JP2006033492A - Monitoring system, monitoring terminal, and repeating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a monitoring system, monitoring terminals and a repeating apparatus which are reduced in costs for communication infrastructure. <P>SOLUTION: The monitoring system is composed of: a plurality of the monitoring terminals 502 for monitoringing the state of an object apparatus 504 to be monitored; and the repeating apparatus 402. The monitoring terminals 502 monitors the object apparatus 504 by making a data communication with another monitoring terminal 506 or the repeating apparatus 402 by utilizing radio device 501. The repeating apparatus 402 transmits communication path setting information for normal time to the monitoring terminals 502 when there is not a monitoringing terminal of abnormal communication, and transmits communication path setting information for abnormal time in which the monitoring terminal of abnormal communication is excluded from a communication path. According to the communication path setting information repeated from the other monitoring terminal 506 or the repeating apparatus 402, the monitoring terminals 502 carries out data communication with another monitoring terminal 506 or the repeating apparatus 402, and transmits the communication path setting information to the other monitoring terminal 506. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a monitoring system, a monitoring terminal, and a relay device, and more particularly to a technology for monitoring water supply and sewage water supply and distribution facilities, industrial production facilities, sales data collection facilities, and the like.

Conventionally, a system in which a monitoring terminal and a monitoring device communicate to monitor equipment is known. As an example of a conventional monitoring system, there is Patent Document 1 or the like. In these monitoring systems, monitoring of information transmission / reception, control, and the like is performed via communication between a monitoring target facility and a monitoring device such as the center, which requires various costs for the communication infrastructure.
JP 2001-177657 A

  In the conventional system, if the monitored equipment is located in a remote place, if a telephone line is used, a telephone facility charge for each monitored equipment is required at the initial stage. Communication costs associated with connection are required. As the number of facilities to be monitored increases, the costs associated with the communication infrastructure also increase. Furthermore, since a telephone line is laid, depending on geographical conditions, the laying of the telephone line may not always be easy, and maintenance of the telephone line may be necessary.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a monitoring system, a monitoring terminal, and a relay device that reduce the various costs of the communication infrastructure.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, the following measures are taken. Assume that a regional information network is used as a communication infrastructure. Alternatively, a communication infrastructure using a communication cable such as a telephone line is used. And the relay apparatus connected to communication cables, such as the said local information network or a telephone line, is provided. The relay device and a monitoring terminal for monitoring the monitoring target facility are wirelessly connected. The monitoring terminal is further connected in series with another monitoring terminal in a wireless manner. Alternatively, one monitoring terminal is connected in parallel to a plurality of other terminal terminals.

  A monitoring device in a monitoring room is connected to the communication cable such as the regional information network or the telephone line. As a result, the monitoring device communicates information with a monitoring terminal at a remote location via a regional information network and a wireless connection, and can monitor and control the monitoring target equipment. That is, it is possible to perform communication in which long-distance communication is performed using a communication cable and communication in the vicinity of the monitored facility is performed wirelessly. As a result, communication with a small amount of data and communication that requires wiring and communication costs is performed wirelessly, and communication with a large amount of data over a long distance is performed using a cable, thereby reducing the communication cost as a whole.

  In the case where the monitoring terminals are connected in series, if an abnormality occurs in the monitoring terminal in the middle, the monitoring terminal in which the abnormality has occurred is skipped so that it can be wirelessly connected to the subsequent monitoring terminal. Further, when the monitoring terminal in which the abnormality has occurred becomes normal, it is canceled that it has been skipped, and wireless connection with the relay device is made possible.

  That is, the present invention includes a plurality of monitoring terminals that respectively monitor the state of the equipment to be monitored and a relay device, and the monitoring terminal uses a wireless device to perform data communication with another monitoring terminal or the relay device. In the system for monitoring the facility to be monitored, the relay device transmits normal communication path setting information to the monitoring terminal that performs data communication with the own device when there is no communication abnormality monitoring terminal. At the same time, when there is a monitoring terminal for communication abnormality, it transmits the communication path setting information at the time of abnormality when the monitoring terminal is removed from the communication path, and the monitoring terminal receives the communication path setting information from another monitoring terminal or a relay device In addition, the monitoring system performs data communication with other monitoring terminals or relay devices according to the received communication path setting information and transmits the communication path setting information to the other monitoring terminals. .

  In the present invention, a monitoring terminal that has recovered from a communication error transmits bypass release request data to another monitoring terminal or relay device, and the monitoring terminal that has received the bypass release request data of the recovered monitoring terminal The recovery terminal bypass release request data is transmitted to the monitoring terminal or the relay device, and when the relay device detects the recovered monitoring terminal bypass release request data, the recovery terminal adds the recovered monitoring terminal to the communication path. Is a monitoring system that transmits the communication path setting information to the monitoring terminal that performs data communication with the own device.

  The present invention comprises means for communicating using a wireless device, a CPU for executing a communication program, a memory for executing the communication program, and a storage device, and another monitoring terminal or relay device. In the monitoring terminal that performs data communication using the wireless device and monitors the state of the equipment to be monitored, the communication route setting information is received from the other monitoring terminal or the relay device, and the other according to the received communication route setting information. If the communication route setting information is transmitted to another monitoring terminal and the communication route setting information is not received for a predetermined time or more, data communication is performed with the other monitoring terminal or relay device. When the bypass release request data is transmitted to the device and the bypass release request data of the recovered monitoring terminal is received, the other monitoring terminal or relay device is notified. A monitoring terminal to send a bypass cancellation request data recovered monitoring terminal.

  Furthermore, the present invention comprises means for communicating using a wireless device, a CPU for executing a communication program, a memory for executing the communication program, and a storage device, and uses the monitoring terminal and the wireless device. In the relay device that performs data communication, the normal communication path setting information is transmitted to the monitoring terminal that performs data communication with the own device when there is no communication abnormality monitoring terminal, and communication data cannot be acquired for a certain period of time. When a monitoring terminal is detected, the relay device transmits communication path setting information at the time of abnormality when the monitoring terminal is removed from the communication path.

  In addition, when detecting the bypass release request data of the recovered monitoring terminal to the monitoring terminal that performs data communication with the own device, the present invention transmits the recovered communication path setting information by adding the recovered monitoring terminal to the communication path. It is a relay device.

  According to the present invention, since communication and wireless connection of a local information network or a communication cable are used, it is possible to reduce various costs of communication infrastructure in the monitoring system. Further, conventionally, when there is a terminal in which communication abnormality has occurred, there is a case in which communication from the terminal in which communication abnormality has occurred cannot be performed with the previous monitoring terminal. In addition, there is no means for automatically returning the monitoring terminal to the communication path when recovering from a communication error. According to the present invention, it is possible to automatically communicate with a terminal ahead of a terminal having a communication error, and to automatically return the terminal to the communication path when recovered from the communication error. It is possible to reduce the man-hours involved in the process.

The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described.
Embodiments of a monitoring system, a monitoring terminal and a relay device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of the monitoring system of the embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the monitoring device, the relay device, and the monitoring terminal according to the embodiment. FIG. 3 shows an example of wireless communication data in the embodiment. FIG. 4 shows an example of a communication path when communication is normal and when communication is abnormal in the embodiment. FIG. 5 shows an example of the operation of the relay device that bypasses the communication abnormal terminal in the embodiment. FIG. 6 shows an example of the operation of the monitoring terminal when recovering from a communication abnormality in the embodiment. FIG. 7 illustrates an example of the operation of the relay apparatus that has received the bypass release request in the embodiment.

  Examples will be described. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the monitoring system of this embodiment. The monitoring device 102 installed in the monitoring room uses the media converter 103 to communicate with the relay device 402,... Via the communication cable 300, and monitors the operating state of the equipment 504,. . The monitoring device 102 can use the Internet 200 and the mail notification 201. The monitoring clients 100 and 101 are devices that display data in the monitoring device 102 as a client.

  The relay device 402,... Relays data for communication between the monitoring device 102 and the monitoring terminal 502,..., Converts wireless communication to communication via the cable 300, and the monitoring terminal 502,.・ ・ There is a function to collect and temporarily store data. The relay apparatus 402 communicates with the monitoring apparatus 102 via the media converters 103, 401,... And the communication cable (optical cable, telephone line, etc.) 300. Further, the relay devices 402,... Communicate with the monitoring terminals 502,. Then, the relay device 402,... Transmits the normal communication path setting information to the monitoring terminal that performs data communication with the own device when there is no communication abnormality monitoring terminal, and transmits the communication data for a certain time or more. When a monitoring terminal that cannot be acquired is detected, communication route setting information is sent when the monitoring terminal is removed from the communication path, and when the bypass release request data of the recovered monitoring terminal is detected, the recovered monitoring terminal is added to the communication path. Communication path setting information at the time of recovery is transmitted. These can be realized by computer software. Note that a relay device in which the media converter and the wireless device are integrated can also be used, and can be installed in the monitoring room and integrated with the monitoring device 102.

  The monitoring terminal 502 receives data from the monitoring target equipment 504,... Via the input / output devices 503,..., And uses the wireless devices 501,. Send to ... The monitoring terminals 502,... Receive communication path setting information from other monitoring terminals or relay devices, and perform data communication with other monitoring terminals or relay devices according to the received communication path setting information. When the communication path setting information is transmitted to another monitoring terminal and the communication path setting information is not received for a certain time or more, the bypass release request data is transmitted to another predetermined monitoring terminal or relay device, When the recovered monitoring terminal bypass release request data is received, the recovered monitoring terminal bypass release request data is transmitted to another monitoring terminal or relay device. These can be realized by computer software. Note that a monitoring device in which an input / output device and a wireless device are integrated may be used.

  Since the wireless system has a limited communicable distance, a long distance section when the monitoring device 102 communicates with the monitoring terminal 502,. .., And wirelessly communicate the areas connecting the individual monitoring objects around the relay devices 402. At that time, data from the monitoring terminals 502,... Are temporarily collected in the relay devices 402,... And transmitted to the monitoring device 102 from the relay devices 402,. The relay apparatuses 402,... Have a plurality of types of communication means in one relay apparatus 402,... For converting the communication means from the wireless system to the cable utilization system and vice versa. Further, the relay devices 402,... May be connected to a plurality of wireless devices 501,..., And may be configured to communicate with more monitoring terminals 502,.

  FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the monitoring device, the relay device, and the monitoring terminal. As shown in FIG. 2A, the monitoring device 102 communicates with the relay devices 402,... Via the communication control unit 111, the media converter 103, and the communication cable 300. It also communicates with the monitoring client 100 via the LAN.

  As shown in FIG. 2B, the relay device 402 is connected to the wireless device 403 by communication control (part 1), and is connected to the communication cable 300 via the wireless control unit 411 and the media converter 401 (part 2) cable. It has a connection part 413. As a result, the two systems of communication of the radio and the communication cable are relayed. In some cases, the number of monitoring terminals relayed by one relay device 402 may be increased by having a plurality of wireless communication control units and increasing the number of wireless devices connected to the relay device.

  As shown in FIG. 2C, the monitoring terminal 502 includes a communication control wireless control unit 511 connected to the wireless device 501, and a facility monitoring unit 513 that inputs a signal of the monitoring target facility 504 via the input / output device 503. Have.

This monitoring system has three basic functions.
1. Current value display function: Displays real-time data of the monitoring target equipment 504 on the screen of the monitoring device 102.
2. Alarm display function: When an alarm is generated in the monitored facility 504, the alarm status of the facility is displayed on the monitoring device 102 to notify the administrator.
3. Operation recording function: Records the operation state of the monitoring target facility 504. For this purpose, the monitoring device 102 collects and stores operation records (daily reports, etc.) stored in the monitoring terminals 502,.
These functions are obtained by communication between the monitoring device 102 and the monitoring terminals 502,.

The three types of functions of the monitoring system are realized as follows.
1. The current value display function displays the current value data in the monitoring terminal on the screen of the monitoring device. Current value data includes digital data and analog data. Digital data includes operation of individual devices in the monitored equipment, failure signal on / off signals. Analog data includes water level and pump current. These data are acquired online from the monitoring terminal by the monitoring device and displayed on the monitoring device.
2. The alarm display function is a function for displaying the alarm content on the monitoring device screen when the monitoring device obtains the data set as the alarm signal in the digital data among the current value data in the monitoring terminal online from the monitoring terminal. .
3. With the operation record function, the operation record to be monitored (history of the time when the signal was turned on and off, trend data for the time of the analog signal, etc.) is saved in the monitoring terminal, and usually once a day, The monitoring device visits the monitoring terminal and collects the data. Since the amount of data is large and the number of monitoring terminals is large, it takes a long time to complete operation record acquisition.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of communication data when wireless communication is performed in series connection in the embodiment. Since the monitoring terminals 518, 514, and 510 in FIG. 1 are connected in series, normal data transmitted from the monitoring terminal 518 to the relay device 405 is as shown in FIG. , 510 data is synthesized.

  Here, when the monitoring terminal 514 becomes abnormal in communication due to, for example, a power failure, the data of both the monitoring terminals 514 and 510 are lost, and the data of only the monitoring terminal 518 is transmitted. Here, when data after the monitoring terminal 514 is lost for a certain time or more, the relay device regards the monitoring terminal 514 as being incapable of communication, and bypasses the monitoring terminal 514 to change the communication path. In order to use the setting information, the monitoring terminal 518 and the monitoring terminal 510 perform data communication according to the changed communication path setting information. As a result, the communication data is changed to the communication data as shown in FIG. 3B, and the relay device and the monitoring terminal continue to communicate.

  FIG. 4 shows the route after changing the communication route. When the monitoring terminal 514 is normal, it communicates with the communication paths 600, 601, and 602 in series connection. When the monitoring terminal 514 becomes abnormal in communication, the communication path becomes 600 and 603 by bypassing the terminal 514.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of the operation of the relay device that bypasses the monitoring terminal in which communication has become abnormal. Communication data acquisition processing is performed (step 700), it is determined whether or not acquisition is possible (step 701), and if communication data cannot be acquired for a certain period of time or more, the process proceeds to processing for determining which terminal cannot be acquired (steps 702 and 704). ). Even if the communication data can be acquired, it is determined whether the contents of the monitoring terminal data are present (step 703). For example, even if the wireless device itself is normal but the monitoring terminal itself has a failure and there is no monitoring terminal data contents, the communication NG is determined. (Step 704), a communication path bypassing the monitoring terminal is set (Step 709), the communication data after the change is acquired (Step 706), and the process ends. If the communication data can be acquired in time in step 702, the process returns to step 700. In this way, the relay device can perform an operation of bypassing the monitoring terminal in which communication has become abnormal.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of the operation of the monitoring terminal recovered from the communication abnormality. If there is a data request from the relay device, the monitoring terminal transmits data to the relay device (steps 720 and 721). If the data request from the relay device is not longer than a certain time (steps 720 and 722), it is determined that the local station is bypassed (step 723), and the bypass is released to a predetermined monitoring terminal or relay device near the local terminal. The request is transmitted (step 724), and the process ends. The bypass release request may be transmitted directly to the relay device, but in the case of a station far from the serially connected relay device, it is necessary to transmit the bypass release request to a nearby monitoring terminal. In this way, the monitoring terminal that has recovered from the communication abnormality can perform an operation for requesting addition to the communication path.

  FIG. 7 shows an example of the operation of the relay apparatus that has received the bypass release request. It is determined whether there is bypass release request data originally transmitted via a normal monitoring terminal in the communication data (step 730). If there is a bypass release request, the monitoring terminal that transmitted the bypass release request is identified. (Step 732), the communication path is changed to the communication path including the recovered monitoring terminal (Step 733), and the process is terminated. If there is no bypass release request, the current communication path is maintained (step 731), and the process ends. In this way, the relay device can perform an operation of changing to a communication path including the recovered monitoring terminal.

  By the above operation, even if a certain monitoring terminal has a communication error, it automatically sets a communication path to communicate with the monitoring terminal ahead of the monitoring terminal in which the communication error has occurred by communicating via the communication path that bypasses the monitoring terminal. can do. Further, when a terminal having an abnormal communication is recovered, the recovery of the monitoring terminal can be detected and automatically returned to the communication path including the terminal. The recovery of the monitoring terminal and the change of the communication path are phenomena that the operator does not know in advance when it occurs, and a large number of work steps are required for manual operation. On the other hand, according to the present invention, it is possible to automatically recover from a communication abnormality, and the maintenance man-hours for wireless communication are reduced.

The structure of the whole monitoring system of an Example is shown. The block diagram of the monitoring apparatus of an Example, a relay apparatus, and a monitoring terminal is shown. An example of the data of the radio | wireless communication in an Example is shown. An example of the communication path at the time of normal communication and abnormal communication in the embodiment is shown. An example of operation | movement of the relay apparatus which bypasses the communication abnormal terminal in an Example is shown. An example of operation | movement of the monitoring terminal when recovering from communication abnormality in an Example is shown. An example of operation | movement of the relay apparatus which received the bypass cancellation | release request | requirement in an Example is shown.

Explanation of symbols

100, 101 Monitoring client 102 Monitoring device 103, 401 Media converter 110, 410, 510 Control unit 111, 411, 413, 511 Communication control unit 112, 412, 512 Storage unit 113 Display unit 114 Input unit 200 Internet 201 Mail report 300 Communication Cables 402, 405, ... Relay devices 403, 406, ..., 501, 505, ... Wireless relay devices 502, 506, ... Monitoring terminals 503, 507, ... I / O devices 518, 514 510 Monitoring terminal 600 603 Communication path

Claims (5)

The monitoring terminal comprises a plurality of monitoring terminals that respectively monitor the state of the equipment to be monitored and a relay device, and the monitoring terminal performs data communication with another monitoring terminal or the relay device using a wireless device, and the monitoring target In the system to monitor the equipment of
The relay device transmits normal communication path setting information to a monitoring terminal that performs data communication with its own device when there is no communication abnormality monitoring terminal, and when there is a communication abnormality monitoring terminal, the monitoring terminal Communication route setting information at the time of abnormality that is removed from the communication route, the monitoring terminal receives the communication route setting information from another monitoring terminal or relay device, and other monitoring according to the received communication route setting information A monitoring system characterized by performing data communication with a terminal or a relay device and transmitting the communication path setting information to another monitoring terminal. The monitoring system according to claim 1,
The monitoring terminal that has recovered from the communication error transmits bypass release request data to another monitoring terminal or relay device, and the monitoring terminal that has received the bypass release request data of the recovered monitoring terminal is another monitoring terminal or the relay device When the relay device detects the bypass release request data of the recovered monitoring terminal, the relay device detects the recovered monitoring terminal bypass release request data, and adds the recovered monitoring terminal to the communication route. A monitoring system characterized by transmitting to a monitoring terminal that performs data communication with its own device. A means for communicating using a wireless device, a CPU for executing a communication program, a memory for executing the communication program, and a storage device are provided, and another monitoring terminal or relay device and a wireless device are used. In the monitoring terminal that performs data communication and monitors the status of the monitored equipment,
Receives communication path setting information from other monitoring terminals or relay devices, and performs data communication with other monitoring terminals or relay devices according to the received communication path setting information and transmits the communication path setting information to other monitoring terminals. If the communication path setting information is not received for a certain period of time, the bypass release request data is transmitted to another predetermined monitoring terminal or relay device, and the recovered monitoring terminal bypass release request data is received. Then, the monitoring terminal characterized by transmitting the recovered monitoring terminal bypass release request data to another monitoring terminal or relay device. A relay comprising a means for communicating using a wireless device, a CPU for executing a communication program, a memory for executing the communication program, and a storage device, and performing data communication using the monitoring terminal and the wireless device In the device
When a monitoring terminal that does not acquire communication data for a predetermined time or more is transmitted to the monitoring terminal that performs data communication with its own device, when normal communication path setting information is transmitted when there is no communication abnormal monitoring terminal, the monitoring terminal A relay device characterized by transmitting communication path setting information in the event of an abnormality when the network is removed from the communication path. The relay device according to claim 4, wherein
A feature is that, when a bypass release request data of a recovered monitoring terminal is detected for a monitoring terminal that performs data communication with the own device, communication path setting information at the time of recovery in which the recovered monitoring terminal is added to the communication path is transmitted. Relay device.

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