Intelligent grid communication network management system and methods

• US 9,009,002 B2
• Filed: 05/19/2011
• Issued: 04/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Jain, Rahul, Turkson, Leslie T., Parmar, Vaibhav J., Ahmed, Shahid
• Primary Examiner(s): Lau, Tung S
• Assistant Examiner(s): SUN, XIUQIN
• Application Number:
  US13/111,654
• Publication Number:
  US 20120296607A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,426 Days
• Field of Search: 702/185
• US Class Current: 702/185
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/00 Circuit arrangements for ac mains or ac distribution networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0645 by additionally acting on or stimulating the network after receiving notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/065 involving logical or physical relationship, e.g. grouping and hierarchies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/00 Systems for electrical power generation, transmission, distribution or end-user application management characterised by the use of communication or information technologies, or communication or information technology specific aspects supporting them

Abstract

A system for communication network management of a utility grid includes a database configured to store a grid information data set, where the grid information data set includes network device information for the utility grid and a network management system executable by a processor to: receive an event message from one or more network devices indicative of one or more failures in a communication network of the utility grid; retrieve the grid information data set; identify one or more network device associated with the one or more failures based on the grid information data set; transmit a request for a response to the identified one or more network devices; determine a response pattern based on responses from the identified one or more network devices in order to identify a cause of the failure based on the response pattern.

Claims

1. A system for communication network management of a utility grid, the system comprising:

a database configured to store a grid information data set, where the grid information data set includes network device information for the utility grid, where the utility grid comprises electrical equipment to be monitored by the network devices, the network devices communicable via a communication network of the utility grid;

an integrated network operations and management system executable by a processor to;

receive an event message transmitted by a network device, the event message indicative of a communication failure in the communication network of the utility grid;

retrieve the grid information data set;

identify one or more network devices associated with the communication failure based on the grid information data set, the one or more network devices being in communication with the network device that transmitted the event message;

transmit a request for a response to the identified one or more network devices; and

determine a response pattern based on responses from the identified one or more network devices; and

a fault, performance, and configuration management (FPCM) module executable by the processor to communicate directly with at least one of the identified network devices, and to determine a cause of the communication failure based on the response patterns and event messages from respective network devices, wherein the FPCM module includes a plurality of application program interfaces (APIs) that facilitate communication of the FPCM module with respective network devices.

2. The system of claim 1, where the network management system is further executable to:

test connectivity between the identified network devices; and

identify a cause of the communication failure based on the connectivity test.

3. The system of claim 1, where the network management system is further executable to:

determine a network device corresponding to the event message; and

identify the cause of the communication failure as a malfunction in the network device.

4. The system of claim 1, where the event message comprises a plurality of event messages, the system further comprising:

an incident management module executable by the processor to generate a single trouble ticket associated with a single network device, in response to a plurality of causes of failure identified for the communication failure.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a service level management module executable by the processor to report penalties that ensure accounting of owned service credits beyond contractual usage levels and to provide power against contractual service level obligations.

6. The system of claim 1, where the network management system is further executable to:

identify a different network device based on the response pattern;

transmit a request for a response to the different network device; and

identify the cause of the failure based on the response from the different network device.

7. The system of claim 1, where the cause of the communication failure is determined based on a comparison of the response patterns with a predetermined response pattern stored in the database.

8. A method for managing a communication network of a utility grid, the method executable by a computer coupled with a processor and memory of an integrated network operations and management system, the method comprising:

facilitating, by the processor, direct communication with a plurality of network devices via the communication network of the utility grid with a fault, performance, and configuration management (FPCM) module, the FPCM module including a plurality of application programming interfaces (API) to facilitate direct communication with respective network devices, the network devices configured to monitor electrical equipment included in the utility grid;

receiving, with the processor, an event message from a network device, the event message indicative of a communication failure in the communication network of the utility grid;

retrieving, with the processor, a grid information data set from a database, where the grid information data set includes network device information for the utility grid;

identifying, with the processor, one or more network devices associated with the communication failure based on the grid information data set, at least some of the one or more network devices being in communication with the network device;

transmitting, with the processor, a request for a response, the request transmitted to at least some of the identified one or more network devices;

determining, with the processor, a response pattern based on responses from at least some of the identified one or more network devices; and

identifying a cause of the communication failure based on the response pattern matching a predetermined response pattern.

9. The method of claim 8, where the event message comprises a plurality of event messages, the method further comprising:

identifying the cause of the communication failure based on the response pattern and contents of the event messages.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

testing, with the processor, connectivity between at least some of the identified network devices; and

identifying, with the processor, a cause of the communication failure based on the connectivity test.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

identifying, with the processor, a different network device based on the response pattern;

transmitting, with the processor, a request for a response to the at least one different network device; and

identifying, with the processor, the cause of the communication failure based on the response from the different network device.

12. The method of claim 11, where identifying, with the processor, a different network device comprises identifying, with the processor, the different network device that is a part of a local area network.

13. The method of claim 11, where identifying, with the processor, a different network device comprises identifying, with the processor, the different network device that is a part of a wide area network.

14. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

determining, with the processor, a network device that transmitted the event message; and

identifying, with the processor, the cause of the communication failure as a malfunction in the network device.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having a plurality of instructions executable by a processor to manage a communication network of a utility grid that includes a database configured to store a grid information data set including network device information for the utility grid, the computer-readable medium comprising:

instructions to execute a fault, performance, and configuration management (FPCM) module executable by the processor, to facilitate direct communication with a plurality of network devices of the communication network, the FPCM module being a part of an integrated network operations and management system;

instructions to execute a device discovery module of the FPCM module, the device discovery module including a plurality of application programming interfaces (APIs) that facilitate communication of the FPCM with respective network devices;

instructions to receive, using the integrated network operations and management system, an event message transmitted by a network device, the event message indicative of a connectivity failure in the communication network of the utility grid, where the utility grid comprises electrical equipment to be monitored;

instructions to retrieve the grid information data set included in the database;

instructions to identify one or more network devices on a communication path associated with the network device that transmitted the event message, the communication path being a part of the communications network between the electrical equipment and the integrated network operations and management system, and the network devices identified based on the grid information data set;

instructions to transmit a request for a response to at least some of the identified one or more network devices; and

instructions to determine a response pattern based on responses from at least some of the identified one or more network devices in order to identify a cause of the connectivity failure based on the response pattern and the event message.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 further comprising:

instructions to test connectivity between at least some of the identified network devices; and

instructions to identify a cause of the connectivity failure based on the connectivity test.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 further comprising:

instructions to determine a network device corresponding to the event message; and

instructions to identify the cause of the connectivity failure as a malfunction in the network device.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 further comprising:

instructions to identify a different network device based on the response pattern;

instructions to transmit a request for a response to the different network device; and

instructions to identify the cause of the connectivity failure based on the response from the different network device.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, where the instructions to identify a different network device comprises instructions to identify the different network device that is a part of a local area network.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, where the instructions to identify a different network device comprises instructions to identify the different network device that is a part of a wide area network.