US 10,502,811 B2 · Network architecture, radio frequency based asset tracking and/or location estimation methods and systems

Abstract

Radio frequency-enabled nodes, in an example asset tracking system, receive a basic message including an asset tracking tag identifier from an asset tag. The nodes measure a signal attribute of the received message; and each receiving node transmits a node asset message including the asset tag identifier, a respective node identifier, and the measured signal attribute. Edge gateways each receive one or more node asset messages transmitted by some number of the radio frequency-enabled nodes and rank respective node identifiers based on the measured signal attribute. Each edge gateway forwards an aggregated message to a fog gateway, which parses data from the aggregated messages to form a node identifier tuple identifying at least three nodes near the asset tag. Ordered identifiers from the tuple and known locations of the identified nearby nodes can then be processed to estimate of the location of the asset tag.

A system, comprising:

a number of edge gateways distributed about a space, each respective edge gateway comprising an edge gateway processor and an edge gateway radio frequency transceiver system, wherein each edge gateway radio frequency transceiver system is configured to communicate via a first frequency band and a second frequency band;
a plurality of radio frequency-enabled nodes distributed about the space, wherein each of the plurality of radio frequency-enabled nodes comprises:
a node processor;
and
a node radio frequency transceiver configured to receive and transmit radio frequency signals via the first frequency band;
and
a fog gateway comprising a fog gateway radio frequency transceiver and a fog gateway processor, the fog gateway radio frequency transceiver configured to communicate via the second frequency band with each edge gateway radio frequency transceiver system;
wherein each respective edge gateway:
has a respective radio frequency coverage area within the space, at least with respect to the first frequency band,
is configured by the edge gateway processor of the respective edge gateway to communicate with a plurality of the radio frequency-enabled nodes within the respective radio frequency coverage area via the first frequency band;
and
is configured by the edge gateway processor of the respective edge gateway to transmit an aggregated message including an identifier of each of one or more of the radio frequency-enabled nodes within the respective coverage area, based on a node asset message received from each of the one or more radio frequency-enabled nodes within the respective coverage area, each received node asset message comprising:
an identifier of each respective one or more of the radio frequency-enabled nodes,
an identifier of a radio frequency-enabled tag obtained from a radio frequency signal received from the radio frequency-enabled tag by each of the respective one or more radio frequency-enabled nodes within the respective edge gateway's coverage area, and
a measured signal attribute of the signal received from the radio frequency-enabled tag by the respective one or more radio frequency-enabled nodes within the respective edge gateway's coverage area;
and
wherein the fog gateway is configured by the fog gateway processor to:
receive a respective aggregated message from each of a plurality of the edge gateways;
and
parse the received aggregated messages to obtain a node identifier tuple for use in a determination of location of the radio frequency-enabled tag within the space, and
wherein:
the node identifier tuple includes a list of three radio frequency-enabled node identifiers having associated highest signal attribute of signals received from the radio frequency-enabled tag, among all of the radio frequency-enabled nodes having received signals from the radio frequency-enabled tag, and
the three radio frequency-enabled node identifiers are ordered in the list in the tuple according to a ranking of signal attribute of signals received from the radio frequency-enabled tag by the three radio frequency-enabled nodes corresponding to the three radio frequency-enabled node identifiers.

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Network architecture, radio frequency based asset tracking and/or location estimation methods and systems

Life of this patent

Network architecture, radio frequency based asset tracking and/or location estimation methods and systems

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims16