Intelligent electronic device for receiving and sending data at high speeds over a network

• US 10,628,053 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2015
• Issued: 04/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: EI Electronics LLC (Hubbell, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Electro Industries/Gauge Tech
• Inventors: Spanier, Joseph, Wang, Wei, Siqueira da Silva, Dulciane
• Primary Examiner(s): Somers, Marc S
• Application Number:
  US14/797,279
• Publication Number:
  US 20160011797A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,744 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/004 Remote reading of utility meters to a fixed location
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 19/2513 Arrangements for monitoring electric power systems, e.g. power lines or loads; Logging
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 22/10 using digital techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/116 Details of conversion of file system types or formats
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1847 specifically adapted to static storage, e.g. adapted to flash memory or SSD
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1865 Transactional file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2358 Change logging, detection, and notification replication G06F16/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0655 Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• 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

Abstract

The present disclosure provides methods and systems for improving a data transfer rate from an intelligent electronic device (IED) to external PC clients, via a network interface. In one embodiment, an FTP based approach is disclosed which allows for significant optimization of download speeds providing as much a 100 times the download speed capability. In accordance with one aspect of present disclosure, an improved data rate is achieved by utilizing a high-speed transfer protocol, such as the FTP protocol in conjunction with a novel file system incorporated into the IED.

Claims

1. An intelligent electronic device (IED) configured to monitor and determine power usage of a load within a power distribution system, the IED comprising:

a plurality of sensors coupled to a plurality of phases of the power distribution system, the plurality of sensors configured to sense electrical parameters of the power distributed by the power distribution system to the load;

at least one memory device including a storage file system configured to store data logs representing the sensed electrical parameters in the at least one memory device, each of the data logs including at least one log file, the storage file system having a single directory, each of the data logs stored in the single directory, wherein the storage file system is further configured such that the total number of log files is fixed, each of the log files is of a fixed size, and the log files are stored adjacent to each other in the at least one memory device, such that, during normal operation, the log files are never deleted and new log files are never created to guarantee the log files remain adjacent to each other within the at least one memory device; and

at least one processor configured to operate as a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server to provide access to the storage file system via a first communication device;

wherein the at least one processor performs a file transfer operation in accordance with the FTP protocol to transfer the data logs as a stream of data blocks via a network to a client system, the fixed size of each log file being configured to a predetermined minimum size to optimize the performance of the file transfer operation;

wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive at least one virtual command file via an FTP communication from the client system, the at least one virtual command file is packaged as a file name to be accessed on the storage file system, the at least one processor configured to open the at least one virtual command file and perform an action on the IED, the action performed by the at least one processor as a function of the file name to be accessed.

2. The IED of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor performs the file transfer operation in response to receiving a transfer request from the client system.

3. The IED of claim 2, wherein the client system is configured to automatically send the transfer request on a periodic basis.

4. The IED of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor initiates the file transfer operation.

5. The IED of claim 1, wherein the file transfer operation includes only two handshaking operations between the IED and the client system, wherein a first handshaking operation occurs before the data logs are transferred and a second handshaking operation occurs after the data logs are transferred.

6. The IED of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor transfers each block of the stream of data blocks without waiting for a response from the client system between transferred blocks.

7. The IED of claim 1, wherein the at least one memory device is a flash memory configured to store the data logs.

8. The IED of claim 7, wherein the flash memory is removably connected to the IED.

9. The IED of claim 1, wherein the client system comprises a log retrieval system configured to poll the IED to obtain feedback data concerning the current state of entries in the data logs stored in the storage file system of the IED, retrieve IED identification information from the IED, utilize a first portion of the IED identification information to determine features that are supported by a version of firmware of the IED, utilize a second portion of the IED identification information to create a log storage directory in which to store the data logs, retrieve a programmable settings file from the IED, and use the programmable settings file to calculate a file mapping of each data log stored in the storage file system of the IED.

10. The IED of claim 1, wherein the storage file system is configured to be compatible with FAT32 file systems.

11. The IED of claim 10, wherein the data logs are stored using a format in which the filename includes up to eight characters and the extension includes three characters.

12. The IED of claim 1, wherein the at least one FTP command is at least one of access to a log file, a reading of log file and/or a reset.

13. The IED of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor extracts parameters associated with the at least one action from the file name.

14. The IED of claim 1, wherein the file to be accessed does not exist on the storage file system.

15. The IED of claim 1, wherein at least one field of a communication protocol other than FTP is embedded in the name of the file to be accessed in the at least one virtual command file.

16. An intelligent electronic device (IED) configured to monitor and determine power usage of a load within a power distribution system, the IED comprising:

a plurality of sensors coupled to a plurality of phases of the power distribution system, the plurality of sensors configured to sense electrical parameters of the power distributed by the power distribution system to the load;

a storage file system configured to store data logs representing the sensed electrical parameters; and

at least one processor configured to operate as a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server to provide access to the storage file system via a first communication device, the at least one processor performs a file transfer operation in accordance with the FTP protocol to transfer the data logs via a network to a client system,

wherein, in response to a polling request from the client system, the at least one processor transfers feedback data concerning the current state of entries in the data logs stored in the storage file system, IED identification information including a first portion utilized to determine features that are supported by a version of firmware of the IED and a second portion utilized to create a log storage directory in the client system in which to store the data logs, and a programmable settings file used to calculate a file mapping of each data log stored in the storage file system of the IED.

17. The IED of claim 16, wherein the file transfer operation includes a first handshaking operation which occurs before the data logs are transferred and a second handshaking operation which occurs after the data logs are transferred.

18. The IED of claim 16, wherein the storage file system is configured to be compatible with a FAT32 file system.

19. The IED of claim 16, wherein the storage file system further includes a plurality of log header files, each log header file being associated with one of the data logs in a one-to-one relationship, each log header file including statistics on each of the data logs.

20. The IED of claim 16, wherein the data logs are allocated in the at least one memory device during a low level formatting operation of the at least one memory device.

21. The IED of claim 16, wherein each data log includes at least one log file and each log file includes one or more records and the one or more records within each log file are written to in a circular wrap-around style format.

22. The IED of claim 21, wherein each log file includes one or more records and the size of the records in a given log file and the total number of records in a given log file are each fixed to optimize the performance of the file transfer operation.

23. The IED of claim 21, wherein each log file is configured as a circular buffer such that when a given log file becomes full, the oldest data in the given log file is overwritten with the new data to guarantee the log files remain adjacent to each other within the at least one memory device.

24. The IED of claim 16, wherein the at least one processor is configured to operate as a database server for a plurality of external IEDs, and wherein the storage file system is configured to store data logs transferred according to the FTP protocol from the plurality of external IEDs.

25. The IED of claim 16, wherein, during the file transfer operation, the at least one processor transfers the data logs as a stream of data blocks via the network to the client system.