Method and apparatus for monitoring environmental conditions in a communication system

In a wireless communication system that includes infrastructure equipment and a plurality of communication devices, a method for monitoring environmental conditions, the method comprises the steps of:

• a) providing, by the infrastructure equipment, environmental sensing parameters to the plurality of communication devices;
• b) monitoring, by the plurality of communication devices, environmental conditions based on the environmental sensing parameters;
• c) when an environmental condition is consistent with the environmental sensing parameters, providing, by at least one communication device of the plurality of communication devices, information about the sensed environmental condition to the infrastructure equipment;
• and
• d) processing the information about the sensed environmental condition by the infrastructure equipment to produce processed data.

In a wireless communication system that includes infrastructure equipment and a plurality of communication devices, a method for a communication device of the plurality of communication devices to facilitate monitoring environmental conditions, the method comprises the steps of:

• a) sensing an environmental condition to produce information about the sensed environmental condition;
• b) providing, over a wireless communication path, the information about the sensed environmental condition to the infrastructure equipment;
• and
• c) receiving at least a selected portion of processed environmental data.

In a wireless communication system that includes infrastructure equipment and a plurality of communication devices, a method for infrastructure equipment to facilitate monitoring environmental conditions, the method comprises the steps of:

• a) receiving, over a wireless communication path, information about the sensed environmental condition from at least some of the plurality of communication devices;
• b) processing the information about the sensed environmental condition to produce processed data;
• and
• c) providing at least a selected portion of the processed data to at least one communication device of the plurality of communication device when the at least one communication device has subscribed to the at least a selected portion of the processed data.

A communication device comprising:

• a wireless transceiver operable to transceive data with infrastructure equipment of a wireless communication system;
• an environmental sensor operable to sense at least one environmental condition;
• a processing unit operably coupled to the wireless transceiver and the environmental sensor;
• and
• memory operably coupled to the processing unit, wherein the memory stores programming instructions that, when read by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to function as circuits to (a) evoke sensing of the at least one environmental condition to produce information about the sensed environmental condition;
• (b) provide the information about the sensed environmental condition to the wireless transceiver for transmission to the infrastructure equipment;
• and (c) store in the memory at least a selected portion of processed data, wherein the information about the sensed environmental condition is processed to produced the processed data.

A controller of wireless infrastructure equipment comprising:

• a processing unit;
• and
• memory operably coupled to the processing unit, wherein the memory stores programming instructions that, when read by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to function as circuits to (a) receive information about the sensed environmental condition from at least some of a plurality of communication devices;
• (b) process the information about the sensed environmental condition to produce processed data;
• and (c) provide at least a selected portion of the processed data to at least one communication device of the plurality of communication devices when the at least one communication device has subscribed to the at least a selected portion of the processed data.