Methods of processing data corresponding to a device that corresponds to a gas, water, or electric grid, and related devices and computer program products

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10079915-B2
Application number	US-201414264956-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 29, 2014
Priority date	Oct 3, 2013
Publication date	Sep 18, 2018
Grant date	Sep 18, 2018

Abstract

Methods of operating a communication node are provided. A method of operating a communication node may include receiving data from an electric grid device via a network interface. The method may include processing the data from the electric grid device at the communication node. Moreover, the method may include transmitting a filtered portion of the data to an electric utility head end system, after processing the data at the communication node. In some embodiments, a method of operating a communication node may include using a message broker controlled by a virtual machine in the communication node to provide a protocol to interface with a field message bus that includes a standards-based or open-source Application Programming Interface (API). Related communication nodes and computer program products are also described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a first device corresponding to a gas, water, or electric grid, the method comprising:
using a message broker and/or message client comprising an embedded protocol that is standardized with respect to a field message bus comprising a standards-based or open-source Application Programming Interface (API), at the first device;
receiving data corresponding to a second device corresponding to the gas, water, or electric grid, via the field message bus;
determining a response decision at the first device, with respect to the data received corresponding to the second device; and
transmitting the response decision from the first device to a utility grid asset that is configured to implement the response decision and that is spaced apart from a data center comprising an utility head end system, wherein the response decision comprises a response to an event at the second device or at a third device corresponding to the gas, water, or electric grid,
wherein the first device is spaced apart from the data center, and
wherein the field message bus is configured to provide communications with the first and second devices independently of a data center message bus of the utility head end system.

2. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the first and second devices correspond to different first and second vendors, respectively, and
wherein the field message bus is configured to obtain data from different protocols of the first and second devices, respectively.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using the embedded protocol of the message broker and/or the message client to interface with a translator unit that is between a device protocol and the field message bus.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using the embedded protocol of the message broker and/or the message client to interface with a standards-based or open-source-API-based application in the first device.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising using the embedded protocol of the message broker and/or the message client to interface with a plurality of field message buses.

6. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium including computer readable program code therein configured to perform the method of claim 1 .

7. A first device corresponding to a gas, water, or electric grid, the first device comprising:
a network interface configured to provide communications with a second device corresponding to the gas, water, or electric grid, via a field message bus comprising a standards-based or open-source Application Programming Interface (API); and
a processor configured to control a message broker and/or message client in the first device, the message broker and/or message client comprising an embedded protocol that is standardized with respect to the field message bus,
wherein the first and second devices comprise peer devices,
wherein the processor is further configured to:
determine a response decision at the first device; and
control transmission of the response decision from the first device to a utility grid asset that is configured to implement the response decision and that is spaced apart from a data center comprising an utility head end system,

wherein the response decision comprises a response to an event at the second device or at a third device corresponding to the gas, water, or electric grid,
wherein the first device is spaced apart from the data center, and
wherein the field message bus is configured to provide communications with the first and second devices independently of a data center message bus of the utility head end system.

8. The device of claim 7 ,
wherein the network interface of the first device comprises a local area network interface or a wide area network interface configured to provide communications with the second device, and
wherein the network interface of the first device is configured to provide communications with a plurality of devices corresponding to the gas, water, or electric grid.

9. The device of claim 7 , wherein the first device comprises an electric utility meter, a transformer, a light, an electric grid control device, an electric grid protection device, a line sensor, a weather sensor, an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) device, an analog or digital sensor, an electric generator, an electric turbine, an electric boiler, an electric vehicle, an intelligent switching device, a home appliance, a battery storage device, a capacitor device, a solar power device, a smart generation device, an emission monitoring device, a water heater, a server, or a voltage regulator.

10. The device of claim 7 , wherein:
the network interface is configured to receive data from the second device via the network interface;
the processor is configured to process the data from the second device at the first device to determine the response decision;
the processor is configured to control transmission of the response decision to the second device via the field message bus;
the processor is configured to control transmission of a filtered portion of the data to the utility head end system, after processing the data at the first device; and
the filtered portion of the data received from the second device comprises at least one electric grid parameter, water grid parameter, gas grid parameter, networking parameter, customer parameter, security parameter, device identification parameter, or time-stamp parameter.

11. The device of claim 7 , wherein the first and second devices correspond to different first and second vendors, respectively.

12. The device of claim 7 , wherein the embedded protocol of the message broker and/or message client is configured to interface with a translator unit that is between a device protocol and the field message bus.

13. The device of claim 7 , wherein the embedded protocol of the message broker and/or message client is configured to interface with a plurality of field message buses.

14. A first device corresponding to a gas, water, or electric grid, the first device comprising:
a network interface configured to provide communications with a second device corresponding to the gas, water, or electric grid, via a field message bus comprising a standards-based or open-source Application Programming Interface (API); and
a processor configured to control a brokerless messaging protocol in the first device, the brokerless messaging protocol comprising an embedded protocol that is standardized with respect to the field message bus,
wherein the first device is spaced apart from a data center comprising an utility head end system,
wherein the field message bus is configured to provide a common publish/subscription interface for different protocols of the first and second devices, respectively, to enable interoperability between the first and second devices,
wherein the field message bus is configured to provide communications with the first and second devices independently of a data center message bus of the utility head end system,
wherein the processor is further configured to control the brokerless messaging protocol to contextualize data independently of the data center, and
wherein the processor is further configured to determine a response decision at the first device, with respect to the data.

15. The device of claim 14 , wherein the processor is configured to control the brokerless messaging protocol to communicate with a protocol of a message broker in a third device, via a local area network.

16. The device of claim 14 ,
wherein the processor of the fir

Assignees

• Duke Energy Corp

Inventors

• Laval Stuart
• Smith Raiford

Classifications

• H04L69/03 Primary

  Protocol definition or specification  (protocol conformance testing H04L1/244) · CPC title

• Y02B90/242

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y04S20/322

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H04L67/12 Primary

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• Y02B70/3266

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic