Network administrator interface systems and methods for monitoring industrial wireless, self-organizing mesh communication networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9668196-B2
Application number	US-201313752789-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 29, 2013
Priority date	Jan 29, 2013
Publication date	May 30, 2017
Grant date	May 30, 2017

Abstract

Systems and method for self-organizing mesh networks of industrial radio devices include identifying and reporting neighboring radio devices and active devices with each radio at the network nodes. The reporting, which is collected by a monitoring device separately provided from the radio devices in the network, facilitates graphical representations of communication routes and current status as active and inactive for review by network administrators at a user interface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A multi-path radio communications system for monitoring and controlling an industrial process, the multi-path radio communications system comprising:
a plurality of processor-based radio devices configured to wirelessly communicate in a self-organizing mesh network wherein each processor-based radio device is arranged to communicate with multiple other processor-based radio devices in the self-organizing mesh network;
wherein at least one of the plurality of processor-based radio devices is configured to:
identify neighboring processor-based radio devices in the self-organizing mesh network;
identify active message routes and standby message routes relating to each of the neighboring processor-based radio devices; and
report the identified neighboring processor-based radio devices and the active message routes and standby message routes over the self-organizing mesh network; and

a processor-based network administration interface receiving the report and configured to generate a graphical screen display based on the report;
wherein the graphical screen display includes a visual depiction of the at least one of the plurality of processor-based radio devices and associated neighboring processor-based radio devices; and
wherein the graphical screen display indicates and distinguishes the active message routes and standby message routes relating to each neighboring processor-based radio device.

2. The multi-path radio communications system of claim 1 , further comprising a monitoring device receiving the report from the at least one of the plurality of processor-based radio devices.

3. The multi-path radio communications system of claim 2 , wherein the processor-based network administration interface receives the report from the monitoring device.

4. The multi-path radio communications system of claim 3 , wherein the processor-based network administration interface is connected to the monitoring device via one of a local and remote connection.

5. The multi-path radio communications system of claim 1 , wherein the graphical screen display includes a list of the plurality of processor-based radio devices and their neighboring relationships with other of the plurality of processor-based radio devices.

6. The multi-path radio communications system of claim 1 , wherein the processor-based network administration interface is configured to generate the graphical screen display showing only active message routes, only standby message routes, or only unavailable message routes.

7. The multi-path radio communications system of claim 1 wherein the processor-based network administration interface is configured to generate a graphical screen display showing unavailable message routes.

8. A multi-path radio communications system comprising:
a plurality of processor-based radio devices configured to wirelessly communicate with one another in a self-organizing mesh network, each of the plurality of processor-based radio devices configured to:
identify respective neighboring processor-based radio devices in the self-organizing mesh network;
identify respective active message routes and standby message routes relating to each of the neighboring processor-based radio devices; and
report the identified respective neighboring processor-based radio devices and active message routes and standby message routes over the self-organizing mesh network; and

a processor-based network administration interface receiving reports from the plurality of processor-based radio devices and configured to generate a graphical screen display based on the reports;
wherein the graphical screen display includes a visual depiction of the plurality of processor-based radio devices whereby neighboring relationships between the plurality of processor-based radio devices are observable; and
wherein the graphical screen display indicates and distinguishes the active message routes and standby message routes between neighboring processor-based radio devices.

9. The multi-path radio communications system of claim 8 , further comprising a monitoring device receiving the reports from at least some of the plurality of processor-based radio devices.

10. The multi-path radio communications system of claim 9 , wherein the processor-based network administration interface is connected to the monitoring device via one of a local and remote connection.

11. The multi-path radio communications system of claim 8 , wherein the graphical screen display includes a list of neighboring processor-based radio devices for each respective one of the plurality of processor-based radio devices.

12. The multi-path radio communications system of claim 8 , wherein the processor-based network administration interface is configured to generate the graphical screen display showing only active message routes, only standby message routes, or only unavailable message routes.

13. The multi-path radio communications system of claim 8 wherein the processor-based network administration interface is configured to generate a graphical screen display showing unavailable message routes.

14. A method of administrating a multi-path radio communications network having a plurality of processor-based radio devices configured to wirelessly communicate with one another in a self-organizing mesh network and a processor-based network administration interface, the method comprising:
identifying, with each of the plurality of processor-based radio devices, respective neighboring processor-based radio devices in the self-organizing mesh network;
identifying, with each of the plurality of processor-based radio devices, respective active message routes and respective standby message routes relating to each of the neighboring processor-based radio devices;
reporting the identified respective neighboring processor-based radio devices and the respective active message routes and standby message routes, with each of the plurality of processor based radio devices, over the self-organizing mesh network; and
generating, with the processor-based network administration interface, a graphical screen display including a visual depiction of the plurality of processor-based radio devices, whereby all neighboring relationships between the plurality of processor-based radio devices are observable; and
wherein the graphical screen display indicates and distinguishes the active message routes and standby message routes between neighboring processor-based radio devices.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
providing a monitoring device; and
receiving the reported identified respective neighboring radio devices and the respective active message routes and standby message routes with the monitoring device.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising receiving the reported identified respective neighboring processor-based radio devices and the respective active message routes and standby message routes with the monitoring device.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising connecting the monitoring device and the processor-based network administration interface via one of a local and remote connection.

18. The method of claim 15 , further comprising, via the graphical screen display, displaying a list of neighboring processor-based radio devices for each respective one of the plurality of processor-based radio devices.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein generating the graphical screen display comprises presenting an option to a user to display only active message routes, only standby message routes, or

Assignees

• Cooper Technologies Co

Inventors

• Courtice Harry John

Classifications

• H04W40/246 Primary

  Connectivity information discovery · CPC title

• H04W84/18

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