Systems and Methods for Monitoring Performance of Field Assets

• US 20090113038A1
• Filed: 10/25/2007
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Crane Payment Innovations, Inc. (Crane Company)
• Original Assignee: Crane Merchandising Systems Incorporated (Crane Company)
• Inventors: Godwin, Bryan W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,533,315 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways

Abstract

A system and method for monitoring performance of field assets are disclosed. A method may include transmitting packets on a shared bus located in a field asset may be captured. The captured packets may be analyzed to determine one or more operational parameters associated with one or more peripheral devices coupled to the shared bus. The one or more operational parameters may be analyzed to determine an operational efficiency of the field asset.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring the performance of a field asset comprising:

capturing packets transmitted on a shared bus located in a field asset;

analyzing the captured packets to determine one or more operational parameters associated with one or more peripheral devices coupled to the shared bus; and

analyzing the one or more operational parameters to determine an operational efficiency of the field asset.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the shared bus is a Multi Drop Bus (MDB) protocol compliant bus.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

capturing data exchange (DEX) protocol compliant data;

analyzing the captured DEX data to determine one or more additional operational parameters associated with one or more components of the field asset; and

analyzing the one or more additional operational parameters to determine the operational efficiency of the field asset.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating at least one of the operational parameters, additional operational parameters, and the operational efficiency to a transaction server communicatively coupled to the field asset.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the operational efficiency is based at least on a period of time in which each of the one or more peripheral devices is fully operational.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more peripheral devices include a coin mechanism, a bill validator, and a card reader.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the field asset is a vending machine.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the packets are captured by a snoop agent communicatively coupled to the shared bus.

8. (canceled)

10. A field asset, comprising:

a machine controller configured to function as a master of a shared bus;

one or more peripheral devices communicatively coupled to the bus, wherein the machine controller transmits packets to the peripheral devices via the shared bus;

a snoop agent configured to capture packets transmitted on the shared bus; and

an audit agent configured to;

analyze the captured packets to determine one or more operational parameters associated with the one or more peripheral devices; and

analyze the one or more operational parameters to determine an operational efficiency of the field asset.

11. The field asset of claim 10, wherein the shared bus is a Multi Drop Bus (MDB) protocol compliant bus.

12. The field asset of claim 11, wherein the snoop agent is implemented on an extended function adapter (EFA) communicatively coupled to the MDB.

13. The field asset of claim 11, wherein the machine controller is a vending machine controller (VMC) communicatively coupled to the MDB via an MDB port of the VMC.

14. The field asset of claim 13, further comprising the audit agent communicatively coupled to a DEX port of the VMC, the audit agent further configured to:

retrieve DEX data from the DEX port;

analyzing the captured DEX data to determine one or more additional operational parameters associated with one or more components of the field asset; and

analyzing the one or more additional operational parameters to determine the operational efficiency of the field asset.

15. The field asset of claim 10, wherein at least one of the one or more peripheral devices include a coin mechanism, a bill validator, and a card reader.

16. The field asset of claim 10, the audit agent further configured to communicate at least one of the operational parameters, additional operational parameters, and the operational efficiency to a transaction server communicatively coupled to the field asset.

17. The field asset of claim 10, wherein the operational efficiency is based at least on a period of time in which each of the one or more peripheral devices is fully operational.

18. A system for monitoring the performance of a field asset comprising:

a field asset including;

a machine controller configured to function as a master of a shared bus;

one or more peripheral devices communicatively coupled to the bus, wherein the machine controller transmits packets to the peripheral devices via the shared bus;

a snoop agent configured to capture packets transmitted on the shared bus; and

an audit module configured to;

analyze the captured packets to determine one or more operational parameters associated with the one or more peripheral devices; and

analyze the one or more operational parameters to determine an operational efficiency of the field asset.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the shared bus is a Multi Drop Bus (MDB) protocol compliant bus.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the snoop agent is implemented on an extended function adapter (EFA) communicatively coupled to the MDB.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the machine controller is a vending machine controller (VMC) communicatively coupled to the MDB via an MDB port of the VMC.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising an audit agent communicatively coupled to a DEX port of the VMC, the audit agent configured to:

retrieve DEX data from the DEX port; and

communicate the DEX data to the audit module.

23. The system of claim 22, the audit module further configured to:

analyze the captured DEX data to determine one or more additional operational parameters associated with one or more components of the field asset; and

analyze the one or more additional operational parameters to determine the operational efficiency of the field asset.

24. The system of claim 18, wherein at least one of the one or more peripheral devices include a coin mechanism, a bill validator, and a card reader.

25. The system of claim 18, wherein the audit module is a transaction server communicatively coupled to the field asset.

27. The system of claim 18, wherein the operational efficiency is based at least on a period of time in which each of the one or more peripheral devices is fully operational.

26. (canceled)