Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W24/00—Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
  • H04W24/04—Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L41/00—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
  • H04L41/06—Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
  • H04L41/0677—Localisation of faults
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G08—SIGNALLING
  • G08B—SIGNALLING OR CALLING SYSTEMS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; ALARM SYSTEMS
  • G08B21/00—Alarms responsive to a single specified undesired or abnormal condition and not otherwise provided for
  • G08B21/02—Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
  • G08B21/10—Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons responsive to calamitous events, e.g. tornados or earthquakes
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G08—SIGNALLING
  • G08B—SIGNALLING OR CALLING SYSTEMS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; ALARM SYSTEMS
  • G08B25/00—Alarm systems in which the location of the alarm condition is signalled to a central station, e.g. fire or police telegraphic systems
  • G08B25/01—Alarm systems in which the location of the alarm condition is signalled to a central station, e.g. fire or police telegraphic systems characterised by the transmission medium
  • G08B25/08—Alarm systems in which the location of the alarm condition is signalled to a central station, e.g. fire or police telegraphic systems characterised by the transmission medium using communication transmission lines
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G08—SIGNALLING
  • G08B—SIGNALLING OR CALLING SYSTEMS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; ALARM SYSTEMS
  • G08B25/00—Alarm systems in which the location of the alarm condition is signalled to a central station, e.g. fire or police telegraphic systems
  • G08B25/14—Central alarm receiver or annunciator arrangements
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04J—MULTIPLEX COMMUNICATION
  • H04J3/00—Time-division multiplex systems
  • H04J3/02—Details
  • H04J3/06—Synchronising arrangements
  • H04J3/0635—Clock or time synchronisation in a network
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
  • H04W4/02—Services making use of location information
  • H04W4/029—Location-based management or tracking services
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
  • H04W84/00—Network topologies
  • H04W84/02—Hierarchically pre-organised networks, e.g. paging networks, cellular networks, WLAN [Wireless Local Area Network] or WLL [Wireless Local Loop]
  • H04W84/04—Large scale networks; Deep hierarchical networks
  • H04W84/06—Airborne or Satellite Networks

Definitions

• the invention belongs to the field of disaster relief.
• the known techniques for multiplexing radiocommunication signals comprise in particular:
• Frequency Division Multiple Access also known as Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
• FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access
• Time Division Multiple Access also known by the acronym TDMA (for "Time Division Multiple Access”
• TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
• CDMA code division multiple access
• CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
• the receiver To access the data transmitted by a terminal, the receiver must know in advance the transmission channel or channels used by the terminal. Each of these techniques is therefore based on the predictability of the allocation of the physical channels (frequency sub-band, transmission slots or spreading code) to the different terminals. Except for cases where channel assignment is static, some synchronization between transmitters and receivers is required. The requirements for synchronization depend on several factors, including the frequency of channel changes, the time density of the messages on the shared frequency band, possibly the redundancy of the messages, and so on.
• Document FR 2 961 046 A1 indicates that the allocation mechanisms are incompatible with very low bit rate telecommunications systems (of the order of a few bits per second), since these rates are insufficient to maintain synchronization between terminals from which messages emanate and a data collection station.
• This document FR 2 961 046 A1 proposes as a solution to this problem to configure the terminals statically so that they transmit radio signals in a single predefined frequency subband or according to a predefined sequence of frequency subbands. Time or frequency synchronization of the terminals with each other and with the collection station is not considered necessary. Therefore, the collection station must be able to detect any radio signal appearing in the shared frequency band and determine whether the detected signals correspond to signals transmitted by terminals or to third or parasitic signals.
• One of the objectives of FR 2 961 046 A1 is to guarantee a low level of collisions between radio signals emitted by different terminals.
• the only way to maintain a low level of collisions for a given frequency and duration of messages is to limit the geographical density of the terminals. Indeed, the more the number of terminals increases, the more the probability of collisions and hence the loss of data also increases. This could hamper the massive deployment of machine-to-machine ("M2M”) communication terminals and / or the Internet of Things, for example using UNB (Ultra Narrow Band) radio technology. narrow).
• M2M machine-to-machine
• the present invention aims to remedy all or part of these disadvantages.
• the present invention aims an alert and disaster management, which comprises: at least one radiocommunication terminal, the terminal comprising:
• a geographic positioning information memory of at least one terminal a network link anomaly detector between the computer system and at least one terminal,
• the detection of a disaster is carried out automatically by a network monitoring by the communication terminal on the one hand and by the computer system on the other, regardless of the type of disaster envisaged.
• the provision of an alert allows the computer system, manually or automatically, to deploy each mobile receiver to collect data provided by the terminals.
• the geographic position information may be displayed on a screen, for example, so that an operator may become aware of or provided to a route preparation system of the mobile receiver.
• the mobile receiver collects the failure signals transmitted by the communication terminals to record them or send them to a central computer collection system.
• the terminals have two modes of operation:
• normal a first mode of operation in which the direct communication between the terminal and the central computer system takes place and
• alert in which the communication is indirect, that is to say through a receiver.
• an alert and disaster management system which comprises:
• the terminal comprising:
• a radio signal transmitter in the event of a failure determination and at least one mobile radio receiver configured to receive the radio signals transmitted by at least one terminal.
• an alert and disaster management system which comprises:
• the terminal comprising:
• a radio signal transmitter representative of said physical quantity
• at least one mobile radio receiver configured to receive the radio signals transmitted by at least one terminal.
• the computer system includes a device for preparing an itinerary of at least one receiver, the route being established according to at least one geographic positioning information provided.
• the computer system includes a satellite controller, said receiver satellite.
• the terminal continuously transmits, or pseudo-continuous, radio signals to a receiver.
• the senor captures a physical quantity representative of an Internet network.
• the senor captures a physical quantity representative of an electrical network.
• the signal transmitter implements a time division multiple access communication protocol.
• At least one terminal is configured to maintain the time slot phase timing of the time division multiple access communication protocol in the event of access termination of the terminal to an external signal enabling the terminal to determine a timing phase of the time slots.
• At least one terminal includes a clock and a synchronization device connected to the Internet network, the synchronization device being configured to synchronize the clock with the Internet network.
• At least one terminal includes a clock and a synchronization device connected to a clock radio transmission system, the synchronization device being configured to synchronize the clock with the radio transmission system. clock.
• at least one terminal comprises a clock and a synchronization device connected to a satellite positioning system, the synchronization device being configured to synchronize the clock with the satellite positioning system.
• At least one radiocommunication terminal is configured to send radiocommunication signals in a shared frequency band, said terminal comprising a phase sensor of an electrical network connected to the terminal, said terminal being configured to perform a temporal division of the shared frequency band into several time slots per period of the electrical network, each time slot having a known ratio to the phase of the electrical network, the transmitter being configured to transmit on the shared frequency band in the time slots in the Compliance with a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) schedule.
• TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
• At least one terminal includes a clock and a synchronization device in phase connected to the phase sensor of the electrical network.
• At least one terminal has a power reserve allowing the terminal to operate autonomously.
• At least one terminal is configured to maintain the phase timing of time slots in the event of a power grid failure or in the event of an abrupt change in the phase of the power grid.
• the phase sensor of the electrical network comprises a connector that can be connected to the electrical network.
• the phase sensor of the electrical network comprises an antenna for sensing the oscillations of the electrical network.
• At least one terminal includes a wired or wireless communication module for connecting to a local area network and / or the Internet.
• At least one terminal includes a wired or wireless communication module for connecting to sensors, receiving data from these sensors, and forwarding the data to a serving station via the in-band radiocommunication signals. of shared frequencies.
• At least one terminal has a buffer memory for storing connected sensor data.
• the receiver is configured to listen to the shared frequency band.
• the receiver is mounted on a vehicle.
• the vehicle is a drone, a car, a satellite, or an airplane.
• At least one receiver includes a transmitter of a transmission stop command towards at least one terminal, each terminal ceasing to transmit signals upon receipt of said command.
• At least one sensor connected to at least one terminal, the transmitter being configured to transmit information representative of a value sensed by at least one said sensor.
• At least one sensor is a mobile phone presence sensor.
• At least one terminal comprises:
• the transmitter being configured to transmit at least one signal representative of at least one said message.
• the system that is the subject of the present invention comprises a plurality of terminals of which at least two terminals are interconnected by a connection of radiocommunication, at least one signal concentrator terminal issued by the two said terminals.
• the present invention aims at a method of operating a system that is the subject of the present invention, which comprises:
• a step of determining a failure of the network according to the sensed value a step of transmitting radio signals in case of failure determination and at the level of the central computer system:
• a mobile radio reception step configured to receive the radio signals transmitted by at least one terminal.
• the present invention also relates to a radiocommunication method in a frequency band shared between several terminals and a serving station.
• serving station and “radio receiver” as defined in the first aspect of the present invention are herein considered synonymous.
• the method includes synchronizing the terminals and, optionally, the receiver with the same AC power grid (the mains). By transitivity, all the terminals (and possibly the station) are synchronized with each other. According to the method, the terminals transmit on the shared frequency band in accordance with a time division multiple access (TDMA) schedule.
• TDMA time division multiple access
• access times may depend on clocks from:
• the serving station can be synchronized to the network and know the TDMA schedule but it is not an obligation. Indeed, it is possible to choose as a serving station broadband station capable of receiving the entire shared frequency band and digitize (if necessary after transposition to an intermediate frequency). Demodulation and access to messages can be done by software and / or on a signal processor.
• the method uses the sector as a reference clock. It is the merit of the inventor to have recognized that the electrical network, virtually ubiquitous, lends itself to this type of application. It is relatively unknown that the frequency of the sector (normally 50 Hz or 60 Hz) is remarkably stable due to the efforts of the suppliers of electrical energy to contain the distortions within very narrow limits. Another observation is that the phase of the electrical network has very little variation depending on the location as long as they are powered by the same transformer or, in case of divergence, vary little and are measurable over time. In the context of the invention, this means that the synchronization of terminals and, possibly, service stations can cover important geographical areas (for example from a few tens to a few hundred kilometers in diameter).
• the TDMA schedule designates the time grid (ie the positioning of the slots with respect to the time reference) defining which terminal is entitled to to use which time slot (s) for the transmission of his messages.
• the respect of a TDMA schedule means for each terminal that this terminal limits its emissions in slots allocated to it.
• the terminals of the slots must be respected by each terminal.
• the schedule is advantageously static, that is to say fixed once and for all, for example at the factory or, more advantageously, at the commissioning at the installation site, preferably in function of the use of slots by other terminals geographically neighbors.
• the schedule is completed each time a terminal is added to the system.
• the schedule can be in the form of a database stored centrally or in a decentralized manner.
• Terminals are preferably identified by a unique identifier.
• the geographical coordinates of the place of installation are preferably listed, which, in the case of adding a terminal, allows it to be allocated one or more time slots according to the allocation of slots to the geographically neighboring terminals already in place and / or based on an optimization of the use of the resources for a projected distribution of terminals. It is also possible to allocate the slots automatically, depending, for example geographical coordinates.
• One possibility would be, for example to enter the geographical coordinates of the terminal in a predefined format in a hash function whose result determines the slot or slots in which the terminal has the right to issue.
• the TDMA schedule may provide that a terminal has the right to access all slots or a sub-group of slots at random. It is therefore possible to define different groups of terminals or access rights: some terminals may have the right to broadcast in a larger group of slots than others. The possibility of assigning higher or lower service levels makes it possible to create solutions specifically dedicated to different applications.
• the TDMA approach as used in the context of the invention can be combined with an FDMA approach.
• the schedule defines which terminal has the right to use which time slot (s) and which sub-band of frequencies for the transmission of its messages.
• a number of channels of a combined TDMA / FDMA approach will be equal to the product of the number of TDMA channels and the number of frequency subbands.
• the number of slots per cycle of the alternating current of the electrical network determines how many terminals can transmit "simultaneously" (at the scale of the cycle of the alternating current) to the maximum without there being a collision.
• the number of slots increases, their duration decreases, and messages longer than a slot will have to be transmitted in pieces.
• Another limitation of the number of slots is that the requirements in terms of synchronization increase with the number of slots.
• a to E are distributed alternating current period according to the pattern A-B-C-D-E-A-B-C-D-E-A-B-C-D-E. It will be appreciated that the basic pattern A-B-C-D-E repeats three times the frequency of the alternating current. For a terminal that synchronizes with another phase of the three-phase network, the offset of ⁇ 120 ° is therefore without impact.
• the present invention finds an advantageous, though in no way limiting, application in information collection systems (for example in the context of an application of the Internet of Things), such as sensor networks emitting recurrently data representative of the physical quantity or quantities measured for a station data collection.
• information collection systems for example in the context of an application of the Internet of Things
• sensors embedded in electricity, gas or water meters which would emit consumption data to a collection station.
• Domestic remote monitoring systems and / or risk sites eg Seveso classified sites
• the terminals communicating with the service stations can be integrated in the sensors or connected thereto by any wired or wireless communication means.
• These sensors can in principle be of any type.
• sensors can be designed to monitor the number of people in a monitored area in order to trace this information back to a monitoring center. coordination of relief in case of emergency.
• the terminals can therefore be designed as locator beacons.
• the term “service station” or “collection station” generally means a receiver device adapted to receiving radio signals in the shared frequency band, preferably in the entirety of that this, the collection of messages transmitted by the terminals and / or the retransmission of messages or data contained therein to their recipient.
• a serving station may include a relay antenna and / or represent an access point to a wired or non-wired telecommunications network. It will be understood that a serving station can be stationary or mobile.
• Such a telecommunication terminal is intended to send radio communication signals in a shared frequency band. It preferably comprises a phase (angle) sensor (for example a phase comparator) of the electrical network and is configured so as to achieve a temporal division of the shared frequency band into several time slots per period of the electrical network. Each time slot has a known relationship to the phase of the power grid.
• the terminal is further configured to transmit on the shared frequency band in time slots in accordance with a TDMA schedule.
• the radiocommunication terminal preferably comprises a clock and a synchronization device connected to the phase sensor of the electrical network, the synchronization device being configured to synchronize the clock with the electrical network.
• the radiocommunication terminal may comprise a power reserve (one or more accumulators, batteries, or other) allowing the terminal to operate autonomously.
• the terminal can be energized only by this reserve. According to another embodiment, it is powered by the electrical network and the energy reserve is only used in case of power failure.
• the terminal is configured to maintain the phase timing of the time slots in case of power mains failure.
• a sudden phase change is due, with a certain probability, to the fact that a backup generator has tripped - from that moment, it can no longer be assumed, in general, that the power supply is synchronous to all of the terminals.
• This embodiment has the advantage that all the terminals configured in this way remain synchronized with each other at least for a certain time if the power supply is interrupted.
• the time that the terminals remain sufficiently synchronized depends on the quality of their internal clock and the number of time slots per cycle of the alternating current. If the terminals are equipped with a clock having a time accuracy of 10-8 (ie an average drift of 10-8 s per sec) sufficient synchronization can be maintained for a few hours.
• the phase sensor of the electrical network comprises a connector that can be connected to the electrical network.
• the Phase sensor of the electrical network can include an antenna (eg a ground loop) to capture the oscillations of the remote power grid.
• the radiocommunication terminal may comprise a wired communication module (for example an Ethernet module) or a wireless module (for example a Wifi module (registered trademark), a Bluetooth module (registered trademark), a ZigBee module (registered trademark), etc. or a multi-protocol compatible handset) to connect to a local network and / or the Internet.
• a wired communication module for example an Ethernet module
• a wireless module for example a Wifi module (registered trademark), a Bluetooth module (registered trademark), a ZigBee module (registered trademark), etc. or a multi-protocol compatible handset
• the radiocommunication terminal is configured to enter a distress mode (or alert mode) following a triggering event.
• a triggering event could be, for example, a power grid failure, the loss of an Internet connection, the detection of a flood, an earthquake, a tsunami, a fire or the presence of smoke.
• the radiocommunication terminal can include or be connected to sensors capable of detecting emergency situations.
• the terminal could be connected (wired or wireless) to a warning broadcast center or relay (eg as a subscriber to a population protection service or other
• the terminal is configured, when it is switched into the distress mode, to emit emergency messages in the time slot (s) allocated to it.
• the emergency messages preferably contain, and to the extent of their availability at the terminal level, information such as the number of people (likely to be) in distress, their state of health, the severity of the material damage, the geographical position of the terminal or persons in danger, etc.
• the radio communication terminal preferably comprises a wired or wireless communication module to connect to sensors, to receive data from these sensors and to transmit the data to a service station via the radiocommunication signals in the frequency band. shared.
• a terminal serves as a relay between the sensor or sensors and the service station. According to another embodiment of the terminal, it is integrated with a sensor.
• the radio communication terminal may include a buffer memory for storing connected sensor data.
• the terminal may be configured to store more recent data upon receipt of such data from the sensors. As long as the terminal is not placed in distress mode (or alert mode), newer data can, as time goes on, replace older data. If the terminal is placed in distress mode, the new data record may be suspended - in this case, the last data collected before the distress mode trigger is considered the last reliable data.
• the present invention also relates to a telecommunication system which comprises a plurality of terminals as described above and a service station (or data collection), the terminals and, optionally, the station being synchronized with the same electrical network, the station comprising a receiver configured to listen to the shared frequency band.
• the station may optionally be provided with a memory including the TDMA schedule.
• the serving station may be static (i.e. stationary) or moveable.
• the serving station is mounted on a vehicle, eg a drone or a car.
• a vehicle eg a drone or a car.
• a possible application of such a system would be for example the remote reading of electricity meters, gas or water through a drone flying over the area provided with electricity, gas or water, or a vehicle ground (motorcycle, car, bike, etc.) passing through the streets. It will be appreciated that such a system can significantly reduce the cost of meter reading.
• the invention is of particular interest not only in the case of fixed terminals and a mobile serving station but for all applications, in which there may be a relative movement between a terminal and a station service and limited periods of visibility between the terminals and the service station. It is possible, for example, to use the system as part of a race (on foot, bicycle or otherwise), in particular for transmitting telemetering data taken from participants in a control center (for example a control center). medical check up).
• FIG. 1 is an illustration of the principle of a telecommunications system according to one embodiment of the invention
• FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of an "intelligent" house equipped with a terminal according to one aspect of the invention
• FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of a use of a telecommunication system according to one embodiment of the invention in the context of an emergency situation
• FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a house equipped with smart gas and water electricity meters, configured as terminals according to one aspect of the invention
• FIG. 5 is a timing diagram illustrating the synchronization of a telecommunication system with the electrical network
• FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of the system that is the subject of the present invention.
• FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of the method that is the subject of the present invention.
• FIG. 6 shows a particular embodiment of the system 100 which is the subject of the present invention.
• This 100 alert and disaster management system includes:
• the terminal comprising:
• means 106 for communicating, via a data network, with a central computer system,
• a network link anomaly detector 305 between the computer system and at least one terminal
• means 315 for providing information representative of the stored positioning of at least one said terminal having a network link anomaly and at least one mobile radio receiver 125 configured to receive the radio signals transmitted by at least one terminal.
• terminal 105 denotes any device capable of transmitting, and optionally receiving, two-channel communication signals:
• each terminal 105 is unitary, that is to say that all the components of this terminal is integrated in a single housing.
• the terminal 110 may also be modular and, in this case, each component may be distributed in a plurality of communicating devices with each other.
• Each terminal 105 can thus implement a nano-computer type Raspberry PI (trademark).
• the terminal 105 comprises a thermally insulating casing, fireproof and / or gas-tight and / or water-tight.
• the person skilled in the art can draw inspiration here from the characteristics of black boxes in the field of aeronautics.
• each terminal 105 consists of following the evolution of a determined value, as a function of the terminal 105, and of determining, as a function of this value, the presence of a failure of a network.
• the terminal 105 goes into an "alert" mode and transmits information representative of the detection of this fault or information representative of a value also picked up by the terminal 105.
• Said value depends on at least one external or external third-party sensor at the terminal 105.
• Each third-party sensor may be of any type, such as:
• the terminal 105 may also communicate the values sensed by the third sensors through the communication means 106.
• This communication means 106 is of wired or wireless type and adapted to communicate over the Internet or a cellular data network, for example.
• the terminal 105 to continue to transmit signals to the central computer system, through at least one receiver 125.
• the central computer system 300 is usually connected to at least one terminal 105 via the data network under consideration.
• computer system 300 and terminals 105 exchange data in the usual way, unilaterally or bilaterally.
• the computer system 300 is provided with a network link fault detector 305 between the computer system and at least one terminal 105.
• This anomaly detector 305 depends on the type of data network considered.
• this anomaly detector 305 may be a software embedded in an electronic card connected to an interface, wired or wireless, for receiving signals from the data network.
• This software detecting an absence of signals from a terminal 105, following the transmission or not of a request by the system 300, detects an anomaly.
• the system 300 goes into an alert mode, representative of a link break with at least one terminal 105.
• the means 310 for providing an alert provides, for example, a signal enabling the transmission of an audible and / or visual warning signal to an operator. This allows the operator to control the operation of at least one receiver 125 in order to collect data from at least one terminal 105 broken link.
• the means 315 for providing geographical positioning information provides geographical positioning information of at least one terminal 105 stored by the computer system 300. This information can be:
• a device for preparing a route of a receiver 125 for example mounted on an autonomous vehicle such as a drone,
• a user input can serve as a confirmation of transmission of a deployment command of at least one receiver 125.
• the device for preparing a receiver route 125 is, for example , a GPS navigation system embedded in the receiver 125.
• the computer system 300 includes a device 306 for preparing a route of at least one receiver 125, the route being established according to at least one positioning information geographical provided.
• This preparation device 306 is, for example, software configured to transmit to a receiver 125 the geographical coordinates of the terminals and / or to transmit a calculated route at the level of the computer system 300.
• This device 306 includes, in variants, the communication system between the computer system 300 and the receiver 125.
• the computer system 300 comprises a device 307 for controlling a satellite, said satellite forming a receiver 125.
• This preparation device 307 is, for example, software configured to transmit to a receiver satellite 125 the geographical coordinates of the terminals.
• This device 307 includes, in variants, the communication system between the computer system 300 and the receiver 125.
• the computer system 300 comprises means for receiving a command (not referenced) deployment of at least one receiver 125, such as a human-machine interface of any type.
• a deployment command is received by the system 300, at least one receiver 125 is operated by the computer system 300.
• this receiver 125 is mounted on an automatic vehicle, such as a drone, this automatic vehicle is directed to a geographical area where the terminal 105 is located.
• at least one terminal 105 is thus geolocated.
• the receiver 125 may be a satellite set to active listening state of the geographical area.
• the system 100 which is the subject of the present invention makes it possible to measure the geographic impact of a disaster as a function of terminals 105 distributed geographically and to react immediately by deploying receivers 125 capable of collecting data transmitted by said terminals. 105.
• the function of the terminal 105 is to determine a failure of the Internet network or the electrical network.
• the sensor 1 10 is, for example, a network card coupled to a microprocessor, the microprocessor periodically controlling the network card to issue a ping request to a specific IP address.
• the network card can simply measure the periodic reception of packets contained in signals transmitted by an access point to the Internet network, such as a set-top box in the context of a Wi-Fi connection of the terminal 105.
• intrinsic value to the Internet can be sensed by the sensor 1 10, according to the preferences of the skilled person in the case of application of the system 100.
• the determination means 1 1 is, for example, formed of a software embedded on the microprocessor and responsible for monitoring the value sensed by the sensor 1 10. According to a predetermined evolution, or adaptive, that is to say, evolving slowly with respect to the evolutions of the sensed value, the determination means 1 15 determines a failure of the Internet network.
• the sensor 1 10 receives the receipt of a response to a ping request to a specific IP address, the request being issued at a regular interval by the terminal 105, an absence of response to the request for several intervals consecutive causes the determination of a failure of the Internet by the determination means 1 15.
• the sensor 1 15 comprises, for example, a connector 145 which can be connected to the electrical network and / or an antenna 150 to capture the oscillations of the electrical network.
• the sensed value is, for example, the oscillation phase of the voltage of the electric current or the power of said electric current.
• the determining means 1 is capable of determining that a generator has been started.
• the determination means 115 is in this case, for example, formed of a software embedded on the microprocessor and responsible for monitoring the value sensed by the sensor 110. According to a predetermined evolution, or adaptive , that is to say, evolving slowly with respect to the evolutions of the sensed value, the determination means 115 determines a failure of the electrical network.
• a gross change of said phase of the voltage causes the determination of a failure of the electrical network by the determining means 115.
• FIG. 1 An example of such a terminal 105 is provided in Figure 1, reference 12 and 12 '.
• the terminal 105 can also be configured to detect the failure of a telephone network or a cellular data network.
• the terminal 105 may also implement a sensor (not referenced) of any physical value, such as a presence detector, a thermometer, a barometer or the like according to the application of the terminal 105 desired by the operator.
• a sensor not referenced of any physical value, such as a presence detector, a thermometer, a barometer or the like according to the application of the terminal 105 desired by the operator.
• the transmitter 120 is, for example, an antenna configured to transmit signals without This transmitter 120 is configured to transmit wireless signals over a frequency band between 222 and 225 MHz, for example.
• the transmitter 120 is an omnidirectional antenna allowing, whatever the positioning and the inclination of the terminal 105, to emit radio signals.
• the terminal 105 actuates a human presence detector and transmits information representative of the number of presences detected to the receiver 125.
• a detector is, for example, a presence detector of mobile phones near the terminal 105.
• a presence sensor implements, for example, an antenna configured to receive signals transmitted on a cellular telephone network frequency and a detector of a signal power received by said antenna, a presence being determined for each signal of which said received signal power is greater than a determined limit value.
• the receiver 125 is a communication means capable of receiving the signals emitted by each transmitter 120.
• This receiver 125 comprises, for example, a wireless signal receiving antenna.
• the term "receiver” 125 is synonymous with the term "serving station” as described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.
• the receiver 125 can comprise a received information memory and / or a transmission means of said information intended for a dedicated computer system, such as a wireless signal transmission antenna, for example.
• the receiver 125 also comprises a dynamic spectrum detector and / or a modulation presence detector.
• Such a receiver 125 is, for example, a drone comprising a broadband receiver, of the "airspy" type.
• the system 100 includes an information concentrator transmitted by at least one transmitter 120, which hub includes an information transmitter towards the receiver 125.
• the receiver 125 is movable relative to the terminals 105.
• This mobility is imparted to the receiver 125 by the craft of said receiver 125 on board a vehicle.
• a vehicle is, for example, a drone, a plane, a motorcycle or a satellite.
• this vehicle may have a route plan, or flight, automatically determined according to the positioning data of the terminals 105 of the system 100.
• At least one transmitter 120 is a narrow-band transmitter and the receiver 125 is a broadband receiver, configured to receive the information transmitted by all the transmitters 120 of the system 100.
• at least one transmitter 120 is a transmitter with very high frequency or ultra high frequency.
• the signal transmitter 120 implements a time division multiple access communication protocol. These embodiments make it possible to avoid a collision of packets transmitted by different terminals 105.
• the transmitter 120 may or may not be associated with a clock.
• the transmitter 120 is synchronized with the phase of said electrical network, for example by detecting the zero crossing of an alternating current. This phase can, moreover, be stored in the terminal 105, in a computer memory, to be implemented even in case of failure of the electrical network.
• At least one terminal 105 is configured to maintain the time slot phase timing of the time division multiple access communication protocol in the event of access termination of the terminal to an external signal enabling the terminal to determine a timing phase of the time slots.
• a memory implemented in said terminal 105 configured to store information representative of a captured phase at a time when access to the external signal was available.
• this phase can be detected from packets received from the Internet, from a satellite positioning system.
• At least one terminal 105 includes a clock and a synchronization device 130 connected to the Internet network, the synchronization device being configured to synchronize the clock with the Internet network.
• the clock can be stored at a network card or a microprocessor, for example.
• the synchronization device 130 is, for example, a computer program embedded inside the network card or the microprocessor, this computer program controlling the synchronization of the clock on an external clock at the terminal 105.
• the terminal 105 is connected to a clock radio transmission system, through a receiver (not referenced) of radio signals.
• the synchronization device 130 is then configured to synchronize the clock with the clock radio transmission system.
• the synchronization device 130 reads, in a packet transmitted by the radio transmission system, a clock value and applies this clock value to the terminal 105.
• the clock synchronization mechanisms are well known. of the skilled person and are not repeated here.
• the terminal 105 is connected to a satellite positioning system of the GPS ("Global Positioning System") type, for example, the synchronization device 130 being configured to synchronize the clock with satellite positioning system.
• the terminal 105 preferably comprises a receiver (not referenced) of signals transmitted by the satellite positioning system.
• the synchronization device 130 reads, in a packet transmitted by the satellite positioning system, a clock value and applies this clock value to the terminal 105.
• the clock synchronization mechanisms are well known. of the skilled person and are not repeated here.
• An exemplary transmitter 120 is described, but not referenced, with respect to Figures 1 to 5, with respect to terminals 12 and 12 '.
• the terminals 105 preferentially transmit the frames with a periodicity corresponding at least to the sum of all the durations of the time windows, which corresponds to the case where a complete message can fit within a single frame.
• the periodicity is the product of the sum of all the durations of the time windows with the number of frames which constitute a complete message.
• Optimum frequency sharing techniques can be combined with time-sharing techniques because the frames to be transmitted are short in time visibility of a black box by the vector carrying the receiver.
• the number of RF transmission channels is then the product of the number of channels possible in frequency by the number of time windows.
• At least one receiver 125 operates in broadband and captures all signals in radio visibility.
• the separation of the frequency and / or time channels, which can be carried out later, is within the receiver 125 so as to reduce the volume of data to be transmitted, or downstream by a computer system 300, by decomposing the dynamic spectrum of the recorded raw signal. .
• At least one terminal 105 may be used as a concentrator for grouping the information coming from other terminals, called “auxiliary" terminals, in which case these terminals are connected to each other, either by wire connection or by wireless connection (Wifi, radiofrequency), so as to limit the number of transmitters in a geographical area.
• auxiliary terminals in which case these terminals are connected to each other, either by wire connection or by wireless connection (Wifi, radiofrequency), so as to limit the number of transmitters in a geographical area.
• At least one radiocommunication terminal 105 is configured to send radiocommunication signals in a shared frequency band, said terminal comprising a phase sensor 135 of an electrical network connected to the terminal, said terminal being configured to performing a time division of the shared frequency band into several time slots per period of the electrical network, each time slot having a known ratio to the phase of the electrical network, the transmitter 120 being configured to transmit on the shared frequency band in the slots time in accordance with a time division multiple access schedule TDMA.
• Such a terminal 105 is described with reference to Figures 1 to 5, under the references 12 and 12 '.
• At least one terminal 105 includes a clock and / or a phase synchronization device 130 connected to the phase sensor 135 of the electrical network. Such synchronization is described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.
• At least one terminal 105 has a power reserve 140 allowing the terminal to operate autonomously.
• This energy reserve 140 is, for example, a battery or an accumulator of electrical energy.
• At least one terminal 105 is configured to maintain the phase timing of the time slots in the event of a power grid failure or in the event of an abrupt change in the phase of the power grid.
• At least one receiver 125 includes an emitter 126 of a transmission stop command towards at least one terminal 105, each terminal 105 ceasing to transmit signals upon receipt of said command.
• At least one terminal 105 is associated with a terminal identifier, determined during the manufacture of said terminal 105 or allocated by the computer system 300.
• the receiver 125 may or may not know at least one terminal identifier and associate at least one of said identifiers with the stop command.
• a terminal 105 receives a stop command, a check of the correspondence between the terminal identifier of the command and the terminal identifier stored in the terminal 105 takes place. If the terminal 105 determines that the identifiers correspond, the signal transmission ceases. This cessation can be carried out at the level of the transmitter or a central operating processor of said terminal 105.
• the phase sensor 135 of the electrical network comprises a connector 145 that can be connected to the electrical network.
• the phase sensor 135 of the electrical network comprises an antenna 150 for sensing oscillations of the electrical network.
• At least one terminal 105 includes a wired or wireless communication module 155 for connecting to a local area network and / or the Internet.
• the system 100 which is the subject of the present invention comprises at least one sensor 400 connected to at least one terminal 105, the transmitter 120 being configured to transmit information representative of a value sensed by at least one said sensor 400
• At least one sensor 400 is, for example:
• a sensor of a specific physical size such as smoke, fire, water or gas, for example
• At least one sensor 400 is a mobile phone presence sensor.
• a sensor 400 implements, for example, an antenna configured to receive signals transmitted on a cellular telephone network frequency and a detector of a signal power received by said antenna, a presence being determined for each signal of which said power received signal is greater than a determined limit value.
• At least one terminal 105 includes:
• a message receiver 121 transmitted on a local network including said terminal 105, preferably wireless and
• the transmitter 120 being configured to transmit at least one signal representative of at least one said message.
• the receiver 121 is, for example, a wireless antenna operating on a WiFi type local network.
• the local network is a wired LAN.
• the transmitter transmits, for example, the stored messages or an indicator of a stored message accessible on request from the receiver 125.
• the system that is the subject of the present invention comprises a plurality of terminals 105 of which at least two terminals are interconnected by a radiocommunication link, at least one signal concentrator terminal emitted by the two said terminals.
• hub means that the so-called hub terminal stores signals to be transmitted on behalf of each non-hub terminal associated with said hub terminal.
• the transmission of these signals can be made integrally, or limited to the transmission of an indicator of these signals.
• At least one terminal 105 comprises a wired or wireless communication module 155 for connecting to sensors 400, receiving data from these sensors and forwarding the data to a service station via the radiocommunication signals. in the shared frequency band.
• At least one terminal 105 includes a buffer memory 160 for backing up connected sensor data.
• the receiver 125 is configured to listen to the shared frequency band.
• At least one terminal 105 and the receiver 125 are synchronized with the same electrical network. Such an embodiment is described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.
• the receiver 125 is mounted on a vehicle 200.
• the vehicle 200 is a drone or a car.
• the system 100 operates as follows:
• a set of terminals 105 is positioned geographically on a site to be protected by operators.
• Terminal positioning information 105 is then stored at the system 100, either in a memory of each said terminal 105, or in a memory of a dedicated computer system, embedded in the receiver 125 or connected to said receiver 125.
• This information positioning system associates a terminal identifier 105 with positioning information.
• This positioning information can be geographical, via the incorporation of a GPS device in the terminal 105, or positioning on a data network, such as an IP address for example.
• the terminal identifier 105 can be determined during the manufacture of said terminal 105 or configured manually by an operator or automatic, via the computer system generating identifiers.
• terminals 105 thus operate in the manner of aeronautical black boxes.
• this terminal 105 determines a failure of a network to which this terminal 105 is connected, this terminal 105 sends an alert signal to the receiver 125.
• the receiver 125 then notifies a human operator or other data system connected to the receiver. receiver 125. This notification makes it possible, for example, to send help to priority areas, or to send additional receivers 125.
• the city of San Francisco equips some buildings with a network of prepositioned fixed 105 terminals.
• These terminals 105 constantly collect physical parameters, for example the ambient temperature, as well as the presence of mobile phones nearby.
• a large number of terminals 105 are then disconnected from the Internet and / or detect a sharp phase shift on the electrical energy due to the start of an electric power generator. These terminals 105 go into "alert" mode. These terminals 105 loop signals around 225 MHz, in the time and frequency channel that have been allocated in advance according to their location, and as long as there is energy available in the batteries.
• a computer system connected to mobile receivers 125, detects the absence of response from a large number of terminals 105 on a data network connecting terminals 105 and computer system. Human intervention may be necessary to validate the presence of an event. In the absence of a response, the computer system configures flight plans for drones, equipped with receivers 125, to collect data preferentially in the disaster area and to record the information thus collected for the ground segment.
• the first data is collected.
• the modulation traces that have been detected on board are analyzed, for example to remove redundancies, detect evolutions, etc. It is possible to indicate, on a map, the human presence, fires, floods etc. Detection and treatment are possible as long as there is energy in the terminals 105 at the time when terminals 105 and receivers 125 are within range of one another.
• each satellite should preferentially be of the size of a few cubic decimetres and weigh less than ten kilograms.
• the sizing factor is the receiving antenna because the link budget presents management difficulties.
• Such satellites fly preferentially at low altitude (500-800 km) so as to limit energy consumption, to frequently return to the same area and to be economical to launch.
• the number of satellites depends on the geographic extent to be covered with the system 100.
• a 2 GHz transceiver is required for the remote control, telemetry of the terminals 105.
• FIG. 1 schematically shows a telecommunications system 10 comprising terminals 12 and 12 ', a drone 14 acting as a mobile serving station, a tower 16 acting as a stationary service station and a control center 18.
• the terminals 12, 12 'are connected to sensors 20 (wired or non-wired) and serve as telecommunications relays.
• the terminals 12, 12 ' are connected to the electrical network 24. They have a reserve of energy, for example an accumulator or a battery 26 powered by a charger 28, which allows them to operate in case of power failure.
• a reserve of energy for example an accumulator or a battery 26 powered by a charger 28, which allows them to operate in case of power failure.
• the terminals 12, 12 ' can be configured to transmit their messages using the Internet network 22.
• the terminals 12, 12 ' are placed in an operating mode (for example an alert mode) in which the messages containing the data to be transmitted to the control center 18 are sent by a common frequency resource, i.e. a shared radio frequency band.
• an operating mode for example an alert mode
• Each terminal is equipped with a phase sensor of the electrical network, which enables it to synchronize with the electrical network 24.
• the frequency of the electrical network 24 is kept tight at its nominal frequency (normally 50 Hz or 60 Hz) by the operators all the terminals 12, 12 'are synchronized with each other by transitivity.
• Figure 5 illustrates how an AMRT schedule can be synchronized with the power grid.
• Reference numeral 30 designates the sinusoidal voltage of the phase conductor taken as a reference.
• the TDMA schedule defining which terminal has the right to use which time slot (s) for the transmission of its messages is known to the control center and possibly the service stations. On the terminal side, each terminal knows at least which time slot it has the right to use when.
• the schedule is advantageously static, that is to say fixed once and for all, for example at commissioning at the installation site, preferably depending on the allocation of slots to the terminals. geographically neighbors. For example, if there exists in the vicinity of the place of installation of a terminal another terminal which uses the channel A, one will preferably affect the channel C to the new terminal, this one being the most distant of the channel A. If there are other terminals in the vicinity, their transmission slots are also taken into account.
• each terminal can transmit on its allocated channel at any time.
• collisions between messages from different terminals having access to the same channel can not be excluded with certainty, except to take additional measures to regulate the access.
• Other embodiments of the telecommunication method may therefore provide additional restrictions for the transmission of messages to reduce the probability of collisions.
• the maximum length of a message can be defined as well as the maximum number of messages that a terminal is allowed to send per unit of time.
• the TDMA schedule is stored in a database 32 of the control center 18.
• the database 32 may be a centralized database (as shown in Figure 1) or decentralized.
• Authorized users, for example, serving stations 14, 16, may consult the TDMA schedule (or a portion thereof) via a server 34 connected to the Internet 22 and / or a network local.
• each serving station knows the time slots and possibly the frequency sub-bands likely to contain messages from the terminals in their coverage area. This allows them to more effectively monitor the radio frequency band than without prior knowledge of the TDMA schedule.
• a broadband serving station capable of monitoring the entire electromagnetic spectrum that can be used by the terminals.
• the terminals 105 transmit on a shared frequency band in a FDMA mode where frequency sub-bands are allocated to each terminal 105, either during manufacture or dynamically.
• This allocation can be performed automatically by the central computer system 300 when the system 100 is put into operation.
• This allocation can be performed following a step of determining the frequency sub-bands to be allocated to each terminal, so as to according to the geographical positioning of each said terminal 105 and the effective range of radio communication envisaged, two terminals 105 do not transmit in the same frequency sub-band if these two terminals 105 are close.
• the allocation can be achieved by the implementation of the data network connecting terminals 105 and central computer system 300.
• the terminals 105 transmit on a shared frequency band in a FDMA mode and a TDMA mode. In variants, the terminals 105 transmit on a shared frequency band in a CDMA mode. In these variants, the same allocation mechanism can be implemented to avoid collisions.
• a system as shown in Figure 1 can serve as an infrastructure for multiple applications, such as remote monitoring, remote meter reading, alerting, etc.
• Service providers can, for example, install sensors 20 and connect them (wired or wireless) to a terminal 12.
• the data of the sensors 20 are processed by the microprocessor 36 of the terminal 12 for retransmission to the control center 18 This retransmission can be done by Internet 22 or by radio communication to a service station 14, 16.
• FIG. 2 shows a "smart" home 38 equipped with many devices capable of communicating. These connected devices include, in the illustrated case, smoke detectors 40, presence detectors 42, an electricity meter 44, a gas meter 46, a water meter 48, a refrigerator 50, a washing machine, Linen 52, a television 54 and a home router 56 configured as a terminal as described above and also representing a Wifi point.
• Router 56 can operate in different modes of operation. In a first mode of operation, the router 56 retransmits the data of the sensors via an Internet connection 23. In a second mode of operation, the router 56 retransmits all or only part of the data of the devices connected by radio to a service station 14 , 16, using a TDMA protocol as described above. The router 56 is programmed to move to the second operating mode as soon as the Internet link 23 and / or the power supply are cut off. The router 56 comprises an internal clock which it synchronizes on the electrical network 24 as well as a reserve of energy (see FIG. 1).
• the power reserve allows the router to operate, in particular, to supply its internal clock with power, to receive data from connected devices capable of operating autonomously, to process this data and to to retransmit them by radio.
• the internal clock allows it to maintain synchronization with other terminals and serving stations for at least some time.
• terminals are used in such an application, locator beacons or relay other critical information.
• Each terminal stores the data of the presence detectors connected in a buffer memory. As new data is received, it is saved and overwrites the older data. The collection of new data is, however, interrupted as soon as the terminal enters the alert mode to prevent potentially corrupted data from overwriting the last valid data.
• the terminals can transmit messages indicating, for example the number of people present and their location.
• the rescue services preferably use a drone 14 configured as a service station to fly over a ravaged area and to collect the information.
• the coordination of search and rescue operations may be based, among other things, on this information.
• FIG. 3 illustrates the use of a telecommunication system according to one embodiment of the invention in the context of an emergency situation.
• the telecommunication system is particularly useful for conveying information to a rescue response and coordination center 62.
• the rescue services can fly over the disaster area with a drone 14 and thus collect the transmitted messages. by the terminals 12.
• Figure 4 shows another application of a telecommunication system according to a very interesting embodiment of the invention.
• the terminals serve as relay or information routers.
• the terminals are integrated in the devices that are at the origin of the information to be transmitted, in particular in an electricity meter 64, a gas meter 66 and a water meter 68. of these devices communicates its information to a service station individually.
• Each device synchronizes with the power grid and transmits according to the TDMA schedule.
• the fact that the terminals are synchronized is of great interest because the probability of collisions is automatically reduced compared to an asynchronous system.
• the probability of collisions is already reduced by the simple fact of introducing a granularity of time, that is to say of imposing slots to respect.
• the probability of collisions can be further reduced by the intelligent allocation of slots or slot groups to terminals.
• the meters are preferably read using a mobile serving station, mounted for example on a drone 14 or a car 70.
• the mobile serving station may emit a signal triggering the transmission of messages by the terminals that received the signal. This approach would have the advantage that the terminals concerned do not need to send their messages on a regular basis but can remain silent most of the time.
• service stations can also be designed to synchronize with the area.
• a mobile serving station can be synchronized to the sector before going on mission - in this case, the internal clock of the mobile station is synchronized with the sector for a certain time. When the mobile station is disconnected, the internal clock will allow it to remain synchronized with the terminals for a certain time, which depends on the quality of the internal clock.
• Another possibility to maintain a synchronized mobile station while on mission is to establish a communication channel transmitting a clock signal from a control center to the mobile station.

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• 2017
  • 2017-11-17 US US16/762,579 patent/US20210273848A1/en active Pending
  • 2017-11-17 CA CA3118667A patent/CA3118667A1/fr active Pending
  • 2017-11-17 EP EP17823186.6A patent/EP3711340A1/de active Pending
  • 2017-11-17 WO PCT/FR2017/053160 patent/WO2019097124A1/fr unknown

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