US 8,478,318 B2Granted

Heterogeneous wireless sensor network bridging device and control method and flow balancing method thereof

AssigneeIndustrial Technology Research Institute

InventorsLi-Feng Tsai, Shih-Min Tzeng, Cheng-Wei Wang, Zhung-Xing Xiao

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Abstract

A control method for a heterogeneous wireless sensor network (WSN) bridging device includes initializing Zigbee sensor nodes, switching a Zigbee transceiver module to a sleep mode, switching a wireless network transceiver module to an active mode, receiving an task list from a remote main control device, switching the wireless network transceiver module to the sleep mode, switching the Zigbee transceiver module to the active mode, transmitting an operating instruction to the Zigbee sensor nodes, receiving at least one sensing signal from the Zigbee sensor nodes, and determining whether the sensing signals have been received. If yes, a back transmission procedure is executed. The control method solves an interference problem among heterogeneous wireless networks and overcomes a bottleneck in data transmission.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A control method for a heterogeneous wireless sensor network (WSN) bridging device, applicable to control a heterogeneous WSN bridging device, wherein the heterogeneous WSN bridging device comprises a Zigbee transceiver module, a wireless network transceiver module, and a processor, the heterogeneous WSN bridging device is used for bridging a plurality of Zigbee sensor nodes and a remote main control device, the method comprising:

switching the wireless network transceiver module to an active mode, and receiving a first task list from the remote main control device by the wireless network transceiver module;
switching the wireless network transceiver module to a sleep mode, and switching the Zigbee transceiver module to an active mode;
transmitting an operating instruction to the Zigbee sensor nodes by the Zigbee transceiver module according to the first task list;
receiving at least one sensing signal from the Zigbee sensor nodes respectively, and storing the sensing signals;
and
determining whether the sensing signals have been received according to the first task list;
if yes, executing a back transmission procedure, wherein the back transmission procedure comprises:
switching the Zigbee sensor nodes to the sleep mode, and switching the wireless network transceiver module to the active mode;
and
transmitting the sensing signals to the remote main control device by the wireless network transceiver module.

7 more elements

A flow balancing method, applicable to control links between a heterogeneous wireless sensor network (WSN) bridging device and a plurality of Zigbee sensor nodes, wherein the plurality of Zigbee sensor nodes and the heterogeneous WSN bridging device are connected through a plurality of Zigbee routers, the method comprising:

analyzing a transmission flow of each of the Zigbee routers;
sorting the plurality of Zigbee routers according to the transmission flow of each of the Zigbee routers;
and
determining whether a difference between the Zigbee router having a maximum transmission flow and the Zigbee router having a minimum transmission flow is greater than a reference value, and if yes, executing a frequency changing step;
wherein the frequency changing step comprises:
switching a frequency band of one of the Zigbee sensor nodes connected to the Zigbee router having the maximum transmission flow to another frequency band used by the Zigbee router having the minimum transmission flow;
and
searching whether the Zigbee sensor node is connected to the Zigbee router having the minimum transmission flow, and if yes, notifying the Zigbee router having the maximum transmission flow that the frequency band of the Zigbee sensor node has already been switched.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.