Data communication method and the use of the method in a system for remotely reading meters

• US 6,357,034 B1
• Filed: 01/16/1999
• Issued: 03/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Neptune Technology Group Incorporated (Roper Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Schlumberger Industries Incorporated (Schlumberger NV)
• Inventors: Muller, Marc, Godlewski, Philippe, Moreau, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Chung, Phung M.
• Application Number:
  US09/232,576
• Time in Patent Office: 1,151 Days
• Field of Search: 714/784, 714/701, 714/746, 375/240
• US Class Current: 714/784
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 15/00 Arrangements characterised by the use of multiplexing for the transmission of a plurality of signals over a common path
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 13/15 Cyclic codes, i.e. cyclic shifts of codewords produce other codewords, e.g. codes defined by a generator polynomial, Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem [BCH] codes H03M13/17 takes precedence

Abstract

A method of communicating data in a system having a plurality of transmitters each adapted to transmit a radio signal, and a receiver situated at a distance from the transmitters to receive and process the signals transmitted by the transmitters, information for transmission being subdivided into N-bit symbols, the method consisting in:

giving a numerical value to each symbol; and

compressing the data using a CHIP encoding technique in which the values of the symbols are transposed to an encoded value having x digits in a base B, each digit subsequently being represented in the form of n chips, the base B, the number n of chips, and the number x of digits for an encoded value satisfying the following conditions:

B≦2ν and 2N≦Bξ

 so that the total number of chips x.n representing the coded value is less than 2.N.

Claims

1. A method of communicating data in a system having a plurality of transmitters each adapted to transmit a radio signal, and a receiver situated at a distance from the transmitters to receive and process the signals transmitted by the transmitters, information for transmission being subdivided into N-bit symbols, the method consisting in:

giving a numerical value to each symbol; and

compressing the data using a CHIP encoding technique in which the values of the symbols are transposed to an encoded value having x digits in a base B, each digit subsequently being represented in the form of n chips, the base B, the number n of chips, and the number x of digits for an encoded value satisfying the following conditions;

2. A method according to claim 1, in which the digits forming the coded value are represented by equal numbers of 0 chips and of 1 chips.

3. A method according to claim 1, in which each symbol has five bits, base B is base 6, and the number n of chips is equal to 4.

4. A method according to claim 3, in which the digits x for the values of the symbols coded in base 6 are represented in increasing order by 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7.

5. A method according to claim 1, in which the processing of the signals received by the receiver includes a step of matched filtering.

6. A method according to claim 1, consisting in applying an error-correcting code to the data to be transmitted.

7. A method according to claim 6, in which the errors correcting code is a Reed-Solomon code.

8. A method according to claim 7, in which the Reed-Solomon error-correcting is defined in the Galois body GB(32).

9. A method according to claim 8, in which the Reed-Solomon error-correcting code is a short code with the parameters [21, 16, 6].

10. A method according to claim 6, in which the processing of the signals received by the receiver include a step of allocating a reliability index to each symbol.

11. A method according to claim 1, in which the data to be transmitted is placed in a frame having a preamble added to the beginning of the frame of encoded and compressed data, said preamble comprising a signal level sequence and a synchronization sequence equal to:

000000001110010101100100.

12. A method according to claim 1, in which the radio signals are transmitted continuously by the transmitters in the form of bursts that are transmitted successively with a pseudo-random period.

13. The use of a method according to claim 1 in a system for remote reading of meters.

14. A method according to claim 13, in which the data to be transmitted is subdivided, in this order, into:

an identity field;

a category field;

a fraud field;

a register field;

a network field; and

a growth field.

15. A method according to claim 13, in which the data to be transmitted is subdivided, in this order, into:

an identity field;

a category field;

an end field;

a channel field;

a growth field; and

a data field.