DK181373B1 - Communication structure for transmission of information - Google Patents

Abstract

Communication structure with at least one data collector (7, 8) and a communication unit (1) that can be connected to a central computer device (10), for the transmission of information between the relevant data collector (7, 8) and the central computer device (10), where the communication device (1) comprises the following: a data interface (2) by means of which the information in the form of data can be transmitted, the data interface (2) comprising a file system (3) for storing the data in a first data format, and the data in the first data format can be transmitted by means of the data interface (2) by means of a first communication protocol provided a data distribution unit (4) which is arranged to carry out the transmission of the data in a second data format different from the first data format by means of of another communication protocol, and a data bridge (5) is provided between the file system (3) and the data distribution unit (4), where the data bridge (5) is arranged to import data of the second data format as data of the first data format to the file system (3 ) and/or export data of the first data format as data of the second data format from the file system (3).

Description

DK 181373 B1 1

Communication structure for transmission of information

The present invention relates to a communication structure for transmitting information according to the introductory part of claim 1 and a method for transmitting information between several measuring units and a central computer device.

Technological background — Intelligent consumption measuring devices, also called Smart Meters, are consumption measuring devices, e.g. for energy, electricity, gas, water, which is located in a supply network and which shows the connection user in question the actual consumption and is integrated into a communication network. Intelligent consumption measuring devices have the advantage that manual readings of the meter readings are dispensed with, and on the supply side short-term invoicing can be made according to actual consumption. | thanks to short-term reading intervals, a more accurate linking of the end-customer tariffs to the development of the exchange current prices is again possible. The supply grids can also be used significantly better. — Intelligent consumption measuring devices are usually individually assigned to residential units or residential buildings. The resulting measurement data or consumption data can be read out in several different ways. Measurement data can e.g. is read out via the power grid (Power Line). Furthermore, measurement data can be transmitted in the form of data packets or telegrams also per radio, e.g. in the ISM (Industrial, Scientific, Medical) band frequency range. These frequency areas have the advantage that only a general permission from the frequency management is necessary from the providers.

Collection of measurement data per radio is done either by means of stationary or mobile data collection devices or data collectors to which the consumption data determined by the consumption measuring devices are transmitted. The data collectors thereby concentrate the data (data concentrators) or store these and subsequently send them to an overall central unit (Head End), such as e.g. a central computer device or an IT structure in the supplier's distribution center where they

DK 181373 B1 2 is further processed to e.g. invoicing. The data transmission between the data collectors and the central unit is usually a so-called wide-ranging communication or tertiary communication, which uses a specific communication protocol and a corresponding data format for data transmission.

Printing known technique

DE 10 2014 102 007 B4 describes a method for transmitting data, where terminals transmit the data by means of remote data transmission to a data collector. The data collector in turn transmits the data by means of data remote transmission to a communication unit of a central computing device. For this, a central data memory has been provided, on which the data collector can store the messages. For example, an FT protocol (FTP; File Transfer Protocol) is used as a transmission protocol between the data collector and the computer equipment, — where the messages are stored on an FTP server or a cloud server. This method has the disadvantage that additional data collectors using a different communication protocol can only transmit data to the computer device by means of additional measures. For the implementation of the second communication protocol, e.g. an additional communication unit is installed — as an additional measure, which consequently has its own data memory and its own control device. These measures can only be carried out time- and cost-consuming, so that such a connection can only be made possible with corresponding disadvantages. In addition, additional communication devices entail additional time- and cost-intensive maintenance and installation work.

US2017/0063566 discloses various types of intelligent electronic equipment for IOT use. US 2010/0299517 shows an architecture for data configuration communication. US 2011/0063126 A1 discloses a system with a hub with a first communication component for communicating with a source measurement device via various communication protocols. The hub also includes another communication component for communicating with consumption endpoints via various communication protocols.

The object of the present invention

DK 181373 B1 3

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a communication structure that safely and cheaply enables information transmission via various communication protocols in an easy way.

Fulfillment of the purpose

The present purpose is fulfilled by the entire teaching from claim 1 and the collateral claim. Expedient embodiments of the invention are asserted according to — the subclaims.

With the invention, different data collectors with different communication protocols can be connected to the communication unit. An overall central computer system requires, for example, only an interface for receiving the data, i.e. must only — support a communication protocol. The transmission of information is thus considerably simplified. Advantageously, e.g. data collectors are thereby renewed in stages, since also older data collectors that, e.g. still communicating via an older communication protocol, can transmit information to the central computer devices. The central computer device must therefore not support the older communication protocol. Furthermore, the structure of the data collector and/or the central computer device can be considerably simplified and the transmission of information in the entire communication system with regard to the transmission mode and transmission standard essentially standardized. — An MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport) protocol is preferably used as the second communication protocol. This includes both MQTT specifications that are TCP/IP-based or not TCP/IP-based (such as e.g.

MQTT-SN). Similarly, the data distribution unit can preferably be an MQTT broker, which is responsible for distribution and assignment of the data and preferably works according to the Publish/Subscribe method. By using the MQTT protocol together with an additional protocol, the security of the information transmission can be increased to a particular extent.

DK 181373 B1 4

Preferably, this is an FTP server that makes a file system or at least part of a file system available, i.e. for example, includes a data memory (eg a hard disk) with file organization. When using such a file server, access rights can also be checked, e.g. using the file server — itself or an authorization query in the file system.

Furthermore, transmission means are provided which enable wireless and/or wired transmission between the communication unit and the central computer device. With the means of transmission, e.g. also be a transmission and reception device or a cable connection (e.g. Powerline).

The transmission of data between the communication unit and the data collector and/or the central computer device preferably takes place via a secured data channel, in particular via an end-to-end encrypted data channel.

The data distribution unit may appropriately require authentication from a client such as the data collector for the transmission of the information, e.g. by means of a valid username/password combination that the data collector must use or — send when establishing the connection with the communication device in order to carry out a transmission of the data. The security of data transmission and data integrity is thereby significantly improved.

The data bridge is preferably designed as a software solution that adapts the communication parameters of the first and second communication protocols. In this way, the data bridge can also be easily implemented or upgraded in existing systems, e.g. by a firmware update or similar.

The communication unit can also be arranged to transform the first communication protocol and/or the second communication protocol and/or further communication protocols into a communication protocol that has a higher security than the original communication protocol. Furthermore, data of the first data format and/or the second data format can also be converted into one

DK 181373 B1 data format that has a higher security than the original data format. Safety is thus further improved. For example, data transmitted using an FT protocol can thereby be converted into an SSH (Secure Shell) data format and transmitted using the SSH protocol. 5

At least one additional data interface can suitably be provided, which is designed to carry out transmission of the data using a third communication protocol. In this way, the information transmission can also be extended to further communication protocols, whereby the communication unit can be used even more flexibly.

According to a special embodiment, the communication unit can be arranged to optionally support a plurality of communication protocols. Since it is possible to choose between different communication protocols, the connection of — external devices, e.g. data collectors, even more flexible. Additional communication protocols may also be provided (eg a fourth and fifth communication protocol).

The communication unit can appropriately be a functional unit of the central computer device. The communication unit can, for example, in terms of hardware and/or software, be connected to or integrated into the central computer system.

Preferably, the information is about consumption data that is registered by a consumption measuring device, and which e.g. is transmitted from the consumption measuring device to the central unit via the data collector. The consumption measuring devices may for example be a Smart Meter for recording electricity, water, gas and/or heat quantity consumption.

Applied side by side with the present invention is a method for transmitting information between several measuring units, in particular consumption measuring devices for recording the consumption of electricity, water, gas and/or heat, and a central computer device. In the method, the information is transmitted from the measuring unit to the central computer device and/or from the central one

DK 181373 B1 6 computer device for the measuring unit in the form of data. The transmission of information between the measuring unit and the central computer device is thereby effected via a communication structure according to the invention, which includes a data distribution unit that is arranged to carry out transmission of the data in another data format that is — different from the first data format, by means of another communication protocol. Furthermore, a data bridge is placed between the file system and the data distribution unit, which serves to import data in the second data format as data in the first data format to the file system and/or export data of the first data format as data of the second data format from the file system.

Description of the invention by means of exemplary embodiments

Expedient embodiments of the present invention are elaborated in more detail below with the help of drawings. Here shows:

Fig. 1 a simplified schematic representation of a communication system of this kind according to the prior art;

Fig. 2 a simplified schematic representation of a first embodiment of a communication system with a communication structure according to the invention and

Fig. 3 a simplified schematic representation of a further embodiment of a communication system with a communication structure according to the invention.

In fig. 1 shows a communication system according to the known technique, where an information transmission takes place between a central computer device 100 and several data collectors 101, 102, 103 via different communication protocols. Between the data collectors 101, 102, 103 and the central computer device 100, corresponding data interfaces 104, 105, 106 are placed in each case, each of which comprises a file system 104a, 105a, 106a and a control device 104b, 105b, 106b.

The communication system in fig. 1 has, among other things, the disadvantage that a large hard- and soft-

DK 181373 B1 7 ware cost is necessary for the implementation of the various communication protocols of the relevant data collectors 101, 102, 103. Furthermore, the central computer device 100 must support all used communication protocols and adapt the corresponding communication parameters of the communication protocols, i.e. includes suitable interfaces to ensure successful information transmission.

In fig. 2 shows a communication system in which an information transmission takes place between a central computer device 10 and several measuring units or consumption measuring devices 11-15. The consumption measuring devices 11-15 can for example be electricity, water, gas or heat quantity meters. The current counter readings of the consumption measuring devices 11-15 are transmitted to the computer unit 10 in the form of data or consumption data via a communication structure according to the invention.

The communication structure comprises for this a communication unit 1 and several — data collectors 7, 8 or data concentrators to concentrate and/or (between

Jsave the data. The data transmission between the consumption measuring devices 11-15 and the data collectors 7, 8 can take place optionally (e.g. via radio) or wired (e.g. via Powerline). — The communication unit 1 comprises a data interface 2, which e.g. is designed as an FTP server (FTP file server). An FTP protocol thereby serves as the first communication protocol for information transmission between the data collector 7 and the data interface 2. In addition, a file system 3 is assigned to the FTP server, which file system functions as infrastructure and data or intermediate storage. The data of the data collector 7 can thus be transmitted from the data collector 7 to the data interface 2 in a first data format, i.e. in this case in an FTP file format, and subsequently stored in the file system 3.

The data transmission between the communication unit 1 and the central computer device 10 takes place via a data distribution unit 4, which is designed as an MQTT broker (MQTT distributor) in the embodiment in fig. 2. The data of the data collector 8 can easily be transmitted to the data distribution unit 4 via the second communication protocol, a so-called MQTT protocol, in another data format, i.e. as messages or telemetry data in MQTT data format. This data can subsequently be transmitted

DK 181373 B1 8 from the data distribution unit 4 to the central computer device 10 or first imported to the file system 3 to store these. For data import, the communication unit 1 includes a data bridge 5, which is placed between the data interface 2 and the data distribution unit 4. The data can thereby be imported from the data distribution unit 4 to the file system 3 via the data bridge 5. For this, the data bridge 5 includes a conversion unit 6, which is designed as an MQTT client. The conversion unit 6 converts the data of the second data format, i.e. The MQTT data format, for data of the first data format and transmits these to the file system 3.

The data can also be transmitted or exported from the file system 3 to the data distribution unit 4 via the data bridge 5, so that the data of the file system 3 can also be transmitted to the central computer device 10 via the data distribution unit 4 using the second communication protocol. The conversion unit 6 can thereby convert the data of the first data format (FTP file format), which is located in the file system 3, to data of the second data format (MQTT data format) and transmit, i.e. export them to the data distributor 4.

The data distribution unit's 4 central task consists in distributing or assigning the data or messages, so that e.g. the messages sent from the data collector 8, — also reach the corresponding receiving units, such as the central computer device 10. The data distribution unit 4 can advantageously include an authentication function for this, as e.g. only a subscriber or publisher who uses a valid password/username combination for transmission or when establishing a connection to the data distribution unit 4 is accepted.

The two communication protocols, e.g. MQTT and FTP are thus connected via the data bridge 5. These data bridges 5 can e.g. be designed as a software solution placed between the data distribution unit 4 (MQTT broker) and the data memory 3 (FTP file server). | thanks to the import and export function of the conversion unit 6 (MQTT client), bidirectional communication can thus be created between

FTP and MQTT. In this way, data collectors 7, 8 can be connected arbitrarily, even if they communicate via MQTT or FTP.

DK 181373 B1 9

The object of the present invention can in principle also be extended to other communication protocols. According to a preferred embodiment, a third communication protocol may be provided. This is a communication protocol that has a higher level of security than the first and/or second communication protocol, such as e.g. SFTP (Simple File Transfer Protocol) or SSH (Secure Shell). The communication unit is suitably designed to, for example, convert the first and/or the second communication protocol into such a secure communication protocol. There can e.g. also be provided with an additional data interface 9, as shown in fig. 3, enabling data transmission by — using the third communication protocol.

Alternatively or additionally, in addition to the mentioned communication protocols (FTP, MQTT, SFTP, SSH), other communication protocols and associated data formats may also be provided. There can e.g. also be a WebDAV protocol and/or SCP protocol and/or HTTP protocol and/or HTTPS protocol and/or SMTP protocol and/or POP3 protocol and/or IMAP protocol and/or

NTP protocol and/or SMB/CIFS protocol and/or NFS protocol. In addition, additional communication protocols of the application layer (OSI layers 5-7) can also be used. — Via the communication unit 1, other structural units can conveniently also be connected, such as e.g. a mobile reading device 16 (mobile data collector) for drive-by or walk-by reading or an analysis tool 17, e.g. for characterizing the connection/transmission. — Also combinations of individual features (sub-combinations) and possible combinations of individual features of different designs, which are not shown in the drawing figures, are expressly covered by the content of the publication.

DK 181373 B1 10

REFERRAL NUMBER LIST

1 Communication unit 2 Data interface 3 File system 4 Data distribution unit 5 Data bridge 6 Conversion unit 7 Data collector 8 Data collector 9 Data interface 10 Central computer device 11-15 Consumption measuring device 16 Mobile readout device 17 Analysis tool 100 Central computer device 101-103 Data collector 104-106 Data interface — 104a-106a File system 104b-1 06b Control device

Claims (13)

DK 181373 B1 11 PATENT CLAIM 1. Communication structure with a plurality of consumption measuring devices (11-15) and a first and a second data collector (7, 8), which data collectors (7, 8) receive, store and transmit data from the consumption measuring devices (11-15) to a central computer device (10) and where the data transmission between the consumption measuring devices (11-15) and the data collectors (7, 8) is wireless or wired, and a communication unit (1) connected to the central computer device (10) for the transmission of information between the first and second data collectors (7, 8) and the central computer device (10), where transmission means for wireless transmission or transmission means for wired transmission are provided between the communication unit (1) and the data collectors (7, 8), and where the communication unit (1) is designed as a structural unit comprising the following components: a data interface (2) by means of which the information in the form of data can be transmitted, where the data interface (2) comprises a file system (3) for storing the data in a first data format, and where the data from the first data collector (7) can be transmitted in the first data format to the communication unit (1) by means of the data interface (2) by means of a first communication protocol, a data distribution unit (4), which is arranged to carry out the transmission of data from the second data collector (8) to the communication unit (1) in another data format that is different from the first data format, by means of another communication protocol, and where the first data collector (7 ) includes the first communication protocol as the only communication protocol for transmitting the data, characterized by a data bridge (5) placed between the file system (3) and the data distribution unit (4), where DK 181373 B1 12 the data bridge (5) is designed to import data of the second data format as data of the first data format to the file system (3) and/or export data of the first data format as data of the second data format from the file system (3), and where the communication unit (1) receives the data from the first and the second data collector (7, 8) via the first or the second communication protocol, respectively, and sends them via the data distribution unit (4) to the central computer device (10) via the second communication protocol, and where the second data collector (8) includes the second communication protocol as the only communication protocol for transmitting the data, and where the central computer device (10) includes the second communication protocol as a single communication protocol for receiving the data. 2. Communication structure according to claim 1, characterized in that the data distribution unit (4) is an MQTT broker and the second communication protocol is an MQTT protocol. 3. Communication structure according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the data interface (2) is a web, cloud and/or file server. 4. Communication structure according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that transmission means are provided that enable wireless and/or wired transmission between the communication unit (1) and the central computer device (10). DK 181373 B1 13 5. Communication structure according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the transmission of the data between the communication unit (1) and the data collector (7, 8) and/or the central computer device (10) takes place via a secured data channel. 6. Communication structure according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the data distribution unit (4) for transmitting information requires authentication in such a way that the data collector (7, 8) must use a valid username/password combination at establishment of connection. 7. Communication structure according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the data bridge (5) is designed as a software solution that adapts the communication parameters of the first and second communication protocol. 8. Communication structure according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the communication unit (1) is designed to convert the first communication protocol and/or the second communication protocol into a communication protocol that has a higher security than the first or other communication protocol. 9. Communication structure according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least one additional data interface (9) is provided, which is designed to carry out transmission of the data by means of a third communication protocol. DK 181373 B1 14 10. Communication structure according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the communication unit (1) is designed to optionally support a plurality of communication protocols. 11. Communication structure according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the communication unit (1) is a functional unit of the central computer device (10). 12. Communication structure according to at least one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the information is consumption data that is registered by a consumption measuring device (11-15) and which is transmitted from the consumption measuring device (11-15) to the data collector (7, 8). 13. Method for transmitting information between several measuring units, in particular consumption measuring devices (11-15), and a central computer device (10), where the information is transmitted from the measuring unit to the central computer device (10) and/or from the central computer device (10) to the measuring unit in the form of data, characterized in that the transmission of information between the measuring unit and the central computer device (10) takes place via a communication structure according to at least one of the preceding claims.