Bluetooth-enabled intelligent electronic device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9891253-B2
Application number	US-201313968584-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 16, 2013
Priority date	Oct 28, 2005
Publication date	Feb 13, 2018
Grant date	Feb 13, 2018

Abstract

An intelligent electronic device (IED), e.g., an electrical power meter, having wireless communication capabilities, e.g., Bluetooth connectivity, for transmitting and receiving data without a hardwire connection is provided. A system and method for retrieving revenue metering data from at least one IED, e.g., a revenue meter, are also provided. The system includes at least one intelligent electronic device including a transceiver configured for receiving calculated energy consumption data from a processor and transmitting the calculated energy consumption data via a spread-spectrum frequency hopping technique; and a data collection device configured for receiving the calculated energy consumption data from the at least one intelligent electronic device in response to supplying a pairing passkey to the intelligent electronic device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a plurality of intelligent electronic devices, each intelligent electronic device including a plurality of sensors configured to sense electrical signals from an electrical distribution system, a plurality of analog-to-digital converters configured to convert the sensed electrical signals to digital signals, a processing device configured to receive the digital signals, a memory, a transceiver, and a cryptographic module, each intelligent electronic device being installed at a specific location associated with a physical address, the processing device of each intelligent electronic device being configured to calculate electrical energy consumption data at the specific location and store the calculated electrical energy consumption data in the memory, the transceiver configured to receive the calculated electrical energy consumption data from the processor and wirelessly transmit the calculated electrical energy consumption data via a spread-spectrum frequency hopping technique, the cryptographic module of each intelligent electronic device being configured to encrypt the calculated electrical energy consumption data, and each intelligent electronic device configured to store a unique identifier and a unique passkey in the memory; and
a portable data collection device comprising a billing module, the portable data collection device configured to be transported throughout an area to automatically collect the calculated electrical energy consumption data from the plurality of intelligent electronic devices via wireless communication with the plurality of intelligent electronic devices;
wherein the billing module of the portable data collection device comprises a database including an entry for each of the intelligent electronic devices, each entry including data associated to each corresponding intelligent electronic device, each entry configured to pre-store the unique identifier for a particular intelligent electronic device, to pre-store the physical address corresponding to the specific location where the particular intelligent electronic device is installed, and to pre-store the passkey for the particular intelligent electronic device, each entry further including a record field for the particular intelligent electronic devices, wherein the database of the billing module is further configured to store calculated electrical energy consumption data received from the plurality of intelligent electronic devices in the corresponding record field for each of the intelligent electronic devices;
wherein, when the portable data collection device is within a range of a first intelligent electronic device of the plurality of intelligent electronic devices, the portable data collection device is configured to auto-negotiate with a transceiver of the first intelligent electronic device to establish a piconet and wirelessly receive from the transceiver of the first intelligent electronic device the unique identifier corresponding to the first intelligent electronic device via the spread-spectrum frequency hopping technique;
wherein, upon receiving the unique identifier corresponding to the first intelligent electronic device, the portable data collection device is further configured to retrieve from the billing module the passkey for the first intelligent electronic device corresponding to the unique identifier;
wherein the portable data collection device is further configured to wirelessly transmit the corresponding passkey for the first intelligent electronic device via the spread-spectrum frequency hopping technique to the transceiver of the first intelligent electronic device;
wherein, upon determining that the passkey received from the portable data collection device is valid, the first intelligent electronic device is configured to retrieve the calculated electrical energy consumption data from the memory and to wirelessly transmit the calculated electrical energy consumption data to the portable data collection device via the spread-spectrum frequency hopping technique;
wherein the portable data collection device is further configured to receive the calculated electrical energy consumption data from the first intelligent electronic device and store the calculated electrical energy consumption data in the record field of the entry in the billing module corresponding to the first intelligent electronic device; and
wherein, contemporaneously with receiving the calculated electrical energy consumption data from the first intelligent electronic device, the portable data collection device is further configured to automatically transmit the calculated electrical energy consumption data corresponding to the first intelligent electronic device to a server.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the portable data collection device is configured to transmit the calculated electrical energy consumption data to the server via an e-mail protocol.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the portable data collection device is configured to auto-negotiate with a transceiver of a second intelligent electronic device of the plurality of intelligent electronic devices to add the second intelligent electronic device to the piconet, wirelessly receive from the second intelligent electronic device the unique identifier corresponding to the second intelligent electronic device via a spread-spectrum frequency hopping technique, retrieve from the billing module the passkey for the second intelligent electronic device corresponding to the unique identifier received from the second intelligent electronic device, and wirelessly transmit the corresponding passkey to the second intelligent electronic device via the spread-spectrum frequency hopping technique.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein, upon determining that the passkey received from the portable data collection device is valid, the second intelligent electronic device is configured to wirelessly transmit the calculated electrical energy consumption data to the portable data collection device via the spread-spectrum frequency hopping technique.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein each intelligent electronic device is further configured to store at least one protocol stack for enabling the spread-spectrum frequency hopping technique.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the at least one protocol stack is a Bluetooth protocol stack.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the portable data collection device is further configured to wirelessly transmit upgrade data to the plurality of intelligent electronic devices via a synchronous connection oriented (SCO) type data transmission.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of intelligent electronic devices are configured as at least one of socket-type revenue meters, switchboard panel meters, and circuit breaker mounted meters.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the portable data collection device is configured to transmit the electrical energy consumption data to the server via a cellular transmission protocol.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the transceiver of each intelligent electronic device transmits on a frequency of about 2.45 gigahertz.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the transceiver of each intelligent electronic device transmits on a frequency of about 2.402 gigahertz to 2.480 gigahertz.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the cryptographic module encrypts the calculated electrical energy consumption data using at least one of security protocols comprising checksum, Data Encryption Standard (DES), Elliptical Curve Encryption (ECC), International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA), Message Digest 5 (MD5), Rivest Cipher, Rivest Shamir Adleman (RSA), Rijndael, Secure Hash

Assignees

• Electro Industries/Gauge Tech

Inventors

• Kagan Erran

Classifications

• H04W76/023

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G01R22/063 Primary

  related to remote communication · CPC title

• G01R22/10

  using digital techniques · CPC title

• H04W76/14

  Direct-mode setup · CPC title