MAINTAINING INFORMATION INTEGRITY WHILE MINIMIZING NETWORK UTILIZATION OF ACCUMULATED DATA IN A DISTRIBUTED NETWORK

• US 20140115152A1
• Filed: 05/10/2013
• Published: 04/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Efacto, LLC
• Original Assignee: Outsmart Power Systems, LLC
• Inventors: HILTON, Paul C. M., MEHLMAN, Jeffrey A., ARMSTRONG, Tom
• Granted Patent: US 9,565,089 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2823 Reporting information sensed by appliance or service execution status of appliance services in a home automation network device-related reporting H04L43/065; arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level

Abstract

A method and systems for gathering information regarding usage of a resource from at least one of a plurality of measuring nodes operatively coupled to a controller, wherein the measuring node includes at least one sensor and a node processor operatively coupled to the sensor, and the controller includes a controller processor. The method includes predicting an estimated resource usage value associated with the at least one sensor with the node processor and separately with the controller each using a predictor algorithm and dataset. The method further includes measuring resource usage to which the estimated resource usage value applies with the sensor and calculating a difference between the estimated resource usage value and the measured resource usage with the node processor. If the difference falls outside of a bound the measured resource usage is communicated to the controller.

Claims

1. A method for gathering information regarding usage of a resource from at least one of a plurality of measuring nodes operatively coupled to a controller, wherein said measuring node includes at least one sensor and a node processor operatively coupled to said sensor, and said controller includes a controller processor, comprising:

predicting an estimated resource usage value associated with said at least one sensor with said node processor, wherein said node processor uses a predictor algorithm and a dataset to predict said estimate resource usage value, wherein said dataset comprises data which is available at both said measuring node and said controller;

predicting said estimated resource usage value with said controller processor, wherein said controller uses said predictor algorithm and said dataset to arrive at said estimated resource usage value;

measuring resource usage to which said estimated resource usage value applies with said sensor; and

calculating a difference between said estimated resource usage value and said measured resource usage using said node processor and if said difference falls outside of a bound communicating said measured resource usage to said controller.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said bound is a fixed value.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said bound is calculated using a bound algorithm.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said bound algorithm is calculated separately by said controller processor.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising calculating a range of probable resource usage values by said controller processor using said bound algorithm.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said measuring node includes node memory and said method further comprises storing more than one measured resource usage in said node memory and communicating said more than one measured resource usage to said controller when said difference exceeds said bound.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said method is repeated.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said method is repeated every line cycle.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said measuring node includes a plurality of sensors and said method is executed for more than one of said sensors.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said bound changes with time.

11. A system for gathering information regarding usage of a resource from a plurality of measuring nodes, comprising:

a plurality of measuring nodes, wherein each of said measuring nodes includes at least one sensor configured to measure resource usage and a node processor operatively coupled to said sensor, wherein said node processor is configured to

predict an estimated resource usage value associated with said at least one sensor using a predictor algorithm and a dataset, wherein said dataset comprises data which is available at both said measuring node and a controller,

measure resource usage to which said estimated resource usage value applies with said sensor, and

calculate a difference between said estimated resource usage value and said measured resource usage and if said difference falls outside of a bound communicating said measured resource usage to said controller; and

said controller operatively coupled to said plurality of measuring nodes wherein said controller includes a controller processor, wherein said controller processor is configured to

predict said estimated resource usage value, wherein said controller uses said predictor algorithm and said dataset to arrive at said estimated resource usage value.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein each of said measuring nodes includes more than one sensor.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein said resource usage is selected from the group consisting of energy, fuel consumption and water consumption.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein said at least one sensor is operatively coupled to a resource consuming device.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein said at least one sensor is operatively coupled to a resource supply line.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein said at least one sensor is operatively coupled to a resource storage device.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein said at least one sensor is operatively coupled to a resource generating device.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein said sensor includes a device selected from the group consisting of Hall sensors, current transformers, and Rogowski coils.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein said sensor includes a device selected from the group consisting of a flow meter, a pressure gauge, and a level gauge.

20. A system comprising, one or more storage mediums having stored thereon, individually or in combination, instructions that when executed by one or more processors result in the following operations comprising:

predicting an estimated resource usage value associated with at least one sensor operatively coupled to a measuring node using a node processor, wherein said node processor uses a predictor algorithm and a dataset, wherein said dataset comprises data which is available at both said measuring node and a controller;

predicting said estimated resource usage value separately with said controller, wherein said controller uses said algorithm and said dataset to arrive at said estimated resource usage value;

measuring resource usage to which said estimated resource usage value applies with said sensor; and

calculating a difference between said estimated resource usage value and said measured resource usage using said node processor and if said difference falls outside of a bound communicating said measured resource usage to said controller.