DESC:TITLE OF THE INVENTION
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MONITORING AND CONTROLLING A PLURALITY OF FIELD DEVICES

TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present disclosure relates generally to monitoring and control of field devices connected to gateway devices thereby forming at least a part of Internet of Things (IoT) network. More specifically, the present invention relates to control of the field devices through commonly available or specifically designed networking applications that are capable of integrating field devices made by several distinct manufacturers.

BACKGROUND
[0002] The networks including several field devices communicating with each other and controlled and monitored through several cloud based data centers have come to be known as Internet of Things (IoT) networks. The IoT networks have matured over time and are being implemented in several fields of application such as home automation, agriculture, medicine and transportation etc. For example, in case of home automation, home appliances such as ovens, refrigerators, air conditioners and even lamps are capable of communicating with each other and may be monitored and controlled through a client device such as a smartphone or a smart speaker system. In agriculture, it has become possible to monitor environmental parameters such as soil composition or alkalinity, precipitation, surface and ambient temperatures, etc. and then control amount of fertilizer application and irrigation in correlation with the environmental parameters.
[0003] Conventional IoT implementation schemes include either installation of factory made IoT enabled appliances and/or equipment, or retro-fitment of the existing appliances and/or legacy equipment with IoT modules that tie the existing appliances and/or the legacy equipment with the IoT networks. In either of the scenario, the IoT networks require the equipment and/or the appliances to be available with hardware known as field devices, which includes monitoring equipment such as sensors (temperature, pressure, voltage, flow, and time elapsed, etc.), and control equipment such as actuators (hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical), switches (solid-state or electromechanical, etc.), and valves (two-way, three-way or four-way etc.)
[0004] However, in either of the cases, whether factory made IoT enabled equipment is being deployed or IoT modules are being deployed to the legacy equipment, the implementation generally involves IoT network supported by a single IoT service provider. Moreover, monitoring and control of the IoT enabled appliances and/or equipment is generally done through a custom interface, available with the client device, specific to the single IoT service provider. However, such an approach generates integration issues, if the factory made IoT enabled equipment or the retro-fitting IoT modules have been sourced from several distinct manufacturers, thereby requiring a user to install several distinct interface applications with the client device. The problem gets further complicated if the control of the IoT enabled equipment is desired using several client devices located at several different locations or associated with several different authorized users.
[0005] Therefore, in light of the aforementioned discussion, there are required in the art, methods and systems, for monitoring and control of field devices connected through gateway devices, which do not suffer from aforementioned deficiencies.

SUMMARY
[0006] The present disclosure relates generally to monitoring and controlling of field devices connected to gateway devices, more particularly the present disclosure provides methods and systems and computer program products for facilitating monitoring and control of a plurality of field devices through commonly available or specifically designed networking applications.
[0007] According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a system for monitoring and controlling of a plurality of field devices is provided. The system has one or more gateway devices connected to a plurality of field devices through a first communication network. In an embodiment, the first communication network is a wired or wireless Local Area Network (LAN). In an embodiment, an IoT server is connected to the one or more gateway devices through a second communication network. In an embodiment, the second communication network may be implemented as, but not limited to, a wired or wireless Wide Area Network (WAN). In an embodiment, a networking server connected to the IoT cloud server through the second communication and in turn one or more client devices are connected to the IoT cloud server through the second network.
[0008] In an embodiment, the IoT server may receive a gateway identification which corresponds to the one or more gateway devices through the second communication network. In an embodiment, a gateway location may correspond to one or more gateway devices and is saved in a storage device configured in the IoT server. The IoT cloud server may transmits the gateway locations to the networking server through the second communication network. The networking server may generate a network identification corresponding to the gateway location which may be transmitted by the IoT server. In an embodiment, the IoT server may transmit the network identification to one or more client devices. In an embodiment, the gateway devices may receive one or more parameters corresponding to the plurality of field devices. The system may monitor and control the field devices by the IoT server based on the one or more parameter of the field devices.
[0009] In an embodiment, the plurality of field devices may include one or more switches, one or more actuators, one or more sensors, and one or more power sources. In an embodiment, a gateway identification is an identifier comprising, but not limited to, a physical device address, a MAC address and a TCP/IP address. In an embodiment, the gateway devices may use a communication protocol to transfer message/data related to one or more parameters of the field devices towards the IoT cloud server. The communication protocol may include, but not limited to, publish-subscribe architecture based protocols which can be a MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) and request-response architecture based protocols which can be a HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol).
[00010] In an embodiment, the networking server may be, but not limited to, a publicly accessible social networking application server or a proprietary independent platform business application server. In an embodiment, the IoT cloud server may transmit the gateway location to the networking server through an Application Program Interface (API) server which is associated with the networking server. The networking server may transmit the network identification to the IoT cloud server through the Application Program Interface (API) server associated with the networking server. The networking server may receive a parameter request along with the network identification from one or more client devices. The network server may then transfer the parameter request and the gateway location corresponding to the network identification to the IoT cloud server through the Application Program Interface (API) server. In an embodiment, one or more client devices may receive the parameter value according to the parameter request and network identification.
[00011] According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, a method for monitoring and controlling a plurality of devices by one or more client devices is provided. Field devices may be connected to a gateway device and one or more client devices may be connected to an IoT cloud server. The method may comprise the steps of receiving a gateway identification by the IoT cloud server from the gateway device. A gateway location is generated corresponding to the gateway identification by the IoT cloud server and saved in a storage device associated with the IoT server. The gateway location is transmitted to the networking server by the IoT server. A network identification corresponding to the gateway location is generated by the networking server. The network identification may be transmitted by the networking server to the IoT server. The network identification may be assigned to the gateway device and transmitted to the one or more devices by the IoT server.
[00012] In an embodiment, a parameter request may be sent corresponding to a unique network identification by the one or more client devices to the network server. The unique network identification is transmitted by the networking server to the IoT cloud server. In an embodiment, the gateway location corresponding to unique network identification is determined. In an embodiment, the gateway identification corresponding to the gateway location is determined and one or more parameters in response to the parameter request may be transmitted to the client device through the networking server. In an embodiment, the request may comprise a request for activation or deactivation of one or more of the field devices.
[00013] In another aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon, a set of computer executable instructions that causes a computer to perform certain steps for monitoring and controlling a plurality of field devices by one or more client devices is provided. In an embodiment, steps may comprise connecting field devices to a gateway device and one or more client devices may be connected to an IoT cloud server. The A gateway identification may be received by the IoT cloud server from the gateway device. A gateway location is generated corresponding to the gateway identification by the IoT cloud server and saved in a storage device associated with the IoT server. The gateway location is transmitted to the networking server by the IoT server. A network identification corresponding to the gateway location is generated by the networking server. The network identification may be transmitted by the networking server to the IoT server. The network identification may be assigned to the gateway device and transmitted to the one or more devices by the IoT server.
[00014] In an embodiment, a parameter request may be sent corresponding to a unique network identification by the one or more client devices to the network server. The unique network identification is transmitted by the networking server to the IoT cloud server. In an embodiment, the gateway location corresponding to unique network identification is determined. In an embodiment, the gateway identification corresponding to the gateway location is determined and one or more parameters in response to the parameter request may be transmitted to the client device through the networking server. In an embodiment, the request may comprise a request for activation or deactivation of one or more of the field devices.
[00015] An objective of the present disclosure is to overcome the problem of integration arising due to pre-defined factory set IoT modules/field devices or retrofitting of IoT modules/field devices manufactured by various vendors.
[00016] Another objective of the present disclosure is to overcome the problem of multiple user interface arising due to interaction involved between various IoT equipments, IoT modules and IoT field devices manufactured by various vendors.
[00017] Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the inventive subject matter will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, along with the accompanying drawing figures in which like numerals represent like components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[00018] In the figures, similar components and/or features may have the same reference label. Further, various components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label with a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the first reference label is used in the specification, the description is applicable to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label irrespective of the second reference label.
[00019] FIG. 1 illustrates an environment of devices to which several embodiments of the present invention may be implemented;
[00020] FIG. 2 illustrates method for monitoring and control of a plurality of field devices connected to a gateway device, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;
[00021] FIG. 3 illustrates an information flow diagram for generation of a network identification of the gateway device, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;
[00022] FIG. 4 illustrates an information flow diagram depicting communication between an Internet of Things (IoT) cloud server and the gateway device, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;
[00023] FIG. 5A illustrates an information flow diagram for redressal of a parameter request from a client device to a networking server, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;
[00024] FIG. 5B illustrates an an information flow diagram for redressal of an activation request or a deactivation request from the client device to the networking server, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention and.
[00025] FIG. 6 illustrates system for monitoring and control of a plurality of field devices connected to a gateway device, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[00026] While the present invention is described herein by way of example using embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is not limited to the embodiments of drawing or drawings described, and are not intended to represent the scale of the various components. Further, some components that may form a part of the invention may not be illustrated in certain figures, for ease of illustration, and such omissions do not limit the embodiments outlined in any way. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claim. As used throughout this description, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e. meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense, (i.e. meaning must). Further, the words "a" or "an" mean "at least one” and the word “plurality” means “one or more” unless otherwise mentioned.
[00027] Furthermore, the terminology and phraseology used herein is solely used for descriptive purposes and should not be construed as limiting in scope. Language such as "including," "comprising," "having," "containing," or "involving," and variations thereof, is intended to be broad and encompass the subject matter listed thereafter, equivalents, and additional subject matter not recited, and is not intended to exclude other additives, components, integers or steps. Likewise, the term "comprising" is considered synonymous with the terms "including" or "containing" for applicable legal purposes. Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles and the like is included in the specification solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is not suggested or represented that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention.
[00028] In this disclosure, whenever a composition or an element or a group of elements is preceded with the transitional phrase “comprising”, it is understood that we also contemplate the same composition, element or group of elements with transitional phrases “consisting of”, “consisting”, “selected from the group of consisting of, “including”, or “is” preceding the recitation of the composition, element or group of elements and vice versa.
[00029] The present invention is described hereinafter by various embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawing(s), wherein reference numerals used in the accompanying drawing(s) correspond to the like elements throughout the description. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiment set forth herein. Rather, the embodiment is provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the following detailed description, numeric values and ranges are provided for various aspects of the implementations described. These values and ranges are to be treated as examples only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the claims. In addition, a number of materials are identified as suitable for various facets of the implementations. These materials are to be treated as exemplary, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
[00030] It is the objective of the invention that methods and systems are provided that may be implemented in an ad-hoc manner to existing computing networks, and more specifically, though not bindingly, to Internet of Things (IoT) networks. The methods and systems are meant to allow a user to access field devices corresponding several distinct IoT service providers and manufacturers of networking hardware, from a common networking platform. Such a networking platform may be commonly available social networking platform or a proprietary networking platform associated with a business entity. In that manner, field devices and corresponding equipment tethered to the IoT networks, through services provided by several IoT service providers or hardware manufactured by several distinct manufacturers, may be integrated for control and/or monitoring through a single client based interface.
[00031] The aforementioned objective is achieved through generating network identifications corresponding to a single networking application, for several distinct gateway devices in the IoT network. As the gateway devices are assigned their network identification, they may be accessed by a client device through a client interface associated with the networking applications. Such an approach would obviate the need for installing several client interface programs and/or applications for control and monitoring of the field devices that have distinct constructional and/or operational characteristics. Referring to the figures, the invention will be described in further detail.
[00032] Fig. 1 illustrates a system 100 of devices in which several embodiments of the present invention may be implemented. As illustrated in Fig. 1 a plurality of field devices including a switch 104, one or more actuators 106, and one or more sensors 108 are connected to a power source 102. The switch 104 may be a solid state switch, such as a transistor, or an electromechanical switch like a relay that makes, breaks or changes the route of the current flow within circuits of the field devices. The power source 102 may have several components depending upon construction of the one or more actuators 106. For example, the power source 102 may include an air compressor in case of the one or more actuators 106 including a pneumatic piston, similarly a hydraulic actuator 106 would require an oil pump. Actuators 106 with electromagnetic induction would require a Direct Current (DC) powered or an Alternating Current (AC) powered power source 102.
[00033] Further, low voltage (0-10 V) DC power may be required to power the one or more sensors 108 as well. In that regard, constitution of the one or more sensors 108 may also vary between different embodiments of the invention. In an embodiment, the system 100 is implemented in agricultural field, wherein the one or more sensors 108 may include soil moisture sensors, soil temperature sensors, alkalinity sensors, other sensors, pressure sensors, RHTP (Relative Humidity, Temperature, and Pressure) sensors and/or air flow sensors etc. Other sensors may be related with the actuators, such as current, voltage, fluid speed, fan blade speed, and pressure gain sensors attached to a centrifugal compressor or a water pump.
[00034] In an aspect, the plurality field devices are connected to a gateway device 110 through a first communication network 111. The gateway device 110 is configured to act as an interface between the first communication network 111, which may be a wired Local Area Network (LAN), and a second communication network 112, which may be Wide Area Network (WAN), such as the Internet. The first and the second communication networks 111, 112 are segregated in order to allow the first communication network 111 to be an economical, low-bandwidth, and low power network owing to the remoteness of the plurality of field devices from power intensive cloud based data centers. In that regard, the first communication network 111 is preferably a wired network, as costs of setting up of wireless networks are relatively higher, although such a limitation is not binding for the working of the invention. Some of the low-bandwidth, low-powered, wired and wireless network protocols include ZigBee, and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLo), etc.
[00035] In an embodiment, the gateway device 110 is capable of communicating with both low-bandwidth networks and wired or wireless high bandwidth networks, allowing the plurality of field devices to communicate with remote cloud based data centers and remote servers without needing the hardware required to communicate with WANs. The second communication network 112 may be implemented through several wired and wireless devices operating on protocols such as Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), Wireless Fidelity (IEEE 802.11), and 3GPP protocols such as HSPA, HSDPA, and LTE etc.
[00036] Further, in the same embodiment, an IoT cloud server 114 configured with a storage device 116 is communicatively linked with the gateway devices 110 through the second communication network 112. The IoT cloud server 114 includes machine readable instructions, which when executed by one or more processors allow the processor(s) to execute the method steps 200 as will be described. Any data generated or received during the configuration and operation of the IoT cloud server 114 is stored in the storage device 116.
[00037] In an aspect, the system 100 may comprise one or more processor(s) implemented as one or more microprocessors, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, central processing units, logic circuitries, and/or any devices that manipulate data based on operational instructions. Among other capabilities, the one or more processor(s) are configured to fetch and execute computer-readable instructions stored in a memory of the system 100. The memory may store one or more computer-readable instructions or routines, which may be fetched and executed to create or share the data units over a network service. The memory may comprise any non-transitory storage device including, for example, volatile memory such as RAM, or non-volatile memory such as EPROM, flash memory, and the like.
[00038] The one or more processors may be implemented as a combination of hardware and programming (for example, programmable instructions) to implement one or more functionalities of the system 100. In examples described herein, such combinations of hardware and programming may be implemented in several different ways. For example, the programming for the processors may be processor executable instructions stored on a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and the hardware for the processors may comprise a processing resource (for example, one or more processors), to execute such instructions. In the present examples, the machine-readable storage medium may store instructions that, when executed by the processing resource, implement the various functionalities of the system 100. In such examples, the system 100 may comprise the machine-readable storage medium storing the instructions and the processing resource to execute the instructions, or the machine-readable storage medium may be separate but accessible to system 100 and the processing resource.
[00039] The data may comprise data that is either stored or generated as a result of functionalities implemented by any of the components of the system 100.
[00040] Moreover, the IoT cloud server 114 is connected to a networking server 122 through an Application Program Interface (API) server 118. In several embodiments of the invention, the networking server 122 may be selected from a group consisting of publicly accessible social networking application servers and proprietary independent platform business application servers that are generally capable of hosting applications/apps. In either of the scenarios i.e. using publicly accessible or proprietary independent application server, in several embodiments, although not bindingly, the access to the networking server 122 may only be available through the API server 118 that connects the networking server 122 through an internal protected network 120.
[00041] Furthermore, the internal protected network 120 basically is a kind of network that offers security measures in the communication network by means of encrypted connections including but not limited to firewalls, secure shell, remote desktop protocol (RDP), and virtual private network (VPN). Further the network 120 can include a variety of network devices, including routers, bridges, servers, computing devices, storage devices, and the like.
[00042] Also connected to the second communication network 112 is a plurality of client devices 124, 126, and 128 for enabling a user to monitor and control the plurality of field devices. In that regard, the plurality of client devices 124, 126, and 128 may include smartphones, laptop PCs, notebook PCs, tablet PCs and the like. The method steps involved in the present invention will now be described taking the environment 100 as a reference. However, a person of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that the method steps 200 being described below are not limited to the environment 100 specifically and may be implemented in several equivalent environments, without departing from the scope of the present invention.
[00043] In an embodiment, the field devices can register themselves directly with the system 100 or to a corresponding client device using a combination of a unique identifier based input.
[00044] In an embodiment, the client device 126 may register themselves directly with the system 100 or to a corresponding network server by providing a using a combination of a unique identifier based input such as user name and password.
[00045] In an embodiment, only after successful registration of the field devices and the client devices can a system 100 be used to monitor and control the field devices using one or more client devices.
[00046] In an embodiment, the client devices may be provided various levels of accesses related to security, network etc. based on a type of priority assigned. In an embodiment, an administrator client device may allow monitoring and access of all the filed devices in the system 100. However, various slave client devices may be provided access to only a subset of field devices segregated based on the corresponding gateway device or network server. In an embodiment, the administrator client device may control and access the slave client devices and the corresponding field devices associated with the slave client devices.
[00047] Fig. 2 illustrates a flow diagram 200 for a methodology for monitoring and control of a plurality of field devices 124, 126, and 128 connected to the gateway device 110, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 3 illustrates an information flow diagram for generation of a network identification of the gateway device 100, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
[00048] According to theflow diagram 200, at block 210, a gateway identification corresponding to the gateway device 110 is received at the IoT cloud server 114 using one or more communication protocols. The gateway identification in that regard may be a physical device address, or a Media Access Control (MAC) address or a TCP/IP address. However, if the gateway device 110 is communicating with the IOT cloud server 114 through MQTT, or MQTT-SN protocols, the gateway identification may be a device address as per the ZigBee protocol that uniquely identifies each of the gateway devices 110 within the network.

[00049] Additionally, at block 220, a gateway location (G/LOC) corresponding to the gateway identification is generated at the IoT cloud server 114, and stored in the storage device 116 for future reference. At block 230, the gateway location (G/LOC) is transmitted from the IoT cloud server 114 to the networking server 122. As depicted in Fig. 3, the gateway location (G/LOC) is transmitted to the networking server 122 through the API server 118 associated with the networking server 122. At block 240, the networking server 122 in turn generates a network identification (N/ID) corresponding to the gateway location (G/LOC) and returns the network identification (N/ID) to the IoT cloud server 114, which is then received and stored in the storage device 116. At block 250, the IoT cloud server 114 then transmits the network identification (N/ID) to the client device 126 for future usage.
[00050] In an aspect, the gateway devices 110 are using different communication protocols to transfer one or more parameters collected from the field devices to the IoT cloud server 114. The communication protocols used in the embodiment may be either publish-subscribe architecture based protocols or request-response architecture based protocols or any alternate/similar protocols. The publish-subscribe architecture is an asynchronous service-to-service communication architecture, wherein the message published by a device is instantly received by all the subscribers of the device. On the other hand, in request-response architecture a client requests required data from a server and the server responds to the request by providing the data as response. Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) and MQTT for Sensor Networks (MQTT-SN) protocols are few of the publish-subscribe based protocols, whereas Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is one of the request-response based protocol.
[00051] Fig. 4 illustrates an information flow diagram depicting communication between the IoT cloud server 114 and the gateway device 110, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The IoT cloud server 114 may communicate with the gateway device 110 through MQTT or MQTT-SN protocol which deploys publish-subscribe architecture, thus requiring low network bandwidths on the side of the field devices. However, depending upon the hardware capabilities of the gateway device 110, the same communication may also deploy request-response architecture as an alternative. The values a0, a1, a2, a3,…, an (a(t,k)) corresponding to the monitoring parameters being monitored by the one or more sensors 108 of the field devices may be stored in the storage device 116. Here ‘t’ represents time of capturing of the parameter value, and ‘k’ represents an instance serial number.
[00052] Fig. 5A illustrates an information flow diagram for redressal of a parameter request (P/RQ) from the client device 126 to the networking server 122, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. With an interface application or a program installed with the client device 126, which corresponds to the networking server 122, the user may transmit the parameter request (P/RQ) to the networking server 122. The parameter request (P/RQ) may be sent as a missed call, an instant message, an SMS or an e-mail using a user interface, and would include the network identification (N/ID) corresponding to the gateway device 110. The networking server 122 then forwards the parameter request (P/RQ) along with the corresponding gateway location (G/LOC) to the IoT cloud server 114, through the API server 118. The IoT cloud server 114 would then return the values (a(t,k)) to the client device 126, through the API server 118 and the networking server 122.
[00053] Fig. 5B illustrates an information flow diagram for redressal of an activation request or a deactivation request (A/D/RQ) from the client device 126 to the networking server 122, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The information flow follows almost the same path as depicted in Fig. 5A, where the activation or the deactivation request (A/D/RQ) is transmitted further from the IoT cloud server 114 to the gateway device 110 for activation or deactivation of the actuators 106. The confirmation of the activation or the deactivation is then routed back to the client device 126 as depicted in Fig. 5B. In several embodiments, the configuration of the IoT cloud server 114 may also be achieved through one or more modules working in tandem as discussed below.
[00054] Fig. 6 illustrates system 600 for monitoring and control of a plurality of field devices connected to the gateway device 110, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The system 600 includes a gateway interface module 610, a client interface module 620 and a networking interface module 630. The gateway interface module 610 is configured to receive the gateway identification corresponding to the gateway device 110, and generate the gateway location (G/LOC) corresponding to the gateway identification. The networking interface module 630 is configured to transmit the gateway location (G/LOC) to the networking server 122 and receive the network identification (N/ID) corresponding to the gateway location (G/LOC), and assign the network identification (N/ID) to the gateway device 110. The client interface module 620 is configured to transmit the network identification (N/ID) to the client device 126.
[00055] In an exemplary embodiment, the system 100 is implemented in an individual house or an entire building or in a society in order to make the environment smart. The house/building/society is installed with plurality of field devices such as artificial intelligent (AI) cameras, temperature sensors, humidity sensors, motion sensors, air quality sensors, and many other sensors as per the requirements of the user or building/society security administrators. All of the field devices or a group of different field devices are connected to one or more gateway devices 110 based on some requirements, wherein the gateway devices shares the respective gateway identification and the sensory data collected from respectively connected field devices to the IoT cloud server 114. The gateway devices are installed at each floor of the building, and areas within the society such as park, gym etc. With regards to the same, one or more dedicated users are authorized to monitor and control these environments effectively as per the convenience through user interface installed on a user device. In an embodiment, user interface may be provided in form of a user application installed on one or more user devices. In an embodiment, user devices can include a variety of computing systems, including but not limited to, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a notebook, a workstation, a portable computer, a personal digital assistant, a handheld device and a mobile device.
[00056] The invention as described above offers several advantages. For example, it allows several different users using several different client devices to connect to the field devices. Also, the invention allows the integration of IoT hardware sourced from several distinct suppliers and varying in configuration and/or construction. The invention also allows several low-bandwidth and high-bandwidth communication protocols to seamlessly operate within a single IoT network.
[00057] In some examples, the systems described herein, may include one or more processors, one or more forms of memory, one or more input devices/interfaces, one or more output devices/interfaces, and machine-readable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the system to carry out the various operations, tasks, capabilities, etc., described above.
[00058] In general, the word "module," as used herein, refers to logic embodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of software instructions, written in a programming language, such as, for example, Java, C, or assembly. One or more software instructions in the modules may be embedded in firmware, such as an EPROM. It will be appreciated that modules may comprised connected logic units, such as gates and flip-flops, and may comprise programmable units, such as programmable gate arrays or processors. The modules described herein may be implemented as either software and/or hardware modules and may be stored in any type of computer-readable medium or other computer storage device.
[00059] Various modifications to these embodiments are apparent to those skilled in the art from the description. The principles associated with the various embodiments described herein may be applied to other embodiments. Therefore, the description is not intended to be limited to the embodiments but is to be providing broadest scope consistent with the principles and the novel and inventive features disclosed or suggested herein. Accordingly, the invention is anticipated to hold on to all other such alternatives, modifications, and variations that fall within the scope of the present invention.

We claim:

1. A system for monitoring and controlling a plurality of field devices, the system comprising:
one or more gateway devices communicatively connected to the plurality of field devices by means of a first communication network;
an IoT server communicatively connected to the one or more gateway devices by means of a second communication network;
a networking server connected to the IoT server by means of the second communication network; and
one or more client devices connected to the IoT server by means of the second communication network; wherein
the IoT server receives gateway identification corresponding to each of the one or more gateway devices through the second communication network, generates and saves a corresponding gateway location of the one or more gateway devices in a storage device configured in the IoT server, and transmits the gateway location to the networking server through the second communication network;
the networking server generates a network identification corresponding to the gateway location and transmits the network identification to the IoT server;
the IoT server transmits the network identification to the one or more client devices,
receive, by the gateway devices, one or more parameters corresponding to the plurality of field devices; and
monitor and control the field devices by the IoT server based on the one or more parameter of the field devices.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of field devices comprises one or more switches, one or more actuators, one or more sensors, and one or more power sources.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the gateway identification is an identifier comprising a physical device address, a Media Access Control (MAC) address, and a TCP/IP address.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first communication network is a wired Local Area Network (LAN).

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the second communication network is a Wide Area Network (WAN).

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the gateway devices use at least one communication protocol to transfer data related to one or more parameters of the field devices to the IoT server through the gateway devices.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the communication protocol includes publish-subscribe architecture based protocols such as MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) and MQTT-SN (MQTT for Sensor Networks), and request-response architecture based protocols such as HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol).

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the networking server comprises publicly accessible social networking application servers and proprietary independent platform business application servers.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the IoT server transmits the gateway location to the networking server through an Application Program Interface (API) server associated with the networking server.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the networking server transmits the network identification to the IoT server through the Application Program Interface (API) server associated with the networking server.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the networking server receives a parameter request and the network identification from the one or more client devices, and transfers the parameter request and the gateway location corresponding to the network identification to the IoT server in order to fetch a parameter value via the Application Program Interface (API) server.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more client devices receives the parameter values in accordance with the parameter request and network identification.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the parameter includes a plurality of sensory data being monitored by one or more sensors associated with the field devices.

14. A method for monitoring and controlling a plurality of field devices by one or more client devices, wherein a plurality of field devices communicatively connected to a gateway device and one or more client devices are communicatively connected to an IoT server, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving a gateway identification by the IoT server from the gateway device;
generating a gateway location corresponding to the gateway identification by the IoT server and saving the gateway location in a storage device associated with the IoT server;
transmitting the gateway location by the IoT server to a networking server;
generating and saving a network identification corresponding to the gateway location by the networking server;
transmitting the network identification by the networking server to the IoT server;
assigning the network identification to the gateway device;
transmitting the network identification by the IoT server to the one or more client devices
receiving, by the gateway device, one or more parameters corresponding to the plurality of field devices; and
monitoring and controlling the plurality of field devices by the IoT server based on the one or more parameter of the field devices.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the method further comprises the steps of:
sending a parameter request corresponding to a unique network identification by one or more client devices to the network server;
transmitting the parameter request to the IoT server from the networking server;
determining the gateway location corresponding to the unique network identification and determining the gateway identification corresponding to the gateway location, and transmitting the one or more parameters in response to the parameter request to the client device through the networking server.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the parameter request comprises a request for one or more parameters corresponding to one or more monitoring parameters associated with the plurality of field devices.

17. The method as claimed in claim 14, the parameter request comprises a request for activation or deactivation of one or more of the field devices.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon, a set of computer executable instructions that causes a computer to perform the steps comprising:
receiving a gateway identification by an IoT server from a gateway device;
generating a gateway location corresponding to the gateway identification by the IoT server and saving the gateway location in a storage device associated with the IoT server;
transmitting the gateway location by the IoT server to a networking server;
generating and saving a network identification corresponding to the gateway location by the networking server;
transmitting the network identification by the networking server to the IoT server;
assigning the network identification to the gateway device;
transmitting the network identification by the IoT server to one or more client devices, wherein the one or more client devices are communicatively connected to the IoT server and a plurality of field devices are communicably connected to the gateway device;
receiving, by the gateway device, one or more parameters corresponding to the plurality of field devices; and
monitoring and controlling the plurality of field devices by the IoT server based on the one or more parameter of the field devices.