Remote maintenance monitoring system
First Claim
1. A remote maintenance monitoring system for monitoring an electronic hardware device, said system comprising:
- non-intrusive sensor implant means, transparently interfaced with a given electronic hardware device so as to not interfere with the operation thereof, for continuously gathering operational data from preselected locations within such device; and
diagnostic expert means for receiving and analyzing data gathered by said sensor implant means, said expert means being programmed for diagnosing failure causes of the given device based on operational data gathered therefrom;
whereby relatively remote diagnostic analysis is achieved using failure data captured near its point of origin;
wherein said sensor implant means is adapted to be retrofit to an existing hardward device, for continuously monitoring and gathering data from such device in real time so as to capture data of even intermittent failures of such device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A remote maintenance monitoring system retrofits to a given hardware device with a sensor implant which gathers and captures failure data from the hardware device, without interfering with its operation. Failure data is continuously obtained from predetermined critical points within the hardware device, and is analyzed with a diagnostic expert system, which isolates failure origin to a particular component within the hardware device. For example, monitoring of a computer-based device may include monitoring of parity error data therefrom, as well as monitoring power supply fluctuations therein, so that parity error and power supply anomaly data may be used to trace the failure origin to a particular plane or power supply within the computer-based device. A plurality of sensor implants may be rerofit to corresponding plural devices comprising a distributed large-scale system. Transparent interface of the sensors to the devices precludes operative interference with the distributed network. Retrofit capability of the sensors permits monitoring of even older devices having no built-in testing technology. Continuous real time monitoring of a distributed network of such devices, coupled with diagnostic expert system analysis thereof, permits capture and analysis of even intermittent failures, thereby facilitating maintenance of the monitored large-scale system.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A remote maintenance monitoring system for monitoring an electronic hardware device, said system comprising:
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non-intrusive sensor implant means, transparently interfaced with a given electronic hardware device so as to not interfere with the operation thereof, for continuously gathering operational data from preselected locations within such device; and diagnostic expert means for receiving and analyzing data gathered by said sensor implant means, said expert means being programmed for diagnosing failure causes of the given device based on operational data gathered therefrom; whereby relatively remote diagnostic analysis is achieved using failure data captured near its point of origin; wherein said sensor implant means is adapted to be retrofit to an existing hardward device, for continuously monitoring and gathering data from such device in real time so as to capture data of even intermittent failures of such device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A remote maintenance monitoring system for monitoring an electronic hardware device so as to achieve relatively remote diagnostic analysis using failure data captured near its point of origin, said system comprising:
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non-intrusive sensor implant means, transparently interfaced with a given electronic hardware device so as to not interfere with the operation thereof, for continuously gathering operational data from preselected locations within such device, and diagnostic expert means for receiving and analyzing data gathered by said sensor implant means, said expert means being programmed for diagnosing failure causes of the given device based on operational data gathered therefrom;
whereinsaid sensor implant means is adapted for interface with a computer-based hardware device, for gathering data of parity errors and power supply anomalies occurring within a given such computer-based device to which it is interfaced; and said diagnostic expert means utilizes such parity error and power supply anomaly data for determining the cause of such errors and anomalies in such computer-based device, and isolating the origin thereof to a line-replaceable-unit level within such device. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
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9. A remote maintenance monitoring system for online hardware monitoring of an operational large-scale distributed computer system having a plurality of both computer-based and non-computer-based devices, said monitoring system comprising:
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a plurality of data collection probes, respectively associated with the plurality of computer-based and non-computer-based devices comprising such distributed system, for transparently monitoring same and outputting corresponding failure data therefrom, respectively; maintenance computer means, including an expert system using a multi-phased interactive approach, for monitoring and analyzing such failure data so as to locate specific failed hardware components in such respective devices, to permit time-effective replacement of such specific components; and data interface and multiplexer means, for interfacing between said maintenance computer means and said plurality of data collection probes, respectively, said interface and multiplexer means including buffer means for receiving failure data from said probes for subsequent analysis by said maintenance computer means. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A retrofit monitoring system for assisting integrated diagnostic maintenance of a large-scale computer system having a plurality of distributed hardware devices, said monitoring system comprising:
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a plurality of data acquisition modules, respectively associated with the plurality of distributed hardware devices, for performing continuous, real-time monitoring of such devices and capturing intermittent and hard failure data therefrom, without interfering with operational integrity of such devices; data interface and multiplexer means, respectively interconnected with each of said plurality of data acquisition modules, for collecting failure data from said plurality of modules into a centralized failure data analysis location relatively remote from the respective hardware devices; and a diagnostic expert system, situated relatively near said centralized failure data analysis location, for receiving and analyzing collected failure data so as to determine and isolate hardware failures within each respective hardware device to specific replaceable components thereof, whereby multiple, dependent failures in such large-scale, distributed-device system are analyzed and isolated to facilitate replacement of such specific hardware components, thereby resulting in automated, time-effective maintenance of such largescale system. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification