SYSTEM FOR MODULATING SIGNALS OVER POWER LINES TO UNDERSTAND THE POWER DISTRIBUTION TREE

• US 20090217073A1
• Filed: 02/22/2008
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Brech, Brad L., Brey, Thomas M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,917,792 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/340
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/28 Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/30 Monitoring

Abstract

A power distribution system comprises an input power line configured to supply power produced by a power source, one or more power distribution components operatively connected to receive power supplied by the power source, one or more intelligent system resources, and a power management component. Each power distribution component has one or more power outputs for distributing power along a power line connected thereto and is configured to modulate a carrier signal containing identification data along the power line connected to each output. Each system resource is operatively connected to receive power distributed by at least one of the one or more power distribution components. Each system resource is configured to receive and demodulate the carrier signal modulated by each power distribution component from which it receives power, generate a list of each power distribution component from which it receives power, and pass the list to a system bus. The power management component is configured to receive and process each list from the system bus to generate a mapping of the at least power distribution component from which each system resource receives power.

Claims

1. A power distribution system, comprising:

an input power line configured to supply power produced by a power source;

one or more power distribution components operatively connected to receive power supplied by the power source, each power distribution component having one or more power outputs for distributing power along a power line connected thereto, each power distribution component being further configured to modulate a carrier signal containing identification data along the power line connected to each power output;

one or more intelligent system resources, each system resource being operatively connected to receive power distributed by at least one of the one or more power distribution components, each intelligent system resource being configured to receive and demodulate the carrier signal modulated by each power distribution component from which it receives power, each system resource being further configured to generate a list of each power distribution component from which it receives power and to pass the list to a system bus; and

a power management component configured to receive each list generated the one or more system resources from the system bus and to process each list to generate a mapping of the at least one power distribution component from which each system resource receives power.

2. The power distribution system of claim 1, wherein the identification data of the carrier signal modulated each power distribution component comprises a first element identifying the power distribution component and a second element identifying the power output of the power distribution component to which the power line along which the carrier signal is modulated is connected.

3. The power distribution system of claim 1, wherein the power management component is configured to continually monitor each list generated by the one or more system resources for modifications and dynamically reconfigure the mapping based upon each modifications.

4. The power distribution system of claim 1, wherein the power source is provided by a public utility, wherein the power source is configured to modulate a carrier signal containing power cost data along the input power line, wherein each intelligent system resource is configured to receive and demodulate the carrier signal modulated by the power source and to pass the power cost data to the system bus, and wherein the power management component configured to receive the power cost data, process the power cost data, perform power management functions based upon the power cost data.

5. The power distribution system of claim 1, wherein the power management component is configured to pass the mapping to the system bus, wherein each power distribution component is configured to receive the mapping from the system bus and determine which of the one or more power components and the one or more system resources it is operatively connected, and wherein the power source is configured to receive the mapping from the system bus.