POWER MANAGEMENT APPARATUS, AND METHOD OF REGISTERING ELECTRONIC APPLIANCES

• US 20110184586A1
• Filed: 01/18/2011
• Published: 07/28/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yoshida, Asami, Moriai, Shiho, Kawamoto, Yohei, Ukita, Masakazu, Katagi, Masanobu, Matsuda, Seiichi, Tanaka, Yu, ASANO, Tomoyuki
• Application Number:
  US13/008,371
• Publication Number:
  US 20110184586A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/297
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/10 Current supply arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/20 End-user application control systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

There is provided a power management apparatus including a managed appliance registering unit that carries out authentication on an electronic appliance connected to a power network, and registers an electronic appliance for which the authentication has succeeded as a managed appliance, and a control unit that controls operation of the managed appliance and supplying of power to the managed appliance. The managed appliance registering unit transmits, to one or more electronic appliances, a challenge message that is used when registering an electronic appliance, and collectively verifies one or more response messages sent back from the one or more electronic appliances in reply to the challenge message.

Claims

1. A power management apparatus comprising:

a managed appliance registering unit that carries out authentication on an electronic appliance connected to a power network, and registers an electronic appliance for which the authentication has succeeded as a managed appliance; and

a control unit that controls operation of the managed appliance and supplying of power to the managed appliance,

wherein the managed appliance registering unit transmits, to one or more electronic appliances, a challenge message that is used when registering an electronic appliance, and collectively verifies one or more response messages sent back from the one or more electronic appliances in reply to the challenge message.

2. The power management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the managed appliance registering unit collectively verifies, by batch verification processing, the one or more response messages sent back from the one or more electronic appliances, and when verification has succeeded for all the response messages, registers the one or more electronic appliances as the managed appliance.

3. The power management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the managed appliance registering unit aggregates, into one, one or more digital signatures which are the one or more response messages sent back from the one or more electronic appliances, and when verification of an aggregated digital signature has succeeded, registers the one or more electronic appliances as the managed appliance.

4. The power management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when collective verification of the one or more electronic appliances has failed, the managed appliance registering unit specifies an electronic appliance which has sent back the response message for which verification has failed, and repeats the collective verification with the specified electronic appliance excluded.

5. The power management apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the managed appliance registering unit specifies at least one electronic appliance which has sent back the response message for which verification has failed.

6. The power management apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the managed appliance registering unit specifies, among the one or more electronic appliances, every electronic appliance which has sent back the response message for which verification has failed.

7. The power management apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the electronic appliance is one or more cells included in a battery, and

wherein the managed appliance registering unit specifies a cell which has sent back the response message for which verification has failed, reconfigures the one or more cells excluding the cell for which verification has failed, and repeats collective verification.

8. A method of registering an electronic appliance, comprising the steps of:

transmitting, to one or more electronic appliances connected to a power network, a challenge message that is used when registering an electronic appliance;

acquiring one or more response messages sent back from the one or more electronic appliances in reply to the challenge message; and

collectively verifying all of the one or more response messages that have been acquired.