Base Station Task Queue for Low-Power Wireless Device Updates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Low-power wireless communication devices, such as those in Personal Emergency Response Systems, often operate in an uncommunicative mode to conserve battery life, making them inaccessible for extended periods, which hinders location and remote updating capabilities.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that utilize a base unit to send 'locate' and 'update' commands to low-power wireless devices during their periodic check-ins, allowing for location assistance through audible alerts and remote programming or setting modifications via task queues and communication protocols like DECT.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If low-power wireless communication devices operate in uncommunicative mode to conserve battery life, then battery life is extended, but the device becomes inaccessible for location and remote updating
Solution Approach 1:
The base unit stores update commands and location requests in advance in a task queue during periods when the mobile device is in low-power mode. When the device becomes accessible during periodic wake-ups, the base unit executes the pre-stored commands from the task queue, thereby performing updates and location operations without requiring the device to remain continuously accessible.
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile device operates in periodic cycles, alternating between low-power uncommunicative mode and active communicative mode. During active periods, the device performs check-in communications with the base unit, which is when updates and location commands are executed. This periodic operation allows the device to maintain battery life while providing scheduled opportunities for base station interaction.
2Loss of energy
If the device remains in low-power sleep mode, then power consumption is reduced, but the base station cannot remotely update settings or programming
Solution Approach 1:
Update commands and programming modifications are prepared and stored in the base unit's task queue in advance. When the mobile device wakes from sleep mode and establishes communication, the base unit retrieves and executes the pre-prepared update commands from the task queue, enabling remote updates without requiring continuous device accessibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The base unit acts as an intermediary between the user/external system and the mobile device. It maintains a task queue that serves as a buffer, storing update commands when the device is unavailable and delivering them when the device is accessible, thereby mediating the update process despite the device's intermittent availability.
3Ease of operation
If the device transitions frequently between sleep and transmit modes, then location and update functions are enabled, but battery life is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of maintaining full communication capability continuously, the device performs partial communication actions by waking up periodically for brief check-in transmissions. This partial action is sufficient to enable the base station to deliver update commands and perform location functions, while avoiding the excessive energy consumption of continuous communication.
Solution Approach 2:
The device uses periodic wake-up cycles to balance accessibility and power consumption. By waking up at scheduled intervals for brief communications and then returning to sleep mode, the device provides sufficient opportunities for location and updates while minimizing overall battery consumption compared to continuous operation.
Data Source
AI summary
A low-power wireless communication device is in a sleep or standby mode of operation for extended periods of time, periodically becoming fully operational and issuing a “check in” message to a base station, thereby inhibiting the ability of the base station to assist in the locating of device, and remotely updating the settings or operational programming of the device much of the time. Upon receipt of a command to locate a misplaced low-power wireless device or to update the device, a base station queues an associated command in a task queue. Upon receipt of a check-in message from an associated low-power wireless device, indicating it is in a fully powered and communicative state of operation, the base station searches its task queue for applicable commands relative to the specific wireless device and executes them via communication with the now fully-operational wireless device.