Collection of sensor data from sensor devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10637847-B2
Application number	US-201716337479-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 19, 2017
Priority date	Sep 29, 2016
Publication date	Apr 28, 2020
Grant date	Apr 28, 2020

Abstract

Methods and systems are disclosed for enabling sensor data to be collected from sensor devices (1), the sensor devices being configured to sense a condition and to send sensor messages according to a wireless communication protocol to a wireless access point (6) of a local network (10), the sensor messages comprising sensor data indicative of said condition, said sensor messages also comprising a destination indication indicative of a predetermined network location outside the local network (10).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of enabling sensor data to be collected from sensor devices, the sensor devices being configured to sense a condition and to send sensor messages according to a wireless communication protocol to a wireless access point of a local network, the sensor messages comprising sensor data indicative of said condition, said sensor messages also comprising a destination indication indicative of a predetermined network location outside the local network, the method comprising:
at a wireless access point configured to forward messages via an external network to a predetermined authentication server, the predetermined authentication server being configured to identify messages which satisfy predetermined authentication criteria:
receiving sensor messages from one or more sensor devices; and
forwarding said sensor messages via said external network to said predetermined authentication server;

and at said authentication server:
inspecting messages received from said wireless access point to determine whether respective messages satisfy said predetermined authentication criteria, and forwarding messages which do satisfy said predetermined authentication criteria on towards the respective network locations indicated by the destination indications comprised in said messages;

wherein the method further comprises, at said authentication server:
inspecting sensor messages received from said wireless access point which do not satisfy said predetermined authentication criteria and determining from respective such sensor messages the destination indications comprised therein;
comparing the destination indications determined from respective sensor messages which do not satisfy said predetermined authentication criteria with a predetermined list of destination indications;
in respect of sensor messages which do not satisfy said predetermined authentication criteria and which comprise destination indications included in the predetermined list of destination indications, forwarding said sensor messages to the respective network locations indicated by the destination indications comprised in said sensor messages; and
in respect of sensor messages which do not satisfy said predetermined authentication criteria and which comprise destination indications not included in the predetermined list of destination indications, not forwarding said sensor messages to the respective network locations indicated by the destination indications comprised in said sensor messages; and

wherein the wireless access point is configured to make respective identifiers available to devices in the local network indicative of the devices being deemed to be within a private wireless network or within a public wireless network, and whether an authentication is required is determined depending on the respective identifiers representing whether the device is within a private wireless network or within a public wireless network.

2. A method according to claim 1 , the wireless access point being configured to inspect data received according to a wireless communication protocol from a device in the local network and identify from said data a wireless network identifier indicative of whether the device from which the data has been received is deemed to be within a private wireless network or within a public wireless network.

3. A method according to claim 2 , the wireless access point being configured to route data having a wireless network identifier indicative that the device from which the data has been received is deemed to be within a public wireless network to said predetermined authentication server.

4. A method according to claim 2 , the wireless access point being configured to route data having a wireless network identifier indicative that the device from which the data has been received is deemed to be within a private wireless network towards a destination indicated by a destination indication comprised in said data.

5. A method according to claim 1 , the wireless access point also being configured to receive data via a wired connection and to route said data towards a destination indicated by a destination indication comprised in said data.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein each of a plurality of wireless access points is configured to forward messages via an external network to a predetermined authentication server, each wireless access point being configured to receive sensor messages from one or more sensor devices, and to forward said sensor messages via said external network to said predetermined authentication server.

7. A method according to claim 1 wherein the authentication server is configured to inspect authentication credentials in respect of data received from said wireless access points and determine therefrom whether the data has been received from an authenticated device and/or from an authenticated user, and if so, to forward said data towards a network location indicated by a destination indications comprised in said data.

8. A method according to claim 1 wherein the authentication server is configured to inspect authentication credentials in respect of data received from said wireless access points and determine therefrom whether the data has been received from an authenticated device and/or from an authenticated user, and if not, to request authentication credentials in respect of the device and/or the user from which the data has been received.

9. A method according to claim 1 wherein the wireless access point is configured to receive sensor messages sent according to a wireless communication protocol from a plurality of sensor devices.

10. A method according to claim 1 wherein the wireless access point is configured to receive sensor messages from an aggregator device, the aggregator device being configured to receive sensor messages sent according to a wireless communication protocol from one or more sensor devices and forward said sensor messages to the wireless access point.

11. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor messages said sensor devices are configured to send are sensor messages indicative of one or more of the following: temperature, humidity, pressure, sound, light, movement or other activity, presence/absence, or other physical conditions.

12. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor devices are internet of things sensors, and the predetermined network location outside the local network is an internet of things platform.

13. A system for enabling sensor data to be collected from sensor devices, the sensor devices being configured to sense a condition and to send sensor messages according to a wireless communication protocol to a wireless access point of a local network, the sensor messages comprising sensor data indicative of said condition, said sensor messages also comprising a destination indication indicative of a predetermined network location outside the local network, the system comprising:
one or more wireless access points each configured to receive sensor messages from one or more sensor devices in a local wireless network via a local network interface, and to forward said sensor messages via an external network interface to a predetermined authentication server in an external network, the predetermined authentication server being configured to identify messages which satisfy predetermined authentication criteria; and
an authentication server configured to inspect messages received from one or more wireless access points for which it is the predetermined authentication server and to determine whether respective messages satisfy said predetermined authentication criteria, and to forward message

Assignees

• British Telecomm

Inventors

• Neild Ian
• Zoualfaghari Mohammad
• Stevens Tim
• Gedge Richard
• Putland Paul

Classifications

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04L63/0227

  Filtering policies (mail message filtering H04L51/212) · CPC title

• H04W84/18

  Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks · CPC title

• H04W4/38

  for collecting sensor information · CPC title

• H04L63/0815 Primary

  providing single-sign-on or federations · CPC title