System and method for surveying utility outages

• US 20030083786A1
• Filed: 11/01/2001
• Published: 05/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures II LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Telcordia Technologies Incorporated (Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson)
• Inventors: Link, Frederick, Rothrock, Hamilton, Pietrowicz, Stanley, Allport, Douglas
• Granted Patent: US 6,687,574 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/286
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00009 using pulsed signals
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00016 using a wired telecommunication network or a data transmission bus
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00018 using phone lines
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00028 involving the use of Internet protocols
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/121 using the power network as support for the transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/124 using wired telecommunication networks or data transmission busses

Abstract

Utility failures are automatically detected and potential causes for these failures are automatically located and identified without having to physically search a utility provider'"'"'s network. Detection systems capable of monitoring utility status are located at each, or a subset, of the customer premises serviced by a utility provider. A monitoring system, capable of correlating the geographical location of the detection systems with the geographical location of the equipment that comprises the utility provider'"'"'s network, is located at a utility provider and interconnects with the detection systems through a communications network. The monitoring system queries the detection systems to determine utility status and to subsequently locate an outage and deduce a possible cause for the outage. Detection systems can also be configured to automatically contact the monitoring system to report utility status. The monitoring system is also capable of sending customer based information messages to the detection systems.

Claims

1. A system for identifying a utility service failure in a distribution network between a utility provider and a plurality of customer premises, said system comprising:

a detection system, at each of said customer premises, including means for determining utility service status at said customer premises,

a monitoring system at the utility provider and including a geographical database correlating a geographical location of each of said customer premises with a geographical location of equipment within the distribution network,

means, within the detection systems, for reporting the determined service status over a communications network to the monitoring system, and

means, within said monitoring system and responsive to said reported service status and in combination with said geographical database, for identifying the utility service failure in said distribution network.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring system further comprises means, in combination with said geographical database, for determining the location and cause of the utility service failure.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring system further comprises means for querying each of said detection systems over the communications network and wherein said determining and reporting means are responsive to said querying means.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitoring system further comprises means for configuring each of said detection systems over the communications network and wherein said determining and reporting means are responsive to said configuring means.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein

each of said detection systems further comprises means for conveying a message to a corresponding customer, and

wherein said monitoring system further comprises means for sending the message to each of said detection systems.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the communications network is the public switched telephone network.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the communications network is the CCS/SS7 network.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the communications network is a packet network.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the distribution network is a telephony distribution network.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the distribution network is an electrical distribution network.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the distribution network is a cable distribution network.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the utility service failure is within one of said customer premises.

13. A method for locating a utility service failure in a distribution network between a utility provider and a plurality of customer premises, said method comprising:

determining utility service status at each of said customer premises,

reporting the determined utility service status over a communications network to said utility provider,

correlating a geographical location of each of said reporting customer premises with a geographical location of equipment within the distribution network, and

identifying the location of the utility service failure based on said correlating step.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of querying each of said customer premises by said utility provider and wherein said determining and reporting steps are responsive to said querying step.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising the step of sending a configuration message to each of said customer premises by said utility provider and wherein said determining and reporting steps are responsive to said configuration message.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising the steps of:

sending a customer message by said utility provider to each of said customer premises, and

conveying said message to a corresponding customer at each of said customer premises.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein the utility service failure is located within one of said customer premises.