Serially-connected bluetooth low energy nodes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10117043-B2
Application number	US-201414492148-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 22, 2014
Priority date	Sep 22, 2014
Publication date	Oct 30, 2018
Grant date	Oct 30, 2018

Abstract

Bluetooth Low Energy nodes are serially-connected with a cable that includes power lines and can include communication wires. The nodes do not have individual batteries. Instead, a single common power source is connected to the wires to provide power for all the nodes. The nodes can also be connected in series with the communication wires (which can be the same as the power wires) along a length of the cable. A headend interface can also be connected at one point of the cable to provide a communication interface with the nodes. The nodes can transmit and/or receive beacons to be used for locationing of mobile devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for serially-connected Bluetooth Low Energy nodes, the apparatus comprising:
a cable including power wires;
a plurality of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) nodes connected in series with the power wires along a length of the cable; and
a power source connected at one point along the cable and operable to continuously provide power to the plurality of BLE nodes along the power wires so that each of the plurality of BLE nodes, when powered by the power source: (a) includes a transmit mode that transmits a first BLE beacon to a mobile device, and (b) when not in the transmit mode, functions in a receive mode by monitoring reception of a second BLE beacon from the mobile device, wherein, in the receive mode, a BLE node that received the second BLE beacon from the mobile device is configured to send a report including a first identification of the mobile device and a second identification of the BLE node to a locationing server via a headend interface connected to the cable, wherein
the locationing server is to determine a location of the mobile device based on the received second identification of the BLE node and a known location of the BLE node.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the cable includes communication wires for communicating with the plurality of BLE nodes, and the headend interface couples the communication wires to a remote device.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the power wires and the communication wires are the same two wires, and the headend interface is configured to individually address and communicate with each of the BLE nodes along the two wires by digitally modulating signals at a frequency above baseband to allow the respective BLE nodes to have simultaneous communication and delivery of power.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the headend interface is configured to individually address and communicate with each of the BLE nodes via the communication wires to reconfigure an operating parameter of addressed nodes.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein reconfiguring the operating parameter includes at least one of a software upgrade, provisioning the corresponding one of the BLE nodes, changing power levels, transmit beacon duty cycle, transmit/receive mode.

6. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the remote device is an Ethernet device and the power source is a Power over Ethernet connection.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the remote device is an access point, and the headend interface is configured to communicate with the access point wirelessly.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a simultaneous reset is triggered via one or more of an interface disposed on the power source and a message received from the headend interface.

9. A system for serially-connected Bluetooth Low Energy nodes, the system comprising:
a remote controller;
a cable including wires for carrying power and communications;
a plurality of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) nodes connected in series with the wires along a length of the cable, and the nodes configured to use beacons for locationing of a mobile device by the remote controller;
a power source connected at one point along the cable and configured to continuously provide power to the plurality of BLE nodes along the wires so that each of the plurality of BLE nodes, when powered by the power source: (a) includes a transmit mode that transmits a first BLE beacon to the mobile device to locate the mobile device, and (b) when not in the transmit mode, functions in a receive mode by monitoring reception of a second BLE beacon from the mobile device, wherein, in the receive mode, a BLE node that received the second BLE beacon from the mobile device is configured to send a report including a first identification of the mobile device and a second identification of the BLE node;
a headend interface coupling the wires to the remote controller, wherein the headend interface is configured to individually address and communicate with each node along the wires by digitally modulating signals at a frequency above baseband to allow the nodes to have simultaneous communication and delivery of power; and
a locationing server, in communication with the headend interface, to determine a location of the mobile device based on the received second identification of the BLE node and a known location of the BLE node.

10. A method for serially-connected Bluetooth Low Energy nodes, the method comprising:
providing a cable including wires, and a plurality of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) nodes connected in series with the wires along a length of the cable; and
continuously powering the plurality of nodes by a power source connected to the wires at one point along the cable so that each of the plurality of BLE nodes, when powered by the power source: (a) includes a transmit mode that transmits a first BLE beacon to a mobile device to locate the mobile device, and (b) when not in the transmit mode, functions in a receive mode by monitoring reception of a second BLE beacon from the mobile device, wherein, in the receive mode, a BLE node that received the second BLE beacon from the mobile device sends a report including a first identification of the mobile device and a second identification of the BLE node to a locationing server via a headend interface connected to the cable;
determining a location, by the locationing server, of the mobile device based on the received second identification of the BLE node and a known location of the BLE node.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising communicating with the plurality of nodes over the wires via the headend interface.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein communicating includes individually addressing and communicating with each node along two wires by digitally modulating signals at a frequency above baseband to allow the nodes to have simultaneous communicating and powering.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein communicating includes reconfiguring operating parameters of addressed nodes.

Assignees

• Symbol Technologies Inc
• Symbol Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Warner Thomas E
• Geiger Edward W
• Phan Chinh Q
• Wallace Patrick J
• Webber Harold H

Classifications

• H04B2203/5441

  Wireless systems or telephone · CPC title

• H04B2203/547

  via DC power distribution · CPC title

• H04W4/02

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• H04W4/008 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04B3/548 Primary

  the power on the line being DC (arrangements for feeding power H04L12/10; extracting feeding power from signals H04L25/02) · CPC title