Updating routing and outage information in a communications network
First Claim
1. A method of providing notification of recovery from a power outage in a utility communications network, the method comprising:
- upon rebooting of a node in the utility communications network, discovering neighbor nodes on the communications network with which the node can communicate;
selecting a discovered neighbor node as a proxy for the rebooted node;
prior to the rebooted node obtaining routing information to communicate with a utility back office server, transmitting a recovery message from the rebooted node to the selected proxy node as the destination of the message, the recovery message indicating that the rebooted node has recently come online within the network upon recovery from a loss of power, and containing parameter values relating to the state of recovery from the loss of power; and
after transmitting the recovery message by the rebooted node to the selected proxy node, obtaining the routing information to communicate with the utility back office server.
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Accused Products
Abstract
After power is restored to a node in a utility network, that node employs one or more of its neighboring nodes as proxies to route a message to a central control facility of the utility. The message contains information about the restored node, and possibly one or more of its neighbor nodes. This information may include reboot counters, the amount of time that the node was down, momentary outages or power fluctuations, and/or the time of power restoration. The node that creates and initially sends the message can be the restored node itself, or another node that recognizes when a restored node has recently come back online.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of providing notification of recovery from a power outage in a utility communications network, the method comprising:
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upon rebooting of a node in the utility communications network, discovering neighbor nodes on the communications network with which the node can communicate; selecting a discovered neighbor node as a proxy for the rebooted node; prior to the rebooted node obtaining routing information to communicate with a utility back office server, transmitting a recovery message from the rebooted node to the selected proxy node as the destination of the message, the recovery message indicating that the rebooted node has recently come online within the network upon recovery from a loss of power, and containing parameter values relating to the state of recovery from the loss of power; and after transmitting the recovery message by the rebooted node to the selected proxy node, obtaining the routing information to communicate with the utility back office server. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of providing notification of recovery from a power outage in a utility communications network, the method comprising:
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at a first node on the network, examining messages received from neighboring nodes to determine whether the age of a neighboring node, indicative of the length of time the neighboring node has been currently active on the network, is less than a predetermined threshold value; and if the neighboring node is determined to have an age less than the predetermined threshold value, automatically creating and transmitting a message at the first node indicating that the neighboring node is currently active on the network and that the length of time the neighboring node has been currently active on the network is less than the predetermined threshold value, wherein the first node only creates and transmits the message if the first node'"'"'s age is greater than a second threshold value. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification