Systems, apparatus, and methods of checkpoint summary based monitoring for an event candidate related to an ID node within a wireless node network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10033594-B2
Application number	US-201615168442-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 31, 2016
Priority date	Jul 8, 2015
Publication date	Jul 24, 2018
Grant date	Jul 24, 2018

Abstract

Systems, apparatus, and methods are described for checkpoint summary based monitoring for an event candidate within a wireless node network of ID nodes, a master node, and a server. Such a method, for example, may have the master node receiving a first set of advertising signals broadcast by an ID node and generating a first checkpoint summary representing the first set of received signals. The master node then receives a second set of advertising signals broadcast by the ID node (after the ID node broadcasts the first set) and generates a second checkpoint summary representing the second set of received signals. The method then identifies the event candidate based upon a comparison of an observed parameter for each of the first checkpoint summary and the second checkpoint summary; and reports to the server a message about the event candidate relative to the ID node.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A monitoring system that identifies an event candidate within a wireless node network, the system comprising:
a server disposed at a top level of the wireless node network;
an ID node disposed at a low level of the wireless node network;
a master node disposed at a middle level of the wireless node network, wherein the master node further comprises
a master node processing unit,
a memory storage coupled to the master node processing unit, the memory storage maintaining event detection engine code for execution by the master node processing unit,
a first communication interface coupled to the master node processing unit and operative to communicate with the ID node over a first communication path, and
a second communication interface coupled to the master node processing unit and operative to communicate with the server over a second communication path, wherein the first communication path is different from the second communication path;

wherein the master node, when executing the event detection engine code on the master node processing unit, is operative to
detect, via the first communication interface, a first set of advertising signals broadcast by a first of the ID nodes over the first communication path,
generate a first checkpoint summary representing the first set of advertising signals detected by the first communication interface,
detect, via the first communication interface, a second set of advertising signals broadcast by the first ID node over the first communication path after the first ID node broadcasts the first set of advertising signals,
generate a second checkpoint summary representing the second set of advertising signals detected by the first communication interface,
compare an observed parameter for each of the first checkpoint summary and the second checkpoint summary,
identify the event candidate based upon the comparison of the observed parameter for each of the first checkpoint summary and the second checkpoint summary, and
cause the second communication interface to report the identified event candidate to the server over the second communication path; and

wherein the server is operative to receive the identified event candidate from the master node and transmit a responsive adjustment response to the master node based upon the identified event candidate, the responsive adjustment response comprising at least one of an adjusted profile for the master node, an adjusted profile for the ID node, and updated context data reflecting the identified event candidate.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second communication interface of the master node is operative to transmit a message to the server when reporting the identified event candidate, the message comprising a reduced monitoring data feed about the ID node that at least includes summary information indicating an observed change between the first set of advertising signals represented by the first checkpoint summary and the second set of advertising signals represented by the second checkpoint summary.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the observed parameter for the first checkpoint summary comprises a statistical representation of the observed signal strength values for the first set of advertising signals; and
wherein the observed parameter for the second checkpoint summary comprises the statistical representation of the observed signal strength values for the second set of advertising signals.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the statistical representation of the observed signal strength values comprises one from a group consisting of a mean, a median, an average, a moving average over a subset window of advertising signals, a moving average over a sliding time window, or a weighted average.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the observed signal strength value comprises a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) reflecting a signal strength as detected by the first communication interface.

6. The system of claim 3 , wherein the master node is operative to identify the event candidate by being further operative to identify the event candidate as an online event for the ID node when (a) a detected time gap between successive ones of the first set of advertising signals and the second set of advertising signals is less than the threshold time gap and (b) the master node has received at least a threshold number of advertising signals from the ID node in the first set and the second set.

7. The system of claim 3 , wherein the master node is operative to identify the event candidate by being further operative to identify the event candidate as a shift event for the ID node when a difference between the observed parameter for the first checkpoint summary and the observed parameter for the second checkpoint summary is at least a threshold value.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node is operative to identify the event candidate by being further operative to identify the event candidate as an offline event when a detected time gap between any successive ones of the second set of advertising signals after detecting the first set of advertising signals is greater than the threshold time gap during an event horizon for the ID node.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node is operative to identify the event candidate by being further operative to identify the event candidate as a sporadic event when the first communication interface detects at least one advertising signal from the ID node but does not detect at least a threshold number of advertising signals from the ID node within a defined period of time from when the first communication interface detects the at least one advertising signal.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node is operative to identify the event candidate by being further operative to identify the event candidate as a checkpoint event when a periodic reporting interval ends and based upon the comparison of the observed parameter for the first checkpoint summary and the observed parameter for the second checkpoint summary.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the master node is further operative to
identify a profile identifier from the ID node, the profile identifier being part of at least one of the advertising signals in either of the first set of advertising signals and the second set of advertising signals; and
alter the periodic reporting interval based upon an alert profile corresponding to the profile identifier, the alert profile comprising a plurality of node management rules related to monitoring the ID node and reporting to the server.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein periodic reporting interval comprises a threshold time period adjustable by the node processing unit in response to identifying the profile identifier.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein periodic reporting interval comprises a threshold number of signal receptions adjustable by the node processing unit in response to identifying the profile identifier.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node is operative to identify the event candidate by being further operative to identify the event candidate as a profile change event when the comparison of the observed parameter for each of the first checkpoint summary and the second checkpoint summary indicates a first observed profile setting reflected in the first set of advertising signals is different than a second observed profile setting reflected in the second set of advertising signals.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the first observed profile setting and second observed profile setting relate to operation of

Assignees

• Fedex Corp Services Inc

Inventors

• Skaaksrud Ole-Petter
• Hollahan Terence

Classifications

• H04W84/20

  Leader-follower arrangements · CPC title

• G06Q10/0833

  Tracking · CPC title

• H04L41/0645

  by additionally acting on or stimulating the network after receiving notifications · CPC title

• H04W4/80 Primary

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• H04W24/08

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic · CPC title