Wireless communication system of industrial instrument

Abstract

The invention relates to the technical field of industrial instrument communication, in particular to a wireless communication system of an industrial instrument, which comprises a plurality of data acquisition modules, and each data acquisition module comprises one or more different industrial instruments serving as terminal equipment for executing a data acquisition task and uploading acquired data; the repeater is used for receiving the data uploaded by all the industrial instruments and uploading the data to the server after power amplification; wherein the different industrial instruments are respectively used for sending data to the repeater through a shared frequency band in different time windows, so as to stagger data collision. The wireless communication system of the industrial instrument is constructed based on a terminal-repeater-gateway network structure, so that the certainty of the power consumption of the terminal equipment is guaranteed, and the power consumption is reduced. Meanwhile, the method of unified time service of the gateway and time division multiplexing of the repeater is utilized, multi-terminal data collection of the repeater at a certain high-frequency refreshing speed is achieved, and the problem of data collision in point-to-point wireless communication is solved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of industrial instrument communication, and in particular relates to a wireless communication system for industrial instruments. Background Art

[0002] Industrial instruments are widely used in many industries such as petrochemicals, steel and metallurgy, cement and building materials, energy and electricity, biochemical and pharmaceutical industries. In the industrial production process, production data needs to be collected and transmitted. Industrial instruments are divided into wired instruments and wireless instruments in terms of data transmission. Compared with wired instruments, wireless instruments are more flexible and convenient in industrial sites, avoiding wiring and significantly reducing high construction costs. In addition, since the instruments on site are basically installed at fixed points and their positions no longer change after installation, the transmission of wireless instruments is non-mobile. In view of these characteristics, an industrial real-time wireless instrument network system is designed accordingly.

[0003] However, the existing wireless instrument network system uses a self-organizing network to communicate. After completing its own data collection task, the instrument also acts as a repeater to forward the data of other instruments. In addition, due to the unstable transmission path of the network, the power consumption of the instrument acting as a repeater is also uncertain. At the same time, in order to reduce the power consumption of the instrument, the instrument is controlled to upload data once every 30 minutes or even longer, and the transmission power needs to be adjusted to the maximum to achieve long-distance data transmission, which cannot meet the real-time requirements of industrial wireless communication and the low power consumption requirements of the instrument.

[0004] In addition, the existing wireless instrument network system uses frequent frequency hopping technology to avoid data collision problems, which also increases the uncertainty of the transmission path. Summary of the invention

[0005] In view of the shortcomings of the prior art described above, the purpose of the present invention is to propose an industrial instrument wireless communication system based on a terminal-repeater-gateway structure to ensure the certainty of power consumption of terminal equipment and reduce power consumption. At the same time, by using the method of unified timing of the gateway and time-division multiplexing of the repeater, the repeater can collect multi-terminal data at a certain high-frequency refresh speed, solving the data collision problem in point-to-point wireless communication.

[0006] To achieve the above-mentioned purpose and other related purposes, the present invention provides a wireless communication system for industrial instruments, comprising: a plurality of data acquisition modules, wherein the data acquisition modules include: one or more different industrial instruments, which are used as terminal devices to perform data acquisition tasks and upload the collected data; a repeater, which is used to receive the data uploaded by all the industrial instruments and upload it to a server after power amplification; wherein different industrial instruments are used to send data to the repeater through a common frequency band in different time windows to avoid data collision; According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, it also includes: a gateway, which is used to receive data uploaded by all repeaters and upload it to the server in a unified manner; wherein the gateway is also used to synchronize all repeaters in a unified manner and configure them so that different repeaters use different frequency bands to upload data in different time windows.

[0007] According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, when the industrial instrument is connected to the network for the first time, it is used to perform time synchronization based on the time calibration signal sent by the repeater; and after the industrial instrument is connected to the network, it is used to send data to the corresponding repeater after a preset delay time based on the configured short address; wherein the short address configured for each industrial instrument in the data acquisition module is different, so that all industrial instruments send data to the corresponding repeater in different time windows within a time period.

[0008] According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, the industrial instrument is further configured to enter a sleep mode after sending data to stop occupying the current frequency band, and send data to the corresponding repeater in the same time window of the next time period.

[0009] According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, the repeater is used to send a time calibration signal at the beginning of each time period; and when the number of data transmissions exceeds a preset value, the industrial instrument is also used to re-synchronize the time according to the time calibration signal sent by the repeater.

[0010] According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, the industrial instrument is also used to detect whether the current frequency band is occupied before sending data: if so, wait to enter the redundant window and send data through another frequency band; if not, start sending data; wherein, one or more redundant windows are set for each time period, and do not interfere with the time window for sending data by the industrial instrument.

[0011] According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, the industrial instrument is also used to compress the number of bytes of the transmitted data to a minimum, and only retain the main variables and instrument status data, so as to reduce the time of transmitting the data.

[0012] According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, the gateway is also used to remotely configure the industrial instrument in a low-power working mode according to the configuration instructions issued by the server.

[0013] According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, after receiving the configuration instruction sent by the server, the gateway is used to send it to the corresponding repeater in the network access and configuration window; after receiving the configuration instruction sent by the gateway, the repeater is used to mark the time window for sending the time calibration signal to notify the industrial instrument of the configuration requirement and send the configuration instruction in the network access and configuration window; after identifying the mark, the industrial instrument is used to receive the configuration instruction sent by the repeater in the network access and configuration window, and feedback the corresponding configuration information; wherein, a network access and configuration window is set for each time period, and it does not interfere with the time window for sending data.

[0014] According to a specific embodiment of the present invention, the frequency bands used by different repeaters to send data differ by at least more than 500k.

[0015] The present invention provides a wireless communication system applied to the field of industrial instruments, which adopts a terminal-repeater-gateway network architecture, and the communication path from the terminal to the gateway is determined. While meeting the low power consumption of the terminal, the power amplification of the repeater meets the long-distance communication requirements. In addition, point-to-point communication is adopted, and the terminal is in a fixed network format after accessing the network. This method has no frequency modulation switching, which improves the stability of the network.

[0016] At the same time, the repeater adopts time-division multiplexing mode, through the unified timing mechanism of the gateway, the terminal uploads data in time according to the short address defined when entering the network, which not only avoids data collision, but also increases the number of access terminals. In addition, the data receiving frequency of each group of repeaters is different, which avoids mutual interference between repeaters.

[0017] The present invention also sets a redundancy mechanism so that when the frequency band for sending data by the terminal is occupied, the redundant window and other frequency bands are used to send data, thereby improving the reliability of data communication. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a structure of a specific embodiment of a wireless communication system for industrial instruments provided by the present invention; Figure 2 A schematic structural diagram of another specific embodiment of a wireless communication system for industrial instruments provided by the present invention; Figure 3 A timing diagram of a specific embodiment of data communication between an industrial instrument and a repeater provided by the present invention; Figure 4 This is a timing diagram of a specific embodiment of the repeater and gateway provided by the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] In order to facilitate understanding of the present application, the present application will be described more fully below with reference to the relevant drawings. Embodiments of the present application are provided in the drawings. However, the present application can be implemented in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein. On the contrary, the purpose of providing these embodiments is to make the disclosure of the present application more thorough and comprehensive.

[0020] Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as those commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this application belongs. The terms used herein in the specification of this application are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments and are not intended to limit this application.

[0021] The following describes the embodiments of the present invention by specific examples, and those skilled in the art can easily understand other advantages and effects of the present invention from the contents disclosed in this specification. The present invention can also be implemented or applied through other different specific embodiments, and the details in this specification can also be modified or changed in various ways based on different viewpoints and applications without departing from the spirit of the present invention. It should be noted that the following embodiments and features in the embodiments can be combined with each other without conflict.

[0022] In the following description, numerous details are discussed to provide a more thorough explanation of the embodiments of the present invention. However, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present invention can be implemented without these specific details. In other embodiments, well-known structures and devices are shown in the form of block diagrams rather than in detail to avoid making the embodiments of the present invention difficult to understand.

[0023] Example 1 See also Figure 1, a wireless communication system for industrial instruments shown in Figure 2 is composed of several data acquisition modules 10 and a gateway. Among them, the data acquisition module 10 is composed of multiple industrial instruments 11 and a repeater 12, and in this embodiment, the industrial instrument 11 is used as a terminal device only to perform data acquisition tasks to collect field data, while the repeater 12 is responsible for collecting data collected by all industrial instruments under its control. It can be understood here that in actual applications, a repeater can be configured to be responsible for controlling industrial instruments in an area, or a certain number of industrial instruments, to collect data uploaded by all industrial instruments, and then upload them to the gateway in a unified manner. Accordingly, the long-distance transmission of data is achieved through data aggregation and power amplification of the repeater, which reduces the transmission power of the industrial instrument used to send data. Therefore, for each data acquisition module 10, the repeater 12 therein is used as a data transfer station, which needs to be responsible for collecting the data collected by all industrial instruments. Of course, all the industrial instruments mentioned here are only the parts that the repeater is responsible for controlling, not all the industrial instruments in the entire system. Based on the above-mentioned terminal-repeater-gateway communication structure, a huge wireless communication system can be formed.

[0024] It should be noted that there is no limit on the number of industrial instruments that a repeater in a data acquisition module is responsible for, and it can be configured according to the actual scene requirements. For example, it can be one industrial instrument or multiple industrial instruments, but from a cost perspective, a repeater needs to be responsible for more industrial instruments within its capabilities as much as possible to reduce the number of repeaters configured. In this regard, the modifications and embellishments made to the embodiments of the present invention by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention still fall within the scope of the invention application patent of the present invention. The main purpose of this application is to provide a wireless communication system with a terminal-repeater-gateway communication structure, and to apply it to the data transmission of industrial instruments. Although a wireless communication system can also be constructed based on an ad hoc network, and each node in the ad hoc network can be used as both a terminal device and a repeater, this application takes into account the power consumption of industrial instruments. If an ad hoc network is used, in order to avoid excessive power consumption of industrial instruments, uploading data requires an interval of 30 minutes or even longer, which cannot meet the requirements of data real-time performance. However, the transmission power required for forwarding data of other terminal devices and the excessively high transmission frequency does not meet the requirements of low power consumption of industrial instruments. Therefore, based on the above problems, this application redesigns the wireless communication system of industrial instruments.

[0025] Furthermore, in order to avoid the problem of data collision during data transmission, the present application adopts the method of unified timing of the gateway and time-division multiplexing of the repeater.

[0026] First, for data transmission between industrial instruments 11 and repeaters 12, different industrial instruments can send data to corresponding repeaters 12 in different time windows within a time period, thereby staggering the data transmission period and effectively avoiding the problem of data collision. Specifically, the repeater 12 will send a time calibration signal at the beginning of each time period, and when any industrial instrument 11 is connected to the network for the first time, that is, a communication link is established with the repeater 12, and time synchronization is performed with the repeater 12 through the time calibration signal to ensure that the industrial instrument 11 and the repeater 12 can transmit data in the same time period. Moreover, when the industrial instrument 11 is connected to the network, it will start sending data to the repeater 12 after a preset delay time according to the pre-configured short address. For example, if the short address of the industrial instrument 11 is set to 1, it will send data after a delay of one unit of time after time synchronization according to the time calibration signal; if the short address of the industrial instrument 11 is set to 2, it will send data after a delay of two units of time after time synchronization according to the time calibration signal; if the short address of the industrial instrument 11 is set to 3, it will send data after a delay of three units of time after time synchronization according to the time calibration signal, and so on; correspondingly, if there are multiple industrial instruments 11, since the industrial instruments 11 have been time synchronized, different industrial instruments 11 will send data according to the same time period, that is, within a time period, industrial instrument A sends data after a delay of one unit of time, industrial instrument B sends data after a delay of two units of time, and industrial instrument C sends data after a delay of three units of time, thereby realizing the sequential uploading of data.

[0027] It can be understood here that, since the time calibration signal is sent by the repeater 12 at the beginning of each time period, the corresponding industrial instrument 11 will delay a preset time to send data in the time period after the first time synchronization, and this sending time is the time window for the industrial instrument 11 to send data, and the industrial instrument 11 will subsequently send data to the repeater 12 according to this time window in each time period. Therefore, the industrial instrument 11 will send data after a preset time delay according to the configured short address in the first time period, and enter the sleep mode after the sending is completed to reduce power consumption and stop occupying the current frequency band, and the next time to send data is at an interval of a time period, so that data can be sent in the time window corresponding to the next time period. For example, the time period is 1s, and the corresponding industrial instrument 11 sends data for the first time according to the configured short address delay, and then sends data once every 1s, so that the problem of data collision between different industrial instruments can always be kept. In each time period, each industrial instrument will send data in sequence.

[0028] It should also be added that, since all industrial instruments share a frequency band, that is, a transmission channel to transmit data to the corresponding repeater, it is necessary to avoid data collision in the above manner. In addition, in order to further ensure data transmission between the industrial instrument 11 and the repeater 12, a redundancy mechanism is also added. Specifically, Figure 3 As shown, a time segment used by the repeater 12 to send a time calibration signal within a time period can be defined as a time calibration window, and the time window for the industrial instrument 11 to send data to the repeater 12 cannot occupy the time calibration window. Secondly, all industrial instruments 11 send data to the repeater 12 in turn according to preset conditions, and all corresponding time windows can be integrated into a large time segment, that is, a data receiving window. In addition, a redundant window, that is, a redundant receiving window, is reserved within a time period to cope with some emergencies. For example, all industrial instruments in the same data acquisition module 10 share a frequency band to send data to the repeater 12. Each corresponding industrial instrument can detect the frequency band before sending data, that is, channel (frequency band) activity detection, to identify whether the current frequency band is occupied by other industrial instruments. It can be understood here that there may be some unexpected factors that cause a certain industrial instrument to be unable to complete data transmission within the corresponding time window, thereby continuing to occupy the frequency band, causing the next industrial instrument to be unable to send data through the frequency band. Therefore, if the frequency band is occupied at this time, you can wait until the redundant window to send data, thereby improving the reliability of data transmission. Of course, if it is not occupied, data can be sent to the repeater 12 according to the original time window. Among them, when the industrial instrument uses the redundant window to send data, it can continue to use the original shared frequency band for sending, or use another frequency band for sending. It can be configured according to the actual situation. For example, sending data in the redundant window may be affected by interference and other factors. Other frequency bands can be used to send data. There are no excessive restrictions on this. The modifications and modifications made to the embodiments of the present invention by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention still fall within the scope of the invention application of the present invention.

[0029] It should be noted that although the repeater 12 always keeps sending the time calibration signal at the beginning of each time period, it is only to ensure that each industrial instrument can perform time synchronization according to it when entering the network, and the industrial instrument 11 only performs time synchronization according to the time calibration signal sent by the repeater 12 when entering the network for the first time, and then directly sends data once every time period. Of course, in order to avoid the time deviation caused by the crystal oscillator, after the industrial instrument sends data a certain number of times, that is, the number of times the data is sent exceeds the preset value, it can re-synchronize according to the time calibration signal of the repeater 12, and continue to send data after a preset time delay according to the configured short address, and keep sending data in this time window in the subsequent time period, which will not be described in detail.

[0030] like Figure 3 As shown, each time period also retains a data sending window for the repeater 12 to upload data to the gateway, as well as a network access and configuration window, etc. Of course, there is no restriction on the order of the windows in the above time period, and they can be adjusted freely, all within the scope of protection of this application.

[0031] Based on the above, different industrial instruments uploading data to the corresponding repeater in time-sharing can effectively avoid the problem of data collision. At the same time, in order to control the time when industrial instruments send data, the number of bytes of data can be compressed to a minimum, retaining only the main variables and instrument status data, and entering sleep mode immediately after the sending is completed, waiting for the next time period to wake up again and send data, thereby reducing the power consumption of industrial instruments.

[0032] Secondly, for data transmission between the repeater 12 and the gateway 20, different repeaters 12 use a time-division and frequency-division communication method to increase the anti-interference capability between the repeaters 12. Specifically, Figure 4 As shown, similar to the communication method between the above-mentioned industrial instrument 11 and the repeater 12, the gateway 20 uniformly configures all repeaters 12. First, it is necessary to ensure the time synchronization of all repeaters 12. Secondly, the gateway divides a time period into multiple time segments, that is, different time windows, and each time window is allocated to a repeater 12 for sending data, and the gateway 20 switches to the corresponding frequency band in the corresponding time window to receive the data uploaded by the repeater 12. That is, the upload frequency band of each repeater 12 is different, and the time window for sending is different, which effectively reduces the interference between repeaters. Among them, the frequency bands between different repeaters 12 differ by at least more than 500k.

[0033] Similarly, if Figure 4As shown, each time period also reserves a data sending window for the gateway 20 to upload data to the server, as well as a network access and configuration window, etc. Of course, there is no restriction on the order of the windows in the above time period, and they can be adjusted freely, all within the scope of protection of this application. It should also be noted that the time period synchronized between the industrial instrument and the repeater can be the same as or different from the time period synchronized between the repeater and the gateway, and can be configured according to actual conditions.

[0034] In addition, under the condition of low power consumption of industrial instruments, they can be remotely configured, such as adjusting their corresponding parameters, or the time period for sending data, etc. Specifically, when there is a need to configure the industrial instrument 11, the server sends a configuration instruction to the gateway 20. After the gateway 20 receives the configuration instruction, it sends it to the repeater 12 through the network access and configuration window. After the repeater 12 receives the configuration instruction of the industrial instrument to be configured, it inserts a mark in the time calibration window to inform the corresponding industrial instrument 11 that there is a configuration requirement. The industrial instrument 11 will receive the configuration instruction in the network access and configuration window, and return the configuration success or failure information through the window after receiving the configuration instruction, and the configuration is completed.

[0035] In summary, the present invention provides a wireless communication system applied to the field of industrial instruments, which adopts a terminal-repeater-gateway network architecture, and the communication path from the terminal to the gateway is determined. While meeting the low power consumption of the terminal, the power amplification of the repeater meets the long-distance communication requirements. In addition, point-to-point communication is adopted, and the terminal is connected to the network in a fixed network format. This method has no frequency modulation switching, which improves the stability of the network.

[0036] At the same time, the repeater adopts time-division multiplexing mode, through the unified timing mechanism of the gateway, the terminal uploads data in time according to the short address defined when entering the network, which not only avoids data collision, but also increases the number of access terminals. In addition, the data receiving frequency of each group of repeaters is different, which avoids mutual interference between repeaters.

[0037] The present invention also sets a redundancy mechanism so that when the frequency band for sending data by the terminal is occupied, the redundant window and other frequency bands are used to send data, thereby improving the reliability of data communication.

[0038] The above embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and effects of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone familiar with the technology may modify or change the above embodiments without violating the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, all equivalent modifications or changes made by a person of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and technical ideas disclosed by the present invention shall still be covered by the claims of the present invention.

[0039] In the description of this specification, the description with reference to the terms "some embodiments", "other embodiments", etc. means that the specific features, structures, materials or characteristics described in conjunction with the embodiment or example are included in at least one embodiment or example of the present application. In this specification, the schematic description of the above terms does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example.

[0040] The technical features of the above-described embodiments may be arbitrarily combined. To make the description concise, not all possible combinations of the technical features in the above-described embodiments are described. However, as long as there is no contradiction in the combination of these technical features, they should be considered to be within the scope of this specification.

[0041] The above description of the illustrated embodiments of the present invention (including the contents described in the Abstract) is not intended to be an exhaustive list or to limit the present invention to the precise form disclosed herein. Although specific embodiments of the present invention and examples of the present invention are described herein for illustrative purposes only, various equivalent modifications are possible within the spirit and scope of the present invention as will be recognized and appreciated by those skilled in the art. As noted, these modifications may be made to the present invention in accordance with the above description of the embodiments described in the present invention, and these modifications will be within the spirit and scope of the present invention.

[0042] Systems and methods have been generally described herein as details that aid in understanding the present invention. In addition, various specific details have been given to provide an overall understanding of embodiments of the present invention. However, those skilled in the relevant art will recognize that embodiments of the present invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or may be practiced using other devices, systems, accessories, methods, components, materials, parts, etc. In other cases, well-known structures, materials, and / or operations are not specifically shown or described in detail to avoid confusion with various aspects of embodiments of the present invention.

[0043] Thus, although the invention has been described herein with reference to specific embodiments thereof, freedom of modification, various changes and substitutions are also within the foregoing disclosure, and it should be understood that in some cases, some features of the invention will be employed without the corresponding use of other features without departing from the scope and spirit of the proposed invention. Thus, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular environment or material to the essential scope and spirit of the invention. The invention is not intended to be limited to the specific terms used in the claims below and / or the specific embodiments disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out the invention, but the invention will include any and all embodiments and equivalents falling within the scope of the appended claims. Thus, the scope of the invention will be determined solely by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A wireless communication system for industrial instruments, characterized in that: include: Several data acquisition modules, and the data acquisition modules include: One or more different industrial instruments are used as terminal devices to perform data collection tasks and upload the collected data; a repeater, used to receive data uploaded by all the industrial instruments and upload it to the server after power amplification; Different industrial instruments are respectively used to send data to the repeater via a common frequency band in different time windows to avoid data collision.

2. The wireless communication system for industrial instruments according to claim 1, characterized in that: Also includes: The gateway is used to receive data uploaded by all repeaters and upload them to the server; The gateway is also used to synchronize and configure all repeaters so that different repeaters can upload data using different frequency bands in different time windows.

3. The wireless communication system for industrial instruments according to claim 2, characterized in that: When the industrial instrument is connected to the network for the first time, it is used to perform time synchronization according to the time calibration signal sent by the repeater; And after the industrial instrument is connected to the network, it is used to send data to the corresponding repeater after a preset delay time according to the configured short address; Wherein, the short address configured for each industrial instrument in the data acquisition module is different, so that all industrial instruments send data to the corresponding repeater in different time windows within a time period.

4. The wireless communication system for industrial instruments according to claim 3, characterized in that: The industrial instrument is also used to enter a sleep mode after sending data to stop occupying the current frequency band, and send data to the corresponding repeater in the same time window of the next time period.

5. The wireless communication system for industrial instruments according to claim 3, characterized in that: The repeater is used to send a time calibration signal at the beginning of each time period; When the number of times data is sent exceeds a preset value, the industrial instrument is further used to re-synchronize the time according to the time calibration signal sent by the repeater.

6. The wireless communication system for industrial instruments according to claim 3, characterized in that: The industrial instrument is also used to detect whether the current frequency band is occupied before sending data: If so, wait to enter the redundancy window and send data through another frequency band; If not, start sending data; Wherein, each time period is provided with one or more redundant windows, which do not interfere with the time window for the industrial instrument to send data.

7. The wireless communication system for industrial instruments according to claim 3, characterized in that: The industrial instrument is also used to compress the number of bytes of the transmitted data to a minimum and retain only the main variable and instrument status data to reduce the time of transmitting the data.

8. The wireless communication system for industrial instruments according to claim 3, characterized in that: The gateway is also used to remotely configure the industrial instrument in a low-power working mode according to the configuration instructions sent by the server.

9. The wireless communication system for industrial instruments according to claim 8, characterized in that: After receiving the configuration instruction sent by the server, the gateway is used to send it to the corresponding repeater in the network access and configuration window; After receiving the configuration instruction sent by the gateway, the repeater is used to mark the time window for sending the time calibration signal to notify the industrial instrument of the configuration requirement and send the configuration instruction in the network access and configuration window; After the industrial instrument recognizes the tag, it is used to receive the configuration instruction sent by the repeater in the network access and configuration window, and feedback the corresponding configuration information; Each time period is set with a network access and configuration window, which does not interfere with the time window for sending data.

10. The wireless communication system for industrial instruments according to claim 2, characterized in that: The frequency bands used by different repeaters to send data differ by at least 500k.

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