Optical network terminal backup battery centralized monitoring and voltage alert

• US 8,542,126 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Issued: 09/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: McKelvey, Henry A., McCain, JR., Randy B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehmood, Jennifer
• Assistant Examiner(s): POINT, RUFUS C
• Application Number:
  US11/930,356
• Publication Number:
  US 20090052889A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,155 Days
• Field of Search: 340/636.1, 340/635, 340/636.12, 340/636.16, 340/636.19, 398/70, 398/17
• US Class Current: 340/636.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/14 Monitoring arrangements for SDH/SONET rings H04J3/085
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/1694 Allocation of channels in TDM/TDMA networks, e.g. distributed multiplexers Passive Optical Networks H04Q11/0062

Abstract

An optical network terminal (ONT) battery backup unit (BBU) battery voltage alert system (BVAS). This alert is provided as a supplement to an audio alarm which sounds when the backup battery is discharging because that alarm may not be heard in sufficient time if the alarm is remotely located relative to its customer, e.g., in the customer'"'"'s basement or outside. A battery monitoring facility, located in a telecommunication service provider'"'"'s centralized serving office, or remotely located elsewhere, monitors the voltage of each of a plurality of batteries deployed in customers'"'"' premises within the geographical area served by that centralized serving office. That battery monitoring facility receives packets via a communication network from each such customer'"'"'s premises, each of those packets representing a battery voltage measurement. That battery monitoring facility stores these on-going measurements thereby creating a trending database to point to any potential future battery failures. The battery monitoring facility alerts a particular customer via the communication network when its battery is about to fail by email/text, fax, telephone or other similar mechanism.

Claims

1. A low battery-voltage warning system comprising:

a plurality of voltage monitoring devices, each device configured to monitor voltage of a different one of a like plurality of batteries used as back-up power supplies, each battery operatively coupled via a different one of a like plurality of power busses directly to a different one of a like plurality of optical network terminals (ONTs), to supply back-up power directly, and thereby bypass any power supplies ordinarily supplying power to said ONT'"'"'s, each said ONT installed on a different one of a like plurality of customer premises, each of said customer premises including a local client operatively connected to its respective device, wherein the voltage monitoring devices provide an indication of degree of discharge of said batteries;

a battery monitoring facility located remotely from each one of said customer premises and communicatively connected to said plurality of voltage monitoring devices over a network, wherein the battery monitoring facility receives said indication as input information, stores said input information in a database associated with said battery monitoring facility and processes said input information into output information suitable for immediate communication to said customer; and

a remote client operatively connected with said battery monitoring facility;

wherein said local client obtains ongoing battery voltage measurements of its respective battery and sends an alert notification directly to its respective customer based on said measurements indicating a battery fault; and

wherein said remote client transmits said output information reflecting said battery fault as another alert notification to said respective customer where, if said alert notification and said another alert notification are identical in kind, the first to arrive notification is effective but if said alert notification and said another alert notification are different in kind, then both notifications are made.

2. The warning system of claim 1 wherein said communication is accomplished via one or more of the following:

email;

text messaging;

land-line telephone call;

wireless telephone call;

paging alert and/or communication to a personal digital assistant (PDA) of said customer.

3. The warning system of claim 1 wherein said battery monitoring facility further processes said input information into output information suitable for immediate communication to a supplier of said ONT, thereby alerting said supplier to either replace said battery or notify said customer to replace said battery.

4. The warning system of claim 1 wherein said remote location is a centralized serving office of a telecommunications service provider.

5. The warning system of claim 1 wherein said input information stored in said database is trending data reflecting expected remaining usable battery voltage.

6. The warning system of claim 1 wherein said indication is packetized at said customer premises prior to sending said indication to said battery monitoring facility over the network.

7. The warning system of claim 1 wherein said remote location is other than a centralized serving office of a telecommunications service provider, and is strategically positioned to permit said battery monitoring facility to monitor batteries deployed throughout a geographical region including a sub-state region of the U.S., a state of the U.S. or a multi-state region of the U.S.

8. The warning system of claim 1 wherein said remote location is a particular one of a multiplicity of centralized serving offices of a telecommunications service provider, said particular office being strategically positioned to permit said battery monitoring facility to monitor batteries associated with said multiplicity of centralized serving offices deployed throughout a geographical region including a sub-state region of the U.S., a state of the U.S. or a multi-state region of the U.S.

9. The warning system of claim 1 wherein said network is in communication with a customer information system under control of a telecommunications company, said system storing customer data for various purposes such as allowing updates to customer preferences.

13. The warning system of claim 1 wherein said voltage measurement facility comprises:

a voltage sampler, the voltage sampler sampling said voltage of said respective battery to obtain voltage samples;

a packetizer which generates data packets for communication over the network, the packetizer generated packets containing said voltage samples.

14. The warning system of claim 13 further comprising:

a transceiver communicatively connected to the network and the packetizer, the transceiver transmitting said data packets to said battery monitoring facility over said network.

15. The warning system of claim 14 wherein said transceiver receives packets from said battery monitoring facility over said network, said packets containing information about said battery, said transceiver forwarding said information to a client located within said customer premises for providing suitable notification of said information to a customer of said telecommunications service provider.

16. The warning system of claim 15 wherein said client notifies said customer via one or more of the following:

email;

text messaging;

SNS text messaging;

land-line telephone call;

wireless telephone call;

paging alert and/or communication to a personal digital assistant (PDA) of said customer.

17. The warning system of claim 1 wherein said network is also communicatively coupled to a customer information system (CIS) under control of a telecommunications service provider, said CIS including a data storage facility for storing customer data for various purposes.

18. The warning system of claim 17 wherein said data storage facility in combination with said database maintain data obtained over a large population of said batteries to offer statistical insight to battery performance and failure as a function of many variables comprising battery manufacturer, battery model, battery chemistry and battery placement location at the customer premises.

19. The warning system of claim 16 wherein the telecommunications service provider follows-up said notification to said customer by changing or charging said battery as needed.

21. The warning system of claim 1 wherein said indication includes state information, for said each battery, selected from the group of state information consisting of no battery detected, battery polarity reversed, battery detected ok, battery good, battery marginal and battery bad.

10. A battery monitoring system comprising:

a plurality of batteries deployed at a like plurality of customer premises, said plurality of batteries used to back-up a like plurality of power supplies for powering a like plurality of optical terminals located on said customer premises, each of said batteries being associated with a different one of said power supplies used to power a different one of said optical terminals on a different one of said customer premises;

a battery monitoring facility located remotely from each of said customer premises and communicatively connected to each of said plurality of customer premises via a network;

each of said customer premises including a voltage measurement facility and a local client operatively connected to said voltage measurement facility, said voltage measurement facility configured to measure voltage of its respective battery and transmit said voltage measurement over the network in digital format in a packet to said battery monitoring facility and said voltage measurement facility further including a battery voltage alert system providing an alert to said battery monitoring facility, said alert including state information, for said each battery, selected from the group of state information consisting of no battery detected, battery polarity reversed, battery detected ok, battery good, battery marginal and battery bad;

a remote client operatively connected with said battery monitoring facility; and

wherein said battery monitoring facility maintains a database, storing said voltage measurement and said alert in said database, and alerting at least the customer of said customer premises associated with said voltage measurement with a first notification if said voltage measurement or said alert indicates that its associated battery has failed or is about to fail, wherein said local client sends a second notification directly to the customer where, if said first notification and said second notification are identical in kind, the first to arrive notification is effective but if said first notification and said second notification are different in kind then both notifications are made to the customer, and wherein said batteries are operatively coupled via power busses directly to their respective said optical terminals, thereby bypassing said power supplies ordinarily supplying power to said respective optical terminals.

11. The battery monitoring system of claim 10 wherein said remote location is a centralized serving office of a telecommunications service provider and said each of said premises falls within the geographic area serviced by said centralized serving office.

12. The battery monitoring system of claim 11, wherein the battery monitoring facility notifies said telecommunications service provider if said voltage measurement indicates that said associated battery has failed or is about to fail.

20. A method, comprising:

monitoring a plurality of batteries to obtain information on each of said batteries, each said battery associated with its respective local client, deployed as a backup voltage source for a different optical network terminal (ONT) and utilized by said ONT as said backup voltage source during failure of a primary source of voltage for said ONT;

establishing a battery monitoring facility located remotely from each said ONT and communicatively connected via a network to said each said ONT, said battery monitoring facility including an associated monitoring client and storage capacity for storing said information on said each of said batteries;

transmitting, via said network, said information on said each of said batteries to said battery monitoring facility, said information including state information on said each of said batteries, said state information selected from the group of state information consisting of no battery detected, battery polarity reversed, battery detected ok, battery good, battery marginal and battery bad;

transmitting, via said network and for said each said ONT, a first alert to a user of said ONT if said state information indicates no battery detected, battery polarity reversed, battery marginal or battery bad; and

transmitting, directly from said local client to said user, a second alert if said first alert is transmitted;

wherein if said first alert and said second alert are identical in kind, the first to arrive alert is effective but, if said first alert and said second alert are different in kind, then both alerts are provided to said user.

22. A method, comprising:

monitoring back-up batteries used for supplying back-up voltage to optical network terminals (ONT'"'"'s) when primary voltage is unavailable said monitoring including monitoring voltage output of a plurality of said batteries both directly through local clients, each said client directly associated with a different one of said plurality, and remotely over a network by way of a remote battery monitoring facility including a remote client, said voltage output being monitored to determine status of said back-up voltage;

for each said ONT, transmitting, via said network from said remote client, a first alert to a user of said ONT if said status of said back-up voltage for said ONT warrants said first alert;

transmitting, directly from said local client to said user, a second alert if said first alert is transmitted;

wherein if said first alert and said second alert are identical in kind, the first to arrive alert is effective but, if said first alert and said second alert are different in kind, then both alerts are provided to said user.