Time variant data profile for a fabric network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9432464-B2
Application number	US-201514665913-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 23, 2015
Priority date	Oct 8, 2014
Publication date	Aug 30, 2016
Grant date	Aug 30, 2016

Abstract

Systems and methods for exchanging a data stream of information that varies over time using a message format. The message format includes a version field that indicates a version of a structure of the message format. The message format also includes one or more resources fields that each identifies a resource to be imported into the data stream exchanging the data stream. Moreover, the message format includes one or more records that represent time-variant data samples being exchanged in the message. Furthermore, the message format includes one or more descriptor fields, wherein each descriptor field corresponds to at least one respective record of the one or more records and contains metadata describing data contained within the at least one record.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for exchanging a data stream of information that varies over time using a message format, wherein the message format comprises:
a version field that indicates a version of a structure of the message format;
one or more resources fields that each identifies a resource to be imported into the data stream exchanging the data stream;
one or more records that represent time-variant data samples being exchanged in the message;
one or more descriptor fields, wherein each descriptor field corresponds to at least one respective record of the one or more records and contains metadata describing data contained within the at least one record; and
a description field having a human-readable string formatted in Universal Character Set and Transformation Format (UTF) to describe a time-variant stream from which the time-variant data samples are derived, wherein the description field is configured to enable later analysis of the exchange of the data stream.

2. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the UTF comprises Universal Character Set and Transformation Format-8 bit (UTF-8).

3. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more resource fields comprises a string comprising a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that maps to a resource to be imported into the message, wherein each URI is a string that identifies a location of the resource to be imported.

4. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the URI refers to a resource that is common between vendors or are public descriptors, and the URI comprises a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that sets a Multi-Purpose Internet Extensions (MIME) type that is an indicator of encoding of the resource to be fetched for importing into the data stream.

5. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 3 , wherein each of the one or more resource fields comprise a source indication that identifies a specific location within the resource from which imported data is to be derived, wherein the source indication comprises:
an explicit indication that explicitly states where the imported data is specifically located within the resource; or
an implicit indication when an explicit indication is lacking, wherein the implicit indication indicates that the specific location of the imported data is in a root location of the resource.

6. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the instructions are configured to cause a processor to import multiple resources into a single destination by concatenating data from the multiple resources into a destination indicated by the destination field, wherein an order of the concatenated data corresponds to an order of the multiple resources in the message.

7. An electronic device comprising:
a processor; and
a memory comprising instructions for causing the processor to exchange a data stream of information that varies over time using a message format, wherein the message format comprises:
a version field that indicates a version of a structure of the message format;
one or more resources fields that each identifies a resource to be imported into the data stream exchanging the data stream;
one or more records that represent time-variant data samples being exchanged in the message; and
one or more descriptor fields, wherein each descriptor field corresponds to at least one respective record of the one or more records and contains metadata describing data contained within the at least one record; and
a description field having a human-readable string formatted in Universal Character Set and Transformation Format (UTF) to describe a time-variant stream from which the time-variant data samples are derived, wherein the description field is configured to enable later analysis of the exchange of the data stream.

8. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the descriptor field comprises a 16-bit unsigned fixed-point value identifier that matches a corresponding identifier in a corresponding record to indicate that the descriptor field describes data found in the record is described by the metadata in the descriptor field.

9. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the resource indicated in a location external to the electronic device, the data in the external resource is formatted in tag-length-value (TLV) format, a profile tag for the descriptor field may be context-specific by using a top level profile tag to indicate the descriptor field refers to an exterior resource by tagging the descriptor field with a 0x02 value in an ExtDescriptors tag.

10. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein descriptor field includes a stream periodicity indicator that indicates whether data in the stream is periodic or aperiodic using a flag, wherein when the flag is positive, indicates that the stream is periodic, and when the flag is negative, indicates that the stream is aperiodic having irregular intervals of time between samples in the stream.

11. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the descriptor field comprises a type element that is a caller-assigned 16-bit or 32-bit unsigned fixed-point value that represents a type of data present in the stream, wherein the type element applies to field elements found in the descriptor field unless explicitly overridden by another type element contained in a respective field element of the descriptor.

12. The electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the type comprises length, mass, time, current, temperature, luminous intensity, area, volume, velocity, acceleration, density, magnetic field strength, luminance, molar concentration, number concentration, molality, frequency, force, pressure, energy, power, electric charge, capacitance, electrical resistance, magnetic flux, electrical resistance, radioactivity, depth, height, or humidity.

13. The electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the type element comprises:
a first portion of the type element that indicates a vendor identifier for a vendor of the resource containing data to be imported; and
a second portion of the type element that indicates a type of data specific to data points derived from a device having a specific vendor identifier.

14. A method for conveying time-variant data, comprising:
transmitting, using a network interface, data to exchange a data stream of information that varies over time using a message format, wherein the message format comprises:
a version field that indicates a version of a structure of the message format;
one or more resources fields that each identifies a resource to be imported into the data stream exchanging the data stream;
one or more records that represent time-variant data samples being exchanged in the message;
one or more descriptor fields, wherein each descriptor field corresponds to at least one respective record of the one or more records and contains metadata describing data contained within the at least one record; and
a description field having a human-readable string formatted in Universal Character Set and Transformation Format (UTF) to describe a time-variant stream from which the time-variant data samples are derived, wherein the description field is configured to enable later analysis of the exchange of the data stream.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the descriptor element comprises a field element that describes the format of one or more data samples found in the message, wherein the field element comprises:
a valid element that is a Boolean flag used to indicate whether the field contain

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Logue Jay D
• Erickson Grant M
• Gujjaru Sunny Vardhan
• Dixon Michael
• Lu Jiakang

Classifications

• H04L12/2823

  Reporting information sensed by appliance or service execution status of appliance services in a home automation network (device-related reporting H04L43/065; arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00) · CPC title

• H04L69/28

  Timers or timing mechanisms used in protocols · CPC title

• H04L67/141 Primary

  Setup of application sessions (admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70) · CPC title

• H04L67/06

  specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP] · CPC title

• F24F11/30

  for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring · CPC title