JP2020096242A - Smart meter - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a smart meter capable of easily adjusting the transmission timing of various terminal call data.SOLUTION: The smart meter having a radio device that wirelessly sends terminal call data via multiple repeaters, includes a delay time calculator part that calculates the delay time which is the time to delay the transmission condition of the terminal call data and to transmit the data on the basis of the radio number for identifying the own device that the radio has, the number of radios that can be connected to the communication network, and a delay allowance period.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present invention relates to a smart meter that includes a wireless device and a measuring device, and transmits terminal calling data such as meter reading data and abnormality information of the measuring device to a management device by wireless communication.

In recent years, in order to remotely manage the consumption of electric power, gas, etc., use of a smart meter including a meter for measuring a meter and a wireless device has been proposed. Meter reading data obtained by a smart meter, which is one of the terminal calling data, is collected in a gateway (hereinafter referred to as GW) in the middle of a communication path and transmitted to a management center that manages the terminal calling data. It

In such a system for transmitting terminal call data, it is not possible to install many GWs in terms of cost, and when the communication becomes large-scale, the radio waves interfere and the terminal call data is transmitted as GW. There is a problem that it does not reach. Therefore, in order to solve such a problem, it is considered to use a communication network (for example, a small power driven wireless mesh network) that enables multi-hop communication between the smart meter and the GW via a plurality of repeaters. There is.

By the way, in a communication network capable of transmitting terminal call data by multistage relay such as a low power driven wireless mesh network, the terminal call data transmitted from a plurality of smart meters may reach the GW at the same time. Conceivable. However, the GW can only accept terminal call data one by one. Therefore, until the GW accepts the terminal call data that arrives at the same time, the relay device (the relay device immediately before the GW in the multi-hop communication) that directly establishes wireless communication with the GW is sent to the GW. The transmission is repeated.

Here, the repeater is designed to suppress power consumption, and the transmission time interval and the number of transmissions that allow retry communication are set so that transmission is not repeated indefinitely. Therefore, when a large number of terminal call data is concentrated in one GW, there is a situation in which there is data that cannot be transmitted to the GW due to this upper limit.

Therefore, there has been proposed a wireless communication device capable of setting all smart meters so that the transmission timing of terminal call data is shifted so that the terminal call data does not reach the GW at the same time (for example, , Patent Document 1). The base station (wireless communication device) disclosed in Patent Document 1 detects data from each terminal based on the number of terminals detected by the detection unit and a detection unit that detects a terminal connected via a wireless communication network. A transmission timing determination unit that determines transmission timing for transmission is provided. With this configuration, since transmission timing can be assigned to each terminal, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of collision.

JP, 2014-82694, A

However, when adopting the base station (wireless communication device) disclosed in Patent Document 1 described above, the base station needs to set unique transmission timings for all connected terminals. Therefore, when the number of terminals communicating with the base station is large and participation and withdrawal from the communication network are frequently performed, the transmission timing peculiar to all terminals is changed every time the terminals participating in the communication network are changed. Since it is necessary to set again, the processing becomes complicated.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a smart meter that can easily adjust the transmission timing of various terminal call data such as meter reading data.

In order to solve the above problems, a smart meter according to one aspect of the present invention measures a usage amount of utilities such as electricity, gas, and water, and a terminal calling data measured by the measurement unit. Communicates with a data generation unit that generates meter reading data from the usage amount in a predetermined period or that detects abnormality based on the usage amount measured by the measuring unit and generates abnormality information data, and a management device that manages various data. Includes the meter reading data or the abnormality information data via a plurality of repeaters within a delay permission period that is a period permitted from a predetermined transmission condition to a gateway that is operably connected. A smart meter having a wireless device for transmitting terminal calling data by terminal calling communication, wherein the wireless device has a wireless device number assigned to identify itself and is connectable to the gateway. A delay time calculation unit that calculates a delay time that is a time for transmitting the data by delaying the transmission condition of the terminal calling data as a starting point, based on the number of radios and the delay permission period.

According to the above configuration, since the smart meter is provided with the measuring device and the wireless device, for example, a terminal originating from the terminal including the meter reading data or the abnormality information data showing the result of measuring the usage fee of the utility such as gas, electricity and water in a predetermined period. The call data can be sent to the management device via the gateway.

Furthermore, since the delay time calculating unit is provided, it is possible to calculate the delay time for transmitting the terminal call data after delaying the transmission start time according to the radio number assigned to the radio. Therefore, for example, unlike Patent Document 1, it is not necessary to set unique transmission timings for all terminals connected to the base station, and the radio number assigned to the radio provided in the smart meter It is possible to individually determine the transmission timing of the device. Therefore, the smart meter according to an aspect of the present invention has an effect that the transmission timing of call data of various terminals can be easily adjusted.

In the smart meter according to another aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned configuration, the delay time calculation unit assigns an order in which the wireless device can be connected to the gateway according to the wireless device number, and is assigned. The delay time may be calculated within the delay permission period according to the order.

In the smart meter according to another aspect of the present invention, in the above-described configuration, among the plurality of relays, a relay that directly establishes wireless communication with the gateway is such that the transmitted terminal call data is the gateway. If not accepted, the terminal call data is configured to be retransmitted, and the delay time calculation unit has another radio device having another radio device number before and after the radio device number. The delay time may be calculated so that the time interval with another delay time calculated by the smart meter is longer than the time required to retransmit the terminal call data.

According to the above configuration, the delay time calculation unit determines that the time interval with the other delay time calculated in the other smart meter having the radio with another radio number before and after the radio number is the terminal call data. The delay time is calculated so as to be longer than the time required for retransmission. Therefore, even if the transmitted terminal calling data is not accepted by the gateway, it can be retransmitted before the next new terminal calling data is transmitted.

Therefore, the terminal call data transmitted from the smart meter can be reliably received by the gateway, and the omission of acquisition of the terminal call data in the management device can be prevented.

The smart meter according to the present invention is configured as described above, and has an effect that the transmission timing of call data of various terminals can be easily adjusted.

It is a figure which shows typically an example of a principal part structure of the system containing the smart meter which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a functional block diagram which shows typically an example of a structure of the smart meter which concerns on this Embodiment. 6 is a table showing a correspondence relationship between a wireless device number of a wireless device included in the smart meter according to the present embodiment and a converted wireless device number. It is a sequence diagram which shows an example of the meter-reading data transmission process which is one of the terminal calling data in the communication system containing the smart meter which concerns on this Embodiment in a time series.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following, the same or corresponding components will be denoted by the same reference symbols throughout all the drawings, and description thereof will be omitted.

(Communication system including smart meter)
First, the configuration of a communication system 100 including the smart meter according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing an example of a main configuration of a communication system 100 including a smart meter according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, meter reading data, which is an example of terminal calling data transmitted by the smart meter, will be described.

The communication system 100 including the smart meter according to the present embodiment collects the meter reading data 24 transmitted from the smart meter 10 installed in each customer by the GW 40, and manages the electric power company, the gas company, the water supply station, and other management centers ( It is a system for transmitting to the management device) 60. As shown in FIG. 1, the configuration includes a plurality of smart meters 10, a plurality of repeaters 30, a plurality of GWs 40, and a management center 60.

As a communication interface between each smart meter 10 and the GW 40, it is possible to use a low-power-driven wireless mesh network that enables communication by multistage relay (bucket relay method) that passes through a plurality of relays 30. On the other hand, the GW 40 and the management center 60 are communicably connected via a communication line network 50 such as a telephone line network. In communication on the communication line network 50, for example, LTE (Long Term Evolution) or the like is used. Communication standards can be used (LTE network). That is, the meter reading data 24 collected in the GW 40 is transmitted to the management center 60 via the LTE network control device (not shown) and the communication network 50 to which the LTE network control device is connected.

The smart meter 10 is a device that transmits to the management center 60 the meter reading data 24 that is packet data indicating the result of measuring the usage amount of utilities such as electricity, gas, and water consumed by consumers in a predetermined period. Details of the smart meter 10 will be described later.

A plurality of repeaters 30 are arranged between the smart meter 10 and the GW 40, and transmit the meter reading data received from the smart meter 10 to the GW 40 by multi-step relay. Another smart meter 10 installed in another customer may also serve as the repeater 30. In the low-power-driven wireless mesh network, the meter reading data 24 is transmitted from the smart meter 10 to the GW 40 via the plurality of relays 30. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the GW 40 can be connected to a maximum of 128 smart meters 10.

The management center (management device) 60 is a facility that manages the meter reading data 24 transmitted from each smart meter 10, and for example, based on the received meter reading data 24, electricity, gas, water, etc. at each customer You can ask for utility usage fees.

In the communication system 100 including the smart meter having the above-described configuration, the meter reading data 24 indicating the usage amount of the utility such as electricity, gas, and water on the previous day is wirelessly driven at low power at a predetermined time (for example, AM 2:00). It is configured to broadcast from a plurality of smart meters 10 to the management center 60 via the mesh network and the LTE network. In addition, hereinafter, a predetermined time when the simultaneous transmission from the smart meter 10 to the management center 60 is started is referred to as a transmission start time. The transmission start time may be held in advance in the measuring instrument memory 3 (see FIG. 2 described later) or the wireless device memory 14 (see FIG. 2 described later) in the smart meter 10, for example.

Here, when the meter reading data 24 is simultaneously transmitted from many smart meters 10, the transmitted meter reading data 24 may reach the GW 40 in the communication system 100 including the smart meter at the same time, and a collision may occur. Therefore, the configuration of the smart meter 10 capable of suppressing the occurrence of the above-mentioned collision will be described below with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram schematically showing an example of the configuration of the smart meter 10 according to the present embodiment.

(Smart meter configuration)
As shown in FIG. 2, the smart meter 10 wirelessly communicates with the measuring instrument 1 that measures the consumption of utilities such as electricity, gas, and water, and generates the meter reading data 24, and another device (for example, the relay 30). The wireless device 11 to be established is provided, and the measuring instrument 1 and the wireless device 11 are connected by wire so as to be communicable.

The wireless device 11 is previously assigned a wireless device number that is a unique number that does not overlap with other wireless devices 11 included in other smart meters 10 and that identifies itself. As the radio number, for example, one of 200 consecutive numbers from "0" to "199" is given. As shown in FIG. 2, the wireless device 11 includes a wireless device memory 14, a wireless communication unit 12, and a wireless device control unit 13 as functional blocks.

The wireless device memory 14 is a readable/writable storage medium, and may be, for example, a RAM (Random access memory). The wireless device memory 14 stores wireless device number information 16 indicating information on a wireless device number given to the wireless device 11 in advance.

When transmitting the meter reading data 24 to the management center 60, the wireless communication unit 12 establishes wireless communication with a predetermined relay 30 in a communication path from the wireless device 11 to the GW 40. The predetermined repeater 30 may be, for example, a repeater having high communication stability from the viewpoint of radio field intensity and the like.

The wireless device control unit 13 performs various controls of the wireless device 11, and includes a wireless device number notification unit 15 as a functional block. The wireless device control unit 13 can be realized by, for example, a microprocessor or a CPU. When the radio device control unit 13 is realized by a microprocessor, the above-described functional blocks can be realized by the microprocessor reading and executing the program stored in the radio device memory 14. The wireless device number notification unit 15 reads the wireless device number information 16 from the wireless device memory 14 in response to a request from the measuring device 1 and transmits it to the measuring device 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, the measuring instrument 1 includes a measuring instrument control unit 2, a measuring instrument memory 3, a measuring unit 4, and an abnormality detecting unit 5. The measurement unit 4 measures the usage amount of utilities such as electricity, gas, and water used in a predetermined period, and the abnormality detection unit 5 detects an abnormality based on the usage amount. A publicly known method can be used as a method for measuring the usage amount of the utilities such as electricity, gas, and water, and therefore description thereof will be omitted.

The measuring instrument memory 3 is a readable/writable storage medium, and may be, for example, a RAM. The meter memory 3 stores the meter reading data 24 indicating the measurement result measured by the measuring unit 4 and the abnormality information data 25 detected by the abnormality detecting unit 5. That is, the measuring instrument control section 2 (data generating section) creates the meter reading data 24 based on the information indicating the usage amount of the utilities such as electricity, gas, and water measured by the measuring section 4, and stores it in the measuring instrument memory 3. Let Further, the measuring instrument control section 2 (data generating section) creates the abnormality information data 25 based on the usage amount measured by the measuring section 4 by the abnormality detecting section 5 and stores it in the measuring instrument memory 3.

The measuring instrument control unit 2 is a processing device that performs various controls of the measuring instrument 1, and includes a transmission data selecting unit 21, a radio device number acquiring unit 22, and a delay time calculating unit 23 as functional blocks. The measuring instrument control unit 2 can be realized by a microprocessor, a CPU, or the like. When the measuring instrument control unit 2 is realized by a microprocessor, the above-mentioned functional blocks can be realized by the microprocessor reading and executing the program stored in the measuring instrument memory 3.

The transmission data selection unit 21 selects packet data (telegram) to be transmitted to the management center 60 via the wireless device 11, and controls the wireless device 11 to transmit the selected packet data. The packet data to be transmitted to the management center 60 includes the above-mentioned meter reading data 24 and the abnormality information data 25 for notifying the occurrence of a disaster or the occurrence of an abnormality such as an electric leak, a gas leak, and a water leak.

The wireless device number acquisition unit 22 requests the wireless device 11 to transmit the wireless device number assigned to the wireless device 11, and acquires the wireless device number information 16. The delay time calculation unit 23 transmits the meter reading data 24 based on the wireless device number information 16 acquired by the wireless device number acquisition unit 22, the number of wireless devices 11 that can be connected to the GW 40, and a delay permission period described below. A delay time indicating how much the transmission timing is delayed from the transmission start time is calculated. The transmission data selection unit 21 selects the meter-reading data 24 as the packet data to be transmitted when the delay time calculated by the delay time calculation unit 23 has elapsed from the transmission start time. Then, the transmission data selection unit 21 instructs the wireless device 11 to wirelessly transmit the meter reading data 24.

Here, a method of calculating the delay time by the delay time calculation unit 23 will be described. In the present embodiment, it is set so that all the meter reading data 24 can be received by the GW 40 within 180 minutes after the transmission start time. That is, 180 minutes is set as a period (delay permission period) in which the transmission of the meter reading data 24 is permitted to be delayed from the transmission start time. The number of wireless devices 11 of the smart meter 10 that can be connected to the GW 40 is 100.

Therefore, when the wireless device numbers assigned to the wireless device 11 are 0 to 99, that is, when the wireless device numbers that can be assigned to each of the smart meters 10 that can be connected to the GW 40 are within the range, FIG. The value obtained by adding 1 to the wireless device number given to the wireless device 11 as shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a table showing a correspondence relationship between the wireless device number of the wireless device 11 included in the smart meter 10 according to the present embodiment and the converted wireless device number.

That is, the converted wireless device numbers of the wireless device 11 to which the wireless device numbers 0 to 99 are assigned are 1 to 100. Then, the delay time calculation unit 23 calculates the delay time by applying the converted radio device number to the following mathematical expression (1).
Delay time (minutes) = delay permission period (180 minutes) x (converted radio number/100 units) (1)
However, the calculation result of the delay time (minute) is set in units of 1 minute, and the result less than 1 minute is rounded down. Therefore, the transmission interval of the meter-reading data 24 that is continuously transmitted, in other words, the time interval of the delay time obtained by each of the wireless devices 11 whose wireless device numbers are one behind the other is at least 1 minute. Become.

On the other hand, when the wireless device number assigned to the wireless device 11 is 100 to 199, in order to replace the wireless device number within the range of the wireless device numbers that can be assigned to the smart meters 10 that can be connected to the GW 40, the wireless device number from 100 is used. Subtract. Then, the converted radio number (1 to 100) can be obtained by adding 1 to the obtained value. Then, the converted wireless device number is applied to the above-mentioned mathematical expression (1) to obtain the delay time.

As described above, the delay time calculation unit 23 allocates the order to the wireless device 11 in the number connectable to the GW 40 according to the wireless device number, and delays within the delay permission period according to the allocated order. It can be said that the time is calculated.

Further, since the delay time calculation unit 23 can calculate the delay time, the smart meter 10 can transmit the meter reading data 24 with a delay from the transmission start time.

By the way, in the present embodiment, the converted radio device numbers are the same number, and there are two pieces of meter reading data 24 transmitted to the GW 40 at the same timing. However, the meter-reading data 24 is transmitted at intervals of at least 1 minute as described above. For this reason, for example, by retransmitting the meter reading data 24 that was not accepted by the GW 40 in the first transmission during one minute from the relay device 30 that directly establishes communication with the GW 40, all the meter reading data by the GW 40. 24 is configured to be able to receive.

In the above description, the wireless device number is incremented by 1 to obtain the converted wireless device number. However, when the meter reading data 24 to be notified first is transmitted from the transmission start time, the wireless device number is not necessarily incremented by 1. It is not necessary to calculate the radio number after conversion.

(Terminal calling data transmission process)
Next, a data transmission process for transmitting terminal call data from the smart meter 10 to the management center 60 in the communication system 100 including the smart meter according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram showing in time series an example of the meter reading data transmission processing which is one of the terminal call data in the communication system 100 including the smart meter according to the present embodiment.

First, in performing the meter reading data transmission process, in the measuring instrument 1, the wireless device number acquisition unit 22 transmits a request signal requesting the wireless device 11 to transmit the wireless device number information 16 (step S11). The transmission of the request signal by the wireless device number acquisition unit 22 may be preset to be performed at a predetermined time every day, or may be performed in response to an input signal input by the user.

In the wireless device 11, when the wireless device number notification unit 15 receives the request signal transmitted from the measuring device 1, the wireless device number information 16 is read from the wireless device memory 14 and transmitted to the measuring device 1 (step S21). When the wireless device number acquisition unit 22 receives the wireless device number information 16 transmitted from the wireless device 11, the delay time calculation unit 23 calculates the delay time based on the received wireless device number information 16 (step S12). Next, when the transmission data selection unit 21 confirms that the calculated delay time has elapsed from the transmission start time (step S13), it selects the meter reading data 24 as the transmission data. Then, the transmission data selection unit 21 reads the meter reading data 24 from the measuring instrument memory 3, transmits the meter reading data 24 to the wireless device 11, and instructs the transmission of the meter reading data 24 (step S14).

In the wireless device 11, the wireless communication unit 12 establishes wireless communication with a predetermined relay 30 in response to the transmission instruction from the transmission data selection unit 21, and transmits the meter reading data 24 (step S22). The meter reading data 24 transmitted from the wireless device 11 is transmitted to the GW 40 (GW wireless device included in the GW) from the predetermined relay 30 via the plurality of other relays 30.

The GW 40 sequentially receives the transmitted meter reading data 24 (step S31) and transmits it to the management center 60 via the LTE network control device (step S32). The GW 40 transmits the meter reading data 24 to the management center 60 one by one in the order in which the meter reading data 24 is received from the smart meter 10. Then, the management center 60 sequentially receives the meter reading data transmitted from the GW 40 (step S41).

As described above, in the smart meter 10 and the communication system 100 including the smart meter according to the present embodiment, the transmission timing of the meter-reading data 24 is at the transmission start time (predetermined predetermined time when simultaneous transmission is started). On the other hand, by providing a different delay time for each smart meter 10, adjustment can be easily performed. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the meter reading data 24 from reaching the GW 40 at the same time and causing a collision. Further, since the meter reading data 24 is transmitted at a predetermined interval (for example, at least 1 minute), even if the meter reading data 24 arrives at the GW 40 at the same time, the meter reading data that is not accepted is It can be retransmitted at a predetermined interval and accepted by the GW 40. Therefore, the GW 40 can reliably receive all the meter reading data 24.

By the way, in the small-power-driven wireless mesh network, the number of repeaters 30 (hereinafter, the number of hops) through which the meter reading data 24 passes from the wireless device 11 of the smart meter 10 to the GW 40 is different for each smart meter 10. Therefore, the smart meter 10 may be configured to obtain the delay time in consideration of the influence of the number of hops. Specifically, assuming that it takes about 3 seconds for each transit through one repeater 30, the delay time calculation unit 23 in the smart meter 10 subtracts, for example, the number of hops of its own device×3 seconds from the transmission start time. It may be configured to add the delay time obtained by the above-described mathematical expression (1) to the time to obtain the timing for transmitting the meter reading data 24.

When each smart meter 10 participates in the low-power-driven wireless mesh network and a communication path from the wireless device 11 to the GW 40 via the relay 30 is established, the wireless device 11 connects to the GW 40. It is possible to grasp the number of hops in the communication path. Therefore, when the delay time is calculated in consideration of the influence of the number of pops, first, the wireless device number acquisition unit 22 is configured to request the wireless device 11 for the hop number information and the wireless device number information 16. Then, when the wireless device 11 transmits the wireless device number information 16 and the pop number information in response to a request from the wireless device number acquisition unit 22, the delay time calculation unit based on the wireless device number information 16 and the hop number information. 23 calculates the delay time.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The smart meter of the present invention is useful in a system for notifying the management center of various information data such as usage charges of utilities such as electricity, gas, and water in each customer within a fixed time.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Measuring instrument 2 Measuring instrument control section 3 Measuring instrument memory 4 Measuring section 5 Abnormality detecting section 10 Smart meter 11 Radio 12 Wireless communication section 13 Radio control section 14 Radio memory 15 Radio number notification section 16 Radio number information 21 Transmission data selection unit 22 Radio number acquisition unit 23 Delay time calculation unit 24 Meter reading data 25 Abnormality information data 30 Repeater 40 Gateway (GW)
60 management center 100 communication system including smart meter

Claims (3)

A measuring unit that measures the usage of utilities such as electricity, gas, and water.
Data generation that generates meter reading data from the usage amount in a predetermined period measured by the measurement unit as terminal call data, or generates abnormality information data by detecting an abnormality based on the usage amount measured by the measurement unit, etc. Department,
For a gateway communicatively connected to a management device that manages various data, the meter reading is performed via a plurality of repeaters within a delay permission period that is a permitted period starting from a predetermined transmission condition. A smart meter having a wireless device for transmitting terminal calling data including data or the abnormality information data by terminal calling communication,
Starting from the transmission condition of the terminal call data, based on the radio number given to identify the own device of the radio, the number of radios connectable to the gateway, and the delay permission period. A smart meter that includes a delay time calculation unit that calculates a delay time that is a time for transmitting data after delaying. The delay time calculation unit allocates the order in which the gateways can be connected to the wireless device according to the wireless device number, and calculates the delay time within the delay permission period according to the allocated order. The smart meter according to Item 1. Of the plurality of repeaters, the repeater that establishes wireless communication directly with the gateway retransmits the terminal call data when the transmitted terminal call data is not accepted by the gateway. Is configured as
The delay time calculation unit, when the time interval with another delay time calculated in another smart meter having a radio of another radio number before and after the radio number, retransmits the terminal call data. The smart meter according to claim 1, wherein the delay time is calculated so as to be longer than a required time.

Images