JP6226541B2 - Power line communication system and terminal subscription method to the same system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a power line communication system that performs communication using a power line of a distribution system and collects measurement data from a meter of a distant consumer and a terminal subscription method to the system.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a two-way automatic communication system (Two-Way Automatic Communication System: TWACS (registered trademark: the same applies hereinafter)) power line communication device transmits an upstream signal (Inbound signal) transmitted from a meter at a consumer end to a receiving device at a substation. It is given near the zero cross of the voltage.
FIG. 8 shows the overall configuration of a conventional TWACS power line communication apparatus and a distribution system in which the apparatus is installed. In this figure, a feeder 53 is drawn from a secondary bus 52 of a distribution substation transformer 51 in the distribution system. The feeder 53 supplies electric power to consumers through a pole transformer 54. A terminal 30 is provided on the secondary side of the pole transformer 54, that is, on the customer side. In addition, the substation bus 52 is provided with a transmission unit 11 having a mechanism for detecting a signal sent from the terminal 30 via a current detection current transformer 55 and a server 10 for processing the signal. . The power line communication system 90 includes a server 10, a transmission unit 11, and a plurality of terminals 30. The server 10 collects and records measurement data such as consumer power consumption sent from the terminal 30. .

  The server 10 includes a processing execution unit 92 that collects data from the terminal 30 by a polling method via the transmission unit 11, an input unit 96 that inputs identification information (hereinafter referred to as a terminal ID) of a data collection target terminal, and an input The terminal information registration unit 14 stores the terminal ID that has been recorded.

  On the other hand, the terminal 30 includes a transmission unit 31 that communicates with a server via a power distribution system, and a processing execution unit 82 that transmits accumulated data in response to polling from the server.

  The transmission unit 11 on the substation side and the transmission unit 31 of the terminal 30 have transmission circuits 11a and 31a that superimpose pulse signals on the commercial power supply by turning on and off the switching elements attached between the lines of the distribution lines, respectively. doing. The transmission unit 11 includes a receiving circuit 11b that receives a signal (upstream signal) transmitted from the terminal 30 through the distribution line, and the transmission unit 31 includes a signal (downlink) transmitted from the server 10 through the distribution line. Signal) is received.

  FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of the timing of the pulse signals output from the commercial power supply and the transmission circuits 11a and 31a. The transmission unit 11 on the substation side and the transmission unit 31 of the terminal 30 detect a zero cross of a commercial power source with a phase detection circuit (not shown), and generate a reference pulse after a lapse of a certain time from the zero cross point, The thyristors of the transmission circuits 11a and 31a are turned on. As a result, a pulse signal is output between the power lines, and the load current changes. The receiving circuits 31b and 11b receive the pulse signal by detecting the change in the load current.

Next, the operation of the conventional power line communication system 90 will be described.
The server 10 periodically transmits an inquiry signal (polling signal) to the terminal 30 whose terminal ID is registered in the terminal information registration unit 14.

  The terminal 30 accumulates measurement data such as power consumption taken from a meter attached to the customer side, and accumulates as a response signal (response signal) when receiving a polling signal from the server 10. The measurement data is transmitted to the server 10.

  FIG. 10 is an example of a transmission frame of a polling signal and a response signal. As shown in FIG. 10A, the basic configuration of a transmission frame includes a preamble (or header), an address field, a control field, a data field, and an error detection code (or error correction code).

  As shown in FIG. 10B, polling from the server 10 is performed by setting the terminal ID of each terminal in the address field of the transmission frame. The terminal 30 responds to this polling when the destination address of the received data is addressed to itself. The response from the terminal 30 is returned with its own address (terminal ID) set in the address field as shown in FIG. Note that, as shown in FIG. 10 (d), the measurement data stored in the data field may be further set in the response from the terminal 30 and returned via the transmission unit 31. If the timing (time slot) at which the response signal is returned by the terminal is determined, this terminal ID may be omitted.

  When the meter is exchanged or newly installed, after the work is completed, the worker on the server 10 side sets the terminal ID of the terminal for which work has been completed from the input unit 96 to the terminal information registration unit 14, and sets that terminal as a polling target. It was.

  However, since the number of terminals connected to the feeder is large and the number of exchanged / newly installed meters is enormous, the work of setting the terminal ID in the terminal information registration unit 14 of the server 10 requires a lot of labor. It was.

  On the other hand, as described in Patent Document 2, as a conventional technique related to a terminal subscription method, the master station performs polling by sequentially incrementing addresses at the time of initialization, and registers only the terminal that has returned a response in the table. Thereafter, there is a method of polling only the terminals registered in the table.

  However, the power line communication system for the distribution system described above is one pulse in a half cycle of the power supply frequency. If the technique of Patent Document 1 is used to improve the reliability of transmission data, one bit is transmitted by a plurality of (for example, eight) pulses, so that the communication is practically extremely low speed of about several tens of BPS. It is. For this reason, as described in Patent Document 2, if polling is performed for all of the terminals that are likely to join at the time of system initialization, a long time is required. It is also impractical to initialize the system each time a meter is newly installed or replaced.

US Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0054349 JP-A 61-28255

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, eliminates the burden of inputting the terminal ID of the terminal to be subscribed on the server side, does not affect the data collection processing of the subscribed terminal, and is not subscribed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a power line communication system capable of promptly joining a terminal and a terminal subscription method to the system.

In order to achieve the above object, a power line communication system according to the present invention is connected to a power distribution system, a terminal that captures measurement data of a meter installed in a consumer, and a terminal that stores identification information of a measurement data collection target terminal A power line communication system comprising: an information registration unit, and a server that collects the measurement data from a terminal whose identification information is stored in the terminal information registration unit by power line communication via the power distribution system,
The server registers, in the terminal information registration unit, identification information of a server side processing execution unit that broadcasts a trigger signal for soliciting registration in the terminal information registration unit, and a terminal that has returned a response signal to the trigger signal. And a subscription processing unit for transmitting a registered notification to the terminal,
The terminal stores a state of registration or non-registration in the terminal information registration unit, and the initial value of the state is received as a subscription confirmation unit set to unregistered and the trigger signal is received from the server Sometimes, it is determined whether it is registered or not registered by referring to the subscription confirmation unit, and if it is not registered, it is selected at random from a plurality of reply timings from when the trigger signal is set in advance. A response signal including identification information of the terminal at a single reply timing, and then receiving a registered notification from the server, a terminal-side process execution unit that sets the registration confirmation unit to registered, It is provided with.

Moreover, the terminal subscription method to the power line communication system according to the present invention includes a terminal that collects measurement data of a meter installed in a consumer, and a server that is connected to the terminal via a network by power line communication, A terminal subscription method for automatically joining a terminal that has not joined the network to a power line communication system that collects data stored in a terminal that has joined the network,
The server broadcasts a trigger signal that prompts all terminals physically connected to the network to join the network,
When the terminal receives the trigger signal from the server, the terminal refers to a status indicating whether the network has been joined or not joined. If the status is not joined to the network, the terminal receives the preset trigger signal. A response signal including the identification information of the terminal is returned at one reply timing selected at random from a plurality of reply timings from the time. When the server receives the response signal from the terminal, the server sends the response signal to the network. Register as a subscribed terminal and send a notification of network subscription to the terminal,
The terminal sets the status to network subscription upon receiving a network subscription notification from the server.

  In the present invention, a signal that prompts the user to join the network, that is, a trigger signal for soliciting registration in the terminal information registration unit of the server is transmitted from the server by broadcast (broadcast communication). In response to this trigger signal, a terminal that has not joined the network returns a response signal. At this time, a plurality of response timings (time slots) are provided, and at which timing the response signal is returned at random. select. At different timings (time slots), the response signals are set in advance so as not to collide. As a result, the terminal can automatically join the network.

  Broadcast means communication by an address that can be received by all target terminals. If all terminals managed by the server can be received, so-called multicast (group communication) is included.

  In addition, the server of the power line communication system according to the present invention records the number of terminals participating in the network and the number of detected collisions of the response signal with respect to the trigger signal, and adjusts the execution interval for adjusting the number of trigger signal transmissions and the transmission timing. It has the part.

  As a result, optimal network subscription processing can be performed without affecting measurement data collection processing.

  As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of response timings of response signals to the trigger signal are provided, and a terminal that has not joined the network randomly selects and selects a response timing when receiving a trigger signal. A response signal is returned at the reply timing. Thereafter, when the terminal receives a notification that the network has been joined from the server, the terminal changes its own status to network joined, so that an unjoined terminal can automatically join the network.

1 is a functional block diagram of a power line communication system 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is explanatory drawing of the time slot in embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the server side process execution part 12 of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the terminal side process execution part 32 of FIG. It is a functional block diagram of the power line communication system 1 by the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the execution space | interval adjustment part 15 of FIG. 4 is a flowchart according to another embodiment of FIG. It is a block diagram of the conventional power line communication system and a power distribution system. It is explanatory drawing of the timing of the pulse signal output from commercial power supply and the transmission circuits 11a and 31a. It is explanatory drawing of a transmission frame.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The following embodiments are preferred specific examples of the power line communication system and the terminal subscription method for the system according to the present invention, and may have various technically preferable limitations. The technical scope is not limited to these embodiments unless specifically described to limit the present invention. In addition, the constituent elements in the embodiments shown below can be appropriately replaced with existing constituent elements and the like, and various variations including combinations with other existing constituent elements are possible. Therefore, the description of the embodiment described below does not limit the contents of the invention described in the claims.

  FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a power line communication system 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the distribution system is not shown, but it is assumed that the server 10 is installed on the substation side and the terminal 30 is installed on the customer side, as in FIG. 8.

  The power line communication system 1 according to the present embodiment is provided with a subscription processing unit 13 on the server 10 side in place of the input unit 96, compared to the conventional configuration of FIG. The subscription processing unit 13 has a function of registering the terminal ID of a newly joined terminal in the terminal information registration unit 14 according to a command from the process execution unit 12. Further, the process execution unit 12 has not only a function of collecting measurement data from terminals connected to the power distribution system by polling, but also a function of periodically outputting a trigger signal of a new subscriber terminal according to a process procedure described later. Yes. The processing execution unit 12 and the subscription processing unit 13 can be realized by a program as a function of the CPU.

  In addition, when the terminal 30 receives the trigger signal from the server 10, the terminal 30 determines whether the terminal 30 has already joined the network or not, and a reference pulse generated every half cycle of the commercial power frequency. Is added. Further, the process execution unit 32 has a function of responding to the trigger signal when the subscription has not been made based on the determination result of the subscription confirmation unit 33. The process execution unit 32 and the subscription confirmation unit 33 can be realized by a program as a function of the CPU.

  Next, a network subscription operation of an unsubscribed terminal of the power line communication system 1 having the above configuration will be described. Note that the data collection operation by polling from the server 10 is the same as the conventional one, and the description thereof is omitted.

(Step S1) The process execution unit 12 of the server 10 periodically transmits a trigger signal for the automatic subscription function by broadcast (broadcast communication).
(Step S <b> 2) The process execution unit 32 of the terminal 30 that has received the trigger signal refers to the subscription confirmation unit 33 to confirm its own network subscription state.

(Step S <b> 3) When the terminal 30 has not joined the network, the terminal 30 responds to the trigger signal in a random time slot. At this time, it returns its own terminal ID. Note that the number of time slots is preset. FIG. 2 shows an example in which five time slots are set. A trigger signal is transmitted from the server 10 by broadcast, and then the unsubscribed terminal returns a response signal in one randomly selected time slot among the five time slots.

(Step S4) When the process execution unit 12 of the server 10 receives a response from the terminal 30, the process is performed according to the following procedure.
(A) Notifying the subscription processing unit 13 of the terminal ID.
(B) When a retransmission is performed by detecting a collision in a certain time slot, the trigger signal is retransmitted after elapse of the time of all the time slots.

(Step S5) The subscription processing unit 13 of the server 10 registers the received terminal ID in the terminal information registration unit 14. After that, communication with the terminal becomes possible.
(Step S6) After the registration in step S5 is completed, the subscription processing unit 13 of the server 10 notifies the process execution unit 12 of the terminal ID for which registration has been completed.
(Step S7) The process execution part 12 of the server 10 notifies the registration completion to the terminal 30 of the ID based on the notification content of Step S6.
(Step S <b> 8) When receiving the registration completion notification, the process execution unit 32 of the terminal 30 changes the network subscription state of the subscription confirmation unit 33 to subscription. Thereby, after that, it becomes unresponsive to the trigger signal from the server 10.

<Processing Procedure of Processing Execution Unit 12 of Server 10>
Next, a processing procedure of the processing execution unit 12 on the server 10 side for realizing the above procedure will be described with reference to FIG.

  When the process execution unit 12 is periodically started, first, as an initialization process, the illegal data detection flag and the number of retries are reset (S101). Next, the process execution unit 12 broadcasts a trigger signal (S102). The process execution unit 12 then determines whether or not a response signal transmitted from the terminal 30 has been received (S103), and when receiving the response signal, notifies the subscription processing unit 13 of the ID of the terminal (S104). ). In addition, when the process execution unit 12 detects illegal data due to a collision of received data or an influence of noise or the like (“YES” in S105), the process execution unit 12 sets an illegal data detection flag (S106). It is assumed that the transmission data is provided with an error correction code as shown in FIG. 10 (a), and if error correction cannot be performed, illegal data is detected.

  Thereafter, the process execution unit 12 determines whether or not all time slot times have elapsed (S107). If all time slot times have not elapsed, the process execution unit 12 returns to step S103 and repeats the subsequent processes.

  On the other hand, when all the time slot times have passed in step S107, the process execution unit 12 determines whether or not the illegal data detection flag is set (S108), and if the illegal data detection flag is set. Then, the number of retries is incremented (S109), and the illegal data detection flag is reset (S110). Then, the process execution unit 12 transmits a registration completion notification to all terminals that have been newly registered (S111).

  Thereafter, the process execution unit 12 determines whether or not the number of retries has exceeded a predetermined set value (S112). If not exceeded ("NO" in S112), the process returns to step S102 again. Resend the trigger signal.

  The registration completion notification process in step S111 can be executed after the retry process in step S112, but it is preferable to execute it before step S112 because the collision probability at the time of retry is reduced.

<Processing Procedure of Processing Execution Unit 32 of Terminal 30>
Next, the processing procedure of the processing execution unit 32 on the terminal 30 side will be described with reference to FIG.
When the terminal-side process execution unit 32 is activated by a reception interrupt from the transmission unit 31, it first determines whether or not the received signal is a trigger signal (S201). Whether or not it is a trigger signal may be determined based on whether or not the address field is broadcast. When broadcast is used for other purposes, it is triggered in the control field or data field of the transmission frame. You may make it set the code | cord | chord which shows that it is a signal.

  If the result of determination in step S201 is a trigger signal, the process execution unit 32 activates the reference pulse counter 34 (S202). In the case of power line communication, the reference pulse is a pulse generated every half cycle of the commercial power supply frequency, and the reference pulse counter 34 counts the number of pulses.

  Then, the process execution unit 32 accesses the subscription confirmation unit 33 that stores the status of whether the network has been joined or not (S203), and determines whether or not the subscription has been made based on the status (S204). Here, “joining the network” means that it is registered in the terminal information registration unit 14 and is a target of data collection by polling from the server 10, and “not joining the network” means that the terminal information registration unit 14 is not joined. This means that the server 10 is not subject to polling.

  As a result of the determination in step S204, if the status is not yet subscribed, the process execution unit 32 randomly determines one time slot among a plurality of time slots (response signal reply timing) (S205). The terminal ID is returned in the time slot (S206).

  The time slot means the transmission timing of the response signal and can be determined by the value of the reference pulse counter 34. The process execution unit 32 sends a terminal ID when the reference pulse counter 34 reaches a value corresponding to a randomly selected time slot. For example, when the response signal is 5 bytes and 1 bit is transmitted with 8 pulses, in FIG. 2, when the time slot (1) is the reference pulse counter value “1”, the time slot (2) is the reference pulse counter. The value “321”, the time slot (3) is the reference pulse counter value “641”,..., 320 (= 5 bytes × 8 bits / byte × 8 pulses) from the value of the reference pulse counter of the time slot (1). / Bit) As the time increases, a response signal is returned as a new time slot at that timing.

  On the other hand, as a result of the determination in step S201, if the received signal is not a trigger signal (“NO” in S201), that is, if the terminal ID is specified in the address field, the process execution unit 32 is transmitted. Determines whether or not the received signal is a registration completion notification (S207), and if it is a registration completion notification, sets the status of the network subscription status of the subscription confirmation unit 33 to subscribed (S208). In the initial state, the subscription confirmation unit 33 sets the network subscription state to non-subscription.

  In step S207, in the case of data collection polling, the process execution unit 32 transmits the accumulated measurement data.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the server 10 broadcasts a signal that prompts the user to join the network, that is, a trigger signal for soliciting registration in the terminal information registration unit 14 of the server. The terminal returns a response signal in response to the trigger signal. A plurality of timings (time slots) for returning the response signal are provided, and the terminal randomly selects which time slot to return, and returns in the selected time slot. As a result, it becomes possible to automatically join a network of a terminal that has been newly installed or has undergone maintenance and inspection. In addition, since the terminal ID input operation that has been performed by the worker is unnecessary, it is possible to reduce the burden on the worker and improve the work efficiency. Furthermore, because the server detects the collision of response signals for each time slot and resends the trigger signal, even if there are a large number of unregistered terminals, only the terminals that have been newly installed or have been inspected and maintained are networked efficiently. Can be subscribed to.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of the power line communication system 1 according to the present embodiment.
The main difference from the first embodiment is that, in this embodiment, an execution interval adjustment unit 15 that automatically adjusts the trigger signal transmission interval and the number of retransmissions based on the number of subscriber terminals and the like is added. . Others are the same as those in the first embodiment, and thus the same elements are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.

Next, the network joining operation of the terminal to the power line communication system 1 having the configuration of FIG. 5 will be described.
Steps S1 to S3 are the same as those in the first embodiment.

(Step S4) When the process execution unit 12 of the server 10 receives a response from the terminal, the process is performed according to the following procedure.
(A) The terminal ID information is notified to the subscription processing unit 13.
(B) When a collision of response signals is detected, the number of collisions is notified to the execution interval adjustment unit 15.
(C) When a retransmission is performed by detecting a collision in a certain time slot, the trigger signal is retransmitted after elapse of the time of all the time slots.

(Step S5) The subscription processing unit 13 of the server 10 registers the received terminal ID in the terminal information registration unit 14. After that, communication with the terminal becomes possible.
(Step S6) The subscription processing unit 13 of the server 10 performs processing according to the following procedure.
(A) After completing the registration in step S5, the subscription processing unit 13 notifies the process execution unit 12 of the terminal ID for which registration has been completed.
(B) The subscription processing unit 13 notifies the execution interval adjustment unit 15 of the number of registrations completed.

(Step S7) The process execution part 12 of the server 10 notifies the registration completion to the terminal of the ID based on the notification content of Step S6.
(Step S <b> 8) When receiving the registration completion notification, the process execution unit 32 of the terminal 30 changes the network subscription state of the subscription confirmation unit 33 to subscription. Thereby, after that, it becomes unresponsive to the trigger signal from the server 10.
(Step S9) The execution interval adjustment unit 15 of the server 10 determines the number of installed terminals from the number of cases in Step S4 (b) and Step S6 (b) and records the number of installed terminals for each trigger transmission. to manage.

(Step S10) The execution interval adjustment unit 15 of the server 10 calculates an optimal trigger transmission interval from the history management status of Step S9.
(Step S11) When the calculation result of step S10 is different from the current trigger transmission interval, the execution interval adjustment unit 15 of the server 10 notifies the process execution unit 12 of the latest trigger transmission interval calculated in step S10.
(Step S <b> 12) When receiving the notification from the execution interval adjustment unit 15, the process execution unit 12 of the server 10 changes the subsequent transmission interval of the trigger signal according to the notification content.

<Processing Procedure of Execution Interval Adjustment Unit 15>
Next, a processing procedure of the execution interval adjustment unit 15 on the server 10 side for realizing the above procedure will be described with reference to FIG.

When activated by the activation request from the process execution unit 12, the execution interval adjustment unit 15 inputs the number of registration completions and the number of illegal data detection (S301).
Then, the execution interval adjustment unit 15 calculates the number of retransmissions according to the following calculation formula (S302).

The time required for data collection of one terminal is p, the number of terminals registered in the terminal information registration unit 14 is t, the time required for new subscription processing by one trigger signal (including all time slots) is r, and the number of retransmissions. Is x and the data collection cycle is s or less,
p · t + [x] · r = <s (1)
Here, [x] is the maximum integer value that satisfies the equation (1).

  The value [x] -1 is used as the set value in step S112 in FIG.

  On the terminal side, for example, by making it possible to store about twice the data collection period, it is possible to recover in the next cycle even if one transmission error occurs.

  If the number of collisions is equal to or greater than a certain value, the number of retransmissions may be changed depending on the number of collisions, such as temporarily using the value of [x] as the setting value in step S112 in FIG.

  When there is a new terminal joining the network, the execution interval adjustment unit 15 calculates a setting value for the number of retransmissions according to the above equation (1) and compares it with the current setting value for the number of retransmissions (S303). If there is (“YES” in S304), a new set value is set (S305).

  In addition, since the process execution unit 12 needs to send a trigger signal at a timing that does not affect the data collection process for the subscriber terminals, generally, the trigger signal is generated after the data collection process is performed for all the subscriber terminals. Will be sent out. In this case, when the number of subscriber terminals increases, the trigger signal transmission interval becomes longer. For this reason, it takes a long time for a terminal connected to the meter to join the network after completion of the new meter installation / maintenance / inspection work.

  Therefore, as in the processing procedure of FIG. 7, when the number of subscribed terminals is equal to or greater than a certain value (“NO” in S401), when the data collection process is performed for half of the terminals (S402), the trigger signal is set. Steps (S403 to S407) for executing sending network joining processing may be inserted, and thereafter data collection processing may be performed for the remaining half of the terminals (S408). The set value in step S112 at this time is [x] −2 in the above equation (1).

  If the number of subscribed terminals is less than a certain value (“YES” in S401), data collection processing is performed for all the subscribed terminals (S409), and then a trigger signal is transmitted to execute network subscription processing and retry processing. (S102 to S112). The set value in step S112 at this time is [x] -1 in the above equation (1).

  FIG. 7 shows an example of a procedure of dividing all the joining terminals into two groups and sending a trigger signal after executing data collection processing of the joining terminals belonging to the group. However, the number of groups is not limited to two, and an arbitrary number Can be divided into groups. When the number of groups is n, the set value in step S112 at this time is [x] −n in the above equation (1).

  In this way, the subscriber terminals that perform the data collection process are divided into groups such as feeder units, and each time the data collection process of each group is executed, a trigger signal is sent to execute the network subscription process. After the maintenance and inspection work is completed, the time until the terminal connected to the meter joins the network can be shortened.

  According to the present embodiment, the execution interval adjusting unit 15 adjusts the number of retries and the trigger signal transmission timing in consideration of the number of joined terminals and the number of collisions, so in addition to the effects of the first embodiment, There is an effect that it is possible to shorten the time until a terminal connected to the meter joins the network after completion of the new installation / maintenance / inspection work without affecting the collection process.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Power line communication system 10 ... Server 11, 31 ... Transmission part 11a, 31a ... Transmission circuit 11b, 31b ... Reception circuit 12, 32 ... Processing execution part 13 ... Subscription Processing unit 14 ... Terminal information registration unit 15 ... Execution interval adjustment unit 30 ... Terminal 33 ... Subscription confirmation unit 34 ... Reference pulse counter 51 ... Distribution substation transformer 52 ... -Substation bus 53 ... Feeder 54 ... Pillar transformer 55 ... Current detection current transformers 82, 92 ... Conventional processing execution unit 90 ... Conventional power line communication system 96・ Input section

Claims (3)

A terminal that is connected to the power distribution system and that captures measurement data from meters installed at consumers,
A server that has a terminal information registration unit that stores identification information of a measurement data collection target terminal, and that collects the measurement data from a terminal whose identification information is stored in the terminal information registration unit by power line communication via the distribution system and, the equipped,
The server
A server-side process execution unit that broadcasts a trigger signal for soliciting registration in the terminal information registration unit;
A registration processing unit that registers identification information of a terminal that has returned a response signal to the trigger signal in the terminal information registration unit, and that transmits a registered notification to the terminal, and
The terminal
A state of whether registered or unregistered in the terminal information registration unit is saved, and an initial value of the state is set to unregistered, and a subscription confirmation unit,
When the trigger signal is received from the server, it is determined whether it is registered or unregistered by referring to the subscription confirmation unit. If not registered, a plurality of preset trigger signal reception times are received. When a response signal including the identification information of the terminal is returned at one reply timing selected at random among the reply timings and then a registered notification is received from the server, the subscription confirmation unit is registered. A terminal-side process execution unit to be set;
A power line communication system comprising:
Furthermore, the server adjusts the number of trigger signal transmissions or the trigger signal transmission timing based on the number of terminal identification information stored in the terminal information registration unit and the number of collision detection of response signals to the trigger signal. A power line communication system comprising an execution interval adjustment unit . It has a terminal that collects measurement data of meters installed at consumers, and a server that is connected to the terminal via a network using power line communication, and collects data stored in terminals that are subscribed to the network A terminal subscription method for automatically joining a non-network terminal to a power line communication system,
The server broadcasts a trigger signal that prompts all terminals physically connected to the network to join the network,
When the terminal receives the trigger signal from the server, the terminal refers to a status indicating whether the network has been joined or not joined. If the status is not joined to the network, the terminal receives the preset trigger signal. A response signal including identification information of the terminal is returned at one reply timing selected at random from a plurality of reply timings from time,
When the server receives a response signal from the terminal, the server registers the terminal as a terminal that has joined the network, and sends a notification that the network has been joined to the terminal,
When the terminal receives a notification of network subscription from the server, the terminal sets the status to network subscription ,
The server detects a collision of response signals caused by two or more terminals responding in the same time slot, and executes a trigger signal retransmission process, wherein the server joins the power line communication system. 3. The terminal subscription method for a power line communication system according to claim 2 , wherein the server accumulates the history of the number of subscriber terminals and adjusts the trigger signal transmission timing.

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