Debugger for wireless sensor networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10432500-B2
Application number	US-201514936549-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 9, 2015
Priority date	Nov 9, 2015
Publication date	Oct 1, 2019
Grant date	Oct 1, 2019

Abstract

In an embodiment, a method of debugging a wireless sensor network comprises: initiating, by a server node over a wireless medium, a single debugging session with a plurality of nodes of the wireless sensor network; receiving, by the server node over the wireless medium, network topology information from the nodes; and presenting, by a display device coupled to the server node, a network topology view constructed from the topology information, the network topology view including a graphical representation of each node in the topology.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of debugging a wireless sensor network comprising:
initiating, by a server node over a wireless medium, a single debugging session with a plurality of client nodes of the wireless sensor network;
receiving, by the server node over the wireless medium, node information from the client nodes, wherein the node information includes, for each client node of the plurality of client nodes, a first router address for the client node, a second router address for a parent node of the client node, a third router address for a next hop node for the client node and one or more variables used in a stack installed on the client node;
responsive to a first input, presenting, by a display device coupled to the server node, a network topology view constructed from the node information, the network topology view including a graphical representation of each client node in the topology;
responsive to a second input, presenting, by the display device, a variable watch window displaying one or more stack variables for a particular client node of the plurality of client nodes;
responsive to a third input, changing or replacing one or more stack variables in the variable watch window; and
initiating, by the server node over the wireless medium, the change or replacement of the one or more stack variables on the particular client node.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
responsive to a fourth input, selecting one of the client nodes in the network topology view;
responsive to a fifth input, sending a request to a selected client node for additional node information;
receiving, by the server node over the wireless medium, the additional node information; and
presenting the additional node information on the display device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the network topology view indicates routes and hops in the wireless sensor network.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the network topology view indicates timing and congestion in the wireless sensor network.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the additional node information includes event or state information of a stack in the selected client node.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein sending the request to the selected client node for node the additional information and receiving the additional node information further comprises:
sending a memory read command to the selected client node with a memory address; and
receiving one or more values from the memory address; and
sending the one or more values to a hardware debugger or programmer coupled to the server node.

7. A system for debugging a wireless sensor network comprising:
one or more processors;
memory coupled to the one or more processors and configured to store instructions, which, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
initiating over a wireless medium a single debugging session with a plurality of client nodes of the wireless sensor network;
receiving network node information from the plurality of client nodes, wherein the node information includes, for each client node of the plurality of client nodes, a first router address for the node, a second router address for a parent node of the client node, a third router address for a next hop node for the client node and one or more variables used in a stack installed on the client node;
responsive to a first input, presenting a network topology view constructed from the node information, the network topology view including a graphical representation of each node in the topology;
responsive to a second input, presenting, by a display device, a variable watch window displaying one or more stack variables for a particular client node of the plurality of client nodes;
responsive to a third input, changing or replacing one or more stack variables in the variable watch window; and
initiating the change or replacement of the one or more stack variables on the particular client node over the wireless medium.

8. The system of claim 7 , the operations further comprising:
responsive to a fourth input, selecting one of the client nodes from the plurality of client nodes in the network topology view;
responsive to a fifth input, sending a request to the selected client node for additional node information;
receiving the additional node information; and
presenting the additional node information on a display device.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the network topology view indicates routes and hops in the wireless sensor network.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the network topology view indicates timing and congestion in the wireless sensor network.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the additional node information includes event or state information of a stack in the selected client node.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein sending the request to the selected client node for the additional node information and receiving the additional node information further comprises:
sending a memory read command to the selected client node with a memory address; and
receiving one or more values from the memory address; and
sending the one or more values to a hardware debugger or programmer coupled to a server device.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
initiating, by a server node over a wireless medium, a single debugging session with a plurality of client nodes of a wireless sensor network;
receiving, by the server node over the wireless medium, node information from the plurality of client nodes, wherein the node information includes, for each client node of the plurality of nodes, a first router address for the client node and a second router address for a parent node of the client node, a third router address for a next hop node for the client node and one or more variables used in a stack installed on the client node;
responsive to a first input, presenting, by a display device coupled to the server node, a network topology view constructed from the node information, the network topology view including a graphical representation of each client node of the plurality of client nodes in the topology;
responsive to a second input, presenting, by the display device, a variable watch window displaying one or more stack variables for a particular client node of the plurality of client nodes;
responsive to a third input, changing or replacing one or more stack variables in the variable watch window; and
initiating the change or replacement of the one or more stack variables on the particular client node over the wireless medium.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise:
responsive to a fourth input, selecting one of the client nodes from the plurality of client nodes in the network topology view;
responsive to a fifth input, sending a request to the selected client node for additional node information;
receiving the additional node information; and
presenting the additional node information on a display device.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the network topology view indicates routes and hops in the wireless sensor network.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the network topology view indicates timing and congestion in the wireless sensor network.

17. The non-transitory comp

Assignees

• Atmel Corp

Inventors

• Kumar Vinoth
• Muralidharan Srivatsan
• Muthulingam Praveen Babu Reddy
• MULAMREDDY SubbaReddy

Classifications

• H04L47/11

  Identifying congestion · CPC title

• H04L41/22

  comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI] · CPC title

• H04L43/0817

  by checking functioning · CPC title

• H04W40/24 Primary

  Connectivity information management, e.g. connectivity discovery or connectivity update · CPC title

• H04L41/12

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title