Method and system for discovery and transparent status reporting for sensor networks

摘要

A system and method for monitoring the status of wireless node devices in a network. A network controller polls one or more sensor devices for status information. The sensor devices are in communication with at least one wireless node device. More than one sensor device may be associated with a single wireless node device. The wireless node device appends its own status information to the transmission frame of the sensor device's response message, and the transmission frame, containing the address and status information for both the sensor device and the wireless node device, is transmitted to the network controller. The inclusion of the wireless node device address and status information is done without the knowledge of the sensor device.

主权项

1. A method of monitoring wireless node devices in an electronic article surveillance (“EAS”) system, the method comprising:
polling at least one sensor device in communication with at least one wireless node device for status information, the polling configured to cause the at least one sensor device to transmit a response message having a transmission frame structure including a plurality of fields corresponding to a first communication layer and a second communication layer different from the first communication layer, the response message including sensor status information generated by the at least one sensor node; receiving a modified response message, the modified response message containing at least one additional field embedded within the plurality of fields of the response message, the at least one additional field including wireless node status information and corresponding to a third communication layer different from the first and second communication layers; and extracting the wireless node status information from the modified response message.