WO2016126097A1 - Method and apparatus for managing sensor - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for managing a plurality of sensors on a network, the method comprising the steps of: receiving sensing information from at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors; grouping, on the basis of the sensing information, sensors that perform an identical or similar function; designating at least one sensor of the grouped sensor group as a representative sensor; and transmitting a particular command for performing a particular operation with respect to the sensors, except for the representative sensor.

Description

Sensor management method and device

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for managing a plurality of sensors. Specifically, the present invention relates to a sensor management technology in the Internet of Things (IoT) environment, and when there are a large number of sensors that perform similar functions, the sensor may be given a representative characteristic to any one sensor. It is about how to manage.

In conventional sensor management, there is a management method for one sensor, so that control and sensor values for one sensor can be read. If there are multiple sensors, each sensor must be managed.

In the future, there will be numerous IoT devices, which will be equipped with various sensors. By the way, it is very likely that similar functions, such as thermometers, illuminators, etc., are duplicated among the sensors, and these sensors report the same value, but all of them operate independently, thereby reducing battery waste. There is a problem that occurs.

In order to solve the above problems,

According to the present invention, when it is determined that a sensor value reports a similar value in a specific time range when several sensors performing a similar function exist in a specific space, one sensor among the other sensors is represented. It is intended to provide a method of determining a sensor to provide a representative to the sensor.

In addition, the present invention provides a method of grouping a representative sensor and other sensors into a group, and adjusting a power state of the representative sensor and other sensors.

The present invention provides a method of determining one sensor among a plurality of sensors performing a similar function as a sensor representative of the other sensors.

In addition, the present invention provides a method of setting the representative sensor and the participating sensor as a group and adjusting the power state of the participating sensors other than the representative sensor.

In the future, there are many IoT devices, and they include sensors that perform redundant functions, resulting in a waste of battery. The present invention can save energy by managing a sensor by assigning a representative characteristic to any one of a number of sensors performing a similar function in an Internet of Things (IoT) environment.

More specifically, by combining the representative sensor and other sensors into one group, and reducing or turning off the power of the remaining sensors except the representative sensor, power consumption may be reduced at the overall system level.

1 is a schematic block diagram of a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) audio-visual (AV) network as an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

2 illustrates an example of an IoT environment including a plurality of sensors according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a sensor group and a sensor collection for managing a plurality of sensors according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 4 is a schematic sensor data model block for managing a plurality of sensors according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

5 to 8 illustrate embodiments of the present invention to which an information table necessary to manage a plurality of sensors is illustrated.

FIG. 9 illustrates an IoT data model for managing a plurality of sensors according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 10 illustrates an action table required for a sensor data transmission service according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 11 illustrates an XML structure of an IoT data model for managing a plurality of sensors according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

12 is a flowchart illustrating managing a plurality of sensors according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

The present invention provides a method of managing a plurality of sensors on a network, the method comprising: receiving sensing information from at least one of the plurality of sensors; Grouping sensors that perform the same or similar function based on the sensing information; Designating at least one sensor among the grouped sensor groups as a representative sensor; And transmitting a specific command for performing a specific operation on the remaining sensors except for the representative sensor.

The sensing information may include at least one of a sensor identifier, a sensor type, a sensor address, and a sensing value.

In addition, in the present invention, the grouped sensor group may be determined based on a predetermined specific range corresponding to each sensor characteristic.

In addition, in the present invention, the representative sensor is determined based on a specific condition, the specific condition is characterized in that it comprises at least one of energy consumption, frequency of use and whether or not essential.

In addition, in the present invention, the specific command is characterized in that it corresponds to any one of the power off command for instructing to turn off the power of the corresponding sensor, or the period change command for instructing to change the reporting period of the corresponding sensor. .

Further, in the present invention, the period change command is characterized in that the command to change longer than the period of the representative sensor.

Also, in the present invention, the grouped sensor group is collected from different sensor collections.

Also in the present invention, the method further comprises assigning a groupset identifier to the grouped sensor group, wherein the groupset identifier is used to access the grouped sensor group.

The present invention also provides a device for managing a plurality of sensors on a network, the apparatus comprising: a transmission service unit for receiving sensing information from at least one of the plurality of sensors; A setting manager configured to group sensors performing the same or similar function based on the sensing information, and designate at least one sensor among the grouped sensor groups as a representative sensor; And the transmission service unit configured to transmit a specific command for performing a specific operation on the remaining sensors except for the representative sensor.

Also, in the present invention, the configuration manager assigns a groupset identifier to the grouped sensor group, and the groupset identifier is used to access the grouped sensor group.

Universal plug and play (UPnP) technology and digital living network alliance (DLNA) technology enable service and control between consumer electronics devices from different manufacturers. . In particular, UPnP technology enables compatible AV services and controls between audio-visual (AV) devices. These compatible AV services include media streaming, uploading and downloading.

The UPnP based network proposed for home networking is logically composed of a plurality of UPnP devices, services, and control points (CPs). In the UPnP network, service means the smallest small control unit on the network, which is modeled through state variables.

In a UPnP-based network, a control point refers to a control application with the ability to detect and control other devices and / or services. Any device, for example a mobile device that is user friendly It can be operated in a physical device such as.

The UPnP-based AV home network includes a media server (MS) that provides media data to a home network, a media renderer (MR) that plays media data through a home network, and the media server and media renderer. It is configured to include an AV control point (CP) to control the. The media server and media renderer are controlled devices controlled by the control point.

The media server (specifically, a CDS (ContentDirectory Service) in the media server) constructs information of media files and containers (directories) stored in the media as object information. An 'object' is one or more media. The term is used to collectively refer to an item having information about a file, for example, a picture, a video, or an audio file, and a container having information about a directory. The term may be used as appropriate to refer to an 'item' or 'container'.

One item corresponds to one or more media files. For example, multiple media files with content of the same content at different bit rates may be managed as one item.

The information of the object is also referred to as "meta data", and various information about the associated content is described in this metadata. For example, an ID assigned to an object corresponding to the content, identification information about a container to which the object belongs, a title, information on whether the object is an item or a container, the type of media, and associated content (e.g., a media file). The protocol and the access location information which can obtain the information are described in the metadata. The metadata is written in the form of mark-up language and stored in the CDS-managed storage regardless of storage in which associated media files and the like are stored. Of course, it may be stored in a removable recording medium and provided to the CDS. The metadata about the content thus prepared is provided according to the action called by the control point, and all or part of the metadata may be provided to the media renderer via the control point.

In the present invention, the UPnP may be classified into a control point (CP) device and a control target device. The digital media controller (DMC) and the digital media player (DMP) may be classified as control point devices, and the digital media renderer (DMR), digital media server (DMS), and digital media printer (DMPr) may be classified as control target devices. .

In addition, when a control point (CP) device of a UPnP or a digital media player (DMP) of a DLNA or a digital media controller (DMC) requests content metadata from a control target device of a UPnP or a digital media server (DMS) of a DLNA, The target device or digital media server (DMS) collects a plurality of content metadata corresponding to each of the stored content and generates (generated content list) a control point (CP) device or a digital media player (CMP), a digital media controller ( DMC).

As a home network device, DLNA is a digital media server (DMS), a digital media player (DMP), a digital media renderer (DMR), and a digital media controller (DMC). ) And a digital media printer (DMPr), a mobile digital media server (M-DMS), a mobile digital media player (M-DMP), A mobile digital media uploader (M-DMU), a mobile digital media downloader (M-DMD), and a mobile digital media controller (M-DMC) may be defined. . Hereinafter, the digital media server (DMS) is used to cover the M-DMS, the digital media player (DMP) is used to cover the M-DMP, and the digital media controller (DMC) covers the M-DMC. Can be used as a concept.

In addition, the DLNA may be defined as a 2 box model and a 3 box model. The two box model includes a digital media player (DMP) and a digital media server (DMS). In the two box model, a digital media player (DMP) allows a user to find and play content that has been browsed and distributed by a digital media server (DMS). The three box model includes a digital media controller (DMC), a digital media server (DMS), and a digital media renderer (DMR). In the three box model, the digital media controller (DMC) allows the user to find the content of the digital media server (DMS) to be played on the digital media renderer (DMR).

In the present specification, one embodiment of configuring a network will be described based on UPnP. However, the present invention is not limited thereto and may be applicable to other technologies constituting the network.

In the present invention, it can be expressed as exchanging a message, a command, a call, an action, or a request / response during communication between devices.

In the present invention, in order to reliably transfer a message used during communication between devices to a desired target device, not only IP (Internet Protocol) but also ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) and IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol). Various protocols can be applied, but not limited to specific protocols.

The present invention reliably delivers a message used in communication between devices, controls a message flow, resolves a conflict or congestion between a plurality of messages, and multiplexes. To support this, various protocols such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) as well as Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) and Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) can be applied. I never do that.

In the present invention, in order to deliver a variety of information in a message (message) used during communication between devices, HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol), XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), Various protocols such as FTP (File Transfer Protocol) can be applied, but not limited to a specific protocol.

In the present invention, when a message used for communication between devices is transmitted through the various protocols described above, among the message components defined in each protocol, various message components such as a message header and a message body are defined. You can pass the message data as you want and it is not limited to a specific message component.

In the present invention, when a message used in communication between devices is transmitted through the above various protocols, the data to be delivered can be delivered in various types (string, integer, floating point, boolean, character, array, list, etc.) defined in each protocol. have. Markups such as Extensible Markup Language (XML), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML), JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), etc. for more structured representation, delivery, and storage of complex content data. (Markup) method, text, image format, etc. can be applied, but is not limited to a specific method.

In the present invention, data included in a message used in communication between devices can be delivered by applying various data compression techniques such as “gzip” (RFC 1952), “deflate” (RFC 1950), and “compress” (RFC 2616). It is not limited to a specific method.

The UPnP scheme, which is one method of device-to-device communication applied in the embodiment of the present invention, is a device-to-device communication protocol combining IP-TCP / UDP-HTTP protocols among the various technologies.

All the UPnP actions proposed in the present invention can be applied through a combination of various types of techniques of the various layers, and all the contents proposed in the present invention are not limited to the UPnP scheme. That is, in the present specification, as an embodiment of configuring a network, the present invention will be described based on the UPnP scheme. However, the present invention is not limited thereto and may be applicable to other techniques described above.

1 is a schematic block diagram of a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) audio-visual (AV) network as an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the UPnP-based AV network includes a media server (MS) 120 that provides media data to the network, and a media renderer (MR) that plays media data through the network. 130, and a control point (CP) 110 controlling the media server 120 and the media renderer 130. The media server 120 and the media renderer 130 are controlled devices controlled by the control point 110.

The media server 120 may include a CDS (ContentDirectory Service) unit 121, a connection manager 122, and an AV transport 123.

In order for the media server 120 to inform the control point 110 of directory information, each time a UPnP action, for example, a browsing action is performed, the media server 120 uses the file system of the media server 120 to determine the directory information. Can inform information. In addition, the data of the media file selected through the user interface of the control point 110 is transmitted between the media server 120 and the media renderer 130 in a streaming manner to be reproduced through the media renderer 130. Can be.

In this case, the streaming method may use any of various known methods. For example, the streaming scheme may use an out-of-band transfer protocol. As a specific example, when using a real-time transport protocol (RTP) as a media transmission, the real time control protocol (RTCP) can be used to monitor the transmission status of media data. You can adjust the transmission parameters.

Meanwhile, the control point 110 may control the media server 120 and the media renderer 130, for example, by calling a UPnP action provided based on a standardized Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Can be performed. In addition, the control point 110 may subscribe to an event service provided by the device and receive a report on the change of state information of the device.

The media server 120 manages a connection between a content directory service 121 that provides a service for searching media data managed by the media server 120 and another device, that is, the media renderer 130. Connection Manager) service 122 and an audio-visual transport service 123 that enables control of the playback of media, such as Play, Stop, etc. Can be.

The media renderer 130 includes a rendering control service 131 that enables control of screen brightness, brightness, and the like when a media is presented, and a connection manager (ConnectionManager) that manages connections with other devices. ) Service 132 and an AV transport service 133.

The control point 110 may check the media file information in the server using the content directory service 121 of the media server 120. When a user selects a specific media file based on this information, a connection for media transmission is established between the media server 120 and the media renderer 130 through a connection manager service 122 or 132 of each device. can do. Then, after setting parameters for the play control of the media file using the AV transmission service 123 or 133, the play action is set to the media server (in push mode) or the media renderer (pull mode). Playback). During playback, the brightness, brightness, volume, etc. of the screen may be adjusted through the rendering control service 131 of the media renderer 130.

In addition, the AV control point 110 may monitor information such as a change in the contents of the media server 120 or a change in the state of the current media stream by subscribing to an event provided by each service.

Therefore, a user may request playback of media on a plurality of devices, that is, multiple renderers, through a home network, or may move from place to place while watching media through a renderer, and then follow media watched through the renderer in the place. You can watch.

2 illustrates an example of an IoT environment including a plurality of sensors according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

As an example of the IoT user environment of the future, assuming a control space such as a home, a living room, an office, a factory, or a car, many IoT devices of different manufacturers may be located in the control space. In this case, since each device is a product of a different manufacturer, various sensors may be mounted according to the product characteristics of each manufacturer.

For example, referring to FIG. 2, when a specific space is assumed as a groove, there may be a plurality of sensors in the groove. For example, temperature sensor (light sensor), light sensor (sound sensor), humidity sensor (humidity sensor), fire / gas sensor (fire / gas sensor), security sensor (security sensor), There may be a water leakage sensor.

In addition, a plurality of sensors of the same type may exist in a specific space. For example, in the case of a light sensor, a plurality of light sensors (ceil light, table light, lighting of an electronic product, etc.) may exist in a living room.

As another example, the same purpose sensor may be duplicated in a control space. For example, sensors such as thermometers, illuminators, and hygrometers are likely to be duplicated in multiple devices. Accordingly, there is a possibility that batteries of each product may be wasted by similar sensors performing similar functions repeatedly reporting similar sensor information.

Therefore, an embodiment of the present invention is to provide a method for managing a plurality of sensors for energy saving.

For example, if the sensor management device finds a plurality of sensors reporting the same or similar information under specific conditions such as a specific control space, a specific time range, etc., the sensor management device designates one sensor among the plurality of sensors as a representative. Can be turned off and the remaining sensors can be turned off for longer battery life or extended reporting periods.

As another example, when the sensor management device cannot process sensor information, the sensor management device may transmit the sensor information to another control device, and the other control device may process the sensor information. For example, when sensor information transmitted from a sensor is generated by another manufacturer and is not compatible, the sensor management device may transmit the sensor information to another control device capable of processing the sensor information.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a sensor group and a sensor collection for managing a plurality of sensors according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

In one embodiment, the present invention may group heterogeneous sensors that perform different functions to manage a plurality of sensors.

For example, one electronic device may include a temperature sensor, a light sensor, a sound sensor, a humidity sensor, a fire / gas sensor, and a security sensor. It may include a plurality of sensors, such as (security sensor), water leakage sensor (water leakage sensor). In this case, the set of the plurality of sensors may be defined as a sensor collection. Referring to FIG. 3 (a), circles, stars, triangles, rectangles, trapezoids, and pentagons may be heterogeneous sensors that perform unique functions.

As another example, the present invention may group homogeneous sensors that perform similar functions to manage a plurality of sensors. For example, in the case of a light sensor, a plurality of light sensors may exist in a living room, such as a ceiling light, a table light, or an illumination of an electronic product. In this case, the set of light sensors may be defined as a sensor group. Referring to FIG. 3B, the set of light sensors may be defined as sensor group 1, the set of temperature sensors as sensor group 2, the set of sound sensors as sensor group 3, and the set of security sensors as sensor group 4.

As another example, the present invention may group at least one of heterogeneous sensors performing different functions from those of similar sensors performing similar functions to manage the plurality of sensors.

For example, a plurality of light sensors and one temperature sensor may be grouped into one set. Referring to FIG. 3C, three light sensors, two temperature sensors, and one sound sensor may be grouped into one set. This may be called a sensor collection or may be called a sensor group.

In the present specification, the terms sensor collection and sensor group are used for convenience, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and the sensor collection or sensor group may be equally used to mean a plurality of sensors.

The sensor collection or sensor group may be physically present in one device or may be distributed in other devices. In addition, the sensor collection or sensor group may mean a logical device as well as a physical device. Furthermore, the sensor collection or sensor group may be included in a physical or logical functional unit to perform its function.

FIG. 4 is a schematic sensor data model block for managing a plurality of sensors according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

Referring to Figure 4 (a), the sensor control point (Sensor Control Point) is a control device for controlling the operation of the external sensor, the discovery (discovery), disappear (disappear), power on / off (power on / off) of the external sensor Control such as). Here, the external sensor may be a sensor included in a sensor collection or a sensor group. In addition, the external sensor may mean a sensor connected to a sensor bridge. The sensor bridge may refer to a device that performs sensor management.

Referring to FIG. 4B, a schematic internal block diagram of a sensor bridge is shown. The sensor bridge may include a sensor management unit, and the sensor management unit may include a configuration management unit and a transport service unit.

The sensor management unit may manage at least one sensor connected to the sensor bridge. The sensor management unit may be a logical software device that manages a sensor, in which case the sensor bridge is a device that physically operates the sensor management unit. Can be.

The configuration management unit may provide a service for setting a data model of the sensor manager.

The transport service unit may connect to a sensor and provide a service for reading and setting a data item (eg, sensor information).

5 to 8 illustrate embodiments of the present invention to which an information table necessary to manage a plurality of sensors is illustrated.

An electronic device to which the present invention is applied may be accessible to a sensor and an actuator. The electronic device may be directly connected to a UPnP network or may be connected to a non-UPnP network. However, the non-UPnP network is bridged to the UPnP network by the electronic device.

Sensor description information enables devices connected to the UPnP network to identify the sensor.

The present invention provides an IoT management and control service, and the IoT management and control service may provide at least one of a sensor setting event and a sensor specific event.

The sensor configuration event may indicate addition or deletion of a sensor collection. Alternatively, the sensor setting event may indicate addition or deletion of a sensor in the sensor collection.

The sensor specific event indicates a state change for a sensor such as data availability or a connection error. Reporting of sensor events may be enabled per sensor based on the SensorEventsEnable parameter. The sensor event may be reported through a SensorEvents parameter that provides an XML document.

The change of the sensor event parameter is transmitted to the subscribed control point via a configuration update state variable.

In order to maintain security for a sensor or sensor collection, it can only be identified by at least one of a collection identifier and a sensor identifier.

Meanwhile, in order to provide IoT management and control services, related parameters need to be defined. 5 to 8 describe related parameters required to provide IoT management and control services. Hereinafter, a sensor related parameter is called a sensor parameter.

The sensor parameter may include a sensor management parameter (S510) necessary for sensor management, and the sensor management parameter (S510) is largely a sensor management general parameter (S511, S512), It may include at least one of sensor collection parameters S520, S610, S710, S720, S730, S740, S830, and S840, and sensor groupset parameters S810 and S820. Their relationship can be represented by nodes in a tree structure.

The sensor management general parameter may mean a general parameter required for sensor management. For example, referring to FIG. 5A, the sensor management general parameter may include a sensor event S511 and a sensor collection number S512. The sensor event S511 provides XML information suitable for an IoT management and control data model event, and the XML information informs a unique event condition identified by the sensor collection identifier and the sensor identifier. The number of sensor collections indicates the number of sensor collection node entries.

The sensor collection parameter S520 or sensor collection node S520 identifies a set comprising sensors and / or actuators supported by the IoT control / management device and may include parameters required for management of the sensor collection. . The sensor collection parameter S520 may largely include a sensor collection general parameter and a sensor parameter in the sensor collection.

For example, referring to FIG. 5 (b), the sensor collection general parameters may include a collection identifier S521, a collection type S522, a collection name S523, a collection information S524, a collection unique identifier S525, and a collection. It may include at least one of the detailed information (S526) and the number of sensors (S527).

The collection identifier S521 provides a unique identifier for identifying the sensor collection associated with the event raising or reporting the SOAP action.

Collection type S522 represents a sensor type for the sensor collection.

The collection name S523 represents a string identifying the sensor collection, which is provided for the user.

Collection information S524 represents a string describing the sensor collection, which is provided for the user.

The collection unique identifier S525 represents a string which uniquely identifies a sensor collection. For example, in the case of a device discoverable on UPnP, the collection unique identifier S525 is corresponding. Matches the UDN of a UPnP device.

Collection detail information S526 represents specific sensor collection information, and a child node of collection detail information S526 may be based on the collection type S522.

The sensor number S527 represents the number of sensor node entries.

The sensor parameter S610 in the sensor collection describes a sensor or actuator managed by the IoT control / management service. For example, the sensor general parameters S611 to S622, the sensor related parameter S710, and the sensor group parameter ( S720) and a sensor URN parameter S730. In addition, the sensor URN parameter S730 may include a data item parameter S740.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the sensor general parameters S611 to S622 include a sensor identifier S611, a sensor type S612, a sensor unique identifier S613, a sensor update request S614, a sensor polling interval S615, Sensor change report (S616), sensor enabled event (S617), sensor details (S618), number of sensor-related node entries (S619), number of sensor group node entries (S620), number of sensor default grant node entries (S621) ) And the number of sensor URN node entries (S622).

The sensor identifier S611 represents a unique identifier for raising a SOAP action to the sensor.

The sensor type S612 indicates the type of sensor for the corresponding sensor node.

The sensor unique identifier S613 represents a unique identifier of the sensor.

The sensor update request S614 requests an update of the sensor through the IoT management / control service. When the IoT management / control service finishes updating the corresponding sensor, the sensor update request S614 is reset to zero.

The sensor polling interval S615 requests periodic update of the sensor through the IoT management / control service.

The sensor change report S616 suppresses reporting of the same sensor reading through the IoT management / control service.

The sensor enabled event S617 enables event reporting for the corresponding sensor. When the sensor enabled event S617 is 1, it indicates that a corresponding event is reported.

The sensor detail information S618 represents specific sensor information, and a child node of the sensor detail information S618 may be based on the sensor type S612.

The number of sensor-related node entries (S619) represents the number of sensor-related node entries.

The number of sensor group node entries (S620) represents the number of sensor group node entries.

The number of sensor default grant node entries S621 indicates the number of sensor permission node entries.

The number of sensor URN node entries (S622) indicates the number of sensor URN node entries.

As shown in FIG. 7A, the sensor related parameter S710 may include a sensor path S711, and the sensor path S711 is relative to a sensor operatively associated with the sensor. path to a sensor operationally related to a sensor).

As shown in FIG. 7B, the sensor group parameter S720 includes a sensor group parameter node that identifies a sensor group in which a corresponding sensor participates, and the sensor group S721 includes an individual to which a corresponding sensor participates. Identifies an individual sensor group.

As shown in FIG. 7C, the sensor URN parameter S730 indicates a sensor URN list for the data item set provided by the corresponding sensor, and at least one of the sensor URN S731 and the number of data item nodes S732. Include. Here, the sensor URN (S731) identifies a URN for each set of sensor data items, and the number of data item nodes (S732) represents the number of data item node entries.

As shown in FIG. 7D, the data item parameter S740 of the sensor URN parameter identifies a data item supported for the corresponding sensor URN parameter. The data item parameter S740 of the sensor URN parameter includes at least one of a data item name S741, a data item type S742, a data item encoding S743, and a data item description S744.

As shown in FIG. 8A, the sensor group set parameter S810 represents a parameter for the sensor group set, and may include at least one of a sensor collection or a sensor.

The sensor group set parameter S810 may include at least one of a group set identifier S811, a group set type S812, a group set name S813, group set detail information S814, and the number of group set member nodes S815. It may include.

The group set identifier S811 represents a unique identifier required for accessing the sensor group set.

The group set type S812 indicates the type of sensor group set. For example, there may be one type for controlling an individual sensor, two types for controlling a sensor group as one, or three types for separately controlling a representative sensor and a participating sensor.

The group set name S813 indicates a name of the sensor group set.

The group set detail information S814 indicates specific sensor group set information, and a child node of the sensor group set detail information S814 may be based on the group set type S812.

The number S815 of group set member nodes indicates the number of sensor group set node entries.

As shown in FIG. 8B, the sensor group set parameter S810 may include a sensor group set member parameter S820 that identifies a member in the sensor group set. Here, the group set member parameter S820 may include a member identifier S821 indicating a reference identifier of the corresponding member.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 8 (c) or 8 (d), it is possible to define the participating group set identifier (S831, S841) that provides the reference identifier of the participating group set. The participation group set identifier S831 may be included in the sensor collection parameter S520 or may be included in the sensor parameter S610 in the sensor collection. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the participation group set identifier S831 may be included in another node.

FIG. 9 illustrates an IoT data model for managing a plurality of sensors according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

The IoT data model to which the present invention is applied may manage a plurality of sensors. The plurality of sensors may consist of at least one sensor group, or may consist of at least one sensor collection, or a combination of at least one sensor group and at least one sensor collection.

Referring to FIG. 9, various sensor collections exist, and the sensors in the sensor collections are represented by figures. As described above, the shapes of circles, stars, triangles, rectangles, trapezoids, and pentagons may be heterogeneous sensors that perform unique functions. For example, the above-described figures may be a temperature sensor, a light sensor, a sound sensor, a humidity sensor, a fire / gas sensor, a security sensor, respectively. It may correspond to any one of a security sensor and a water leakage sensor. However, this is only one embodiment, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

As another example, the above-described figures may be the same type of sensor performing a similar function. For example, the figures described above may correspond to any one of a ceiling light, a table light, and an illumination of an electronic product in a living room. Alternatively, even if the sensor of the same use may be recognized as a different sensor if the manufacturer is different.

In FIG. 9, it can be seen that the sensor collection 1 is composed of six sensors, and the sensor collections 2 to 4 are composed of one sensor.

In addition, although the sensor collection 7 is composed of five sensors, three sensors in the sensor collection 7 may be defined as one sensor group 1. Similarly, although the sensor collection 6 is composed of five sensors, three sensors in the sensor collection 6 may be defined as another sensor group 2.

As another example, each of the sensors in the sensor collections 4, 6, and 8 may be defined as another sensor group 3 940.

The sensor bridge 900 to which the present invention is applied may include at least one of a sensor control point 910 and a sensor management unit 920, and the sensor management unit ( 920 may include a configuration management unit 921 and a transport service unit 922.

The sensor control point 910 may serve to control a sensor or a sensor collection.

The sensor management unit 920 may manage at least one sensor connected to the sensor bridge and may process, for example, the parameters described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 8. .

The configuration management unit 921 provides a service for setting a data model of the sensor management unit, and the transport service unit 922 connects to a sensor and provides a data item (eg, Sensor information) can be provided to read and set.

The sensor management control point 930 may serve to control the sensor bridge 900, and the sensor management control point 930 may be configured as a separate device from the sensor bridge 900. The invention is not limited to this. That is, the sensor management control point 930 may be included in the sensor bridge 900.

In an embodiment to which the present invention is applied, the sensor bridge 900 may designate and manage a representative sensor for a sensor group composed of sensors that perform the same or similar functions.

First, the sensor bridge 900 may receive sensing information from at least one of a sensor, a sensor group, or a sensor collection. Based on the sensing information, the sensor bridge 900 may group sensors performing similar or identical functions. In this case, the sensor bridge 900 may determine whether the sensors perform similar or identical functions based on the received sensing value.

The sensor bridge 900 may assign a groupset identifier to the grouped sensor groups, and access the corresponding sensor group through the groupset identifier.

The sensor bridge 900 may designate at least one sensor of the sensor group as a representative sensor.

For example, referring to FIG. 9, sensor group 3 940 may be comprised of sensors that perform the same function selected from separate sensor collections 4, 6, and 8, and the sensor bridge 900 may Sensor 1 may be designated as a representative sensor in the sensor group 3 940. In this case, the remaining sensors 2 and 3 may be referred to as participating sensors.

The sensor bridge 900 may transmit a command to perform a specific operation on the participating sensors since all the sensors 1,2 and 3 in the sensor group 3 940 perform the same or similar functions. For example, the sensor bridge 900 may turn off the corresponding function of the participating sensor, turn off the power, or change the measurement period longer than the representative sensor. For example, when the sensor 1 represents the ceiling lamp, and the sensors 2 and 3 represent the stand lamp 1 and the stand lamp 2, the sensor bridge 900 corresponds to the stand lamp 1 and the stand lamp 2 corresponding to the sensors 2 and 3, respectively. The energy can be saved by turning off the power or changing the measurement period.

The sensor bridge 900 may continuously receive the sensing information while maintaining power on with respect to the representative sensor 1. In this case, the operation of the sensor bridge 900 may be performed by the control of the user, or may be performed according to a preset condition.

The present invention provides various embodiments for designating a representative sensor. For example, when a plurality of sensors exist, a sensor meeting a specific condition may be designated as a representative sensor. Here, the specific conditions include, for example, energy consumption, frequency of use, whether or not essential or selective for everyday life.

As a specific example, the sensor bridge 900 may designate a sensor that consumes the least energy, a sensor that has the highest frequency of use, or a sensor that is essential for daily life as a representative sensor. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the representative sensor may be designated through various conditions such as a combination of the above conditions.

As another example, after designating a representative sensor, the remaining sensors may be automatically designated as participating sensors. Alternatively, the sensor bridge 900 may designate specific sensors as participating sensors. Meanwhile, all of the remaining sensors other than the representative sensor need not be participating sensors.

As another example, the sensor bridge 900 may designate at least one sensor as a specific sensor to perform a specific operation in addition to the representative sensor. That is, in addition to the functions of the representative sensor and the participating sensor, a specific sensor may be designated to perform only a specific operation.

FIG. 10 illustrates an action table required for a sensor data transmission service according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

First, ConnectSensor () S1010 may connect a sensor identified by a sensor identifier to a device identified by a transmission URL.

DisconnectSensor () S1020 may disconnect the sensor identified by the sensor identifier from the device identified by the transmission URL.

ReadSensor () S1030 may read data records available from the sensor identified by the sensor identifier.

WriteSensor () S1040 may write a data record to the sensor identified by the sensor identifier.

GetSeonsorTransportConnections () (S1050) may obtain information on current transport connections for the sensor identified by the sensor identifier.

The sensor bridge 900 may communicate with the sensor through the above action information.

FIG. 11 illustrates an XML structure of an IoT data model for managing a plurality of sensors according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

11 (a) is an XML structure representing information about a plurality of sensors. Referring to FIG. 11A, four sensor collections exist, and the identifier of each sensor collection is the same as dev1, dev2, dev3, and dev4.

 The sensor collection dev1 includes two sensors, a sensor 1 having a sensor identifier 0001 represents a thermometer, participates in a sensor group called “Group thermometer” (S1110), and a sensor 2 having a sensor identifier 0002 represents an illumination system.

Sensor collection dev2 includes two sensors, sensor 3 with sensor identifier 0003 represents a thermometer, participates in a sensor group called “Group thermometer” (S1120), and sensor 4 with sensor identifier 0004 represents an earthquake meter.

Sensor collection dev3 comprises two sensors, sensor 5 with sensor identifier 0005 represents a wind vane and sensor 6 with sensor identifier 0006 represents a motion sensor. It can be seen that the sensors in the sensor collection dev3 do not participate in any group.

The sensor collection dev4 includes two sensors, a sensor 7 having a sensor identifier 0007 represents a hygrometer, a sensor 8 having a sensor identifier 0008 represents a thermometer, and participates in a sensor group called “Group thermometer” (S1130).

On the other hand, sensors 1, 3, and 8 participate in a sensor group called “Group thermometer”, which is identified by the sensor group identifier “Group thermometer”, of which the representative sensor is designated as sensor 1 (“dev1 / 0001”). It can be confirmed that (S1140).

Each member of the sensor group may be displayed with each sensor identifier (S1150).

Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIG. 11B, the representative sensor may include an identifier, a sensor name, a sensor type, and a sensor value, and may include identification information of participating sensors to indicate which sensors are represented (S1160).

12 is a flowchart illustrating managing a plurality of sensors according to an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

The sensor bridge may receive sensing information from at least one of a sensor, a sensor group, or a sensor collection (S1210). In this case, the sensing information may include at least one of the parameters described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 8.

Based on the sensing information, the sensor bridge may group sensors that perform a similar or identical function (S1220). In this case, the sensor bridge 900 may determine whether the sensors perform similar or identical functions based on the received sensing value.

In an embodiment, the sensor bridge may determine whether the sensors perform similar or identical functions based on a range of preset sensing values. For example, the sensor bridge may collect sensing information for a specific period (eg, one month, one week) from surrounding sensors. The sensor bridge may set a range of specific sensing values based on the collected sensing information. As a specific example, in the case of a temperature sensor, 1 degree range (…, 10-11, 11-12, 12-13,…), 2 degree range (…, 10-12, 12-14, 14-15,…), Alternatively, the 3 degree range (..., 10-13, 13-16, 16-19, ...) can be set to a specific range. In other words, when set to the 1 degree range, 11.2 degrees and 11.3 degrees can be regarded as the same value. By determining the measurement period and the measurement value of each sensor, the sensor bridge can group similar sensors in a specific space.

Meanwhile, the sensor bridge may assign a group set identifier to the grouped sensor groups, and access the corresponding sensor group through the group set identifier.

The sensor bridge may designate at least one sensor among the grouped sensor groups as a representative sensor (S1230). In this case, at least one of the remaining sensors may be designated as a participating sensor, and not all remaining sensors need to be participating sensors.

After designating the representative sensor, the sensor bridge may transmit a specific command to perform a specific operation on the participating sensor (S1240). For example, the sensor bridge sends a function off command to turn off the corresponding function of the participating sensor, a power off command to turn off the power, or a cycle change command to change the measurement period longer than the representative sensor. Can be. As such, energy can be saved by turning off the power of the remaining sensors except for the representative sensor among the plurality of sensors or by changing the measurement period. Alternatively, a timeout can be protocolized to turn on a sensor that was turned off at a specific time and check the status.

As another example, when the representative sensor has failed, the sensor bridge may designate a sensor satisfying a specific condition among the remaining sensors or participating sensors as the next representative sensor.

Various embodiments described herein may be implemented in a recording medium readable by a computer or similar device using, for example, software, hardware or a combination thereof.

According to a hardware implementation, the embodiments described herein include application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and the like. It may be implemented using at least one of processors, controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, and electronic units for performing other functions. These may be implemented by a controller or control point.

In a software implementation, embodiments such as procedures or functions may be implemented with separate software modules that allow at least one function or operation to be performed. The software code may be implemented by a software application written in a suitable programming language. The software code may be stored in the memory and executed by the controller.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the above-described method may be implemented as code that can be read by a processor in a medium in which a program is recorded. Examples of processor-readable media include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disks, optical data storage devices, and the like, which may be implemented in the form of a carrier wave (eg, transmission over the Internet). do.

The apparatuses described above are not limited to the configuration and method of the above-described embodiments, but the embodiments may be configured by selectively combining all or some of the embodiments so that various modifications can be made. have.

Claims (15)

In the method for managing a plurality of sensors on a network, Receiving sensing information from at least one of the plurality of sensors; Grouping sensors that perform the same or similar function based on the sensing information; Designating at least one sensor among the grouped sensor groups as a representative sensor; And Transmitting a specific command for performing a specific operation on the remaining sensors except for the representative sensor Method comprising a. The method of claim 1, The sensing information includes at least one of a sensor identifier, a sensor type, a sensor address, and a sensing value. The method of claim 1, The grouped sensor group is determined based on a predetermined specific range corresponding to each sensor characteristic. The method of claim 1, Wherein the representative sensor is determined based on a specific condition, wherein the specific condition includes at least one of energy consumption, frequency of use, and necessity. The method of claim 1, The specific command corresponds to any one of a power off command for instructing to turn off the power of the corresponding sensor, or a cycle change command for instructing to change the reporting period of the corresponding sensor. The method of claim 5, The period changing command is a command to change to be longer than the period of the representative sensor. The method of claim 1, And wherein said grouped sensor groups are collected from different sensor collections. The method of claim 1, wherein Assigning a groupset identifier to the grouped sensor group More, And the groupset identifier is used to access the grouped sensor group. An apparatus for managing a plurality of sensors on a network, the apparatus comprising: A transmission service unit configured to receive sensing information from at least one sensor among the plurality of sensors; A setting manager configured to group sensors performing the same or similar function based on the sensing information, and designate at least one sensor among the grouped sensor groups as a representative sensor; And The transmission service unit which transmits a specific command for performing a specific operation on the remaining sensors except for the representative sensor. Apparatus comprising a. The method of claim 9, The sensing information may include at least one of a sensor identifier, a sensor type, a sensor address, and a sensing value. The method of claim 9, The grouped sensor group is determined based on a predetermined specific range corresponding to each sensor characteristic. The method of claim 9, The representative sensor is determined based on a specific condition, wherein the specific condition includes at least one of energy consumption, frequency of use, and whether essential. The method of claim 9, And the specific command corresponds to one of a power off command for instructing to turn off the power of a corresponding sensor, and a period change command for instructing to change a reporting period of a corresponding sensor. The method of claim 13, And the period change command instructs a change to be made longer than a period of the representative sensor. The method of claim 9, The configuration manager assigns a group set identifier to the grouped sensor group, And the groupset identifier is used to access the grouped sensor group.

Images