Systems, apparatus, and methods of enhanced checkpoint summary based monitoring for an event candidate related to an ID node within a wireless node network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9973391-B2
Application number	US-201615168463-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 31, 2016
Priority date	Jul 8, 2015
Publication date	May 15, 2018
Grant date	May 15, 2018

Abstract

Systems, apparatus, and methods are described for enhanced checkpoint summary based monitoring for an event candidate within a wireless node network of ID nodes, a master node, and a server. The master node listens for ID node signals, detects a first advertising signal, and records a first observed parameter (e.g. sensor data generated by the ID node) based upon the detected first signal. The master node detects a subsequent group of signals broadcast by the ID node and records a group of observed parameters based upon respective ones of those signals. The master node generates a first checkpoint summary representing a first set of advertising signals (the detected first signal and the detected subsequent group of signals). The first checkpoint summary includes a summary observed parameter based upon the recorded observed parameter for the first signal and each of the recorded observed parameters for the subsequent group of signals. The first checkpoint summary is then reported to the server as the event candidate relative to the first ID node.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An enhanced monitoring system that identifies an event candidate within a wireless node network, the system comprising:
a server disposed at a top level of the wireless node network;
an ID node disposed at a low level of the wireless node network;
a master node disposed at a middle level of the wireless node network, wherein the master node further comprises
a master node processing unit,
a memory storage coupled to the master node processing unit, the memory storage maintaining event detection engine code for execution by the master node processing unit,
a first communication interface coupled to the master node processing unit and operative to communicate with the ID node over a first communication path, and
a second communication interface coupled to the master node processing unit and operative to communicate with the server over a second communication path, wherein the first communication path is different from the second communication path;

wherein the master node, when executing the event detection engine code on the master node processing unit, is operative to
cause the first communication interface to listen for one or more broadcast signals emitted from the ID node without prompting the ID node for transmission of the one or more broadcast signals from the ID node,
detect, via the first communication interface, a first advertising signal broadcast by the ID node,
record a first observed parameter in the memory storage based upon the detected first advertising signal broadcast by the ID node,
successively detect, via the first communication interface, a subsequent group of advertising signals broadcast by the ID node,
record a subsequent group of observed parameters where each are based upon a respective one of the successively received subsequent group of advertising signals broadcast by the ID node,
generate a first checkpoint summary representing a first set of advertising signals comprising the detected first advertising signal and the successively detected subsequent group of advertising signals, the first checkpoint summary comprising a summary observed parameter generated based upon the recorded observed parameter related to the detected first advertising signal broadcast and each of the recorded observed parameters respectively related to the successively detected subsequent group of advertising signals; and
cause the second communication interface to report the first checkpoint summary over the second communication path to the server as the event candidate relative to the ID node.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node processing unit is further operative to generate the summary observed parameter for the first checkpoint summary as a statistical representation of the observed signal strength values for the first set of advertising signals broadcast by the ID node.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the statistical representation of the observed signal strength values comprises one from a group consisting of a mean, a median, an average, a moving average over a subset window of advertising signals, a moving average over a sliding time window, or a weighted average.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the first observed parameter and the subsequent group of observed parameters comprises a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) value reflecting a signal strength as detected by the master node.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the first observed parameter and the subsequent group of observed parameters comprises one of a plurality of sensor data captured by the master node related to the ID node.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein each of the sensor data captured by the master node comprises data included within at least one of the first advertising signal or a respective one of the further group of advertising signals.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein each of the sensor data comprises environmental sensor data generated by the first ID node.

8. The system of claim 5 , wherein each of the sensor data comprises package monitoring sensor data generated by the first ID node.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node processing unit is operative to cause the second communication interface to report the first checkpoint summary to the server by being further operative to:
determine if the first checkpoint summary meets a periodic reporting interval criteria relative to one or more prior checkpoint summaries generated by the master node and stored within the memory storage of the master node; and
cause the second communication interface to transmit the first checkpoint summary to the server as the event candidate only when the first checkpoint summary meets the periodic reporting interval criteria.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node processing unit is operative to cause the second communication interface to report the first checkpoint summary to the server by being further operative to:
increment a checkpoint count upon generating the first checkpoint summary;
compare the incremented checkpoint count to a periodic reporting interval criteria relative to one or more prior checkpoint summaries generated by the master node; and
cause the second communication interface to transmit the first checkpoint summary to the server as the event candidate only when the incremented checkpoint count matches the periodic reporting interval criteria.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the periodic reporting interval criteria identifies a threshold number of generated checkpoint summaries as a reporting condition for reporting the first checkpoint summary to the server as the event candidate.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the master node processing unit is further operative to:
detect, via the first communication interface, a profile identifier from the ID node, the profile identifier being part of at least one of the detected first advertising signal and the successively detected subsequent group of advertising signals; and
alter the periodic reporting interval criteria based upon an alert profile corresponding to the profile identifier, the alert profile comprising a plurality of node management rules related to monitoring the ID node and reporting to the server.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node processing unit is further operative to adjust the summary observed parameter to statistically summarize the first checkpoint summary with at least one previous checkpoint summary generated by the master node and not reported to the server.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the master node processing unit is further operative to:
access the memory storage for a previous summary observed parameter for a previous checkpoint summary;
compare the previous summary observed parameter to the summary observed parameter for the first checkpoint summary to identify a change in a status of the ID node; and
wherein the second communication interface transmits the first checkpoint summary to the server as the event candidate if the master node processing unit identifies the change in the status of the ID node by comparing the previous summary observed parameter to the summary observed parameter for the first checkpoint summary.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the change in the status of the ID node comprises a monitored node condition when the previous summary observed parameter for the previous checkpoint summary is different than the summary observed parameter for the first checkpoint summary by more than a threshold level.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the change in the sta

Assignees

• Fedex Corp Services Inc

Inventors

• Skaaksrud Ole-Petter
• Hollahan Terence

Classifications

• H04W24/10

  Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} · CPC title

• H04W48/16

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title

• G06Q10/0833

  Tracking · CPC title

• H04W84/20

  Leader-follower arrangements · CPC title

• H04W24/08

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic · CPC title