Method and apparatus for resource balancing in an automation and alarm architecture

A method comprising:

• receiving, at a processor of a gateway entity, a resource allocation request from a sensor indicative of the sensor having pre-determined via processing of data that an event requiring additional processing consideration is occurring or is predicted to occur at the sensor and further indicative of the data being designated for processing by another device, the sensor having sensor processing or memory resources;
• allocating, in response to the resource allocation request, additional gateway entity processing or memory resources beyond the sensor processing or memory resources to process the data from the sensor;
• receiving, by the gateway entity, the data forwarded by the sensor responsive to the sensor being unable to determine whether the data rises to a level of an alarm condition;
• processing the data using the additional gateway entity processing or memory resources to determine whether the data should have triggered the alarm condition;
• determining, in response to the sensor being unable to determine whether the data rises to the level of the alarm condition and further in response to the gateway entity determining that the data should have triggered the alarm condition, whether one or more configuration settings of the sensor need to be changed to cause the sensor to change a specific threshold or algorithm;
• and
• pushing updated configuration settings to the sensor in response to determining that the one or more configuration settings of the sensor need to be changed to cause the sensor to change the specific threshold or algorithm.

A gateway entity providable between a sensor network and a cloud processing device, comprising:

• a memory configured to store data from a sensor of the sensor network, the sensor having sensor processing or memory resources;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• receive a resource allocation request from the sensor indicative of the sensor having pre-determined via at least partial processing of the data that an event has occurred or is predicted to occur, which requires real-time or near-real time processing by a device other than the sensor, the resource allocation request further indicative of the sensor being unable to fully process the data;
• allocate, in response to the resource allocation request, additional gateway entity processing or memory resources beyond the sensor processing or memory resources of the sensor to process the data of the sensor;
• receive the data from the sensor;
• process the data using the additional gateway entity processing or memory resources to decide whether to trigger an alarm;
• send the data to the cloud processing device causing the cloud processing device to:
• determine, responsive to the gateway entity deciding not to trigger the alarm but the cloud processing device determining that the alarm should have been triggered, or responsive to the gateway entity deciding to trigger the alarm but the cloud processing device determining that the alarm should not have been triggered, whether a processing configuration of the gateway entity needs to be changed to cause the gateway entity to change a specific threshold or algorithm;
• and
• push a configuration update to the gateway entity in response to determining that the processing configuration of the gateway entity needs to be changed to cause the gateway entity to change the specific threshold or algorithm;
• receive the configuration update from the cloud processing device;
• process the configuration update to change the processing configuration used by the gateway entity;
• and
• apply the changed processing configuration to analyze the data received from the sensor.