Data-transparent measurement management system

• US 7,469,286 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2003
• Issued: 12/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Agilent Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Agilent Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Schroth, Albrecht, Funke-Schaeff, Sabine
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu; Thong H
• Application Number:
  US10/409,418
• Publication Number:
  US 20040054773A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,086 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/246, 707/203, 700/19, 700/83, 700/286, 700/295, 714/47, 705/35, 705/2, 715/763, 717/105
• US Class Current: 709/224
• 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: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A measurement management system adapted to communicate with one or more measurement instruments, comprises at least one driver, each being adapted for communicating with at least one measurement instrument, a database adapted for storing information, and a processing unit adapted for processing information. Data communication within the measurement management system is provided using an MMS data format, in which data content is separated from information about presentation or representation of the data content.

Claims

1. A measurement system comprising:

a measurement instrument adapted for measuring a physical parameter, and

a measurement management system adapted to communicate between a user interface and the measurement instrument, wherein the user interface provides a user access to the measurement management system, the measurement management system comprising;

a driver adapted for communicating with the measurement instrument,

a database adapted for storing information resulting from the communicating with the measurement instrument, and

a processing unit adapted for processing the information,

wherein a data communication within the measurement management system as well as between the measurement management system and the measurement instrument is provided without data format conversion because the information is expressed in a data format directly at the point of measurement, wherein in the data format, data content is separated from information about presentation or representation of the data content.

2. The measurement system of claim 1, wherein the user interface is at least one of a group comprising:

a reporting tool for reporting measurement related data, a graphical user interface for graphically representing information, a non-graphical user interface for representing information in text format only, an interface to provide access to the internet, and an interface to provide access to a mobile device.

3. The measurement system of claim 1, wherein data in the data format is represented in at least one of the following group comprising:

a device-independent string, a device-independent generic string , a generic format, a generic format applicable for the measurement instruments, a standard eXtensible Markup Language XML.

4. The measurement system of claim 1, wherein at least one driver is adapted to provide data communication with one or more of the measurement instruments also using the same MMS data format.

8. The measurement system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of measurement instruments, each for measuring a physical parameter.

9. The measurement system of claim 8, wherein the measurement management system comprises a plurality of drivers, each of the plurality of drivers being adapted for communicating with at least one of the measurement instruments.

10. The measurement system of claim 1, wherein the measurement instrument is coupled to the driver through a data communication network.

11. The measurement system of claim 1, wherein the data communication within the measurement management system comprises at least one of:

initiating a measurement task to be executed by the measurement instrument, controlling a measurement task to be executed by the measurement instrument, requesting status information or measurement related data from the measurement instrument,

receiving status information or measurement related data from the measurement instrument,

storing information in the database, and

processing information by the processing unit.

12. The measurement system of claim 1, wherein the driver represents a generic interface towards the measurement instrument.

5. A method for operating a measurement system, the measurement system comprising:

a measurement instrument adapted for measuring a physical parameter, and

a measurement management system adapted to communicate between a user interface and the measurement instrument, wherein the user interface provides a user access to the measurement management system, the measurement management system comprising;

a driver adapted for communicating with the measurement instrument,

a database adapted for storing information resulting from the communicating with the measurement instrument, and

a processing unit adapted for processing the information, the method comprising;

expressing the information in a data format directly at the point of measurement wherein in the data format, data content is separated from information about presentation or representation of the data content; and

providing a data communication within the measurement management system as well as between the measurement management system and the measurement instrument, without data format conversion, because the information is expressed in the data format directly at the point of measurement.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the data communication comprises at least one of:

initiating a measurement task to be executed by the measurement instrument, controlling a measurement task to be executed by the measurement instrument, requesting status information or measurement related data from the measurement instrument,

receiving status information or measurement related data from the measurement instrument,

storing information in the database,

processing information by the processing unit.

7. A storage media, comprising instructions that control a processor to execute the method of claim 5.