Method and Apparatus for Collecting Data from Automatic Meter Reading for Smart Power Grid

• US 20140118164A1
• Filed: 01/02/2014
• Published: 05/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tellabs Operations Incorporated (Infinera Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Tellabs Operations Incorporated (Infinera Corp.)
• Inventors: Liu, David Hwa-Wei, Hallam, James M., Huang, Fung-Chang
• Granted Patent: US 9,129,517 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/870.02
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/004 Remote reading of utility meters to a fixed location
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 19/36 using optical means to covert the input signal characterised by optical transfer means G01D5/26; optical analogue digital converters G02F7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 23/04 using light waves, e.g. infrared
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/25 Arrangements specific to fibre transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/27 Arrangements for networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 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
• 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 communication network system includes a solid-state meter, an optical line terminal (“OLT”) based device, and a meter network management device. In one embodiment, the solid-state meter, which can be an electricity meter or a gas meter, provides a measurement, and has a serial communication interface. The OLT based device transfers the information between network devices via a communication network. The meter network management device, which may be an optical network terminal (“ONT”), is capable of communicating with the solid-state meter using the serial communication interface via an RS-232 port.

Claims

1. A communication network system, comprising:

a meter configured to read a usage data and able to forward the usage data via a serial communication interface;

a meter network manager (“

MNM”

), having a converter able to convert between optical signal and electrical signal, coupled to the meter via a line cable between the serial communication interface of the meter and a serial interface of the MNM, the converter of MNM converts the usage data from electrical signals to optical signals;

an optical line terminal (“

OLT”

) based device coupled to the MNM and configured to handle optical signals from the MNM via an optical communication network.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a network management system (“

NMS”

) coupled to the OLT based device and configured to provide communication between the OLT based device and a user via a network system.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the meter is an electricity meter configured to measure usage of electricity.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the meter is a natural gas meter configured to measure usage of natural gas.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the meter is a water meter configured to measure usage of water.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the meter is an oil meter configured to measure usage of oil.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the meter includes a serial communication interface able to facilitate communication in serial binary single-ended data.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein an OLT based device coupled to the meter is able to transfer the measurement to the user via one of wired communications network and wireless communications network.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the MNM is an optical network terminal (“

ONT”

) having a serial communication interface capable of coupling with the solid-state meter for transferring serial binary single-ended data.

10. A method for reading a meter, comprising:

reading a load measurement by the meter according to a predefined measurement schedule;

converting the load measurement to serial binary single-ended data representing an output of the load measurement;

forwarding the serial binary single-ended data from the meter to an optical network terminal (“

ONT”

) via a serial connection cable connected between the meter and the ONT; and

activating a converter in the ONT to convert the serial binary single-ended data representing the load measurement to optical data.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising transmitting the output of the load measurement to an optical line terminal (“

OLT”

) based device via a communications network.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising forwarding the output of the load measurement to the user via North Bound Interface.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the reading a load measurement includes initiating a command for retrieving a load measurement in accordance with predefined syntax.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving a request of load profile from a user situated across a communications network.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein forwarding the serial binary single-ended data from the meter to an optical network terminal (“

ONT”

) via a serial connection cable includes obtaining a loading profile representing usage of electricity from the RS232 port of the meter.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein forwarding the serial binary single-ended data from the meter to an optical network terminal (“

ONT”

) includes obtaining a loading profile representing usage of gas from the RS232 port of the meter.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein transmitting the output of the load measurement to an OLT based device includes organizing the output in accordance with ONT management control interface (“

OMCI”

) protocol; and

sending the output to the OLT base device via an optical communications network.

18. A communication network system, comprising:

a meter capable of reading load measurement at a premise and able to generate serial binary single-ended data to represent the load measurement;

an optical network terminal (“

ONT”

) coupled to the meter via a serial connection cable which transmits data in a serial binary data between the meter and the ONT, wherein the ONT includes a converter able to convert electrical signals of the serial binary data to optical signals; and

an optical line terminal (“

OLT”

) based network device coupled to the ONT and capable of receiving the optical signals from the ONT and subsequently converting the optical signals to electrical signals which represent the load measurement.

19. The communication network system of claim 18, wherein the ONT includes a serial communication interface capable of transmitting serial binary single-ended data between the meter and the ONT.

20. The communication network system of claim 19, wherein the ONT includes a conversion module capable of converting user'"'"'s command formatted in open manage client instrumentation (“

OMCI”

) protocol to a protocol complied with syntax of solid-state meter.