SLOTTING OF LAST GASP COMMUNICATIONS
A commodity delivery system. The system includes a plurality of commodity delivery devices. The plurality of commodity delivery devices are configured to at least one of transport the commodity, modify the commodity, and monitor the commodity. A subset of the plurality of commodity delivery devices is further configured to receive a beacon from a network device, designate a plurality of transmission time slots based on the beacon, the transmission time slots synchronized for all of the plurality of commodity delivery devices, detect an error condition, select a transmission time slot following the detection of the error condition, and transmit a last gasp message during the selected transmission time slot.
1 . A commodity delivery system, comprising:
a plurality of commodity delivery devices configured to at least one of transport the commodity, modify the commodity, and monitor the commodity;
a subset of the plurality of commodity delivery devices further configured to receive a beacon from a network device,
designate a plurality of transmission time slots based on the beacon, the transmission time slots synchronized for all of the plurality of commodity delivery devices,
detect an error condition,
select a transmission time slot following the detection of the error condition, and
transmit a last gasp message during the selected transmission time slot.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the network device includes an internal power source.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the network device receives last gasp messages from the subset of the plurality of commodity delivery devices.
4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the network device forwards the received last gasp messages to a back office system.
5 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the network device consolidates the received last gasp messages and sends a message to a back office system indicating from which of the plurality of commodity delivery devices a last gasp message was received.
6 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the back office system determines an extent of the error condition based on the plurality of devices from which last gasp messages were received.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the timeslot is randomly selected.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the designated transmission timeslots occur before the subset of the plurality of devices loses operational power.
9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the network device is one of the plurality of commodity delivery devices.
10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the error condition is an interruption in the delivery of the commodity.
11 . A method of informing a commodity provider of an interruption in the delivery of the commodity, the method comprising:
receiving a beacon by a first commodity delivery device;
designating, by the first commodity delivery device, a plurality of transmission time slots based on the beacon;
detecting an interruption in delivery of the commodity;
selecting a transmission time slot following the detection of the interruption in the delivery of the commodity; and
transmitting a last gasp message during the selected transmission time slot.
12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising sending the beacon by a second commodity delivery device.
13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the second commodity delivery device includes an internal power source.
14 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the second commodity delivery device receives a last gasp message from the first commodity delivery device.
15 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising forwarding the received last gasp message to a back office system.
16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising consolidating the received last gasp message with last gasp messages received from other commodity delivery devices, and sending a message to a back office system indicating from which commodity delivery devices a last gasp message was received.
17 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising determining by the back office system an extent of the interruption of the delivery of the commodity based the last gasp messages received.
18 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the transmission time slots are synchronized with transmission time slots for a plurality of commodity delivery devices receiving the beacon
19 . A commodity delivery device, the device comprising:
a communication circuit configured to transmit and receive messages;
a commodity monitoring circuit configured to detect an interruption in delivery of the commodity; and
a controller configured to
receive an indication of the interruption in delivery of the commodity from the commodity monitoring circuit,
detect a beacon received by the communication circuit,
designate a plurality of transmission time slots based on the beacon,
randomly select one of the plurality of transmission time slots, and
transmit via the communication circuit a last gasp message in the selected one of the plurality of transmission time slots when the indication of the interruption in delivery of the commodity is received.
20 . The commodity delivery device of claim 19 , wherein the commodity monitoring circuit is configured to monitor one or more parameters of the commodity.
21 . The commodity delivery device of claim 20 , wherein the commodity monitoring circuit is configured to provide an indication of the monitored parameters to the controller, and the controller is configured to communicate the monitored parameters to a back office system via the communication circuit.