Methods and system for utility network outage detection
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A system comprising:
- a utility network including a product distribution pathway for delivering a product;
a plurality of electronic utility devices associated with the utility network to monitor at least one parameter associated with the product distribution pathway; and
a management processor in communication with the devices and generating a reachability polling schedule based on application layer network reachability statistics and network access criteria, the management processor operable to initially poll at least a subset of the electronic utility devices in response to an input and based on the reachability polling schedule to evaluate performance of one of the utility network and the system in response to information relating to the at least one parameter, the evaluation including a rule-based analysis of one of the parameter and the information relating to the parameter and identifying one or more sources of a power outage.
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Abstract
The present invention provides a system including a utility network including a product distribution pathway for delivering a product, a plurality of electronic utility devices associated with the utility network to monitor at least one parameter associated with the product distribution pathway, and a management processor in communication with the devices and operable to poll at least a subset of the electronic utility devices in response to an input to evaluate performance of one of the utility network and the system in response to information relating to the at least one parameter. The evaluation can include a rule-based analysis of one of the parameter and the information relating to the parameter.
46 Citations
104 Claims
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1. A system comprising:
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a utility network including a product distribution pathway for delivering a product; a plurality of electronic utility devices associated with the utility network to monitor at least one parameter associated with the product distribution pathway; and a management processor in communication with the devices and generating a reachability polling schedule based on application layer network reachability statistics and network access criteria, the management processor operable to initially poll at least a subset of the electronic utility devices in response to an input and based on the reachability polling schedule to evaluate performance of one of the utility network and the system in response to information relating to the at least one parameter, the evaluation including a rule-based analysis of one of the parameter and the information relating to the parameter and identifying one or more sources of a power outage. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method of monitoring a utility network, the method comprising:
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monitoring, by an outage detection module of a network management center, at least one parameter associated with performance of the utility network with a plurality of electronic utility devices associated with a product distribution pathway of the utility network; generating a reachability polling schedule based on application layer network reachability statistics and network access criteria; determining a priority of messages based on a communication type; communicating, based on the determined priority, information relating to the at least one parameter to a management processor; polling, based on the reachability polling schedule, at least some of the electronic utility devices in response to an input to determine whether there is a performance problem associated with the utility network; performing, by the outage detection module, a rule-based analysis of one of the parameter and the information relating to the parameter; and identifying, by the outage detection module, a source of a power outage using the rule-based analysis. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62)
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63. A system used to manage a utility network, the utility network including a product distribution pathway and a plurality of electronic utility devices associated with the product distribution pathway, the electronic utility devices monitoring at least one parameter associated with performance of the utility network and communicating information relating to the parameter to a management processor, the system comprising:
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a control module for evaluating the performance of the utility network based on the parameter; and program code, stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, executed by the system to divide a first network of the utility network based on a criteria, to generate a reachability polling schedule based on application layer network reachability statistics and network access criteria, and to poll at least a subset of the electronic utility devices based on the division and the reachability polling schedule, in response to an input to confirm whether the information relating to the parameter indicates a power outage associated with the utility network. - View Dependent Claims (64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89)
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90. A method of managing performance problems in a utility network, the method comprising:
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generating, by an outage detection module of a network management center, a reachability polling schedule based on application layer network reachability statistics and a network access criteria; polling a subset of a plurality of electronic utility devices associated with a product distribution pathway of the utility network based on the reachability polling schedule for information relating to at least one parameter associated with performance of the polled utility meters; and determining, by the outage detection module, whether there is a performance problem from the information received in response to polling, the performance problem being a power outage. - View Dependent Claims (91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103)
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104. A system for monitoring a utility grid, the system comprising:
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an interface for communicating with a communications network overlying the utility grid and including a plurality of utility nodes in communication with the utility grid, wherein the utility grid deliverers a product; and a network management center including at least one processor for processing instructions and communicatively coupled to the communications network interface, the at least one processor configured to generate a reachability polling schedule based on application layer network reachability statistics and network access criteria; a communications module operable to transmit, based on the reachability polling schedule, queries to the utility grid through the communications network interface to at least one of the plurality of utility nodes and receive query responses received from the communications network interface from the at least one of the plurality of utility nodes, an outage detection module operable to evaluate performance of at least one of the utility grid and the network in response to a comparison of information included in the query responses and predetermined criteria relating to the performance of the at least one of the utility grid and the network.
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Specification