 according to the assignment of fe (fe is simplified by 0xfe, and more details can be referred to the description of FIG. 4c).

After receiving the first AP Beacon, Router 1 runs Router Slot Assignment algorithm (more details can be referred to the description of FIG. 11) to produce its own router beacon which has the assignment of {0, 0, fe, fe, 0, fe, 0, fe, fe, 0}, indicating that Router 1 is able to receive the downlink data from AP in Slots 4, 5, 8, 10, and 13 according to the assignment of 0 and is able to receive the uplink data from ED 101 in Slots 6, 7, 9, 11, and 12 according to the assignment of fe. It should be noticed that, Router 1 is able to have a pluralities of EDs, and the EDs utilize CSMA/CA to transmit the uplink data to Router 1 in each of Slots 5, 6, 8, 10, and 11.

Similarly, after receiving the first AP Beacon, Router 2 runs Router Slot Assignment algorithm to produce its own router beacon which has the assignment of {fe, 0, 0, 0, fe, 0, fe, fe, 0, 0}, indicating that Router 2 is able to receive the downlink data from AP in Slots 5, 6, 7, 9, 12 and 13 according to the assignment of 0 and is able to receive the uplink data from ED 201 in Slots 4, 8, 10, and 11 according to the assignment of fe. Also, after receiving the first AP Beacon, Router 3 runs Router Slot Assignment algorithm to produce its own router beacon which has the assignment of {0, fe, fe, 0, fe, 0, fe, 0, fe, 0}, indicating that Router 3 is able to receive the downlink data from AP in Slots 4, 7, 9, 11, and 13 according to the assignment of 0 and is able to receive the uplink data from ED 301 in Slots 5, 6, 8, 10 and 12 according to the assignment of fe.

The above router beacons produced by each of Routers 1˜3 are able to transmitted in Slot 1, with each of the router beacons spaced by a slice time Δ T (the concept can be referred to the description of FIG. 6). In addition, each of Routers 1˜3 can repeatedly transmit the router beacon in each of Slot 1˜3, respectively, and each router beacon transmitted by a specific router has the same element sequence of Downlink Slot Assignment, forming a substantial multi-beacon transmission in Period I. For example, Router 1 can broadcast its router beacon in each of Slot 1˜3, so there are three router beacons broadcasted by Router 1 in Period I.

Referring to FIG. 10b, AP transmits the downlink data to Router 1 in Slots 4 and 5 according to the assignment of D1, and the AP transmits the downlink data to Router 2 in Slots 6 and 7 according to the assignment of D2. It should be noticed that, since Slots 4 and 5 are assigned for AP to transmit the downlink data to Router 1, Routers 2 and 3 are not able to receive the downlink data from AP in Slots 4 and 5. Similarly, since Slots 6 and 7 are assigned for AP to transmit the downlink data to Router 2, Routers 1 and 3 are not able to receive the downlink data from AP in Slots 6 and 7. To sum up, the element sequence in the field of Downlink Slot Assignment of the first AP Beacon decides which router should receive the downlink data from AP in which time slot in Period II.

Referring to FIG. 10c, after the first Round Period, the second Round Period starts and AP broadcasts the second AP beacon containing an element sequence of Downlink Slot Assignment. Downlink Slot Assignment of the second AP Beacon has the assignment of {D3, D3, fe, fe, fe, fe, fe, fe, fe, fe}, indicating that Router 3 needs to prepare for receiving the downlink data from AP in Slots 4 and 5 according to the assignment of D3. As to Slots 6 to 13, AP is able to receive the uplink data transmitted by each of Routers 1˜3 according to the assignment of fe.

After receiving the second AP Beacon, Router 1 runs Router Slot Assignment algorithm to produce its own router beacon which has the assignment of {D1, D1, 0, 0, 0, fe, fe, 0, fe, 0}, indicating that Router 1 needs to transmit the downlink data received from AP to ED 101 in Slots 4 and 5, and thus ED 101 needs to wake up in Slots 4 and 5. It should be noticed that, Router 1 is able to have a pluralities of EDs, and it can decide which ED should receive the downlink data from Router 1 based on D1 in Downlink Slot Assignment of the first AP Beacon.

In addition, the assignment of {D1, D1, 0, 0, 0, fe, fe, 0, fe, 0} indicates that Router 1 is able to receive the downlink data from AP in Slots 6, 7, 8, 11, and 13 according to the assignment of 0 and is able to receive the uplink data from ED 101 in Slots 9, 10 and 12 according to the assignment of fe.

Similarly, after receiving the second AP Beacon, Router 2 runs Router Slot Assignment algorithm to produce its own router beacon which has the assignment of {0, 0, D2, D2, 0, 0, fe, fe, 0, fe}, indicating that Router 2 needs to transmit the downlink data received from AP to ED 201 in Slots 6 and 7, and thus ED 201 needs to wake up in Slots 6 and 7. It should be noticed that, Router 2 is able to have a pluralities of EDs, and it can decide which ED should receive the downlink data from Router 1 based on D1 in Downlink Slot Assignment of the first AP Beacon.

In addition, the assignment of {0, 0, D2, D2, 0, 0, fe, fe, 0, fe} indicates that Router 2 is able to receive the downlink data from AP in Slots 4, 5, 8, 9, and 12 according to the assignment of 0 and is able to receive the uplink data from ED 201 in Slots 10, 11 and 13 according to the assignment of fe.

Similarly, after receiving the second AP Beacon, Router 3 runs Router Slot Assignment algorithm to produce its own router beacon which has the assignment of {0, 0, fe, 0, fe, fe, 0, 0, fe, 0}, indicating that Router 3 is able to receive the downlink data from AP in Slots 4, 5, 7, 10, 11 and 13 according to the assignment of 0 and is able to receive the uplink data from ED 301 in Slots 6, 8, 9 and 12 according to the assignment of fe. It should be noticed that Router 3 is able to have a pluralities of EDs as well.

Therefore, in Slots 4 and 5 of the second Round Period, AP utilizes the first frequency to transmit the downlink data to Router 3, and Router 1 utilize the second frequency to transmit the downlink data to ED 101, realizing downlink transmission in dual frequencies in Period II and thus improving the transmission rate of the internal network under TDMA mechanism in Period II of Round Period. It should be noticed that, the concept of downlink transmission in dual frequencies under TDMA mechanism remains the same in Period II of Round Period regardless of the number of the routers and that of the EDs.

Referring to FIG. 10d, after the second Round Period, the third Round Period starts and AP broadcasts the third AP beacon containing an element sequence of Downlink Slot Assignment. Downlink Slot Assignment of the third AP Beacon has the assignment of {D1, D2, fe, fe, fe, fe, fe, fe, fe, fe}, indicating that Router 1 needs to prepare for receiving the downlink data from AP in Slot 4 according to the assignment of D1 and Router 2 needs to prepare for receiving the downlink data from AP in Slot 5 according to the assignment of D2. As to Slots 6 to 13, AP is able to receive the uplink data transmitted by each of Routers 1˜3 according to the assignment of fe.

After receiving the third AP Beacon, Router 1 runs Router Slot Assignment algorithm to produce its own router beacon which has the assignment of {0, 0, fe, 0, fe, 0, fe, 0, fe, 0}, indicating that Router 1 is able to receive the downlink data from AP in Slots 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 according to the assignment of 0 and is able to receive the uplink data from ED 101 in Slots 6, 8, 10 and 12 according to the assignment of fe. Hence, Router 1 receives the downlink data transmitted from AP in Slot 4 of the third Round Period.

Similarly, After receiving the third AP Beacon, Router 2 runs Router Slot Assignment algorithm to produce its own router beacon which has the assignment of {0, 0, 0, 0, fe, 0, fe, fe, 0, fe}, indicating that Router 2 is able to receive the downlink data from AP in Slots 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 12 according to the assignment of 0 and is able to receive the uplink data from ED 201 in Slots 8, 10, 11 and 13 according to the assignment of fe. Hence, Router 2 receives the downlink data transmitted from AP in Slot 5 of the third Round Period.

Similarly, after receiving the third AP Beacon, Router 3 runs Router Slot Assignment algorithm to produce its own router beacon which has the assignment of {D3, D3, 0, fe, fe, fe, 0, 0, fe, 0}, indicating that Router 3 needs to transmit the downlink data received from AP to ED 301 in Slots 4 and 5, and thus ED 301 needs to wake up in Slots 4 and 5. It should be noticed that, Router 3 is able to have a pluralities of EDs, and it can decide which ED should receive the downlink data from Router 3 based on D3 in Downlink Slot Assignment of the second AP Beacon.

In addition, the assignment of {D3, D3, 0, fe, fe, fe, 0, 0, fe, 0} indicates that Router 3 is able to receive the downlink data from AP in Slots 6, 10, 11, and 13 according to the assignment of 0 and is able to receive the uplink data from ED 301 in Slots 7, 8, 9 and 12 according to the assignment of fe.

Therefore, in Slots 4 and 5 of the second Round Period, AP utilizes the first frequency to transmit the downlink data to Routers 1 and 2, and Router 3 utilize the second frequency to transmit the downlink data to ED 301, realizing downlink transmission in dual frequencies in Period II and thus improving the transmission rate of the internal network under TDMA mechanism in Period II of Round Period.

CDMA/CA Mechanism for Uplink Transmission in Dual Frequencies

In FIGS. 10c and 10d, uplink transmission in dual frequencies under CDMA/CA mechanism is depicted. In the second Round Period of FIG. 10c, ED 301 wakes up in Slot 6 and utilizes the second frequency to transmit the uplink data to Router 3 according to the assignment of fe in Downlink Slot Assignment {0, 0, fe, 0, fe, fe, 0, 0, fe, 0} of Router 3. If there is a plurality of child EDs 301, 302 . . . 30n, these EDs will still utilize CDMA/CA, in Slot 6, to decide which ED can utilizes the second frequency to transmit the uplink data to Router 3. Then, in the third Round Period of FIG. 10d, Router 3 utilizes the first frequency to transmit the uplink data to Router 3 in Slot according to the assignment of fe in Downlink Slot Assignment {D1, D2, fe, fe, fe, fe, fe, fe, fe, fe} of the AP. If there is a plurality of Routers 1, 2 . . . n, these routers will still utilize CDMA/CA, in Slot 6, to decide which Router can utilizes the first frequency to transmit the uplink data to the AP. In general, in both of Layer 1 and Layer 2 of the internal network, if there is at least one parent nodes having fe in its field Downlink Slot Assignment, the child nodes are able to utilize CDMA/CA to transmit the uplink data to the parent node, especially in Period II and Period III of Round Period. The difference is that the first frequency is utilized for uplink transmission in Layer I, and the second frequency is utilized for uplink transmission in Layer II.

Router Slot Assignment Algorithm

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of Router Slot Assignment algorithm according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 11, BcnLast is a matrix that stores the element sequence of the field of Downlink Slot Assignment of AP Beacon in the last Round Period, and BcnLast[i] is the i^thelement in the field of Downlink Slot Assignment of AP Beacon in the last Round Period. Similarly, BcnThis is a matrix that stores the element sequence of the field of Downlink Slot Assignment of AP Beacon in the present Round Period, and BcnThis[i] is the i^thelement in the field of Downlink Slot Assignment of AP Beacon in the present Round Period. In addition, as the description of FIG. 5 illustrates, RID represents Router ID, and DID represents Device ID. Finally, MyDnlinkSlot is the output of Router Slot Assignment algorithm, and the aforementioned output is an element sequence of Downlink Slot Assignment of Router Beacon for the present Round Period. MyDnlinkSlot[i] is the i^thelement in the field of Downlink Slot Assignment of Router Beacon for the present Round Period.

Thus, to decide each element in the field of Downlink Slot Assignment of Router Beacon for the present Round Period, FIG. 11 illustrates how to decide the value of MyDnlinkSlot[i], and the number i goes from 1 to the last number of the element in Downlink Slot Assignment of Router Beacon. For example, in FIGS. 10a˜d, the number i goes from 1 to 15 (or from 0 to 14). In Step 1100, if BcnLast[i] is equal to RID, MyDnlinkSlot[i] will be set to be equal to the assigned DID transmitted from AP, the assigned DID transmitted in the i^thtime slot of Period II of the last Round Period in Step 1101. Namely, if AP transmits the downlink data to a specific router in a specific time slot in Period II of the last Round Period, the specific time slot needs to be reserved for the specific router to transmit the downlink data to the assigned ED in the second frequency in Period II of the present Round Period. For example, in FIG. 10b, Slot 4 is used for AP to transmit the downlink data to Router 1 in the first round period. So, in FIG. 10c, Slot 4 is reserved for Router 1 to transmit the downlink data to a specific ED, such as ED 101.

If BcnLast[i] is not equal to RID, the process will go directly to Step 1102. In Step 1102, if BcnThis[i] is equal to RID, MyDnlinkSlot[i] will be set to be equal to 0 in Step 1103. Namely, if AP transmits the downlink data to a specific router in a specific time slot in Period II of the present Round Period, the child EDs of the specific router can only sleep and cannot transmit the uplink data to the specific router in the specific time slot. In the aforementioned specific time slot, the specific router works in the first frequency. For example, in FIG. 10c, the 1^thelement of Downlink Slot Assignment of Router Beacon of Router 3 is 0, so AP is able to transmit the downlink data to Router 3 in the first frequency in Slot 4, and each of the child EDs of Router 3, such as ED 301, is unable to wake up to transmit the uplink data to Router 3.

If BcnThis[i] is not equal to RID, the process will go directly to Step 1104. In step 1104, if BcnThis[i] is equal to 0, MyDnlinkSlot[i] will be set to be equal to 0 in Step 1105. Namely, in the present Round Period, if MyDnlinkSlot[i] is equal to 0, the child EDs of a specific router cannot transmit the uplink data to the specific router in the i^thtime slot of Period II of the present Round Period. In the aforementioned case, AP may transmit the downlink data to one of the other routers in the first frequency, so the specific router may work in the second frequency and does not allow uplink transmission from its child EDs.

If BcnThis[i] is not equal to 0, the process will go directly to Step 1106. In step 1106, MyDnlinkSlot[i] will be randomly set to be equal to 0 or 0xfe. Namely, there is 50% opportunity for the specific router to transmit the downlink data to one of its child EDs or receive the uplink data from one of its child EDs, in the i^thtime slot of Period II of the present Round Period.

In the following paragraphs, an ESL system utilizing time-slotted wireless communication in dual frequencies, a portable terminal for linking an electronic shelf label with a product, and coordination between the ESL system and the portable terminal are described herein.

ESL System Utilizing Time-Slotted Wireless Communication in Dual Frequencies

FIG. 12 is a schematic illustration of an ESL system utilizing time-slotted wireless communication in dual frequencies according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 12, the internal network is implemented in an ESL system, wherein AP 1211 communicates with Router 1231 using a first frequency and Router 1231 communicates with ED 1251 using a second frequency. Each ED is an electronic shelf label (ESL). Also, it should be noticed that the internal network is able to have at least one routers and each router is able to have at least one EDs, as depicted in FIG. 1. The following paragraphs introduce the schematic illustration of an ESL system in a bottom-up way.

A plurality of EDs 1251 typically display prices of corresponding merchandise items on store shelves and are typically attached to a rail along the leading edge of the shelves. Other than price, the information on the display of an ED may include the barcode, name, logo, figure of the corresponding merchandise. ED 1251 includes control module 1253, communication module 1255, memory 1257, LED 1259, power source 1261, button 1263, driver 1265, and display 1267.

Control module 1253 controls operation of ED 1251. Control module 1253 receives messages from ESL Management System 1205 (or portable ESL Management System 1207) and executes commands in the messages. Control module 1253 sends responses to ESL Management System 1205 (or portable ESL Management System 1207). Control module 1253 controls display 1267 by driver 1265. Display 1267 may be a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a non-volatile display. Control module 1253 controls storage of display data in memory 1257. Specifically, Control module 1253 is configured to buffer downlink data in memory 1257. Also, Control module 1253 can be configured to buffer uplink data in memory 1257. Memory 1257 stores display and other information, and SRAM may be one type of Memory 1257. Button 1263 provides input of customer service that can be defined in different scenarios, and there may be at least one button 1263 on ED 1251. Once button 1263 is pressed, ESL Management System 1205 will get the corresponding messages from ED 1251. LED is controlled by control module 1253 and is used to reflect any possible errors on ED 1251. Power source 1261 is used to provide power to all the modules and components in ED 1251.

Communication module 1255 receives the downlink data from Router 1231 or transmits the uplink data to Router 1231 in the second frequency. In addition, communication module 1255 utilizes TDMA to receive the downlink data and utilizes CDMA/CA to transmit the uplink data under time-slotted mechanism.

A plurality of Routers 1231 are typically placed around store shelves and are used to build downlink and uplink channels between AP 1231 and a plurality of EDs 1251. ED 1251 includes control module 1233, communication module 1235, memory 1237, LED 1239, power source 1241, and button 1243.

Control module 1233 controls operation of Router 1231 and controls storage of data in memory 1237. Specifically, control module 1233 is configured to buffer the downlink data and the uplink data in memory 1237. Memory 1237 stores display and other information. Button 1243 provides input of management service that can be defined in different scenarios, and there may be at least one button 1243 on Router 1231. LED 1239 is controlled by control module 1233 and is used to reflect any possible errors on Router 1231. Power source 1241 is used to provide power to all the modules and components in Router 1231.

Communication module 1235 receives the downlink data from AP 1211 or transmits the uplink data to AP 1211 in the first frequency, and it also receives the uplink data from ED 1251 or transmits the downlink data to ED 1251 in the second frequency. In addition, communication module 1235 utilizes TDMA to receive and transmit the downlink data and utilizes CDMA/CA to receive and transmit the uplink data under time-slotted mechanism. It should be noticed that communication module 1235 may be only limited to (1) receive the downlink data in the first frequency, (2) transmit the uplink data in the first frequency, (3) receive the uplink data in the second frequency, or (4) transmit the downlink data in the second frequency, in each of the time slots in Period II of Round Period.

AP 1211 is typically placed near the management center in the market and is used to build downlink and uplink channels between the internal network and ESL Management System 1205 (or portable ESL Management System 1207). AP 1211 includes control module 1213, communication module 1215, memory 1217, LED 1219, power source 1221, and button 1223.

Control module 1213 controls operation of AP 1211 and controls storage of data in memory 1217. Specifically, control module 1213 is configured to buffer the downlink data in memory 1217. Memory 1217 stores display and other information. Button 1213 provides input of management service that can be defined in different scenarios, and there may be at least one button 1213 on AP 1211. LED 1219 is controlled by control module 1213 and is used to reflect any possible errors on AP 1211. Power source 1221 is used to provide power to all the modules and components in AP 1211.

Communication module 1215 receives the downlink data from ESL Management System 1205 (or portable ESL Management System 1207) or transmits the uplink data to ESL Management System 1205 (or portable ESL Management System 1207) through the Internet by utilizing WiFi or TCP/IP in wired or wireless way, and it also receives the uplink data from Router 1231 or transmits the downlink data to Router 1231 in the first frequency. Communication module may be formed by different sub-modules handling different communication channels.

In addition, communication module 1215 utilizes TDMA to transmit the downlink data and utilizes CDMA/CA to receive the uplink data under time-slotted mechanism. It should be noticed that communication module 1215 may be only limited to either transmit the downlink data or receive the uplink data in the first frequency in each of the time slots in Period II of Round Period.

Service Daemon 1209 is typically placed near the management center in the market and is used to continuously record all the status in the internal network by using specific software.

ESL Management System 1205 is also typically placed near the management center in the market and is used to manage and update the data of EDs in the internal network. Service Daemon 1209 and ESL Management System 1205 may be integrated into a single management system. In addition, the function of portable ESL Management System 1207 is the same as that of ESL Management System 1205. Portable ESL Management System 1207 can be realized in many kinds of mobile devices, such as tablet or iPad.

Finally, Database 1203 is used to store the numbers, prices and other information of all the merchandise items, and a POS (point-of-sale) system is able to connect with Database 1203. In FIG. 12, the internal network includes AP 1211, at least one Router 1231, and at least one ED 1251. The ESL system includes the internal network, Service Daemon 1209, ESL Management System 1205, Portable Management System 1207 and Database 1203. The ESL system is able to connect with POS system to provide a complete service for the market.

Thus, if Round Period is set up to have 30 time slots, with each slot having 0.5 seconds, each Round Period will be 15 seconds. In this case, Period I is set up to have 3 time slots, Period II is set up to have 25 time slots, and Period III is set up to have 2 time slots. So, based on the above, in a normal case, the internal network is able to finish 25 EDs' information update in 15 seconds, leading to finish 6000 EDs' update in one hour. In a worst case, all target EDs are the child nodes of the same router, and the router can only operation in one transmission direction, leading to finish 3000 EDs' update in one hour.

ESL System Having a Portable Terminal for Linking an Electronic Shelf Label with a Product

FIG. 13 is a schematic illustration of an ESL system having a portable terminal according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 13, the internal network is implemented in an ESL system, wherein AP 1211 communicates with a plurality of Routers 1231 using a first frequency and each of the Routers 1231 communicates with its own EDs 1251 using a second frequency. In FIG. 13, there are a plurality of EDs 1251 and each ED is an electronic shelf label (ESL).

Portable Terminal 1271 also communicates with AP 1211 in the first frequency and thus is integrated into the internal network. The first frequency and the second frequency belong to the same band of 400 MHz, 800 MHz, or 900 MHz, and thus the internal network utilizes dual frequencies to speed up or even double its transmission rate. More details can be referred to the aforementioned embodiments. In addition, if AP 1211 wirelessly communicates with Service Daemon 1209, AP 1211 is able to adopt a third frequency different from the band of dual frequencies. For example, if the dual frequencies adopt the band of 900 MHz, AP 1211 is able to wirelessly communicate with Service Daemon 1209 through WiFi 2.4 GHz. Therefore, AP 1211 will communicate with the plurality of Routers 1231 in one band of frequency and communicate with Service Daemon 1209 in the other band of frequency, increasing the AP's working efficiency and decreasing the interference among AP 1211, the plurality of Routers 1231 and Service Daemon 1209. It should be noticed that the first frequency and the second frequency can adopt different band of frequency as well. For example, the first frequency is able to adopt the band of 900 MHz and the second frequency is able to adopt the band of 800 MHz. In this case, the third frequency is able to adopt a frequency different from the first frequency and the second frequency, such as the frequency in the band of 2.4 GHz.

It should be noticed that, in this case with Portable Terminal 1271, the network topology of the internal network in the ESL system is not necessary to be two-layer tree topology and thus dual frequencies adopted in the two-layer tree topology are not necessary as well. All kinds of network topology are available in this case with Portable Terminal 1271. For example, the second frequency can be the same as the first frequency, and thus there is only the first frequency used for communication in the internal network.

FIG. 14 is a flow chart of an ESL system for linking electronic shelf label with product and update product information to the display of electronic shelf label according to one embodiment of the present invention. Before Step 1401, Portable Terminal 1271 is turned on and then is connected wirelessly with AP 1211. In addition, the frequency between Portable Terminal 1271 and AP 1211 is the same as the frequency between the plurality of Routers 1231 and AP 1211. It should be noticed that the frequency is one of the dual frequencies and is adopted in Layer 1 of the network topology of the internal network.

Then, the user starts to sequentially check the products on the shelves in the store and replace certain products with new products on the shelves. If the user wants to replace one product with another new product on the shelf, the display of the corresponding electronic shelf label (ESL) of the product needs to be updated to the production information of the new product. Thus, in Step 1401, the user scans an ID information of the corresponding ESL, such as the MAC address of the ESL. Also, the user scans an ID information of the new product, such as the 1D or 2D barcode of the new product.

Hence, in Step 1402, the user utilizes Portable Terminal 1271 to establish a link information between the new product and the corresponding ESL. Then, Portable Terminal 1271 transmits the link information to AP 1402 through the frequency in Layer 1 of the internal network. Next, in Step 1403, AP 1402 wirelessly transmits the link information to Service Daemon 1209 through a third frequency different from the band of the first frequency and the second frequency, such as the frequency in the band of 2.4 GHz. Also, AP 1402 is able to transmit the link information to Service Daemon 1209 in a wired way.

In Step 1404, after receiving the link information from AP 1402, Service Daemon 1209 updates a link table that stores all the mapping relationships between each of the products and its corresponding ESL. For example, if ED 101 on a shelf displays the product information of Coca Cola and the user wants to replace Coca Cola with Pepsi, the user is able to scan the barcode of Pepsi and scan the MAC address of ED 101, thus establishing the link information between Pepsi and ED 101. Then the link information between Pepsi and ED 101 will be transmitted to Service Daemon 1209 and update a row of the link table. In addition, if there is no Coca Cola on the shelf and the user wants to put Pepsi behind ED 101, the user is also able to scan the barcode of Pepsi and scan the MAC address of ED 101, thus establishing the link information between Pepsi and ED 101. The aforementioned example of update of the link table can be referred to FIG. 15.

In addition, the product information of Pepsi may not be complete in the link table. Thus, Service Daemon 1209 may need to actively or passively acquire the complete product information of Pepsi from Database 1203. It should be noticed that Database 1203 is able to integrated into POS System 1201 instead of integrated into the ESL system.

Back to FIG. 14, in Step 1405, Service Daemon 1209 wirelessly transmits the product information of the new product to AP 1402 in the third frequency, such as the frequency in the band of 2.4 GHz. Then, in Step 1406, AP 1402 transmits the production information of the new product to the corresponding ED, namely, ESL. Then, in Step 1407, the corresponding ESL receives the product information of the product and update a display of the corresponding ESL.

As depicted in FIGS. 12˜13 and the corresponding paragraphs, the ESL system is able to utilize TDMA to transmit downlink data and utilizes CDMA/CA to receive uplink data under time-slotted mechanism. More details can be referred to the prior paragraphs of the specification. However, in this case with Portable Terminal 1271, the ESL system is also able to utilize other mechanism to transmit downlink data, such as CSMA/CA. Furthermore, in this case with Portable Terminal 1271, the network topology of the internal network in the ESL system is not necessary to be two-layer tree topology and thus dual frequencies adopted in the two-layer tree topology are not necessary as well. All kinds of network topology are available in this case with Portable Terminal 1271.

Back to FIG. 13, since one AP reflects to one internal network, if an ESL system has at least one AP (or multiple APs) to cover the whole place of the store, Portable Terminal 1271 is able to identify which AP it connects with and thus recognize which network topology it locates in. Moreover, Portable Terminal 1271 is able to identify all the APs in the neighborhood of the current network topology, thus facilitating the switch from one internal network to another internal network.

FIG. 16 is a schematic illustration of an AP communicating with a portable terminal and a service daemon. Specifically, a block diagram of Portable Terminal 1271 is illustrated.

Portable Terminal 1271 is typically carried by a user in the store and is used to link electronic shelf label with product. Portable Terminal 1271 includes control module 1273, communication module 1275, memory 1277, LED 1279, battery 1281, button 1283, charging module 1285 and scanning module 1287.

Control module 1273 controls operation of Portable Terminal 1271, storage of data in memory 1277, and operation of scanning module 1287. Specifically, Control module 1273 is configured to receive data from scanning module 1287 and thus establish the link information between product and electronic shelf label. Memory 1217 stores data from scanning module 1287 and link information between product and electronic shelf label. However, data from scanning module 1287 and link information between product and electronic shelf label can be stored in the internal memory of control module 1273 as well. Button 1213 provides input from the user that can be defined in different scenarios, and there may be at least one button 1213 on Portable Terminal 1271. LED 1219 is controlled by control module 1273 and is used to reflect the corresponding operation result or any possible errors on Portable Terminal 1271, and there may be at least one LED 1219 on Portable Terminal 1271. Charging module 1285 is used to charge battery 1281, and battery 1281 is able to provide power to the modules and the components in Portable Terminal 1271.

Communication module 1275 receives the link information from control module 1273 and transmits the link information to AP 1211 in the first frequency, namely, the same frequency between AP 1211 and Routers 1231.

FIG. 17 is a flow chart of error reporting mechanism and is an extension of FIG. 14. In FIG. 17, every time the user replaces the original product with a new product behind the corresponding ESL, Steps 1401˜1407 are executed and the product information of the new product is updated on the display of the corresponding ESL. However, if the product information updated on the display of the corresponding ESL is wrong, the user needs to report this error. For example, if the user replaced Coca Cola with Pepsi but the corresponding ESL displays the logo of Tiger Beer, this error should be reported back. Thus, in Step 1408, the user utilize Portable Terminal 1271 to scan ID information of the new product again and then transmit an error report of the display through AP 1211 to Service Daemon 1209 and thus to ESL Management System 1205. In addition, ESL Management System is able to provide the error report based on the display of the corresponding ESL to Database 1203. Hence, the operator in the management center will get the error report of the display and thus easily and immediately find out the cause of the error.

Previous descriptions are only embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Many variations and modifications according to the claims and specification of the disclosure are still within the scope of the claimed invention. In addition, each of the embodiments and claims does not have to achieve all the advantages or characteristics disclosed. Moreover, the abstract and the title only serve to facilitate searching patent documents and are not intended in any way to limit the scope of the claimed invention.

	Number	Date	Country
Parent	13955001	Jul 2013	US
Child	14037376		US

SYSTEM, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LINKING ELECTRONIC SHELF LABEL WITH PRODUCT

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CPC

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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

Continuation in Parts (1)