Fault management system using satellite telemetering technology and method thereof

• US 7,843,359 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2006
• Issued: 11/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Lee, Seong-Pal, Park, Jae-Woo, Lee, Yong-Deuk, Jeong, Cheol-Oh
• Primary Examiner(s): WONG, ALBERT KANG
• Application Number:
  US11/607,039
• Publication Number:
  US 20070129009A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,460 Days
• Field of Search: 340/870.07, 340/870.01, 701 29- 35
• US Class Current: 340/870.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways

Abstract

A fault management system using a satellite telemetering technology and a method thereof are provided. The fault management system includes: a telemetering sensing unit for collecting telemetering data from target apparatuses, which are installed at a remote location and an unattended location and managed through a satellite, in real time and sensing whether the target apparatuses are malfunctioned or not based on the collected telemetering data; a controlling unit for determining whether the target apparatuses are malfunctioned or not by comparing the telemetering data with unique performance request values for normally driving the target apparatuses, analyzing causes of malfunctions, and storing malfunction data into a malfunction data storing unit; a malfunction data analysis unit for managing the malfunction data stored in the malfunction data storing unit and analyzing the malfunction data; and a display unit for outputting the result of analyzing the malfunction data on a display device.

Claims

1. A remote fault management system comprising:

a telemetering sensing device for collecting telemetering data from target apparatuses, which are installed at a remote location and an unattended location and managed through a satellite, in real time and sensing a malfunction of the target apparatuses based on the collected telemetering data;

a control device for determining whether the target apparatuses are malfunctioned or not by comparing the telemetering data with unique performance request values for normally driving the target apparatuses, analyzing causes of malfunctions, and storing malfunction data;

a malfunction data analysis device for managing the stored malfunction data and analyzing the malfunction data; and

a display device for outputting an analysis result on an external display device,

wherein the malfunction data analysis device includes;

a malfunction data transform unit for transforming the stored malfunction data into a transformed data format;

a statistical malfunction analysis tool and a Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Susceptibility (RAMS) analysis tool configured to receive the transformed data from the malfunction data transform unit;

an information analysis unit for analyzing the transformed data using the statistical malfunction analysis tool and the RAMS analysis tool by performing statistical malfunction analysis, a mean time between failure (MTBF) analysis, reliability analysis, availability analysis, and maintainability analysis of each part/accessory constituting an entire apparatus and the target apparatuses, or performing a predetermined analysis in response to an external request; and

a display configuration assigning unit for assigning a display configuration to display the analysis result and outputting the analysis result on the display device based on the assigned display configuration.

2. The remote fault management system as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a communicating device for enabling the result of analyzing the malfunction data on the external display device.

3. The remote fault management system as recited in claim 1, wherein the telemetering sensing device supports bidirectional interactive communication in order to check whether the target apparatus is in a normal state or an abnormal state through the satellite by a request from a manager.

4. The remote fault management system as recited in claim 3, wherein the control device includes:

a data examining unit for examining a validity of the telemetering data received from the telemetering sensing means in real time, and transforming the received telemetering data into performance state data having a data format that denotes a performance state of the target apparatuses;

a data comparison/analysis unit for analyzing the performance state data of the target apparatus by comparing the performance state data of the target apparatuses with previously-stored unique assigned values of each elements of each target apparatus;

a data determining unit for determining whether performance of each target apparatus or each element in the target apparatus is in a normal state or an abnormal state based on comparing/analyzing result output from the data comparison/analysis unit, transferring information about overall malfunction state or partial malfunction state of the part/accessory of the target apparatus with position information of the target apparatus to the display device; and

a malfunction data storing unit for receiving the information about overall malfunction state or partial malfunction state of the part/accessory of the target apparatus and for receiving the telemetering data from the telemetering sensing device, transforming the received information and the telemetering data to malfunction data in real time, and storing the malfunction data.

5. The remote fault management system as recited in claim 4, wherein the control device is an on-board computer that multi-processes the telemetering data from the telemetering sensing device and flexibly manages the telemetering data according to functional expansion of the target apparatus including adding and modifying functions of the target apparatus.

6. The remote fault management system as recited in claim 1, wherein the display device outputs the result of determining whether the performance of the target apparatus is in a normal state or an abnormal state transferred from the control device on the external display device, and outputs the result of analyzing the malfunction data transferred from the malfunction data analysis device.

7. The remote fault management system as recited in claim 6, wherein a graphic user interface (GUI) is provided to a manager.

8. The remote fault management system as recited in claim 1, wherein the telemetering data includes position information of the target apparatus, an identification number of each part/accessory, a performance state and malfunction state of each element, and a state of transmission path to the target apparatuses.

9. A remote fault management method comprising:

collecting telemetering data from target apparatuses, which are installed at a remote location and an unattended location and managed through a satellite, in real time, and sensing whether the target apparatuses are malfunctioned or not based on the collected telemetering data;

determining whether the target apparatuses are malfunctioned or not by comparing the telemetering data with unique performance request values for normally driving the target apparatuses, analyzing causes of malfunctions, and storing malfunction data;

managing the stored malfunction data and analyzing the malfunction data; and

outputting the result of performing statistical malfunction analysis on the stored malfunction data,

wherein the managing of the stored malfunction data and analyzing of the malfunction data includes;

transforming the stored malfunction data into a data format used as an input to a statistical malfunction analysis tool and a Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Susceptibility (RAMS) analysis tool;

analyzing transformed data using the statistical malfunction analysis tool and the RAMS analysis tool by performing statistical malfunction analysis, a mean time between failure (MTBF) analysis, reliability analysis, availability analysis, and maintainability analysis of each element constituting an entire apparatus and the target apparatuses, or performing a predetermined analysis in response to an external request; and

assigning a display configuration and displaying the analysis result based on the assigned display configuration.

10. The remote fault management method as recited in claim 9, wherein the telemetering data includes position information of the target apparatus, an identification number of each element, a performance state and a malfunction state of each element, and a state of transmission path to the target apparatuses.