Bluetooth internet of things sensor network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9763029-B2
Application number	US-201514835812-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 26, 2015
Priority date	Aug 26, 2015
Publication date	Sep 12, 2017
Grant date	Sep 12, 2017

Abstract

A mobile device executes an application installed on the mobile device to detect transmissions of broadcasted advertising packet data units (PDUs) via a short range wireless protocol. The mobile device receives a first broadcasted advertising PDU via the short range wireless protocol from a first Internet of Things (IoT) device, and the application determines a first geo-location associated with the first IoT device and generates a first timestamp based on receipt of the first broadcasted advertising PDU. The application at the mobile device forwards, via a wireless protocol that is different than the short range wireless protocol, the first broadcasted advertising PDU, the first geo-location, and the first timestamp to a remote data server.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
installing an application on a mobile device;
executing the application to detect a number N sequentially-linked broadcasted advertising packet data units (PDUs) via a short range wireless protocol, wherein each of the N sequentially-linked broadcasted advertising PDUs carries a sensor data payload that is a portion of a quantity Q of sensor data corresponding to at least one sensor measurement;
receiving, at the mobile device, a first broadcasted advertising PDU of the N sequentially-linked broadcasted advertising PDUs, via the short range wireless protocol from a first Internet of Things (IoT) device;
determining, by the application, a first geo-location associated with the first IoT device;
generating, by the application, a first timestamp based on receipt of the first broadcasted advertising PDU;
extracting, from the first broadcasted advertising PDU, a sequence number inserted into the first broadcasted advertising PDU by the first IoT device;
determining whether the sequence number is equal to N;
storing, based on a determination that the sequence number is not equal to N, the first broadcasted advertising PDU in sequence until each of the N sequentially-linked broadcasted advertising PDUs is accumulated; and
forwarding, by the application from the mobile device via a wireless protocol that is different than the short range wireless protocol, the first broadcasted advertising PDU, the first geo-location, and the first timestamp to a remote network device in a block of data including the accumulated N sequentially-linked broadcasted advertising PDUs.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sensor data is related to a parameter or a condition detected by a sensor at the first IoT device.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the at least one sensor measurement comprises multiple measurements of the parameter or the condition at different points in time.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless protocol that is different than the short range wireless protocol comprises a Wi-Fi protocol.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless protocol that is different than the short range wireless protocol comprises a cellular network protocol.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein for each of the N sequentially-linked broadcasted advertising PDUs having a sequence number that is less than N, a size of the sensor data payload is the same.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sensor data comprises image data, temperature data, wind speed data, barometric pressure data, power usage data, or humidity data.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first broadcasted advertising PDU comprises a BLUETOOTH advertising PDU.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the short range wireless protocol comprises a wireless protocol associated with Bluetooth, Insteon, Infrared Data Association (IrDA), wireless Universal Serial Bus (USB), Z-Wave, ZigBee, or Body Area Network (BAN).

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mobile device comprises one of a cellular telephone; a smart phone; a personal digital assistant (PDA); a laptop, palmtop or tablet computer; a gaming device; a media player device; or a digital camera.

11. A non-transitory storage medium storing instructions executable by a computational device, wherein the instructions comprise instructions to:
receive, at a mobile device, a first broadcasted advertising packet data unit (PDU), of a number N sequentially-linked broadcasted advertising PDUs transmitted via a short range wireless protocol from a first Internet of Things (IoT) device, wherein each of the N sequentially-linked broadcasted advertising PDUs carries a sensor data payload that is a portion of a quantity Q of sensor data corresponding to at least one sensor measurement;
determine a first geo-location associated with the first IoT device;
generate a first timestamp based on receipt of the first broadcasted advertising PDU;
extract, from the first broadcasted advertising PDU, a first sequence number inserted into the first broadcasted advertising PDU by the first IoT device;
determine whether the first sequence number is equal to N;
store, based on a determination that the first sequence number is not equal to N, the first broadcasted advertising PDU in sequence;
receive, at the mobile device, a second broadcasted advertising PDU transmitted via the short range wireless protocol from the first IoT device;
extract, from the second broadcasted advertising PDU, a second sequence number inserted into the second broadcasted advertising PDU by the first IoT device;
determine whether the second sequence number is equal to N; and
forward, based on a determination that the second sequence number is equal to N and via a wireless protocol that is different than the short range wireless protocol, the first broadcasted advertising PDU and the second broadcasted advertising PDU to a remote network device in a single block of data.

12. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the wireless protocol that is different than the short range wireless protocol comprises a Wi-Fi protocol.

13. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 11 , wherein each of the first and second advertising PDUs comprise a BLUETOOTH advertising PDU.

14. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the short range wireless protocol comprises a Bluetooth, Insteon, Infrared Data Association (IrDA), wireless Universal Serial Bus (USB), Z-Wave, ZigBee, or Body Area Network (BAN) wireless protocol.

15. A mobile device, comprising:
a first wireless transceiver configured to communicate via a low power, short range wireless protocol and to receive a first broadcasted advertising packet data unit (PDU), of a number N sequentially-linked broadcasted advertising PDUs, via the short range wireless protocol from a first Internet of Things (IoT) device;
a second wireless transceiver configured to communicate via a wireless protocol that is different than the short range wireless protocol; and
a processing unit configured to execute an application to detect the N sequentially-linked broadcasted advertising PDUs via the short range wireless protocol, wherein each of the N sequentially-linked broadcasted advertising PDUs carries a sensor data payload that is a portion of a quantity Q of sensor data obtained corresponding to at least one sensor measurement, and wherein the processing unit is further configured to:
determine a first geo-location associated with the first IoT device,
generate a first timestamp based on receipt of the first broadcasted advertising PDU,
extract, from the first broadcasted advertising PDU, a sequence number inserted into the first broadcasted advertising PDU by the first IoT device,
determine whether the sequence number is equal to N,
store, based on a determination that the sequence number is not equal to N, the first broadcasted advertising PDU in sequence until each of the N sequentially-linked broadcasted advertising PDUs is accumulated; and
forward, via the second wireless transceiver and the wireless protocol that is different than the short range wireless protocol, the first broadcasted advertising PDU, the first geo-location, and the first timestamp to a remote network device in a single block of data including the accumulated N sequentially-linked broadcasted advertising PDUs.

16. The device of claim 15 , wherein the sensor data is related to a parameter or condition detected by a sensor at the first IoT device.

17. The device of claim 16 , wherein the at least one sensor measurement comprises multiple

Assignees

• Verizon Patent & Licensing Inc

Inventors

• Mirza Momin
• Yagnyamurthy Sai Sarath Chandra
• Strumwasser David J
• Vaidya Samir S

Classifications

• H04L67/34

  involving the movement of software or configuration parameters  (network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416) · CPC title

• H04W4/008 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L43/106

  using time related information in packets, e.g. by adding timestamps · CPC title

• H04W4/005

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W4/06

  Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services · CPC title