OPTICAL NETWORK TERMINAL BACKUP BATTERY CENTRALIZED MONITORING AND VOLTAGE ALERT

• US 20090052889A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Services Corporation (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: McCain, Randy B. JR., McKelvey, Henry A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,542,126 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/1
• 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 configured to monitor voltages of a like plurality of batteries used as back-up power supplies for a like plurality of optical network terminals (ONTs) installed on a like plurality of customer premises, respectively, wherein the plurality of voltage monitoring devices provide an indication of degree of discharge of each of said batteries; and

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.

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 US.

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

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; and

each of said customer premises including a voltage measurement facility configured to measure voltage of its respective battery and transmit said voltage measurement over the network to said battery monitoring facility;

wherein said battery monitoring facility maintains a database, storing said voltage measurement in said database, and alerting at least the customer of said customer premises associated with said voltage measurement if said voltage measurement indicates that its associated battery has failed or is about to fail.

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.