ZigBee Sensor Automatic Network Joining via Touchlink Adaptation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The current Touchlink-based commissioning process for ZigBee Light Link (ZLL) networks requires significant user involvement when adding sensors to an existing network, as it necessitates initiating the process through a smartphone app, which is cumbersome, especially since sensors lack visual indicators for self-identification, making it more difficult than commissioning bulbs.
Innovation Solution
A method is developed to adapt the Touchlink process within the existing ZLL standard by modifying specific message fields to allow a sensor to automatically join an existing ZLL network by initiating a 'special' Touchlink operation, indicating its intention to join the network, thereby reducing user involvement and enabling plug-and-play functionality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the standard Touchlink commissioning process is used for sensors, then the network can be formed according to the ZigBee protocol rules, but the user involvement is excessive and the commissioning process becomes cumbersome
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor device is enabled to autonomously initiate the commissioning process by broadcasting its own device information and automatically joining the network, eliminating the need for manual initiation through a smartphone app. The sensor serves itself by generating and transmitting commissioning requests without external assistance.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of the traditional approach where the coordinator or controller initiates the commissioning process, the invention inverts the initiation role to the sensor device itself. The sensor becomes the active party that broadcasts its presence and requests network joining, reversing the conventional commissioning flow.
2Reliability
If the standard Touchlink process is used for sensor commissioning, then the protocol rules are followed, but sensors lack visual indicators for self-identification making commissioning more difficult than bulbs
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor device utilizes the lighting device's light output to provide visual feedback during commissioning. The lighting device changes its light color or blinking pattern to indicate different commissioning states, allowing users to visually identify and select the correct sensor without needing additional indicators on the sensor itself.
3Extent of automation
If a sensor initiates a Touchlink operation to join a network, then automatic commissioning is achieved, but the standardized protocol requires creating a new network instead of joining an existing one
Solution Approach 1:
The lighting device acts as an intermediary between the sensor and the coordinator. It receives the commissioning request from the sensor, processes it locally, and then communicates with the coordinator to facilitate the sensor's joining to the existing network, bridging the gap between the sensor's initiation capability and the protocol's joining requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The commissioning process is segmented into distinct phases: the sensor initiates contact with the lighting device, the lighting device processes the joining request locally, and then the coordinator is involved for final network integration. This segmentation allows the sensor to initiate automatically while still complying with the protocol requirement that network joining be coordinated.
Data Source
AI summary
A standardized protocol defines that, when an initiator node is not already joined to a wireless network, and initiates a linking operation between the initiator node a second node, then this will create a new wireless network. According to the disclosure, a field of one of the standardized messages is adapted, and the adapted message is sent from the initiator node to the second node, in order to indicate that the adapted message is in fact a request for the initiator node to join an existing wireless network, to which the second node is already joined. The field in question is a field which the standardized protocol allows to be varied for application specific purposes. In response to the adapted message, the initiator receives back an invitation message inviting the initiator node to join the existing network; and in response to the invitation message, the initiator joins the existing network.