US 11,984,918 B2
Method for detecting the surroundings of a node capable of unidirectional or bidirectional radio communication and node
Hristo Petkov, Nuremberg (DE); Christoph Schmidt, Nuremberg (DE); Thomas Kauppert, Nuremberg (DE); Klaus Gottschalk, Winkelhaid (DE); Simon Schroeter, Erlangen (DE); and Benjamin Meyer, Nuremberg (DE)
Assigned to Diehl Metering Systems GmbH, Nuremberg (DE)
Filed by Diehl Metering Systems GmbH, Nuremberg (DE)
Filed on Jan. 20, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/580,067.
Claims priority of application No. 102021102216.9 (DE), filed on Feb. 1, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0247440 A1, Aug. 4, 2022
Int. Cl. H04B 1/12 (2006.01)
CPC H04B 1/123 (2013.01) 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for detecting surroundings of a node of a communications network, which comprises the steps of:
providing the node as being capable of unidirectional or bidirectional radio communication and having a radio module equipped with an antenna, a transmit path and/or a receive path, and a self-sufficient power supply apparatus configured to supply electrical power to the node for more than a year, wherein the node is at least one component selected from the group consisting of a sensor apparatus and an actuator;
obtaining an estimate of a detuning of the antenna by successively setting, at the node, a plurality of different matchings of an impedance of the antenna of the radio module; and
detecting the surroundings on a basis of the estimate of the detuning of the antenna of the radio module.