Migration of Battery Powered Devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016019663-A1
Application number	US-201514796698-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 10, 2015
Priority date	Jul 16, 2014
Publication date	Jan 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed are techniques to minimize the electricity consumption of battery powered devices during network communications and performance of other functions. Example techniques include efficiently discovering other mains powered and battery powered devices within communication range of the battery powered device. In another example, techniques enable a battery powered device to serve as a relay for one or more other battery powered devices. In another example, techniques ensure that transmissions to and/or from battery powered devices are delivered efficiently and with low latency. In yet another example, techniques determine whether and under what conditions a battery powered device should migrate from one network to another. In the event of migration, example techniques minimize battery consumption associated with the migration.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method implemented at least in part by a battery powered device, the method comprising:
determining that one or more migration conditions have been met for the battery powered device to migrate from a current area network (AN) to another AN; caching network credentials of the battery powered device for the current AN in memory of the battery powered device; and migrating the battery powered device from the current AN to the other AN.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the network credentials cached in the memory comprise an internet protocol (IP) address of the battery powered device on the current AN.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the network credentials cached in the memory further comprise an encryption key of the battery powered device on the current AN.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more migration conditions comprise:
a connection with a mains powered parent of the battery powered device is lost; the battery powered device has not discovered another mains powered device in the current AN; and the battery powered device has discovered another mains powered device in the other AN that is capable of acting as its parent.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more migration conditions comprise:
the battery powered device receives a disassociation command from its mains powered parent; the battery powered device has not discovered another mains powered device in the current AN; and the battery powered device has discovered another mains powered device in the other AN that is capable of acting as its parent.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more migration conditions comprise:
the battery powered device currently has a battery powered relay as its parent; and the battery powered device has discovered a mains powered device in the other AN that is capable of acting as its parent.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more migration conditions comprise:
the battery powered device currently has a battery powered relay as its parent; a connection with the parent of the battery powered device is lost, or the battery powered device receives a disassociation request from the parent of the battery powered device; the battery powered device has not discovered a mains powered device or another battery powered relay in the current AN; and the battery powered device has discovered another battery powered relay in the other AN that is capable of acting as its parent.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the migrating from the current AN to the other AN comprises:
associating with a new parent device in the other AN; and registering with a network layer of the other AN to obtain network credentials for the other AN.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
migrating back to the current AN from the other AN responsive to one or more migration conditions, wherein the migrating back is performed using the cached network credentials and without the battery powered device going through network layer registration to obtain new network credentials for the current AN.

10 . A battery powered device comprising a battery, one or more processors electrically coupled to the battery, and memory storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform the method of claim 1 .

11 . A battery powered device comprising:
a battery; one or more processors electrically coupled to the battery; memory storing instructions executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
receiving an indication that a parent of the battery powered device is migrating from a current area network (AN) to another AN;
independently determining whether or not to migrate from the current AN to the other AN based at least in part on:
availability of other parent devices in the current AN to act as a parent for the battery powered device; and
transmission cost to the battery powered device to communicate with other parent devices in the current AN as compared to transmission cost to the battery powered device to communicate with potential parent devices in the other AN.

12 . The battery powered device of claim 11 , wherein the independently determining comprises determining to migrate to the other AN responsive to determining that at least one of the following migration conditions is met:
the battery powered device has not discovered another device in the current AN that is able to serve as a new parent for the battery powered device; or transmission cost of all other devices in the current AN that are able to serve as a new parent for the battery powered device is higher than at least one potential parent device in the other AN.

13 . The battery powered device of claim 11 , wherein the independently determining comprises determining to remain in the current AN responsive to determining that:
one or more other devices exist in the current AN that are capable of serving as a new parent of the battery powered device; and transmission cost of communicating with the one or more other devices in the current AN that are capable of serving as the new parent of the battery powered device is less than or equal to transmission cost of communicating with potential parent devices in the other AN.

14 . The battery powered device of claim 11 , wherein:
the independently determining comprises determining to migrate; and the operations further comprise:
caching network credentials of the battery powered device for the current AN in the memory prior to migration; and
migrating the battery powered device from the current AN to the other AN.

15 . The battery powered device of claim 14 , wherein the network credentials cached in the memory comprise an internet protocol (IP) address of the battery powered device on the current AN and an encryption key of the battery powered device on the current AN.

16 . The battery powered device of claim 14 , wherein the migrating the battery powered device from the current AN to the other AN comprises:
associating with a parent device in the other AN; and registering with a network layer of the other AN to obtain network credentials for the other AN.

17 . The battery powered device of claim 14 , the operations further comprising:
caching network credentials of the battery powered device for the other AN; and migrating back to the current AN from the other AN responsive to one or more migration conditions, wherein the migrating back is performed using the cached network credentials of the of the battery powered device for the current AN and without the battery powered device going through network layer registration to obtain new network credentials for the current AN.

18 . One or more computer-readable media storing:
migration conditions under which a battery powered device is to migrate from a current area network (AN) to another AN, the migration conditions comprising: a connection with a mains powered parent of the battery powered device is lost, the battery powered device has not discovered another mains powered device in the current AN, and the battery powered device has discovered another mains powered parent the other AN; the battery powered device receives a disassociation command from a mains powered parent, the battery powered device has not discovered another mains powered device in the current AN, and the battery powered device has discovered another mains powered parent in the other AN; the battery powered device currentl

Assignees

• Itron Inc

Inventors

• Mani Mehdi
• Van Wyk Hartman
• Rigdon Kenneth Charles
• Nelson Elliott Adam

Classifications

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• Y04S20/46

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H04L67/2842

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G06Q50/06 Primary

  Energy or water supply · CPC title

• H04L67/568

  Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching · CPC title