UNIVERSAL SOFTWARE DEFINED HOME GATEWAY

• US 20090243869A1
• Filed: 03/31/2009
• Published: 10/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: M&FC Holding, LLC
• Original Assignee: M&FC Holding, LLC
• Inventors: Sanderford, H. Britton JR.
• Granted Patent: US 8,884,774 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/657
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 2204/45 Utility meters networked together within a single building
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/002 Remote reading of utility meters
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 90/20 Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector smart grids supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications in general, or like technologies with no associated climate change mitigation effect Y04S20/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/30 Smart metering, e.g. specially adapted for remote reading

Abstract

A system and method for communicating energy or water consumption related information from a plurality of RF enabled peripheral devices in a home, such as utility meters, thermostats, appliances and load controllers. The system includes a home gateway that enables wireless RF peripheral devices in a home to communicate to a WAN network, such as the internet. The home gateway contains a RF multi-band software defined radio that is fully programmable and configurable so that it is capable of emulating, transmitting, and receiving any of a plurality of RF protocols over multiple RF channels. The home gateway supports commonly used interfaces for communicating to the public WAN network. The system also supports future peripherals that do not exist today due to the flexibility of the home gateway.

Claims

1. A system for communicating energy related information to a remotely located utility provider, the system comprising:

a plurality of devices positioned in a home, the devices each being configured to communicate using one of a plurality of RF protocols;

a home gateway positioned in the home and operable to communicate with the plurality of devices over an RF local area network (LAN) and to the utility over a wide area network (WAN),

wherein the home gateway comprises a multi-band, software defined radio and a protocol emulator, wherein the protocol emulator controls the operation of the radio to communicate using the plurality of RF protocols.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of RF devices include utility meters and peripheral devices located within the home.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the devices is operable to communicate with both the home gateway and an advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) system.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the at least one device communicates to the AMI system using a proprietary RF protocol, wherein the home gateway is programmable to communicate to the at least one device utilizing the proprietary RF protocol.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the protocol emulator is selectively programmable to communicate utilizing RF protocols in addition to the plurality of RF protocols.

6. An automated utility meter reading system for obtaining utility usage information from a plurality of meters, comprising:

at least one utility gateway operable to communicate with a utility provider over a wide area network (WAN) and to communicate with the plurality of meters utilizing RF communication over a first local area network (LAN); and

a home gateway operable to communicate with at least one utility meter in a home using RF communication over a second local area network (LAN) and to communicate with the utility over the wide area network,

wherein the utility provider can communicate with at least one of the plurality of meters utilizing both the utility gateway and the home gateway.

7. The automated utility meter reading system of claim 6 wherein the home gateway includes a multi-band, software defined radio and a protocol emulator, wherein the protocol emulator controls the operation of the radio to communicate using a plurality of RF protocols.

8. The automated utility meter reading system of claim 6 wherein the home gateway is operable to communicate with at least one device positioned in the home utilizing one of the plurality of RF protocols.

9. The automated utility meter reading system of claim 7 wherein the protocol emulator is selectively programmable to communicate utilizing RF protocols communicated to the home gateway.

10. A home gateway for communication with a plurality of RF enabled devices and a utility, the home gateway comprising:

a multi-band RF transceiver;

a digital signal processor (DSP) coupled to the RF transceiver to control the transmission and reception of RF signals by the RF transceiver, wherein the DSP is operable to control the transmission and reception of RF signals utilizing a plurality of RF protocols;

a protocol emulator in communication with the DSP to control the transmission and receipt of the RF signal, wherein the protocol emulator includes a plurality of stored RF protocols and is operable to receive additional RF communication protocols; and

a WAN communication module operable to receive and transmit information from the DSP over a wide area network (WAN) to the utility.

11. The home gateway of claim 10 wherein the home gateway is self-contained.

12. The home gateway of claim 10 wherein the protocol emulator is selectively programmable to communicate utilizing a plurality of RF protocols.

13. The home gateway of claim 12 wherein the protocol emulator is selectively programmable through the LAN communication module.

14. A method of operating a home gateway to communicate between a plurality of RF enabled devices and a utility, the method comprising the steps of:

positioning the home gateway in a home;

configuring a protocol emulator of the home gateway to operate a multi-band radio of the home gateway to communicate with the plurality of RF enabled devices;

positioning the plurality of RF-enabled devices within communication range of the home gateway;

configuring the protocol emulator to communicate using a plurality of RF protocols assigned to the plurality of devices;

transmitting information between the home gateway and the plurality of devices utilizing the RF protocol assigned to each of the devices;

operating the multi-band radio to communicate information to and from the plurality of RF enabled devices; and

communicating the received information from the plurality of RF enabled devices to the utility over a wide area network.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of communicating from one or more of the RF enabled devices to an advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) system independently from the communication to the home gateway.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising the steps of:

positioning an additional RF enabled device within range of the home gateway; and

providing a software protocol to the protocol emulator for communication with the additional RF enabled device such that the multi-band radio can communicate to the additional device utilizing the downloaded RF protocol.

17. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of storing a plurality of RF communication protocols within the protocol emulator, wherein the plurality of RF enabled devices communicate utilizing the stored RF protocols.

18. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of selectively communicating information from the home gateway to a second home gateway upon interruption of the wide area network to the home gateway.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein the home gateway is incorporated into one of the plurality of RF enabled devices.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein the software protocol is provided to the home gateway through the wide area network.