Understanding Poll Intervals

Poll Intervals in Gateways and Add-On Devices

Poll Intervals are an essential configuration for the operation of add-on devices such as ALTA Control Units and Local Alerts. Polling allows your add-on devices to respond to commands or input with a desired response time.

There are two Polling events to consider. First, gateways must receive the command by polling the Monnit Software. Once the gateway has received the command, the add-on devices must Poll the gateway to execute it.

Therefore, there is a Poll Rate in the gateway Settings and a Poll Rate in the add-on device settings. This article will provide the details you need to understand polling configuration.

Gateway Polling

A command being executed on an add-on device starts by being initiated in the Monnit Software. For the command to reach the add-on device, the gateway must Poll the software and queue the command for the add-on device.

Therefore, the gateway offers a Poll Rate configuration, which is the frequency at which the gateway checks to see if an add-on device command needs to be executed by a device on the gateway’s Sensor Network.

The gateway’s Poll Rate can be found under the gateway’s Settings > Poll Rate.

Add-On Device Poll Interval

The Poll Interval of the add-on device is how frequently the device communicates with the gateway to see if there is a command that the gateway has queued to be executed. This means the minimum time the device can execute a command is the gateway’s Poll Rate + the device Poll Interval + transmission time.

This is an important consideration when configuring your Monnit system if there is a minimum time when you need your add-on device to respond to a command.

The add-on device’s Poll Rate can be found under the sensor’s Settings > Poll Interval.

For this example, we will use an Ethernet Gateway 4 configured with a (default) 5-minute Heartbeat and 0 Poll Rate and a control unit configured with a 10-minute Heartbeat and a 1-minute Poll Interval.

With these configurations, the maximum response time a control command might take to reach the control unit would be 6 minutes (plus transmission time), and the minimum time a control command might take to reach the control unit would be just over 1 minute (plus transmission time).

(Control unit last checked with a standard Heartbeat at 5:04:30 PM.)

5:12:05 PM - Gateway checks in with iMonnit with a standard Heartbeat at a 5 minute interval and Polls iMonnit for Control Commands (none present).

5:12:30 PM - Control unit Polls the gateway for Control Commands (none present).

5:13:30 PM - Control unit Polls the gateway for Control Commands (none present).

5:14:30 PM - Control unit checks in with the gateway with a standard Heartbeat and Polls for Control Commands (none present).

5:15:30 PM - Control unit Polls the gateway for Control Commands (none present).

5:15:41 PM - Rule in iMonnit queues Relay 1 On command.

5:16:30 PM - Control unit Polls the Gateway for Control Commands (none present, gateway has not yet Polled iMonnit since the Rule was triggered).

5:17:05 PM - Gateway checks in with iMonnit with a standard Heartbeat at a 5 minute interval and Polls iMonnit for Control Commands (Relay 1 On command received from iMonnit and queued for delivery to control unit).

5:17:30 PM - Control unit Polls the gateway for Control Commands (Relay 1 On command detected) - control unit Relay 1 set to On

In the above example, the Rule triggered a Control—Relay 1 On command in iMonnit at 5:15:41 PM, and the control unit received the command at 5:17:30 PM. Since the gateway had the Poll Rate set to 0, it was only polling iMonnit for Control Commands on its Heartbeats.

The control unit Polled the gateway every 1 minute for Control Commands. Therefore, the control unit received the Control Command within 1 minute of the gateway’s Heartbeat, which it received from IMonnit.

Conclusion

Understanding Poll Intervals is critical to getting the expected response time for your add-on devices such as ALTA Control Units and Local Alerts. If you have additional inquiries regarding the operation of Poll Intervals, feel free to contact Monnit Support.