Wireless connectivity for sensors

An electronic article surveillance network supporting at least one electronic article surveillance sensor having a corresponding sub-layer address, the electronic article surveillance network comprising:

• an access point including:
• a first wired communication interface configured to receive a message;
• a first wireless communication interface in communication with the first wired communication interface;
• a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter buffer configured to receive the message through the first wired communication interface, the message having been received as a series of data packets;
• a radio frequency data transfer buffer configured to store data packets to be broadcast through the first wireless communication interface;
• and
• a serial data transfer buffer configured to transfer data packets between the universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter buffer and the radio frequency data transfer buffer;
• the access point configured to:
• receive the message through the first wired communication interface, the message including the sub-layer address corresponding to an electronic article surveillance sensor;
• transfer the message from the first wired communication interface to a first wireless communication interface in bursts;
• measure a serial idle time between bursts;
• calculate a moving average of the measured serial idle time between bursts;
• and
• adaptively predict a serial idle trigger based on the moving average of the measured serial idle time between bursts;
• responsive to the serial idle time between bursts reaching the serial idle trigger, transfer data packets from the serial data transfer buffer to the radio frequency data transfer buffer;
• broadcast the message through the first wireless communication interface;
• and
• receive an acknowledgement of the broadcast message through the first wireless communication interface;
• and
• the at least one wireless device node having a wireless network layer address, the at least one wireless device node wirelessly coupled to the access point and hard-wired to the at least electronic article surveillance sensor, the at least one wireless device node configured to:
• receive the broadcast message through a second wireless communication interface;
• forward the broadcast message through a second wired communication interface to the electronic article surveillance sensor corresponding to the sub-layer address included in the received broadcast message;
• receive an acknowledgement of the broadcast message through the second wired communication interface from the electronic article surveillance sensor;
• and
• forward the acknowledgement of the broadcast message through the second wireless communication interface.

A method for communicating messages in an electronic article surveillance network, the electronic article surveillance network including at least one electronic article surveillance sensor hard-wired to at least one wireless device node, the method comprising:

• receiving a message through a wired communication interface, the message including a sub-layer address corresponding to an electronic article surveillance sensor;
• transferring the message from the wired communication interface to a wireless communication interface in bursts;
• measuring a serial idle time between bursts;
• calculating a moving average of the measured serial idle time between bursts;
• adaptively predicting a serial idle trigger based on the moving average of the measured serial idle time between bursts;
• responsive to the serial idle time between bursts reaching the serial idle trigger, transferring data packets from a serial data transfer buffer to a radio frequency data transfer buffer;
• broadcasting the message through the wireless communication interface;
• and
• receiving an acknowledgement of the broadcast message through the wireless communication interface, the acknowledgment originating from the electronic article surveillance sensor corresponding to the sub-layer address.