Transmission line measuring device and method for connectivity and monitoring

• US 9,928,730 B2
• Filed: 09/01/2017
• Issued: 03/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hubbell, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hubbell, Inc.
• Inventors: Miller, Gary, Waltz, Peter, Crutcher, Bernard, Chadbourne, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Bousono, Orlando
• Application Number:
  US15/693,990
• Publication Number:
  US 20180025626A1
• Time in Patent Office: 207 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 1/22 Tong testers acting as secondary windings of current transformers
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 15/142 Arrangements for simultaneous measurements of several parameters employing techniques covered by groups G01R15/14 - G01R15/26
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/40 using a wireless architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

A method for connecting low power radios into a self-assembling and self-healing network with multiple portals to higher speed networks such as, but not limited to, electrical or optical Ethernet is provided for monitoring transmission lines, for example, or other monitoring application. An arrangement of sensors is provided (e.g., sensors can be associated with clamps or positioned along infrastructure being monitored and without dependence on any clamps or other devices) that are designed to communicate and operate in an geographically distributed array to provide increased and autonomous monitoring of large utility, highway, communication and similar networks. A unique collection of sensors (e.g., an anemometer with no moving parts) provides comprehensive diagnostics for improved operation of large geographic scale utility, highway, communication and similar infrastructure.

Claims

1. A data acquisition device for acquiring data from a location comprising:

at least one sensor for determining at least one of a parameter and image associated with the location;

a radio interface for communicating to at least one of a network interface and at least one neighboring data acquisition device via a radio communication link within a selected range; and

a processing device connected to the at least one sensor and the radio interface, the processing device being programmed to receive and process inputs from the at least one sensor, and to generate messages for transmission via the radio interface;

wherein a network comprises a plurality of the data acquisition device and the network interface, and the processing device is configured to participate in multi-hop communications via the radio communication link with the other data acquisition devices and the network interface;

wherein each of the data acquisition devices is assigned a unique address, and configured to participate in a self-assembling process that automatically configures the data acquisition device to communicate within the network, the processing device being configured to participate in the self-assembling process by forwarding a configuration message to the other data acquisition devices via the radio communication link after incrementing a hop count provided therein, by storing a hop count to the network interface for itself and comparing with respective hop counts to the network interface from at least a subset of the other data acquisition devices, and by repeating to the network interface a copy of the configuration message having a selected hop count from among copies of the configuration message transmitted by one or more of the other data acquisition devices.

2. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device is configured to store the unique address of each of at least a subset of the other data acquisition devices in a memory device, the stored unique addresses being used by the processing device to determine which of processing a message received from one of the other data acquisition devices, repeating the message, or ignoring the message to perform based on the unique address provided in the message.

3. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 2, wherein the data acquisition device is configured to update the unique addresses in the memory device based on configuration messages received from the other data acquisition devices.

4. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the processing device in each of the data acquisition devices is configured to determine when to repeat messages from the other data acquisition devices toward the network interface based on at least one designated decision factor so that messages from the data acquisition devices are transmitted to the network interface via paths that correspond to selected ones of the data acquisition devices repeating the messages based on the at least one designated decision factor.

5. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 4, wherein the at least one designated decision factor comprises at least one of the hop counts in messages received from the data acquisition devices, and the unique addresses provided in messages from the data acquisition devices.

6. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the radio interface in each of the data acquisition devices is an encrypted radio interface configured to employ the self-assembling process that assembles each of the data acquisition devices into a communication network and obviates manual configuration of the radio interface in each of the data acquisition devices.

7. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the processing device is configured to receive messages from at least one of the other data acquisition devices and the network interface, and determine from information provided in each of the messages which operation to perform from among process the message, repeat the message, and ignore the message depending on whether an address provided in the message corresponds to the address of the data acquisition device and depending on a hop count provided in the message.

8. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the hop count in the information provided in each of the messages corresponds to the number of times the message has been repeated by one of the data acquisition devices, the processing device being configured to increment the hop count in the messages before it is repeated.

9. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 8, wherein the processing device is configured to determine whether to repeat the message based on the number of hops and the address included in the message.

10. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the unique address of each of the data acquisition devices is a proprietary address on which routing of packets corresponding to their messages is based.

11. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, where the data acquisition device is configured as a Layer 2 router.

12. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the unique address is a Media Access Control (MAC) address.

13. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein information in each of the copies of the configuration message comprises the unique address of the data acquisition device that sent the copy and a hop count, and the processing device determines from the information in received copies of the configuration message the unique addresses of the other data acquisition devices in its vicinity and stores their unique addresses in a memory device.

14. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the network interface is configured as a radio-to-Ethernet adaptor comprising a radio interface and an Ethernet port that performs protocol conversion on signals received from the data acquisition devices via the radio communication link for transmission via Ethernet.

15. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the network interface is configured to aggregate data about respective ones of the data acquisition devices from messages received from other data acquisition devices via the radio communication link.

16. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 15, wherein each of the data acquisition devices comprises a corresponding Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) page.

17. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 16, wherein the network interface is assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address and configured to provide a user with an HTML page corresponding to the data acquisition device that comprises the at least one of a parameter and image determined by the at least one sensor.

18. A data acquisition device as recited in claim 1, wherein the data acquisition device further comprises a web server, the processing device being configured to send the messages for transmission via email.