JPS63164653A - Communication control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the cost of communication by using a public line as a communication line between a central management device and a remote supervisory equipment and allowing the supervisory equipment to apply communication according to fixed conditions when the supervisory equipment makes transmission thereby minimizing the communication quantity from the remote equipment to the center equipment. CONSTITUTION:The system is provided with the central management equipment 10 installed at a specific location (e.g., center building), the supervisory equipment 11 installed at plural locations (e.g., remote buildings) apart from the central management equipment 10 and a communication controller controlling the communication between the central communication equipment 10 and the supervisory equipment 11. The communication controller is provided with a public line gateway GWS13 having functions connecting the central management equipment 10 and the supervisory equipment 11 being the communication party via a public line 12, and plural communication adaptors 14 to connect the GWS 13 to the public line 12 and to connect the supervisory equipment 11 to the public line 12, and in case of transmission from the remote station to the center station, the supervisory equipment 11 applies only the communication according to the fixed conditions.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a communication control method used in a communication system in which, for example, a building in a remote location is managed via a communication line.

[Conventional technology] Conventionally, management of buildings, etc. has involved controlling or monitoring various facilities such as environment, hygiene, disaster prevention, etc. for each individual facility, but as management technology has become more sophisticated in recent years, A building management system is provided that comprehensively manages the entire building. this is,
A distributed control device that arranges various equipment arranged in the building, for example, as one group for each room, and disperses them for each group;
It is constructed by connecting a main control device that performs control and system processing across multiple distributed control devices and an operator operation unit located at a building management center via a communication network.

Further, as an advanced version of this management system, a group management system is also provided that can collectively manage a plurality of distributed buildings at a specific location, that is, a central building. This group management system connects the center building's management device and the monitoring devices of multiple remote buildings through dedicated communication lines, and transmits environmental information and other data between the center building and each remote building. This allows management at each remote building to be automated or unmanned, contributing to lower management costs by saving energy and labor in each building.

[Problems to be solved by the invention] However, in the conventional communication system using dedicated lines, communication (data transmission, etc.) from the remote side to the center is difficult.
Since all the information was received at the center and selected, there was a problem in that the amount of communication to the center was more than necessary, which increased the communication cost accordingly.

[Means for solving the problems] The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and
The purpose is to use public lines as communication lines and control transmission on the remote side to minimize the amount of communication to the center and reduce communication costs.

Therefore, the present invention provides a communication control method for controlling communication carried out via a communication line between a central management device installed at a specific location and a monitoring device installed at a location remote from the central management device. The system is characterized in that it uses a public line as a communication line, and only performs communication that conforms to certain conditions when transmitting from a monitoring device.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 shows a group management system that implements the present invention. It includes a monitoring device 11 installed at a location (for example, a remote building) and a communication control device that controls communication between the central management device 10 and each monitoring device 11, and the communication control device A public line gateway (Gate waySwi
tched 1ine (hereinafter referred to as GWS) 13, and a plurality of communication adapters 14 for connecting the GWS 13 to the public line 12. Note that the communication adapter 14 is also provided on each monitoring device 11 side in order to connect the monitoring device 11 with the public line 12.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2, the central management device 10 includes an operator console (OPU) 21 and sub-operator consoles that are operated by building supervisors or operators to monitor each building (including the center building) and collect data. (SOPU) 22, a main console (MCL) 23 which is a control unit of this system, and a communication network 24 that connects these.

The operator console 21 includes a main man-machine unit (MMU) as a module connected to the communication network 24.
) contains 25. The two attached MMU25s are
It controls the CRT 28 and the message printer (MPR) 27, respectively, and can separate the operational categories from each other, in case one of them is abnormal.

Back up the operational classification along with switching the MPR27.

A hard copy printer (HCP) 28 can be connected to the CRT 26 for printing displayed contents. Note that the operator console 21 includes a graphic driver (GDR) connected to the main console 23.
29 is also included.

Input push button 30 and output display 3
1 is connected.

The sub-operator console 22 includes a sub-man-machine unit (SMU) 32 which is equivalent to the MMU 25 but is installed at a different location such as a sub-center or disaster prevention center.
RT2B and MPR27 are connected.

The main console 23 includes a main control unit (MCU) 33 and a distributed control unit (DCU) 34 as modules connected to the communication network 24 . MCU33
is a magnetic disk (MD) or flexible disk (F
Equipped with an external storage device such as D) and a logging printer (LPR), it processes and accumulates management data, manages and distributes system-shared data, and also performs global (spanning multiple DCUs) control and system processing. govern

On the other hand, the DCU 34 is distributed in a distributed manner in terms of the number of management points and placement locations, and communicates with various equipment such as heat sources, air conditioning, and electric power, and performs alarm detection, power failure/recovery control, various energy saving controls, etc. Let's do it.

Further, the communication network 24 uses optical fiber as a communication medium, has a ring structure, and can adopt high-level data link control (HDLC) as a protocol (communication protocol).

Furthermore, the GWS 13 and communication adapter 14 for public line connection are configured as shown in FIG.

First, GWS l 3 has multiple communication channels (e.g. 8
communication interfaces 41 and 42 for connecting to the communication network 24 and the adapter 14, respectively; a storage section 43 storing the above-mentioned protocol and other necessary communication control procedures; and communication according to the communication control procedures. CP that transmits bus messages from the network 24 to the building monitoring device 11 and controls other communications
U44. The data given to the GWS 13 in advance includes the telephone number of the communication destination, the setting of the incoming and outgoing channels, and the model of each station (MMU, MCU, DCU).
) etc.

The adapter 14 also has a communication interface 45 for transmitting and receiving signals with the GWS 13, and a public line 1.
2, and an automatic call/receiver NCU (
network control unit 47, and a modem 48 that is activated after the line is connected to the communication partner. Such a communication adapter is known as a personal computer adapter that uses a personal computer, and is also placed on the remote building side.

Note that the above GWS 13 has a maximum of 8 channels, and each channel is connected to 5DU51 via an adapter 14.
can be connected, so if there are many SDUs, 2
The above GWS 13 can also be provided.

In addition, in this group management system, the monitoring equipment 11 in each remote building monitors a large amount of data such as heat sources, but in order to collect and analyze this data, a personal computer 35 is installed at the center as shown in Figure 2. It is connected to the public line 12 via an adapter 14.

On the other hand, the monitoring devices 11 each have a public line connection distributed control device (
Similar to the DCU 34 on the center building side, the 5DU 51, which includes the SDU) 51 and the accompanying CRT and printer, communicates with various equipment such as heat sources, air conditioning, and electricity in the remote building where it is located, and detects alarms. , power outage/recovery control, various energy saving controls, etc., and also has the function of communicating with the central management device 10 via the public line 12 . That is,
Each 5DU 51 has a communication interface 5 for connecting with an adapter 14 on the remote building side, as shown in FIG.
2, a storage unit 53 that stores communication control and other necessary procedures for various equipment in the remote building and the central management device 10;
A CPU 54 that monitors remote buildings and communicates with the central management device 10 according to the stored procedures;
Man-machine interface 5 for connection with T, printer, etc.
5.

According to the present invention, in the group management system configured as described above, when transmitting data from the remote site to the center side, the monitoring device 11 only performs communication according to certain conditions. , for example:

■Points (data at a certain point in time) generated by operations (or commands) from the center side.

■Changes in the status of points designated for collecting trend (time series) data on the center side.

■Changes in the state of points specified to be recorded on the center side.

■Time period specified for transmission.

Therefore, when transmitting from monitoring device II, 5DU5
1, the communication control operation shown in FIG. 5 is executed.

First, in the 5DU 51, a transmission request to the center side is generated when the state of a point on the remote side changes. At this time, the 5DU 51 first determines whether the point is generated by the condition (2) above, that is, by an operation from the center side. If the result is "Yes", the partner station on the center side is called, the line connection is checked, and then transmission is performed.

On the other hand, if the condition (2) is "No", then it is determined whether the condition (2), that is, the point is the target of trend data. If "Yes", the other station is called and transmitted in the same manner as above.

If the condition (2) is also "NO," then the condition (2), that is, whether or not the point is designated to be recorded on the center side is determined. As a result, “Yes”
If so, the transmission is performed in the same manner as above, but if it is 'No'', the above transmission procedure is not executed and ends.

On the other hand, in the case of specifying a time period as described in (■) above, the data for the pre-specified time period (for example, at night when the remote building is unmanned) is transmitted according to the procedure shown in Figure 6. Regardless of the conditions of ~■, data A shall be transmitted to the center side, and the 5DU51 stores the data A in the memory sequentially, and requests the transmission of data A when a predetermined amount is reached or by a command from the center side. At this time, it is checked whether there is other data α to be sent to the destination, and if ``Yes'', the data α is stored in the memory. Then, the destination is called via the public line 12, and if the line is not connected, the calling operation is performed again, and if the line is connected, the data A and α (if any) are transmitted.

As mentioned above, since the transmission from the remote side to the center side in the system of FIG. 1 is performed under certain conditions, the amount of communication can be suppressed to the minimum necessary.

Although the embodiments have been described above, the present invention is not limited thereto.For example, in the above embodiments, a center building monitors a plurality of remote buildings, but the communication control method of the present invention is applicable to communications other than building management. It can also be applied to systems. Further, as the communication control device used in the present invention, devices other than the GWS and the personal computer adapter having the above configuration may be used.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a public line is used as a communication line between a central management device and a remote monitoring device, and when the monitoring device transmits, only communication that conforms to certain conditions is possible. Therefore, in addition to cost reduction due to the use of public lines, the amount of communication from the remote side to the center side is kept to the minimum necessary, further reducing the cost of communication. In addition, there is no need for the center side to select data from the remote side, thereby reducing the burden on the center side.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a group management system that implements the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the components of the system in FIG. The figure shows an example of the configuration of a remote-side monitoring device. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation when transmitting from the monitoring device, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the sending operation from the monitoring device when time zone is specified. 10--A central management device. 11---1 monitoring device, 12---1 public telephone line. 13--a public line gateway (CWS). 14---1 communication adapter, 21---operator console, 22---suboperator console, 23------
Main console, 24-- one communication network. 25----Man-machine unit (MMU), 32--One deputy man-machine unit (SMU), 33---One main control unit (MCU), 34---One distributed control unit (D CU) , 35-1--
Personal computer, 51--1 public line distributed control unit (SDU). Patent applicant Yamatake Honeywell Co., Ltd. Agent Patent attorney Shindo Hori Patent attorney Kazuko Hori Figure 5 Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a communication control method for controlling communication carried out via a communication line between a central management device installed at a specific location and a monitoring device installed at a location remote from the central management device, the communication line is a public 1. A communication control method, characterized in that when transmitting from the monitoring device, only communication that complies with certain conditions is performed using a line.