Flow-through provisioning in utility AMR/AMI networks

• US 7,957,322 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Issued: 06/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Itron Networked Solutions, Inc. (Itron, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Silver Spring Networks, Inc. (Itron, Inc.)
• Inventors: Reeves, Donald L. III, Grady, Brian, Pace, James, Vaswani, Raj
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAM, BRENDA H
• Application Number:
  US11/796,767
• Publication Number:
  US 20080187116A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,499 Days
• Field of Search: 370/400, 370/254, 370/260, 709/222, 709/221
• US Class Current: 370/254
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/004 Remote reading of utility meters to a fixed location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/167 Adaptation for transition between two IP versions, e.g. between IPv4 and IPv6 translation of Internet protocol [IP] addresses H04L61/2503
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/02 Inter-networking arrangements
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/12 Billing, invoicing, buying or selling transactions or other related activities, e.g. cost or usage evaluation

Abstract

A system associated with a utility network having product distribution pathways, including a device management module for automatically provisioning at least a subset of a plurality of electronic utility devices associated with the pathways based on configuration state information received from the subset of the plurality of electronic utility devices and a comparison of the received configuration state information and predefined configuration state information.

Claims

1. A device management system comprising:

software, stored in computer readable medium, for receiving configuration state information from at least one of a plurality of electronic utility devices associated with a product distribution pathway of a utility network, the configuration state information including data representing capabilities of the electronic utility devices, and determining whether to configure the electronic utility device to operate consistently with infrastructure guidelines of the utility based on a comparison of the received configuration state information and predefined configuration state information;

wherein the device management system is configured to receive billing information from the electronic utility device for services associated with the electronic utility device.

2. The device management system of claim 1, wherein the electronic utility device includes at least one of frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication protocol capability, broadband communication capability, and IPv6 communication capability.

3. The device management system of claim 1, wherein the device management system is configured to calculate a program seal for the electronic utility device from the configuration state information received from the electronic utility device.

4. The device management system of claim 3, wherein the device management system is configured to verify integrity of the electronic utility device using the calculated program seal.

5. The device management system of claim 4, wherein, if the integrity of the electronic utility device is not verified, the device management system is configured to send a status message to the electronic utility device.

6. The device management system of claim 5, wherein the device management system is configured to include a configuration change in the status message, the configuration change corresponding to read software installed in the electronic utility device.

7. The device management system of claim 4, wherein, if the integrity of the electronic utility device is not verified, the device management system is configured to initiate an alert.

8. The device management system of claim 4, wherein the device management system includes a database configured to record data associated with integrity verification failures.

9. The device management system of claim 4, wherein the device management system is configured to change billing rules for services associated with the electronic utility device based on the integrity of the electronic utility device.

10. The device management system of claim 4, wherein, if the integrity of the electronic utility device is not verified, the device management system is configured to initialize the electronic utility device.

11. The device management system of claim 1, wherein the device management system is configured to poll the electronic utility device and to request a program seal from the electronic utility device to verify an identity of the electronic utility device before exchanging information with the electronic utility device.

12. The device management system of claim 1, wherein the device management system is configured to assign a hash key to each of the plurality of the electronic utility devices, and wherein the device management system is configured to query the electronic utility devices for the hash keys before exchanging information with the electronic utility devices.

13. The device management system of claim 1, wherein the device management system is configured to communicate with at least one of the plurality of electronic utility devices using a hash key to reduce network bandwidth required for the communication.

14. A device management system comprising:

software, stored in computer readable medium, for receiving configuration state information from at least one of a plurality of electronic utility devices associated with a product distribution pathway of a utility network, including data representing capabilities of the electronic utility devices, and determining whether to configure the electronic utility device to operate consistently with infrastructure guidelines of the utility based on a comparison of the received configuration state information and predefined configuration state information, wherein the device management system is configured to receive at least one of time of use and interval channel information from the electronic utility device for services associated with the electronic utility device.

15. A device management system comprising:

software, stored in computer readable medium, for receiving configuration state information from at least one of a plurality of electronic utility devices associated with a product distribution pathway of a utility network, including data representing capabilities of the electronic utility devices, and determining whether to configure the electronic utility device to operate consistently with infrastructure guidelines of the utility based on a comparison of the received configuration state information and predefined configuration state information, wherein the device management system is configured to change billing rules for services associated with the electronic utility device based on the configuration state information received from the electronic utility device.

16. A method of provisioning electronic utility devices associated with product distribution pathways of a utility network to operate consistently with the infrastructure guidelines of the utility, comprising:

receiving information from an electronic utility device including capabilities of the electronic utility device;

identifying a configuration state for the electronic utility device from the received electronic utility device information; and

determining whether to configure the electronic utility device based upon the identified configuration state;

wherein the electronic utility device is a commodity meter, and wherein the received information specifies the configuration state of the commodity meter.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the received information is an initial message sent by the electronic utility device upon connection to the utility network.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the received information includes a program seal corresponding to the electronic utility device.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the received information includes customer identification information.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the received information includes at least one of utility identification information and manufacturer identification information.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the received information includes information specifying a release characteristic of the electronic utility device providing the received information.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

if the configuration state information matches a predefined configuration state information, adding the electronic utility device to an electronic utility device read database.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

changing an administrative state in the electronic utility device read database from active to inactive.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

in response to the change in administrative state to inactive, reducing frequency of electronic utility device reads for the electronic utility device corresponding to the inactive electronic utility device.

25. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

reading an electronic utility device having an inactive administrative state; and

comparing information received from the inactive electronic utility device to anticipated information for electronic utility devices having inactive administrative states.

26. A method of provisioning electronic utility devices associated with product distribution pathways of a utility network to operate consistently with the infrastructure guidelines of the utility, comprising:

receiving information from an electronic utility device including capabilities of the electronic utility device;

identifying a configuration state for the electronic utility device from the received electronic utility device information; and

determining whether to configure the electronic utility device based upon the identified configuration state; and

sending a status message to the electronic utility device if the configuration state does not match predefined configuration state information.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the status message includes a configuration change, the configuration change corresponding to electronic utility device read software installed in the electronic utility device.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the status message includes a program seal, and wherein the method includes verifying the program seal before authorizing communication between the electronic utility device and the device management system.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein the status message includes administrative state information.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein the status message includes at least one of time of use information and interval channel information.

31. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

storing program seal information, wherein the program seal information is based upon the sent status message.