Method and device for transmitting information over a complex network

• US 20090310623A1
• Filed: 09/11/2007
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: EDELCOM Company
• Original Assignee: EDELCOM Company
• Inventors: Duranton, Rene
• Granted Patent: US 7,995,592 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/475
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/403 with centralised control, e.g. polling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/4625 Single bridge functionality, e.g. connection of two networks over a single bridge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5038 for local use, e.g. in LAN or USB networks, or in a controller area network [CAN]
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/185 via power line carrier transmission

Abstract

The method of the invention comprises firstly prior allocation of an identifier to each module that might be concerned by the messages transmitted over the network, and when the module is installed on the network, associating said identifier with data relating to the geographical position of the location where the module is installed, in such a manner as subsequently to be able to identify the location of the module independently of its position in the network, and secondly, when sending a message over the network to a module, the modules that are capable of receiving the message, recognizing said message, and modules that have received the message systematically and synchronously repeating said message until the message has been transmitted over the entire network and all of the modules have received and re-sent the message at least once.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting a message by carrier current modulation over an electrical power distribution network having connected thereto a central unit or a zone unit together with a plurality of control/check modules that might be concerned by the message, the method comprising at least the following steps:

initially allocating to each module an identifier such as the serial number of the manufacturer of the module and on installing the module in the network, associating said identifier with data relating to the geographical position of the location where the module is installed, so as to make it possible subsequently to identify the location of the module from its identifier, independently of its position in the network; and

when sending a message over the network to a module and/or to the central unit, recognizing and/or validating the message in the modules that are connected to the network and that are suitable for receiving the message, and systematically and synchronously repeating the message over the network by means of those modules that have recognized and/or validated the messages, this repetition of messages enabling other modules to become able to receive the message, and after recognition and/or validation, of resending the message in turn, such that from each repetition, other modules understand the message and are in a position to repeat it again, this process repeating until the message has been sent over the entire network and all of the modules have received the message and retransmitted it at least once.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the modules resend messages in synchronous manner, and wherein the resending is synchronized by the operating frequency of crystal-clocked microprocessors forming part of said modules.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the resending of messages is synchronized on the basis of the instant at which the message is found to be valid by the microprocessor located in each module.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein message sending is triggered by the central unit or by a zone unit.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said network is an electricity power distribution network for public lighting lamps, and wherein said modules are control/check modules of the lighting lamps.

6. A method according to claim 5, wherein the control/check modules comprise a crystal-clocked processor connected to an electricity network interface that is connected to the electricity network via two circuits, namely:

a receive circuit having a receive amplifier; and

a second circuit having a send amplifier.

7. A method according to claim 5, wherein the electricity distribution network makes use of electricity cabinets, each powering lighting lamps in a determined zone via a distribution network of tree structure, the tree structure networks of different zones being capable of being interconnected by couplers enabling messages to be sent from one zone to another while leaving the electricity networks mutually isolated, the set of zones connected together by one or more couplers constituting a sector having a transmission unit identified by an internal number associated with the cabinets, said transmission unit being capable of communicating with a remote processor, and wherein each message is made up of the following elements:

a preamble;

a message order number;

the identity of the origin of the message relying on the identifier of the remote processor, of the transmission unit, of the zone unit, or of the control/check module;

the internal number of the sender;

the zone number and, optionally, the outgoing line number;

the number of the destination or destination group concerned;

setpoint data; and

check data for checking the message using a predetermined algorithm.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein the operating sequence executed by the check and control modules comprises the following operations:

a first stage of executing internal processing;

a second stage of detecting the presence of a carrier on the network, and returning to the first stage in the absence of a carrier, otherwise moving on to the third stage;

a third stage of detecting carrier modulation and the beginning of the message, returning to the first stage if no meaningful modulation is detected, otherwise moving on to a stage of decoding the message and then on to a stage of checking the validity of said message;

a fourth stage of validating the message and returning to the second stage if the message is not valid, otherwise moving on to the following stage;

a fifth stage of determining the existence or the absence of a new message, returning to the first stage if no message is detected, otherwise moving on to the next stage;

a sixth stage of storing the new message in the memories of the module;

a seventh stage of resending the message over the network, this stage being triggered after an accurate time lapse from an origin determined by the end of the new message; and

an eighth stage of processing the new message.