Portable device and method for determining communication performance indicator of cellular module

Abstract

A portable device and a method of determining a communication performance indicator of a cellular module are provided. The portable device has the capability of communicating with the cloud and includes a control means and a storage means. The control device has the capability of recording and / or processing communication-related data related to each of a plurality of communication performance indexes for determining corresponding indexes, and is used for acquiring the communication-related data of a predetermined communication performance index based on configuration information, determining and recording a predetermined communication performance index of the to-be-tested cellular module based on the communication related data, or recording the communication related data; and uploading a predetermined communication performance index or communication related data to the cloud through the to-be-tested cellular module under the condition that data needs to be uploaded to the cloud and can be uploaded to the cloud. And the storage device is used for storing the preset communication performance index or the communication related data under the conditions that data does not need to be uploaded to the cloud end or cannot be uploaded to the cloud end and the storage space is not full.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of communications, and more specifically, to a portable device and method for determining a communication performance index of a cellular module. Background Art

[0002] Internet of Things (IoT) or Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) products (such as wireless sensors) usually require high reliability and high certainty, so accurately and quantitatively evaluating each component in these products will help in design and optimization. These products are usually equipped with communication modules to achieve information exchange with the cloud (such as uploading sensor data to the cloud). As one of the most common communication modules, the cellular module (including the corresponding user identity (SIM) card) can include but is not limited to, for example, narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) communication modules and long-term evolution (LTE) Cat1 communication modules, and its various communication performance indicators may vary significantly in different application scenarios caused by various factors (for example, coverage, manufacturer, operator or reconnection, etc.).

[0003] Therefore, it becomes very important to monitor and evaluate the communication performance indicators (for example, energy consumption, end-to-end reliability, communication delay or other customized communication indicators) of cellular modules in different application scenarios. This puts forward new requirements on the portability of evaluation tools. Therefore, a portable device is needed to monitor and evaluate the communication performance indicators of cellular modules. Summary of the invention

[0004] According to one aspect of the present application, a portable device for determining the communication performance index of a cellular module is provided, wherein the portable device has the ability to communicate with the cloud and communicates with the cloud or does not communicate with the cloud in different scenarios, and the portable device includes: a control device and a storage device. The control device has the ability to monitor, record and / or process the communication-related data related to each of the multiple communication performance indicators for determining the corresponding communication performance indicators, and is used to: determine the type of the predetermined communication performance indicator and the identification information of the cellular module to be tested based on the configuration information; obtain the communication-related data of the cellular module to be tested for determining the predetermined communication performance indicator based on the type and the identification information, and determine and record the predetermined communication performance indicator of the cellular module to be tested based on the communication-related data, or record the communication-related data for determining the predetermined communication performance indicator; and upload the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data for determining the predetermined communication performance indicator to the cloud via the cellular module to be tested when it is necessary and possible to upload data to the cloud. The storage device is used to store the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator when it is not necessary or impossible to upload data to the cloud and the storage space is not full.

[0005] According to another aspect of the present application, a method for determining a communication performance indicator of a cellular module using a portable device is also provided. The portable device has the ability to communicate with the cloud and communicate with the cloud or not communicate with the cloud in different scenarios, and has the ability to monitor, record and / or process communication-related data related to each of a plurality of communication performance indicators for determining the corresponding communication performance indicator. The method includes: determining the type of the predetermined communication performance indicator for the cellular module to be tested and the identification information of the cellular module to be tested based on configuration information; obtaining the communication-related data of the cellular module to be tested for determining the predetermined communication performance indicator based on the type and the identification information; and determining and recording the predetermined communication performance indicator of the cellular module to be tested based on the communication-related data, or recording the communication-related data for determining the predetermined communication performance indicator; uploading the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data for determining the predetermined communication performance indicator to the cloud via the cellular module to be tested when data needs to be and can be uploaded to the cloud; and storing the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data for determining the predetermined communication performance indicator in the storage device when data does not need to be or cannot be uploaded to the cloud and the storage space of the storage device is not full.

[0006] According to another aspect of the present application, a system for monitoring and evaluating communication performance indicators is also provided. The system may include: one or more cellular modules to be tested; a portable device as described above, used to evaluate the communication performance of each of the one or more cellular modules to be tested; and a cloud, used to communicate data with the monitor via one of the one or more cellular modules to be tested.

[0007] According to the solution of the present application, the portable device (monitor) can automatically determine (for example, monitor and evaluate, process, calculate or obtain operations, etc.) and record various types of communication performance indicators of the cellular module or communication-related data for determining the communication performance indicators. In addition, since the indicator data of the communication performance indicator or the communication-related data can be uploaded to the cloud, the requirements for the storage space of the storage device and the processing power of the control device in the monitor can be reduced to a certain extent. In addition, the portable device (monitor) can be implemented using small components, so it is small and low-cost, and has portability. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present application or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings required for use in the embodiments of the present application or the description of the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments recorded in this application. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can also be obtained based on these drawings of the embodiments of the present application.

[0009] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a system for determining a communication performance indicator of a cellular module according to an embodiment of the present application is shown.

[0010] Figure 2-Figure 3 They are shown respectively Figure 1 More details of the system are shown, wherein the internal structure of the monitor 20 is shown.

[0011] Figure 4 The structure of a cellular interface according to an embodiment of the present application is shown.

[0012] Figure 5 A schematic diagram showing a process of determining a communication performance indicator of a cellular module to be tested executed by the control device 201 in case 1 according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0013] Figure 6 A schematic diagram showing a process of determining a communication performance indicator of a cellular module to be tested executed by the control device 201 in situation 2 according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0014] Figure 7 A schematic diagram showing a process of determining a communication performance indicator of a cellular module to be tested executed by the control device 201 in situation 3 according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0015] Figure 8 A flow chart of a method for monitoring and evaluating communication performance indicators according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described clearly and completely below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure. Obviously, the described embodiments are only embodiments of a part of the present disclosure, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

[0017] An evaluation scheme for the communication performance indicators of cellular modules can be implemented based on traditional instruments (e.g., a graphical sampling multimeter that records current and voltage or a computer that records log messages with timestamps, etc.), which can be used to evaluate (or analyze) communication performance indicators such as energy consumption or communication delay. However, these traditional instruments can only be used in laboratories, are large in size, inconvenient to carry, and are difficult to deploy in application sites. In addition, the communication performance of cellular modules may be significantly different in different application scenarios (e.g., in a factory or in a running vehicle) caused by various factors (e.g., coverage, manufacturer, operator, or reconnection, etc.), which means that it is not enough to monitor and evaluate communication performance indicators using traditional instruments only in laboratories, and the accuracy of the evaluation results is not high enough.

[0018] Another evaluation scheme for the communication performance indicators of the cellular module can be implemented based on a portable power analyzer. This portable power analyzer can be portable, that is, it can be used in different application scenarios. However, the portable power analyzer is relatively expensive and can only evaluate power-related communication performance indicators (e.g., energy consumption), that is, the type of communication performance indicators that can be evaluated is relatively single. In addition, another major disadvantage of the solution of the portable power analyzer is that the duration of the evaluation and recording is limited by the storage space of the storage unit included therein.

[0019] In addition, the above two solutions, in addition to the limited types of communication performance indicators, must also manually set and adjust the parameters or configurations of these devices to achieve the evaluation and recording of communication performance indicators, which is very time-consuming. In addition, the above solutions cannot support recording the location of the cellular module (for example, in mobile scenarios, it can be used to record in association with the communication performance indicators evaluated at the corresponding location).

[0020] Therefore, in order to overcome the problems of the above two solutions, the present application proposes a solution based on cloud services and small and low-cost monitors to automatically evaluate the communication performance indicators of cellular modules.

[0021] The following combination Figure 1-8 The solution for evaluating the communication performance indicators of the cellular module of the present application is introduced in detail.

[0022] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a system for determining (eg, evaluating) a communication performance indicator of a cellular module according to an embodiment of the present application is shown.

[0023] like Figure 1 As shown, the system 100 includes a cloud 10, a monitor 20, and one or more cellular modules 30 to be tested (four are shown in the figure, but not limited to this).

[0024] The cloud 10 may be used to provide cloud services, such as generating configuration information, analyzing and processing data, issuing firmware updates for the monitor 20 , and the like.

[0025] The monitor 20 may be a small low-power embedded system (eg, based on a microcontroller unit (MCU), a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), etc.), and may be powered by a power source (eg, a battery module), thereby achieving portability.

[0026] The monitor 20 may have the ability to communicate with the cloud, but may or may not communicate with the cloud in actual use according to actual conditions (e.g., different application scenarios or communication link status). The monitor 20 may be remotely configured based on the configuration information obtained from the cloud 10, and the configuration information may include information related to the cellular module to be evaluated (i.e., the cellular module to be tested) and the type of communication performance indicator (e.g., in addition to the above-mentioned energy consumption, end-to-end reliability, and communication delay, it may also include cellular connection success rate, cellular base station information, or upload success rate of a specific type of application data, communication quality switching events, etc.). In other words, the monitor 20 can evaluate multiple communication performance indicators, and which communication performance indicator of which cellular module is specifically evaluated can be indicated by the configuration information.

[0027] Optionally, before the monitor 20 obtains configuration information from the cloud 10, the monitor 20 scans one or more existing cellular modules to determine which cellular module can connect to the base station and thus achieve connection with the cloud 10. Once the monitor 20 is connected to the base station (cloud 10) via a certain cellular module 30, the monitor 20 obtains configuration information from the cloud 10 via the cellular module 30. In some cases, when the monitor 20 cannot obtain configuration information from the cloud, the configuration information of the monitor 20 can be hard-coded (pre-set in the firmware of the monitor 20), so that the monitor 20 can obtain the hard-coded configuration information locally instead of obtaining it through the cloud.

[0028] The monitor 20 can acquire the communication-related data of the predetermined communication performance indicator of the designated cellular module to be tested based on the configuration information, and after acquiring the communication-related data, determine the predetermined communication performance indicator based on at least some of the acquired communication-related data, and can upload the determined predetermined communication performance indicator to the cloud 10. For example, the monitor 20 can upload the determined predetermined communication performance indicator to the cloud 10 via the currently connected cellular module to be tested 30, so that there is no need to configure the communication link between the monitor 20 and the cloud 10 additionally. Alternatively, if the network connection between the cellular module to be tested 30 and the cloud 10 is unavailable, the monitor 20 can first store the determined predetermined communication performance indicator, so that when the subsequent network connection is available, the monitor 20 can upload the determined predetermined communication performance indicator to the cloud 10 via the connected cellular module to be tested 30.

[0029] In addition, in other embodiments, considering that the processing component (e.g., MCU) in the embedded system of the monitor 20 has limited processing power, for certain types of communication performance indicators, the monitor 20 may not be able to process the corresponding communication-related data obtained to achieve performance evaluation. In this case, the monitor can upload the communication-related data used to determine the communication performance indicator of this type to the cloud 10 (e.g., as described above, via the connected cellular module to be tested 30), and then perform performance evaluation and record at the cloud 10. In this way, the processing power requirement and storage capacity requirement at the monitor 20 can be reduced.

[0030] Combination of the above Figure 1 The present invention describes various components and their associated operations included in a system for evaluating the communication performance index of a cellular module. In this evaluation scheme, the monitor can be small and low-cost, portable, and can automatically evaluate and record the predetermined communication performance index of the cellular module according to the configuration information. In addition, since the communication performance index data or communication-related data can be uploaded to the cloud, the storage space of the storage device and the processing capacity of the control device in the monitor are reduced to a certain extent.

[0031] Figure 2-Figure 3 They are shown respectively Figure 1 2, wherein the internal structure of the monitor 20 is shown. The monitor 20 can obtain power from a power source 40 (e.g., a battery). For example, the power source 40 can power various components within the monitor 20. The power source (e.g., a battery) can be included in the monitor 20 or can be external to the monitor 20.

[0032] like Figure 2As shown, the monitor 20 may include a control device 201 (e.g., a microcontroller (MCU), a microprocessor, a digital processing circuit (DSP), etc.) and a storage device 202 (e.g., a secure digital (SD) memory card). It should be understood that the storage device 202 here refers to an external storage device of the control device 201, and the control device 201 may also have a storage device inside. The control device 201 may include a port or interface electrically connected to the external storage device 202, such as a serial peripheral interface (SPI), so that the data of various communication performance indicators or communication-related data can be written into the external storage device or the data can be read from it for uploading to the cloud.

[0033] The control device 201 is used to realize the main functions of the monitor 20, for example, it has the ability to monitor, record and / or process the communication-related data related to each of the multiple communication performance indicators for determining the corresponding communication performance indicators, and can be used to obtain communication-related data (for example, obtained from the cellular module to be tested or a data acquisition device associated with the cellular module to be tested), and determine and record the predetermined communication performance indicator of the cellular module to be tested or record the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator based on the communication-related data; and upload the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator to the cloud via the cellular module to be tested when it is necessary and possible to upload data to the cloud. The storage device 202 can be used to store the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator when the control device 201 does not need or cannot upload the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator to the cloud and the storage space is not full.

[0034] Optional, such as Figure 2-Figure 3 As shown, the monitor 20 may include a cellular interface INT, wherein the cellular interface is used to electrically connect the monitor 20 to the cellular module 30 to be tested, so that the monitor can achieve data communication with the cellular module 30 to be tested. When there are multiple cellular modules 30 to be tested, multiple cellular interfaces may be included accordingly. In the present application, the example that the monitor can only be electrically connected to one cellular module to be tested at a time is used for explanation. However, it should be understood that if the parallel processing capability of the monitor is sufficient, the number of input and output ports is sufficient, and the power supply capacity of the power supply 40 is sufficient, the monitor can also be electrically connected to multiple cellular modules to be tested at the same time to evaluate the communication performance indicators of multiple cellular modules to be tested at the same time. In this case, the selector 203 described below can be omitted.

[0035] The control device 201 may be electrically connected to the cellular interface INT, and further connected to the cellular module 30 to be tested. For example, the control device 201 may include a plurality of input / output (I / O) ports (shown as GPIO) to be connected to the cellular interface INT, and further connected to the corresponding I / O ports of the cellular module 30 to be tested, so that data communication between the control device 201 and the cellular module 30 to be tested can be achieved.

[0036] Optionally, as described above, there may be multiple cellular interfaces, that is, there may be multiple cellular modules 30 to be tested, but in the present application, it is taken as an example that the monitor 20 can only evaluate one cellular module to be tested at a time, so in this case, the monitor 20 may also include a selector 203 (for example, a switch circuit composed of multiple switches or a multiplexer MUX, etc.). The selector 203 may connect the control device 201 to a corresponding cellular interface among the multiple cellular interfaces based on a selection control signal (CTRL1) from the control device 201, and then connect to the corresponding cellular module 30 to be tested.

[0037] The structure of the cellular interface INT can be as follows Figure 4 As shown. The cellular interface INT can adopt a unified interface, which can adapt to most cellular modules and is easy to expand. At present, most cellular modules can be controlled using AT commands on the serial port (i.e., "Uart Rxd" and "UartTxd"), that is, the control device 201 also includes multiple ports connected to the corresponding ports of the cellular interface (for example, a serial port (Serial port) for control and a port for data communication (for example, GPIO), etc.), so that the control device 201 can communicate with the cellular module to be tested (also having multiple ports connected to the corresponding ports of the cellular interface) through the cellular interface through the port to achieve control of the cellular module to be tested and data communication with it. Optionally, for compatibility, as an example, the cellular interface INT reserves 8 input / output ports (GPIO).

[0038] Optionally, the control device 201 in the monitor can obtain configuration information from the cloud 10 or obtain configuration information that is pre-hard-coded locally, and the configuration information at least indicates the type of the predetermined communication performance indicator and the identification information of the cellular module to be tested, so that the control device can obtain communication-related data associated with the cellular module to be tested for determining the predetermined communication performance indicator.

[0039] For example, there may be multiple cellular modules to be tested (electrically connected to corresponding multiple cellular interfaces respectively), and the control device 201 of the monitor 20 has successively obtained the identification (ID) of each cellular module to be tested via the electrical connection between the monitor 20 and each cellular module to be tested 10. Therefore, after extracting the ID of the cellular module to be tested from the configuration information, the control device 201 of the monitor 20 can monitor and evaluate the predetermined cellular module to be tested corresponding to the ID of the cellular module to be tested. For example, the control device 201 can generate a selection control signal based on the identification information to control the selector 203 to connect the control device 201 with the corresponding cellular module to be tested.

[0040] In addition, for each communication performance indicator, the type of communication-related data that the control device 201 of the monitor 20 needs to acquire may be different, but may also be the same and different communication performance indicators may be obtained through different processing methods at the control device 201 of the monitor 20, that is, different processing methods (for example, different algorithms or programs) are set at the control device 201 of the monitor 20 for the communication-related data that can be acquired, so that various communication performance indicators can be obtained.

[0041] In some cases, the control device 201 can obtain communication-related data from the cellular module 30 to be tested (or its data acquisition device) according to the predetermined communication performance indicator of the specified type, and further calculate or analyze the required predetermined communication performance indicator of the specified type (or send the communication-related data to the cloud for calculation or analysis). For example, for the cellular connection success rate, the control device 201 can obtain communication-related data of whether the cellular module 30 to be tested can successfully establish a connection with the base station through AT instructions, thereby calculating the connection success rate; for another example, for the cellular base station ID, the cellular module 30 can determine (for example, obtain from the cellular base station) cellular base station information (for example, base station ID, model or payload, etc.) based on the successful connection with the cellular base station, and the monitor 20 can obtain the base station ID of the base station to which the cellular module 30 is connected from the cellular module 30; for another example, for the communication quality switching event, the control device 201 can obtain the base station connection status and the ID of the connected base station by polling the cellular module 30, and associate the time and / or location (for example, obtained by the GPS / GNSS module described later) with it, thereby determining when the communication quality switching event occurs (for example, when the train passes through a tunnel).

[0042] Optionally, in other cases, after the monitor 20 establishes a connection with the cellular module 30 to be tested, the control device 201 of the monitor 20 can obtain various communication-related data from the cellular module 30 to be tested, and then filter the required communication-related data according to predetermined communication performance indicators of a specified type, and similarly calculate or analyze the communication performance indicators based on the filtered communication-related data associated with the predetermined communication performance indicators of the specified type (or send the communication-related data to the cloud for calculation or analysis).

[0043] In addition, if Figure 3 As shown, the monitor 20 may further include a data acquisition device 204 to collect other communication-related data of the cellular module 30 to be tested. For example, a digital electric meter (for example, a device with the characteristics of small size and low cost, which outputs the current battery power of the battery module after calculating and processing the input signal, such as a coulomb counter) may be set to collect energy consumption-related data (for example, battery power) of the cellular module 30 to be tested, as communication-related data of the cellular module to be tested for the energy consumption rate indicator, and provide the battery power data to the control device 201.

[0044] The data acquisition device 204 can be connected to the cellular module 30 to be tested and the control device 201 of the monitor 20, so that the data acquisition device 204 can send the collected data related to the cellular module 30 to the control device 201, so that the control device 201 can perform performance evaluation and record and / or upload the data. Optionally, in the case of multiple cellular interfaces, the monitor can also include a second selector 205 (for example, a switch circuit or a multiplexer MUX composed of multiple switches, etc.), which is used to electrically connect the data acquisition device to a corresponding cellular interface among the multiple cellular interfaces, and then connect to the corresponding cellular module 30 to be tested, so that data related to the corresponding cellular module to be tested can be collected, and the data acquisition device 204 is electrically connected to the control device 201. In addition, if the data acquisition device corresponds to the cellular interface one by one, then the second selector 205 enables or activates the corresponding data acquisition device (for example, connects the power supply 40 to the corresponding data acquisition device) in response to the second selection control signal CTRL2 of the control device 201. In addition, the figure only shows one data acquisition device for each cellular module. According to the type and number of predetermined communication performance indicators, more data acquisition devices can be set for each cellular module.

[0045] Optionally, the monitor 20 may further include a location and / or time determination module 206, such as a GPS / GNSS module. The location and / or time determination module 206 may be used to determine the location and / or time when each communication-related data is acquired, so that the control device 201 may associate each communication-related data or the communication performance index obtained by evaluation with the corresponding location and / or time and record them, such as caching or storing them in a list. Optionally, the control device 201 may include a port or interface electrically connected to an external storage device, such as a serial port, so that the location and / or time information can be obtained from the location and / or time determination module. In some cases, if only time information is needed, the location and / or time determination module 206 may not be set, but the cellular module to be tested 30 may provide the control device 201 with time information, such as the cellular module to be tested implements clock synchronization based on communication with a cellular base station, so that accurate time information can be obtained.

[0046] Optionally, the configuration information may also include one or more of the monitoring stop conditions (for example, the duration of each monitoring and evaluation process), the experiment number threshold (the preset number of experiments for predetermined communication performance indicators), whether location and / or time information is required, whether to start the monitoring and evaluation process immediately, or whether to upload data to the cloud, etc.

[0047] For example, based on the configuration information obtained from the cloud (for example, when the cloud service is fully available) or hard-coded locally (for example, when the cloud service is partially unavailable), after the control device 201 starts to monitor the predetermined communication performance indicator of a certain cellular module to be tested, that is, after starting to obtain communication-related data, if the control device 201 determines that the monitoring stop condition is met (for example, it has lasted for a long enough time) and it is necessary to upload data to the cloud (for example, it can be determined based on the configuration information), then the control device 201 can upload the determined predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator to the cloud via the current cellular module to be tested based on the available network connection between the cellular module to be tested and the cloud. Alternatively, if the control device 201 determines that the monitoring stop condition is met but it is not necessary to upload data to the cloud, and the storage space of the storage device is not full, the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator is stored in the storage device. Alternatively, if the control device 201 determines that the monitoring stop condition is met but data does not need to be uploaded to the cloud, and the storage space of the storage device is full, then based on the available network connection between the cellular module to be tested and the cloud, the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator is uploaded to the cloud, even if it has been determined according to the configuration information that data does not need to be uploaded to it (if there is no available network connection, the operation is stopped). Alternatively, if the control device 201 determines that the monitoring stop condition is met and data cannot be uploaded to the cloud (the configuration information indicates that uploading is required), when the storage space of the storage device is not full, the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator is stored in the storage device (these data can be uploaded to the cloud after the network connection is restored), and when the storage space of the storage device is full, the operation is stopped. Optionally, the control device 201 can determine whether the network connection between the cellular module to be tested and the cloud is available to determine whether it has the ability to upload data to the cloud, which can be determined based on the communication between the control device 201 and the cellular module to be tested.

[0048] In other cases, the cloud service is unavailable or partially unavailable, so that configuration information cannot be obtained from the cloud. The locally hard-coded configuration information may include an explicit indication that data does not need to be uploaded to the cloud (i.e., the cloud service is unavailable) or may not include the indication to implicitly indicate that the cloud service is unavailable (i.e., there is no need to upload data to the cloud), so that the control device 201 can determine that data does not need to be uploaded to the cloud based on the configuration information, and / or the control device 201 can determine that the network connection between the cellular module to be tested and the cloud is unavailable and thus data cannot be uploaded to the cloud (for example, in an application scenario of evaluating the energy consumption rate of weak coverage). At this time, the control device 201 is further used to: when it is determined that the monitoring stop condition is met and the storage space of the storage device is not full, store the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator in the storage device; and / or stop working when it is determined that the monitoring stop condition is met and the storage space of the storage device is full.

[0049] Optionally, as described above, the operations performed by the control device 201 involve data uploading and storage, wherein each process in which the control device 201 obtains (for example, completes recording) the data to be uploaded or stored (communication performance indicator data or communication-related data used to determine it) can be regarded as an experiment during the monitoring and evaluation of predetermined communication performance indicators. At this time, the configuration information can also include an experiment number threshold, so the control device 201 can also perform the following operations: each time an experiment is completed, the experiment count is updated; each time data is uploaded to the cloud, the current experiment count is checked, and when the current experiment count reaches the experiment number threshold, that is, for the predetermined communication performance indicator of the cellular module to be tested specified in this configuration information, a sufficient number of communication performance indicators or communication-related data used to determine the communication performance indicator (these data have been uploaded or stored) have been obtained, and the accuracy can be guaranteed. At this time, if the cloud service is available, new configuration information is obtained from the cloud, so that the next round of communication performance indicator corresponding to the newly acquired configuration information can be monitored and evaluated based on the newly acquired configuration information. If the cloud service is unavailable (this application assumes that the two methods of obtaining configuration information from the cloud and pre-hard-coding configuration information locally are optional, so there is no hard-coded configuration information), new configuration information cannot be obtained from the cloud, so the control device 201 stops working.

[0050] Similarly, the control device 201 may also perform the following operations: each time an experiment is completed, the experiment count is updated; each time the storage device stores data, the current experiment count is checked, and when the current experiment count reaches the experiment number threshold, based on the available network connection between the cellular module to be tested and the cloud, the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator is uploaded to the cloud. If data cannot be uploaded to the cloud (for example, the network connection between the cellular module to be tested and the cloud is unavailable), the control device 201 stops working.

[0051] In this way, for predetermined communication performance indicators (for example, connection success rate), the control device 201 can record multiple communication performance indicator data or associated communication-related data, and upload them to the cloud or store them in a storage device, which can improve the accuracy of the obtained evaluation results.

[0052] The above is based on Figure 2-Figure 4 To describe the various components and the more details of the operation associated with the system of the communication performance index of the evaluation cellular module, such a system, in addition to the previously described benefits, the cellular interface can be adapted to most types of cellular modules, so the adaptability of the system is high. Because the position and / or time determination module is also optionally provided, the communication performance index monitored and evaluated can be associated with the corresponding position and / or time record, and then the recorded performance data can be made clearer and more comprehensive, and can be used to upload to the cloud for the cloud to obtain more information based on the communication performance index data at different positions and / or times or communication-related data in combination with different positions and / or time analysis. In addition, the reasonable processing mode (upload or storage) of the communication performance index obtained by evaluation can also be selected according to factors such as cloud capacity and the storage capacity and / or network connection of the monitor, which can enhance the adaptability of the system.

[0053] In combination with the above description of the system for evaluating the communication performance index, in order to better describe the operation performed by the control device 201 in the monitor, the following specifically describes the process of the control device 201 evaluating the communication performance index of the cellular module to be tested in different situations. It should be noted that the following process is only used as an example and is not limited to all situations. For example, the different situations can be divided into the following three types:

[0054] Case 1: The control device can obtain configuration information from the cloud (the cloud provides services normally) and can upload data to the cloud (for example, the network connection between the cellular module to be tested and the cloud is available);

[0055] Case 2—the control device cannot obtain configuration information from the cloud, but can upload data to the cloud (the cloud service is partially available, and the network connection between the cellular module under test and the cloud is available); and

[0056] Case 3 - The control device cannot obtain configuration information from the cloud and cannot upload data to the cloud (the network connection between the cellular module under test and the cloud is unavailable, regardless of whether the cloud service is available).

[0057] Figure 5 A schematic diagram showing a process of evaluating the communication performance index of a cellular module to be tested executed by the control device 201 in case 1 according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0058] like Figure 5 As shown, in process 1, the control device 201 can obtain configuration information from the cloud. For example, one or more currently existing cellular modules can be scanned as described above, so as to obtain the configuration information via a cellular module that can communicate with the cloud. Optionally, the configuration information can be in the form of a .json file. The configuration information can specify the cellular module to be tested, the type of communication performance indicator to be recorded, and can specify the monitoring stop condition (for example, the duration of each monitoring and evaluation process), the experiment number threshold (that is, the preset number of experiments for the predetermined communication performance indicator), whether the location and / or measurement time information is required, or whether it is necessary to upload data to the cloud. One or more.

[0059] In process 2, as an optional process, if location and / or time information is required (for example, obtained based on configuration information), the control device 201 can send a control signal to the location and / or time module to enable or activate the module (the GPS module is taken as an example in the figure); otherwise, the control signal will not be sent, that is, the location and / or time module is turned off, thereby reducing power consumption and extending the battery life of the monitor 20.

[0060] In process 3, the control device 201 can determine whether to start the monitoring and evaluation process, for example, start the process in response to a received start command (for example, a start command generated based on a user operation or a start command generated based on timing information in the configuration information).

[0061] In process 4, when the monitoring and evaluation process begins, the control device 201 may start acquiring the required communication-related data based on the cellular module to be tested determined from the configuration information and the type of communication performance indicators to be recorded, and evaluate and record the communication performance indicators, or record the communication-related data used to evaluate the communication performance indicators, and upload the acquired communication-related data for evaluating the communication performance indicators to the cloud in the subsequent process 7.

[0062] In process 5, it is determined whether the monitoring stop condition is met. When the monitoring stop condition is met, that is, the control device 201 has started the monitoring and evaluation process for a predetermined duration or received a stop command (for example, a stop command generated based on a user operation or based on timing information in the configuration information), the experiment count (COUNT) is updated in process 6 and it is determined whether the data needs to be uploaded to the cloud (in this case, the network connection between the cellular module to be tested and the cloud (for example, via a cellular base station) is available), for example, based on the configuration information.

[0063] If the judgment result in process 6 is "yes", the control device 201 can upload the completed communication performance indicators or communication-related data used to evaluate the communication performance indicators to the cloud via the cellular module to be tested in process 7. Optionally, the experiment number threshold can also be configured in the configuration information. Therefore, in process 8, it is determined whether the current experiment count reaches the experiment number threshold. If so, the control device 201 goes to process 1 to reacquire the configuration information, otherwise, the monitoring and evaluation process is started again to conduct a new experiment, that is, returning to process 4.

[0064] If the judgment result in process 6 is "No", then in process 9, it is determined whether the storage space of the storage device is full. If not, the control device 201 can store the recorded data (communication performance indicators or communication-related data used to determine the communication performance indicators) in the storage device in process 10, and check the current experiment count in process 11, and determine whether the current experiment count reaches the experiment number threshold. If the experiment number threshold is not reached (that is, the count has not expired), the monitoring and evaluation process is started again to conduct a new experiment, that is, return to process 4.

[0065] If it is determined in process 9 that the storage space is full, since the network connection between the cellular module to be tested and the cloud is available in case 1, in order to avoid data loss, the control device 201 can also go to process 7 to upload the recorded data to the cloud via the cellular module to be tested. If it is determined in process 11 that the current experiment count reaches the experiment number threshold, the control device 201 can also go to process 7 to upload the recorded data to the cloud via the cellular module to be tested.

[0066] Figure 6 A schematic diagram showing a process of evaluating the communication performance index of a cellular module to be tested executed by the control device 201 in situation 2 according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0067] In this case, the control device 201 cannot obtain the configuration information from the cloud, so the configuration information hard-coded locally can be obtained in process 1. For example, the configuration information can be pre-set default configuration information, or the control device 201 can receive the user-coded configuration information after outputting a reminder message that the configuration information cannot be obtained from the cloud. Similarly, the configuration information can be in the form of a .json file. The configuration information can specify the type of cellular module to be tested and the communication performance indicator to be recorded, and can optionally specify a monitoring stop condition (for example, the duration of each monitoring and evaluation process) and an experiment number threshold (i.e., a predetermined number of experiments for a predetermined communication performance indicator), whether location and / or measurement time information is required, or whether data needs to be uploaded to the cloud. One or more of them.

[0068] Figure 6 The process and Figure 5 The process in is basically similar, so its detailed description is omitted. In this case, since the control device 201 cannot obtain configuration information from the cloud, if it is determined in process 8 that the current experiment count reaches the experiment number threshold, the monitoring and evaluation process is stopped in process 12, otherwise the monitoring and evaluation process is continued to perform a new experiment, that is, return to process 4.

[0069] Figure 7 A schematic diagram showing a process of evaluating the communication performance index of the cellular module to be tested executed by the control device 201 in case 3 according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0070] In this case, the control device 201 cannot obtain configuration information from the cloud, so in process 1, the configuration information hard-coded locally can be obtained. For example, the configuration information can be the default configuration information set, or the configuration information encoded by the user can be received after the reminder message that the configuration information cannot be obtained from the cloud is output. Similarly, the configuration information can be in the form of a .json file. The configuration information can specify the type of cellular module to be tested and the communication performance indicator to be recorded, and can optionally specify one or more of the experiment number threshold (i.e., the predetermined number of experiments for the predetermined communication performance indicator), whether location and / or measurement time information is required, or whether data needs to be uploaded to the cloud.

[0071] In process 2, as an optional process, if location and / or time information is required (for example, obtained based on configuration information), the control device 201 can send a control signal to the location and / or time module to enable or activate the module; otherwise, the control signal will not be sent, that is, the location and / or time module is turned off.

[0072] In process 3, the control device 201 can respond to a start command (for example, a start command generated based on a user operation) and start acquiring the required communication-related data based on the cellular module to be tested and the type of communication performance indicators to be recorded determined from the configuration information, and evaluate and record the communication performance indicators, or record the communication-related data used to evaluate the communication performance indicators.

[0073] In process 4, when the monitoring stop condition is met, that is, the control device 201 has started the monitoring and evaluation process for a predetermined duration or received a stop command (for example, a stop command generated based on a user operation), the control device 201 can update the current experiment count in process 5, and because the network connection between the cellular module to be tested and the cloud (for example, via a cellular base station) is not available at this time, it is further determined whether the storage device has any free storage space. If so, in process 6, the recorded communication performance indicators or communication-related data used to evaluate the communication performance indicators are stored in the storage device via the cellular module to be tested.

[0074] If it is determined in process 5 that the storage space is full, then in process 7, since the network connection between the cellular module to be tested and the cloud is unavailable, the control device 201 can only stop the monitoring and evaluation process.

[0075] In addition, in process 8, it is determined whether the current experiment count reaches the experiment number threshold. If not (that is, the monitoring and evaluation process has been repeated less than the predetermined number of times), the monitoring and evaluation process is started again to conduct a new experiment, that is, returning to process 3; otherwise, the monitoring and evaluation process is stopped.

[0076] The above exemplary description of the monitoring and evaluation process performed at the control device for the above three situations is provided. It should be understood that although the various processes are shown in a certain order in these examples, these processes can be performed in different orders if it is logical, and the present disclosure does not limit this.

[0077] Accordingly, according to another aspect of the present application, a method for monitoring and evaluating communication performance indicators is also provided.

[0078] Figure 8 A flow chart of a method for monitoring and evaluating communication performance indicators according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. The method can be performed by a portable device (such as the monitor described above, specifically its control device). The portable device has the ability to communicate with the cloud and communicate with the cloud or not communicate with the cloud in different scenarios, and has the ability to monitor, record and / or process communication-related data related to each of a plurality of communication performance indicators for determining the corresponding communication performance indicators.

[0079] like Figure 8As shown, in step 810, the type of the predetermined communication performance indicator for the cellular module to be tested and the identification information of the cellular module to be tested are determined based on the configuration information.

[0080] In step S820, communication-related data of the cellular module to be tested for determining the predetermined communication performance indicator is obtained based on the type and the identification information, and the predetermined communication performance indicator of the cellular module to be tested is determined and recorded based on the communication-related data, or the communication-related data for determining the predetermined communication performance indicator is recorded.

[0081] For example, as described above, the configuration information can specify the type of cellular module to be tested or the type of communication performance indicator to be recorded, so that the control device in the monitor can connect to the corresponding cellular module to be tested and obtain the corresponding communication-related data, perform performance evaluation and recording based on the data, or directly record the communication-related data (when the evaluation operation is performed in the cloud).

[0082] In step S830, when it is necessary and possible to upload data to the cloud, the predetermined communication performance indicator or communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator is uploaded to the cloud via the cellular module to be tested.

[0083] In step S840, when it is not necessary or impossible to upload data to the cloud and the storage space is not full, the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator is stored in the storage device of the device.

[0084] More details on these steps can be found in Figure 2-Figure 4 The description is not repeated here.

[0085] Accordingly, according to another aspect of the present application, a system for monitoring and evaluating communication performance indicators is also provided. The system may be Figure 1 The system shown in FIG. 1 may include: one or more cellular modules to be tested; as previously described with reference to FIG. Figure 2-7 The described monitor is used to evaluate the communication performance of each of the one or more cellular modules to be tested; and the cloud is used to communicate data (for example, remote configuration and data exchange) with the monitor via one of the one or more cellular modules to be tested.

[0086] As an example, the control device of the monitor of the present application may include a processor and a memory connected through a system bus, and the monitor may also include a network interface, an input device, a display screen, etc. Among them, the memory includes a non-volatile storage medium and an internal memory. The non-volatile storage medium of the computer device stores an operating system and may also store a computer executable program. When the computer executable program is executed by the processor, the processor can implement various operations performed by the control device as described above. The internal memory may also store a computer executable program. When the computer executable program is executed by the processor, the processor can implement various operations performed by the control device as described above.

[0087] The processor can be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capabilities. The above processor can be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gates or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components. The disclosed methods, steps and logic block diagrams in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented or executed. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or the processor can also be any conventional processor, etc., which can be an X84 architecture or an ARM architecture.

[0088] The non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or a flash memory. It should be noted that the memory of the methods described herein is intended to include, but is not limited to, these and any other suitable categories of memory.

[0089] The display screen can be a liquid crystal display screen or an electronic ink display screen, and the input device of the computer device can be a touch layer covering the display screen, or a key, trackball or touchpad set on the terminal shell, or an external keyboard, touchpad or mouse.

[0090] It should be noted that the flowcharts and block diagrams in the accompanying drawings illustrate the possible architecture, functions and operations of the methods and devices according to various embodiments of the present application. In this regard, each box in the flowchart or block diagram can represent a module, a program segment, or a part of a code, and the module, program segment, or a part of the code contains at least one executable instruction for realizing a specified logical function. It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions marked in the box can also occur in a different order from the order marked in the accompanying drawings. For example, two boxes represented in succession can actually be executed substantially in parallel, and they can sometimes be executed in the opposite order, depending on the functions involved. It should also be noted that each box in the block diagram and / or flowchart, and the combination of boxes in the block diagram and / or flowchart can be implemented with a dedicated hardware-based system that performs a specified function or operation, or can be implemented with a combination of dedicated hardware and computer instructions.

[0091] The embodiments of the present application described in detail above are merely illustrative and not restrictive. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications and combinations may be made to these embodiments or their features without departing from the principles and spirit of the present application, and such modifications should fall within the scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A portable device for determining a communication performance index of a cellular module, wherein: The portable device has the ability to communicate with the cloud and communicates with the cloud or does not communicate with the cloud in different scenarios, and the portable device includes: A control device having the capability of monitoring, recording and / or processing communication-related data related to each of a plurality of communication performance indicators for determining the corresponding communication performance indicators, and being used for: Determining the type of the predetermined communication performance indicator and identification information of the cellular module to be tested based on the configuration information; Acquire communication-related data of the cellular module to be tested for determining the predetermined communication performance indicator based on the type and the identification information, and determine and record the predetermined communication performance indicator of the cellular module to be tested based on the communication-related data, or record the communication-related data for determining the predetermined communication performance indicator; and When it is necessary and possible to upload data to the cloud, uploading the predetermined communication performance indicator or communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator to the cloud via the cellular module to be tested; and A storage device is used to store the predetermined communication performance indicator or communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator when it is not necessary or impossible to upload data to the cloud and the storage space is not full.

2. The portable device according to claim 1, wherein: The control device is also used to obtain configuration information from the cloud, or The control device is further configured to use the configuration information preset locally.

3. The portable device according to claim 1, wherein: The configuration information also includes an indication of whether data needs to be uploaded to the cloud and monitoring stop conditions. The control device is also used to: In response to the monitoring stop condition being met and determining that data needs to be uploaded to the cloud, uploading the predetermined communication performance indicator or communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator to the cloud via the cellular module to be tested based on an available network connection between the cellular module to be tested and the cloud; and / or In response to the monitoring stop condition being met, and determining that there is no need to upload data to the cloud and the storage space of the storage device is not full, storing the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator in the storage device; and / or In response to the monitoring stop condition being met, and determining that there is no need to upload data to the cloud and the storage space of the storage device is full, based on the available network connection between the cellular module to be tested and the cloud, the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator is uploaded to the cloud via the cellular module to be tested.

4. The portable device according to claim 1, wherein: The configuration information also includes monitoring stop conditions, and the control device is further used for: In response to the monitoring stop condition being satisfied and determining that the storage space of the storage device is not full, storing the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator into the storage device; and / or In response to the monitoring stop condition being met and determining that the storage space of the storage device is full, the operation is stopped.

5. The portable device according to claim 3 or 4, wherein: The configuration information also includes a threshold value for the number of experiments, and the control device completes a process of recording the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator as one experiment, and the control device is further used to: In response to the monitoring stop condition being met, updating the current experiment count; Checking the current experiment count each time after uploading data to the cloud, and in response to the current experiment count reaching the experiment number threshold, obtaining new configuration information from the cloud if the service on the cloud is available, or stopping the operation if the service on the cloud is not available; and / or Whenever the current experiment count is checked after data is stored in the storage device, and in response to the current experiment count reaching the experiment number threshold, based on the available network connection between the cellular module to be tested and the cloud, the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator is uploaded to the cloud via the cellular module to be tested, or the operation is stopped when the available network connection does not exist.

6. The portable device according to claim 2, wherein: The cellular module to be tested is one of a plurality of cellular modules, and the portable device further comprises: a plurality of cellular interfaces, used for installing and connecting the plurality of cellular modules respectively, and having a connection capability with the control device; and A selector is used to connect the control device to the cellular module to be tested via a corresponding cellular interface among the multiple interfaces according to a selection control signal from the control device. The control device generates the selection control signal based on the identification information of the cellular module to be tested, and determines the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator based on the type of the predetermined communication performance indicator of the cellular module to be tested.

7. The portable device according to claim 1, wherein: The portable device further comprises a position and / or time determination module, which is used to determine the position and / or monitoring time of the cellular module to be tested. The control device is also used to obtain the position and / or monitoring time, and associate the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator with the corresponding position and / or monitoring time.

8. The portable device according to claim 1, wherein: The predetermined communication performance indicator includes an energy consumption rate, and the portable device further includes: a digital electric meter connected to the cellular module to be tested and the battery module, and measuring the battery power data of the battery module as the communication related data of the cellular module to be tested, and providing the battery power data to the control device, Wherein, the battery module is used to provide power to the cellular module to be tested and the portable device.

9. The portable device according to claim 1, wherein: The predetermined communication performance indicators include a cellular module-cloud connection success rate, a cellular base station identification (ID) or a data upload success rate, The control device receives the communication-related data from the cellular module to be tested, and the communication-related data includes data related to the communication between the cellular module to be tested and a cellular base station.

10. A method for determining a communication performance indicator of a cellular module, performed by a portable device, wherein the portable device has the ability to communicate with the cloud and communicate with the cloud or not communicate with the cloud in different scenarios, and has the ability to monitor, record and / or process communication-related data related to each of a plurality of communication performance indicators for determining the corresponding communication performance indicator, the method comprising: Determine, based on the configuration information, the type of the predetermined communication performance indicator for the cellular module to be tested and the identification information of the cellular module to be tested; Acquire communication-related data of the cellular module to be tested for determining the predetermined communication performance indicator based on the type and the identification information, and determine and record the predetermined communication performance indicator of the cellular module to be tested based on the communication-related data, or record the communication-related data for determining the predetermined communication performance indicator; When it is necessary and possible to upload data to the cloud, uploading the predetermined communication performance indicator or communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator to the cloud via the cellular module to be tested; as well as When it is not necessary or impossible to upload data to the cloud and the storage space of the storage device is not full, the predetermined communication performance indicator or the communication-related data used to determine the predetermined communication performance indicator is stored in the storage device.

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