KR101654883B1 - Remote meter reading system based prime power line communications and registration method of the slave plc modem using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The remote meter reading system based on the prime power line communication of the present invention comprises a plurality of low voltage meters installed on the customer side to perform power meter reading and a four phase (R phase, S phase A plurality of slave PLC modems communicating through a power line of a plurality of slave PLC modems; And when the registration request signal is transmitted to the master PLC modems after the slave PLC modems are installed, the number of registration permits of the master PLC modems is determined in consideration of the channel state, and the meter reading data transmitted by the low- And a data concentrator (DCU) for transmitting and receiving data.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote meter reading system based on prime power line communication and a method of registering slave PLC modems using the same.

The present invention relates to a remote meter reading system based on prime power line communication and a method of registering slave PLC modems using the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a remote meter reading system based on prime power line communication and a method of registering slave PLC modems using power lines of four phases (R phase, S phase, T phase, The master PLC modems which differentially determine the registration allowable number of the slave PLC modems according to a good degree of the communication channel are transmitted to the data concentrating devices when the slave PLC modems performing communication are installed in each of the low- (DCU), it is possible not only to stably collect the meter reading data of the low-voltage meters in a predetermined time but also to use the least noise channel among the channels available in the prime power line communication (PRIME PLC) A remote meter reading system based on a prime power line communication and a slave PLC modem using the same The present invention relates to the registration.

Remote meter reading refers to the reading of meter reading data from a remote place without visiting the customer, such as electricity, gas, water meter, etc., and the remote meter reading system reads the indication of the meter located at the remote place and the detected information by the detector, Or automatically collected through a communication line using radio waves and analyzed by a computer.

Such an automatic meter reading system collects information by a telephone line, a power line, or a radio frequency system, and can connect with a computer program through a remote meter reading system to issue a bill and grasp a demand pattern.

Power Line Communication (PLC) refers to a communication technology capable of transmitting data such as voice, text, and video by using a power line having a carrier by superimposing a standard 50 Hz or 60 Hz AC analog signal.

Powerline communication is advantageous because it can use the power line that is already in use and is being used, so that the installation cost is not only low but also the communication charge is very low.

However, power line communication (PLC) according to the conventional PRIME communication standard has a problem in that it is difficult to collect a large amount of data from a plurality of watt-hour meters when performing remote meter reading because of a small bandwidth, There is a problem that the probability of communication failure becomes very high when noise is generated in a large number of channels.

Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2010-0042265

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for controlling slave PLC modems that communicate with each other via power lines of four phases (R phase, S phase, T phase, and N phase) connected to a transformer, , The master PLC modems that differentially determine the allowable registration number of the slave PLC modems are included in the data concentrator (DCU) according to the good degree of the communication channel, so that the meter reading data of the low- A remote meter reading system based on a prime power line communication which can use the least noise channel among the channels available in the prime power line communication (PRIME PLC) Slave PLC modems.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a remote meter reading system based on a prime power line communication, comprising: a plurality of low-voltage meters installed on a customer side to perform power meter reading; A plurality of slave PLC modems communicating through a power line of a phase (R phase, S phase, T phase, N phase); And when the registration request signal is transmitted to the master PLC modems after the slave PLC modems are installed, the number of registration permits of the master PLC modems is determined in consideration of the channel state, and the meter reading data transmitted by the low- And a data concentrator (DCU) for transmitting and receiving data.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of registering slave PLC modems using a remote meter-reading system based on prime power line communication, comprising the steps of: installing a plurality of slave PLC modems in a plurality of low- ; A second step of scanning a channel usable in a prime power line communication (PRIME PLC) before the plurality of slave PLC modems are registered in a plurality of master PLC modems of a data concentrator; A third step of creating a list of the plurality of master PLC modems to be registered according to the channel status scanned in the second process; A fourth step in which the plurality of slave PLC modems transmit registration request signals to the plurality of master PLC modems selected respectively; And a fifth step of determining whether the registration procedure of all of the plurality of slave PLC modems is completed.

The present invention not only stably collects meter reading data of low-voltage meters at a certain time but also can use a channel having the least noise among prime power line communication (PRIME PLC) channels, There is a technical effect.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a configuration of a remote meter-reading system based on a prime power line communication according to the present invention.
Fig. 2 shows the configuration of the data concentration device in the configuration of Fig. 1 in detail.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of installing and registering slave modems using a remote meter-reading system based on prime power line communication according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically shows a configuration of a remote meter-reading system based on a prime power line communication according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a remote meter-reading system based on a prime power line communication according to the present invention includes a first meter 1 for performing communication through power lines of four phases (R phase, S phase, T phase, N phase) connected to a transformer 10 A low-voltage meter reading unit 110-1 to an n-th low-voltage meter reading unit 110-n, and a data concentration unit (DCU) 200.

The first low-pressure meter reading unit 110-1 includes a first low-pressure meter 111-1 and a first slave PLC modem 112-1. The first low-pressure meter reading unit 110-1 has four phases (R phase, S phase, T phase, N phase) power line communication (PLC) according to the PRIME communication standard.

Similarly, the N-th low pressure meter reading unit 110-N includes an N-th low pressure meter 111-N and an N-th slave PLC modem 112-N, Phase, N phase) power line communication (PLC) according to the PRIME communication standard.

The data concentrator (DCU) 200 collects the meter reading data transmitted from the first low-pressure meter reading unit 110-1 to the n-th low-pressure meter reading unit 110-n via the power line communication (PLC) The master PLC modem unit 230 has a master relationship between a master and a slave in relation to the first slave PLC modem 112-1 to the Nth slave PLC modem 112- Registration, deletion, and routing of the first slave PLC modem 112-1 to the Nth slave PLC modem 112-N, respectively.

Fig. 2 shows the configuration of the data concentration device in the configuration of Fig. 1 in detail.

2, the data concentrator 200 includes a communication unit 210, a storage unit 220, a master PLC modem unit 230, and a control unit 240.

The communication unit 210 provides an interface for performing power line communication (PLC) according to the PRIME communication standard with the first slave PLC modem 112-1 to the Nth slave PLC modem 112-N.

The storage unit 1220 stores firmware necessary for operation of the modem and data processed by the master PLC modem unit 230. In this case, the storage unit 1220 is a storage medium for storing firmware, non-volatile memory such as MRAM (Magnetic Random Access Memory), FeRAM (Ferroelectric RAM), PRAM (Phase Change RAM), ReRAM (Resistance RAM), PoRAM (Polymer RAM), NFGM (Nano Floating Gate Memory) As a storage medium for storing data, volatile memories such as SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic RAM) and DRAM (Dynamic RAM) can be used.

The master PLC modem unit 230 includes a plurality of first master PLC modems 230-1 to 230-n. In this case, each of the master PLC modems 230-1 to 230- n determines the number of slave PLC modems 112-1 to 112-n that can register according to the goodness of the communication channel as a differential, and a detailed description thereof will be described later with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of installing and registering slave modems using a remote meter-reading system based on prime power line communication according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, the procedure of installing and registering slave modems using the remote meter-reading system based on the prime power line communication according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1 to FIG.

First, each of the first slave PLC modem 112-1 to the Nth slave PLC modem 112-N is connected to each of the first low voltage meter 111-1 to the Nth slave PLC modem 112-N (Step S10).

Each of the first slave PLC modem 112-1 to the Nth slave PLC modem 112-N is connected to the first master PLC modem 230-1 through the nth master PLC modem 230- (S20) of scanning all channels available in the prime power line communication (PRIME PLC) before being registered in the PRIME PLC.

Here, considering the prime power line communication (PRIME PLC) in which high frequency communication signals of several hundreds of kHz to tens of MHz are transmitted to a low frequency power signal of 50 to 60 Hz through a power line, signal scanning and signal interference are set in a certain frequency band It means searching for a communication channel smaller than the reference value.

A third step S30 of creating a list of the first master PLC modem 230-1 to the nth master PLC modem 230-n to be registered according to the channel status scanned in the second step S20, Respectively.

In this case, the created list can classify the number of registrations of the slave modems according to the good state of the channel condition, for example, 10 for the first master PLC modem 230-1 and 8 for the second master PLC modem 230-2 , And the third master PLC modem 230-2 can be displayed in five pieces or the like.

Next, each of the first master PLC modem 230-1 to the n-th master PLC modem 230-n, from which the first slave PLC modem 112-1 to the Nth slave PLC modem 112- (Step S40).

In this case, the slave PLC modems refer to the created list and select the master PLC modems with the best communication environment as the modems to register themselves.

For example, if the selected master PLC modem is the first master PLC modem 230-1, as in the previous example, up to ten requested slave PLC modems are registered. If there is an additional registration request, And performs the registration procedure in the same manner in the range (eight) in which the second master PLC modem 230-2 whose channel status is the second best is allowed.

Next, there is a fifth step (S50) of determining whether the registration procedure of all the slave PLC modems is completed.

In this case, if it is determined in the fifth step S50 that the registration procedure of all the slave PLC modems is not completed (NO), the process returns to the fourth step S40 to perform the remaining registration procedure.

If it is determined in the fifth step S50 that the registration procedure of all the slave PLC modems has been completed (YES), a sixth step (S60) of performing communication with the master PLC modem registered last.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit of the invention.

10: Transformer
110-1: first low-pressure meter reading unit
111-1: first low pressure gauge
112-1: First slave PLC modem
110-n: n-th low pressure meter reading part
111-n: Control device for low pressure
112-n: n-th slave PLC modem
200: Data Concentrator (DCU)
210:
220:
230: Master PLC modem part
230-1: First master PLC modem
230-n: n-th master PLC modem
240:

Claims (4)

(R, S, T, and N phases) power lines connected to the transformer and connected to each of the low voltage meters. A plurality of low-voltage meter reading units including a plurality of slave PLC modems to be performed; And
When the registration request signal is transmitted to the master PLC modems after the slave PLC modems are installed, the number of registration permits of the master PLC modems is determined in consideration of the channel state, and the meter reading data transmitted by the low-pressure meter reading units are collected , A data concentrator (DCU) for transmitting,
The data concentrator (DCU)
A communication unit for providing an interface for performing power line communication (PLC) according to the prime communication standard with the slave PLC modems;
A storage unit for storing the meter reading data and the firmware necessary for operation of the modems;
A master PLC modem including a plurality of master PLC modems that differentially determine the number of the slave PLC modems capable of registering according to a good degree of the communication channel when the slave PLC modems are installed, part; And
And a control unit for controlling the communication unit, the storage unit, and the master PLC modem unit. delete A first step of installing a plurality of slave PLC modems in each of a plurality of low voltage meters connected to a power line;
A second step of scanning a channel usable in a prime power line communication (PRIME PLC) before the plurality of slave PLC modems are registered in a plurality of master PLC modems of a data concentrator;
A third step of creating a list of the plurality of master PLC modems to be registered according to the channel status scanned in the second process;
A fourth step in which the plurality of slave PLC modems transmit registration request signals to the plurality of master PLC modems selected respectively; And
And a fifth step of determining whether registration of all of the plurality of slave PLC modems is completed,
The list of the third process includes:
And registering an allowable number of registrations of the slave modems according to a good degree of channel condition.

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