JP4720447B2 - Power monitoring system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a power monitoring system using power line communication.

  In the distribution panel of the customer's house that receives power supply from the power company, there may be a main breaker that is shut off when the amount of power contracted in advance with the power company is exceeded. When the main breaker is shut off beyond the contracted power amount, all the power supply to the electrical equipment in the house will go down. Therefore, a system for avoiding such power supply being down is provided (Patent Document 1).

In Patent Document 1, a message is transmitted from the breaker device to each electric device via a power line (electric light line), and the electric device side starts and stops power consumption based on the permitted power consumption value indicated in the message. A system is disclosed.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-94199 (FIG. 1, paragraph numbers 0080 to 0085)

  In a system using power line communication as disclosed in Patent Document 1 described above, when noise generated by an electric device is large, a message (information) is directly transmitted from the breaker device as a parent device to the electric device as a child device. You may not be able to. As a solution to this problem, there is a method of performing routing and inspecting the route from the parent device to each child device in advance to construct the route, but the advantage is that information from the parent device can be transmitted to the corresponding child device quickly. However, there is a problem that there is a lot of traffic at the time of steady state because a routing packet for constructing a route must be periodically transmitted from the parent device.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and the object of the present invention is to reliably transmit a control command to a slave terminal that controls an electric device whose connection position to the power line changes frequently. An object of the present invention is to provide a power monitoring system that can control traffic during normal operation.

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the power monitoring apparatus includes: a power monitoring apparatus that monitors the amount of power used; and power line communication means that transmits and receives a power line communication signal using the power line as a transmission path. A power amount information acquiring means for acquiring power consumption information monitored by the power line, and a packet of a control command instructing an electric device to be turned off based on the power consumption information by the power amount from the power line communication means. A base unit terminal having communication processing means for flooding transmission to a handset terminal by a signal and another power line communication means for transmitting / receiving a power line communication signal using the power line as a transmission path and a self-address to the self by the power line communication signal When the control command packet is received by the another power line communication means, the electric machine connected to itself according to the content of the control command A packet having a control command having the same content as the received control command is flooded from the other power communication device to the parent device terminal and other child device terminals by a power line communication signal. A plurality of slave terminals having different communication processing means, and the communication processing means of the master terminal and the communication processing means of the slave terminal are control commands addressed to themselves after performing packet transmission of control commands. There line discarding process when receiving a packet, a cell to direct the off-control required number of electrical equipment to the packet of the control command provided in the slave machine terminal, when receiving a packet control command addressed to the When the required number of off-controls is 0, the off-control of the electrical equipment connected to itself is not performed, and when the required number of off-controls is not 0, it is connected to the self Off controlling electrical equipment, characterized in that flooding transmitting a packet of the control command after decrementing the OFF control required number.

In the invention of claim 2, in the invention of 請 Motomeko 1, the packet of the control command, a cell indicating a remaining number of flooding provided in the slave machine terminal, when receiving a packet of control commands addressed to In addition, when the remaining number of flooding is 0, the off-control of the electric device connected to the self is unconditionally performed. When the remaining number of flooding is not 0, the remaining number of flooding is decremented. The control command packet is flooded and transmitted.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, when the electric device connected to the child device terminal is an electric device whose operation can be changed by operating parameters, the child device terminal has a remaining flooding count of 0. When the control command packet is received, control is performed to change the operation parameter in the direction of reducing the electric energy.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, the slave unit terminal receives a control command packet and then floods and transmits the control command packet to the master unit terminal and the other slave unit terminals. In the meantime, when a control command packet having the same sequence number is received from another terminal, a packet having the content based on the packet having the smallest necessary control number is flooded and transmitted.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect of the present invention, the slave terminal is configured to perform a flooding transmission after the off-control of the electric device connected to the slave terminal with the packet content of the control command received earlier. When another packet of the control command is received and the required control number of the packet is 0, the electric device is turned on.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect of the present invention, after the slave terminal transmits a control command packet by flooding, the electric equipment connected to itself is turned off by the packet content of the control command. Features.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to sixth aspects, the other home appliance connected to itself according to the content of the control command packet is provided in another communication processing means of the slave terminal. When the off control is performed, a function of relaying another slave unit terminal as necessary by unicast and transmitting a control information packet to the master unit terminal from the other power line communication unit by a power line communication signal is provided. The machine terminal is provided with a function of grasping and managing the state of the electric equipment controlled by the slave terminal based on the received control information packet.

According to an eighth aspect of the invention, in the seventh aspect of the invention, the node ID of the controlled electric device is added to the packet of the control command when the electric device connected to the slave device is turned off. In addition to the cell, the control information packet includes a cell that describes the node ID of the electrical device added to the received control command packet, and the slave terminal turns off the electrical device to which it is connected. It has a timer function that counts the waiting time from when it is controlled until a packet of control information is transmitted to the parent device terminal, and until the timer function counts up the waiting time, control information from other child device terminals When relay packets are relayed, control information packet transmission from itself to the parent terminal is canceled.

  According to the present invention, even when the connection position of an electric device to a power line changes frequently, a control command addressed to a child device terminal that controls the electric device can be reliably transmitted over the entire system, and routing is not required. Therefore, there is an effect that it is possible to suppress traffic during normal operation.

  The power monitoring system according to the present invention includes, for example, a home appliance 2a1 as an electric device that is connected to a power line L, L branched via a branch breaker in the distribution board 1 via an outlet or directly as shown in FIG. In the case of a private house to which 2b1... Are connected, a power monitoring device 3 that monitors the power consumption in the house in real time in the distribution board 1 and a parent terminal for power line communication (PLC) 4 are connected to the household electrical appliances 2a1, 2b1,..., 2b1,... Are controlled within the household electrical appliances 2a1, 2b1,. It is constructed by providing the terminal 5 <see FIG. 4B>.

  When used in an apartment house M as shown in FIG. 3A, the power consumption of the entire house is monitored on the base side of the power line L wired from the electric room E (or management room) to each dwelling unit H. The home appliance 4 connected to the power lines La, Lb branched from the distribution board 1 as shown in FIG. Is added with a handset terminal 5 having a built-in handset terminal 5 or an outlet connected to the home appliances 2. Moreover, as shown in FIG.3 (c), the power monitoring apparatus 3 for dwelling units is also provided in the distribution board 1 of each dwelling unit H. As shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 4A, the base unit terminal 4 used in the power monitoring system configured as described above includes a control unit 40, a communication processing unit 41, a PLC interface unit 42, and a power monitoring device interface unit 43. With.

  Here, the control unit 40 creates a control command for returning information on the amount of power used that is regularly monitored to the power monitoring device 3, a function for acquiring information on the amount of power used, and each slave unit The terminal 5 has a function of creating a control command to be transmitted when necessary, and a function of receiving and processing received information from the handset terminal 5.

  The communication processing unit 41 functions as a communication processing unit that sends a control command from the control unit 40 to the PLC interface unit 42 and the power monitoring device interface unit 43, and receives from the PLC interface unit 42 and the power monitoring device interface unit 43. And a function for acquiring power amount information to send the information to the control unit 40.

  The PLC interface unit 42 receives a function of superimposing and transmitting a control command from a predetermined packet format to the power line L by a PLC signal of a predetermined format, and a PLC signal transmitted from the slave terminal 5 while being superimposed on the power line L. A power line communication unit having a function of demodulating information from the PLC signal is configured, and a communication processing unit is configured by the function of the communication processing unit 41.

  The power monitoring device interface unit 43 has a communication function for exchanging information with the power monitoring device 3 through general-purpose communication such as RS232C, USB, and the like. The information is sent to the interface unit 43 and information indicating the amount of power used from the power monitoring device interface unit 43 is received. The functions of the control unit 40 and the signal processing unit 41 constitute a power amount information unit.

  In addition, when providing the power monitoring apparatus 3 also in the distribution board 1 of each dwelling unit H of the apartment house M like FIG.3 (c), the electric energy used in each dwelling unit H with respect to these power monitoring apparatuses 3 Is requested using the PLC.

  On the other hand, the handset terminal 5 includes a control unit 50, a communication processing unit 51, a PLC interface unit 52, and a home appliance interface unit 53 as shown in FIG.

  Here, the control unit 50 has a function of creating a control command for on / off control of the home appliance 2, a function of receiving and processing a control command received from each slave device terminal 5 and the master device terminal 4, and the received control command And a function for creating control command contents to be transmitted by flooding based on the above.

  The communication processing unit 51 transmits a control command from the control unit 50 to the PLC interface unit 52 and the home appliance interface unit 53 of the power line communication means, and transmits information received from the PLC interface unit 52 to the control unit 50. The home appliance interface unit 53 and the control unit 50 constitute a control means for controlling the home appliance 2.

  The PLC interface unit 52 has a function of superimposing and transmitting a control command from a predetermined packet format to the power line L by a PLC signal of a predetermined format, and is transmitted from the parent device terminal 4 or another child device terminal 5 while being superimposed on the power line L. A function of receiving a coming PLC signal and demodulating a packet from the PLC signal is included, and the function of the communication processing unit 51 also constitutes a communication processing means.

  The home appliance interface unit 53 is a JEM-A terminal <HA (home automation) terminal conforming to the Japan Electrical Manufacturers Association (JEMA) unified standard> JEM-A for on / off control of the built-in home appliance 2 Terminal IFU, infrared remote control signal transmission function corresponding to home appliance 2 that can be remotely controlled by infrared remote control, and control function to control switch means for turning on / off the outlet connecting the power plug of home appliance 2 The home appliance 2 has an interface function capable of turning on / off, and the control unit 50 controls the home appliance 2 together with the function of the control unit 50 and the function of the communication unit 51. The interface function provided may be one kind or plural kinds.

Next, an embodiment using the system of FIG. 2 using the master terminal 4 and the slave terminal 5 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 will be described below.
(Embodiment 1)
The present embodiment uses a control instruction in the format shown in FIG. 1A, and the operation will be described with reference to FIG. It is assumed that a node ID is set for each slave terminal 5 and master terminal 4 to be used.

  First, it is assumed that the appliance types of the home appliances 2a1,..., 2b1,.

  For example, in this embodiment, 1000 W or more is a type (1), 700 W or more and less than 1000 W is a type (2), 500 W or more and less than 700 W is a type (3), 300 W or more and less than 500 W is a type (4), and less than 300 W is a type ( 5) and types of home appliances 2 are classified.

 Thus, when the control unit 40 of the parent terminal 4 detects that the power consumption of the house monitored by the power monitoring device 3 has reached a predetermined power amount close to the contracted power amount, the rated power value is first determined. A control command for turning off the small type (5) of household electrical appliance 2 is created and transmitted to the power lines L and L by a PLC signal via the communication processing unit 41 and the PLC interface unit 42. As shown in FIG. 1A, a packet of a control command transmitted by the PLC signal is composed of a node ID of the own terminal, a destination ID, a sequence number, and a cell of a home appliance type to be controlled. Note that the sequence number of the flooding packet transmitted from the base unit terminal 4 is used as the sequence number of the flooding packet transmitted from the slave unit terminal 5.

  Now, as shown in FIG. 1B, if a packet of a control command for turning off one type (5) of household electrical appliances 2 is sent by flooding from the master terminal 4, the control command packet is received first. In the handset terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1, the control unit 50 receives the control command packet through the PLC interface unit 52 and the communication processing unit 51, and the type of the control target home appliance 2a1 registered in advance and the control command packet It is determined whether or not the type of home appliance to be controlled (hereinafter referred to as “type”) specified in FIG. Here, since the type of the home appliance 2a1 is (1), the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1 does not perform the off control, and transmits a control command packet by flooding. Since the base unit terminal 4 has already transmitted the control command packet once, when receiving the control command packet having the same sequence number, it is discarded and no flooding transmission is performed. On the other hand, since the type of the home appliance 2a2 is (5) in the handset device 5 of the home appliance 2a2, the home device 2a2 is controlled to be controlled. Therefore, the home device 2a2 is controlled to be turned off. The necessary number of off-controls in the packet is decremented from 5 to “0” and a control command packet is transmitted by flooding. The slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1 that has received this transmitted control command packet has already transmitted the control command packet once, so when it receives the control command packet of the same sequence number, it is discarded and flooded. Do not do. The slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a3 receives the control command packet transmitted from the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1 earlier than the reception of the control command packet transmitted from the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a2. However, since the type of the household electrical appliance 2a3 is (3), the type is different, so that the content of the control command packet transmitted from the slave terminal 5 of the household electrical appliance 2a2 is transmitted by flooding. In this way, the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a6 of type (5) will eventually receive the packet of the control command transmitted by flooding, and the slave terminal 5 matches the type of the control target. The home appliance 2a6 is turned off.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the control command packet can be reliably transmitted to the entire system even when the connection position of the home appliance 2 with respect to the power line L changes frequently, and routing is not required. Constant traffic can be suppressed.

In addition, the priority of the home appliance 2 to be turned off when the amount of power increases is not determined by categorizing by the rated power value of the home appliance 2 as described above, but the user prioritizes and decides on any home appliance 2 Also good.
(Embodiment 2)
In the first embodiment, the control command that instructs the control target by the type of the home appliance 2 is used. In this case, all the home appliances 2 of the same type are controlled (off). Therefore, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5A, a cell for writing the required number of off controls is provided in the control command packet, and for example, one home appliance 2 of type (5) is turned off from the parent device terminal 4, for example. When the control command packet is transmitted by flooding as shown in FIG. 5B, the slave device terminal 5 of the household electrical appliance 2a1 does not perform the off control because the type of the household electrical appliance 2a1 is different as described above. A control command packet is transmitted by flooding while the required number is "1". And in the subunit | mobile_unit terminal 5 of the household appliance 2a2 which received the packet of the control command transmitted from the subunit | mobile_unit terminal 5 of this household appliance 2a1, since the classification of the household appliance 2a2 is (5), it controls off. Then, the child device terminal 5 decrements the necessary number of off controls to “0” and transmits a control command packet by flooding. Then, since the type of the home appliance 2a3 is (3) in the slave device 5 of the home appliance 2a3 that has received the control command packet transmitted by flooding from the slave device 5 of the home appliance 2a2, the home appliance 2a3 is turned off. First, a packet of a control command with the required number of off controls in the packet being “0” is transmitted by flooding.

  Then, in the slave terminal 5 of the household appliance 2a6 of the type (5) that has received the control command packet by this flooding transmission, the number of off-control required is the same although the household appliance type of the control command and the type of the household appliance 2a6 match. Since it is 0 ″, the home appliance 2a6 is not turned off.

  Similarly, the off-control of the home appliance 2a7 is not performed in the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a7 that receives the packet of the control command whose turn-off required number becomes “0”.

  That is, in this embodiment, even when the amount of power used becomes excessive and the home appliance 2 is turned off, the home appliance 2 is prevented from being stopped more than necessary.

It should be noted that the flooding transmission at the child device terminal 5 may be stopped when the required number of off controls becomes “0” after decrementing.
(Embodiment 3)
As shown in FIG. 6A, the present embodiment is characterized in that a cell for writing the remaining number TTL of flooding is provided in the packet of the control command. When the control command packet in which the required number of off control is written as “1” and the TTL is written as “3” is transmitted by flooding as shown in FIG. Since the type of the household electrical appliance 2a1 is (1) in the slave terminal 5 of the household electrical appliance 2a1 that receives the packet, the household appliance 2a1 is not turned off, but the control terminal packet is flooded from the slave terminal 5 At the time of transmission, the number of TTL is decremented by one to “2”. The type of the home appliance 2a2 is (5) even in the slave device 5 of the home appliance 2a2 that has received the control command packet from the master device 5 earlier than the control command packet transmitted from the slave device 5 of the home appliance 2a1. Therefore, although the off control is not performed, a packet of a control command in which the required number of off control is decremented to “2” is transmitted from the child device terminal 5 by flooding, similar to the child device terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1.

  On the other hand, in the slave device terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a3 that receives the control command packet from the slave device terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1 earlier than the control command packet transmitted from the slave device 5 of the home appliance 2a2, Since the type of 2a3 is (3), the home appliance 2a3 is not turned off, but the packet is transmitted by flooding after the TTL number of the control command packet is decremented to "1".

  And the subunit | mobile_unit terminal 5 of this household appliance 2a2 will receive the packet from the subunit | mobile_unit terminal 5 of household appliance 2a1. In this case, since the type of the home appliance 2a3 is (3), the handset device 5 does not perform the off control of the home appliance 2a3 as described above, but decrements the number of TTL from “2” to “1”. 1 "packet is transmitted by flooding. The slave terminal 5 corresponding to the household electrical appliances 2a4, 2a5, 2a6 that sequentially received packets with the TTL of “1” is turned off even if the type of the corresponding household electrical appliance 2a4, 2a5, 2a6 is different from the type to be controlled. Although it is controlled, since the number of TTL becomes “0” by decrement, packet transmission by flooding is not performed. Of course, even if the TTL number of the received packet is “1”, the off control is not performed when the necessary number of off controls is already zero.

  That is, in this embodiment, when the off control sufficient to satisfy the required number of off controls is not performed even after a certain period of time, the corresponding home appliance 2 is controlled to be off at the slave terminal 5 that has not yet transmitted the packet. As a result, the amount of power used can be reduced and the main breaker can be prevented from being shut off quickly.

  In the above-described case, when a packet in which TTL is described as 0 is received, the corresponding home device 2 is controlled to be turned off by the handset device 5 that has not transmitted the packet. In this case, the home device 2 is more than necessary. For example, in the case where the home electric appliance 2 to be controlled is a device whose power consumption can be reduced by changing the operation parameter, parameter change (operation mode switching) is controlled to be turned off at the slave terminal 5 Alternatively, for example, the set temperature may be increased if the air conditioner is cooling, and the set temperature may be decreased if heating is being performed to reduce power consumption.

As a result, the home electric appliance 2 is not turned off more than necessary, and control without causing discomfort to the user can be performed.
(Embodiment 4)
By the way, when packet transmission is performed by flooding as described above, the slave terminal 5 receives the packet and then transmits the packet by flooding before transmitting the slave packet 5 (or the master unit). There is a high possibility of receiving a packet from a slave terminal 5 other than the terminal 4). Therefore, in the present embodiment, when the slave terminal 5 receives a packet first and receives another packet before sending a flooded packet, the number of TTLs described in the packet is the smallest or It is characterized in that a process of flooding a packet having the smallest necessary number of off controls is performed. Note that the packet format is not shown because it is the same as that of the third embodiment.

  For example, in FIG. 7, since the type is not (5) in the slave terminal 5 of the household electrical appliance 2a1 that has received a control command packet for controlling two household electrical appliances 2 of the type (5) transmitted from the parent device terminal 4, the household appliance 2 The device 2a1 is not controlled to be turned off, and the control command packet is transmitted by flooding with the TTL number rewritten by one.

  The slave terminal 5 of the home electric appliance 2a2 that has received the packet transmitted by flooding is turned off because the type of the electric home appliance 2a2 is (5), and the required number of off controls is reduced from “2” to “1”. A packet of a control command that has been incremented and rewritten to the number decremented by one (assuming that it is not “0”) is flooded and transmitted.

  On the other hand, if the packet reception from the parent device terminal 4 is earlier than the reception of the packet from the child device terminal 5 of the household electric appliance 2a2 at the child device terminal 5 of the household appliance 2a3 of type (3), it is necessary to perform the off control without performing the off control. The control command packet is to be decremented while the number is “2”. However, if the control command packet transmitted from the handset device 5 of the home appliance 2a2 is received before this transmission, the packet is written into the packet. Compare the required number of off-controls with the required number of off-controls written in the packet to be transmitted, adopt the smaller number of required off-controls, and send the packet written with the necessary number of off-controls by flooding . In this case, since the required number of off controls written in the packet from the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a2 is “1”, the packet in which “1” is written is transmitted.

  Since the necessary number of OFF control packets of the control command transmitted by flooding is “1”, the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a7 of the type (5) that receives this packet performs the OFF control. Of course, even if it is received, if the TTL is “0”, the off control is not performed.

  Of course, in the case where the number of TTLs of the packets received before transmission is smaller than the number of TTLs of the packets to be transmitted from the slave terminal 5, the number of TTLs is similarly adopted. To send.

In the present embodiment, packets are transmitted through a plurality of routes, and there is little possibility that the home appliance 2 is turned off beyond the necessary number of off controls specified by the control command from the parent device terminal 4. . In addition, by transmitting a packet decremented by the number of TTLs, if the off control sufficient to satisfy the required number of off control is not performed even after a predetermined time as in the third embodiment, the packet is not transmitted at that time. By controlling off the corresponding home electric appliance 2 in the slave terminal 5, it is possible to reduce the amount of power used and to quickly prevent the main breaker from being shut off.
(Embodiment 5)
By the way, when the type of the above-described home appliance 2a3 is (5), the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a2 receives a packet from the master terminal 4 or the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1 as shown in FIG. Then, the household electrical appliance 2a2 is turned off. Then, in the packet transmitted by flooding from the child device terminal 5, the required number of OFF control is decremented from “1” to “0” indicated by the packet of the parent device terminal 4. On the other hand, the home device 2a3 of the home device 2a3 that has received the packet whose type (5) is to be controlled off from the base device terminal 4 before receiving the packet from the handset device 5 of the home device 2a2 Control off. In this case, since the home appliance 2a2 is already turned off, the required number of off controls is satisfied, and there is no need to turn off the home appliance 2a3. That is, the household electrical appliance 2 is turned off more than necessary.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, the slave terminal 5 of the household electrical appliance 2a3 receives a packet from the household electrical appliance 2a2 before transmitting the packet, and if the required number of packets to be turned off is “0”, After performing control to turn on the home appliance 2a3 that has been turned off, a process of transmitting a packet by flooding is performed.

  The packet format in the present embodiment is the same as that in the third embodiment, and is not shown.

  Thus, in the present embodiment, even if the home appliance 2 is turned off more than necessary, it can be restored, so that the number of home appliances exceeding the required number of off controls instructed by the control command from the master terminal 4 is exceeded. There is little possibility that the device 2 is turned off. In addition, by transmitting a packet decremented by the number of TTLs, if the off control sufficient to satisfy the required number of off control is not performed even after a predetermined time as in the third embodiment, the packet is not transmitted at that time. By controlling off the corresponding home electric appliance 2 in the slave terminal 5, it is possible to reduce the amount of power used and to quickly prevent the main breaker from being shut off.

The slave terminal 5 receives the first packet and then transmits the packet by flooding, and adopts the smallest number required for off control described in the newly received packet, and turns off the corresponding home appliance 2 If control is required, if the off-control of the corresponding home electric appliance 2 is performed after the packet is transmitted by flooding, in the example of FIG. 8, before the slave terminal 5 of the electric home appliance 2a3 transmits the packet by flooding In addition, the device control required number “0” of the received packet from the child device terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a2 is adopted, and the home appliance 2a3 is not controlled to be off. That is, as shown in FIG. 8, the on control performed after the off control is also unnecessary.
(Embodiment 6)
In the first to fifth embodiments, only the home appliance 2 to which the slave device 5 corresponds is controlled based on the control command from the master device terminal 4, but in this embodiment, the slave device that controls the home appliance 2 off. By transmitting the control information packet from the terminal 5 by unicast and receiving the control information packet, the home appliance 2 controlled by the control unit 40 of the parent terminal 4 is managed and transmitted to the user. It is characterized in that it can be presented by display means (not shown). That is, in this embodiment, the control command packet for flooding transmission shown in FIG. 9A and the control information packet shown in FIG. 9B are used, and the total number of hops in the flooding path is used for the former flooding packet. A cell describing (N) is provided, and a cell to which the ID of the own terminal is added as a relay terminal ID (1)... Is added for each flooding. The latter control information packet includes a node ID of the own terminal, a destination ID (node ID of the next hop), a current hop count (i), a total hop count (N), and a relay node ID (1 ..., And a cell describing a destination terminal ID (master terminal ID) and a sequence number.

  Thus, as shown in FIG. 9C, the type of the off control target from the master terminal 4 is set to (5), the required number of off control is set to “3”, an appropriate number is designated as TTL, and the number of hops Is set to (1), and a flooding packet in which the ID of the parent terminal 4 is described as the relay terminal ID (1)... Is sent to the self-terminal 5 of the household appliance 2a1 of type (5), for example. Is received, the slave terminal 5 controls the home appliance 2a1 to be turned off, and generates and transmits a packet for control information.

  At this time, since the relay terminal ID (1)... Described in the packet received from the parent device terminal 4 is the ID of the parent device terminal 4, the relay node ID (1). The ID of the terminal 4 is described, the sequence number is described as it is in the packet transmitted from the parent terminal 4, and the control information packet with the hop number (1) is unicast. Send. After transmitting the control information packet, a flooding packet is transmitted. In this packet, the number of hops is incremented by one from (1) to (2), and the ID of the slave terminal 5 is added as relay terminal ID (1). Also, the required number of off controls and TTL are decremented one by one.

  When a packet transmitted by flooding is received by the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a2, the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a2 first controls the home appliance 2a2 to be turned off. Then, the relay node ID (1)... Is described based on the relay terminal ID (1)... Described in the packet transmitted by flooding, “1” is described as the number of hops, and the next hop node ID. The control information packet in which the destination ID <in this case, the ID of the master terminal 4> is described is transmitted. When the control information packet is received, the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1 specified by the self-terminal by the relay node ID (1)... Increments the number of hops and then receives the received information control packet. The destination ID, which is the node ID of the next hop described in <1> in this case, is described in the relay node ID (1)... And the control information packet is transmitted.

  Similarly, the home device 2a3 of the home device 2a3 that has received the self-addressed packet transmitted from the handset device 5 of the home device 2a1 is turned off, and a control information packet is created and transmitted. Perform the process. In this case, since the transmission source of the packet by flooding is the child device terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1, the relay node ID does not describe the ID of the child device 5 of the home appliance 2a2, and from the child device terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a2. Similar to the transmitted control information packet, a packet having the same content is transmitted, and the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1 relays the control information packet.

The control unit 40 of the parent device terminal 4 that has received the control information packets relayed by the child device terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1 in this way, the hop number of the control information packet and the relay node ID (1). It is possible to grasp and manage that the home appliance 2a2 or 2a3 is off-controlled by the slave terminal 5 that is the transmission source of the control information packet, and present this management content to the user by the display means, so that the home appliance 2a1. Can be shown to the user.
(Embodiment 7)
In the sixth embodiment, all the handset terminals 5 that controlled the home electric appliance 2 to be off were not efficient because they all performed unicast transmission of control information packets to the base terminal 4. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the slave terminal 5 that finally performs the off control of the home appliance 2 performs a process of transmitting a control information packet to the master terminal 4. In this case, when the TTL is “0”, the slave terminal 5 that has finally performed the control knows that the terminal itself has performed the final control, but does not know otherwise. Therefore, as the required number of TTL or OFF control increases, the control unit 50 of the slave terminal 5 performs control processing so that the waiting time until the control information packet is transmitted to the master terminal 4 is increased. If the control information packet from another child device terminal 5 is relayed before the control information packet is transmitted to the parent device terminal 4, the transmission of the control information packet from itself is canceled. Do.

  Here, the flooding packet used in the present embodiment is described by incrementing the number of controlled home appliances 2 as shown in FIG. 10A in addition to the contents of the flooding packet used in the sixth embodiment. A cell and a cell to which node ID (1)... Corresponding to the home appliance 2 is added are added. In addition to the contents of the control information packet used in the sixth embodiment as shown in FIG. 10B, the control information packet includes the number of controlled home appliances 2 and the number of controlled home appliances 2. A cell to which the node ID of the home appliance 2 assigned in advance is added.

  Thus, as shown in FIG. 10 (c), when a packet of a control command for controlling off three home appliances 2 of type (5) is transmitted by flooding from the parent terminal 4, first, home appliances of type (5) are sent. In the handset device 5 of the device 2a1, when the packet addressed to itself is received, the home appliance 2a1 is turned off. At this time, since the number of TTLs is large, the control unit 50 of the child device terminal 5 sets a long waiting time until the control information packet is transmitted to the parent device terminal 5 and controls the control information until the time elapses. While stopping the packet transmission, send the packet by flooding. In the child device terminal 5 of the household appliance 2a2 of the type (5) that has received the packet addressed to itself by this flooding transmission, the control information is turned off until the household appliance 2a2 is turned off and a waiting time corresponding to the number of TTLs of the packets elapses. The packet transmission for use is stopped, while the flooding packet is sent.

  Further, in the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a3 that has received the flooding packet sent from the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1, the home appliance 2a3 is turned off in the same manner as the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a2. To do. The control information packet transmission is stopped until a waiting time corresponding to the number of TTLs of the packets elapses. And before the standby | waiting time of packet transmission for control information passes in the subunit | mobile_unit terminal 5 of the household appliance 2a1, the standby | waiting time in the subunit | mobile_unit terminal 5 of the household appliance 2a2 passes. At this time, the child device terminal 5 generates and transmits a control information packet when the standby time elapses by knowing from the number of control devices of the received packet that the home appliance 2a1 is already controlled. In this control information packet, since the relay node ID instructs to relay the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1, the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1 receives the control information packet and further receives the control information packet. Relay transmission to the parent terminal 4 is performed. As a result of this relay transmission, the control unit 50 of the slave terminal 5 does not perform a process of generating a control information packet and transmitting it to the master terminal 4 at its own terminal even if the standby time has elapsed thereafter.

  Further, when the standby time elapses in the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a3, a control information packet to be transmitted to the master terminal 4 via the slave terminal 5 of the home appliance 2a1 is generated and transmitted.

  As described above, in this embodiment, since all the slave terminal 5 does not generate and transmit the control information packet, the efficiency can be improved as compared with the sixth embodiment.

  By the way, by using a device-embedded network technology called EMIT (Embedded Micro Internetworking Technology) (a network technology having a function of easily incorporating middleware into a device and connecting to the network, hereinafter referred to as EMIT technology). Various equipment (illumination equipment, air conditioning equipment, power equipment, sensors) from external terminals (not shown) such as mobile phones, PCs (Personal Computers), PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), PHSs (Personal Handy phone Systems) An electric lock, a web camera, and the like are hereinafter referred to as an EMIT terminal.) There is a system that can access <not shown> to remotely monitor and control the EMIT terminal.

  Note that the EMIT terminal is a built-in device equipped with a microcomputer, and is a device-embedded middleware for connecting to the network and is equipped with EMIT software that realizes the EMIT technology.

  As a system to which the above-mentioned EMIT technology is applied (hereinafter referred to as an EMIT system), an external terminal remotely monitors and controls an EMIT terminal via a center server (not shown) provided on the Internet. For example, a configuration in which an EMIT terminal is directly accessed from an external terminal equipped with EMIT software to remotely monitor and control the EMIT terminal without using a center server.

  Then, by using the EMIT system, for example, the above-mentioned EMIT terminals are distributed in a building (for detached houses, condominiums, buildings, factories, etc.) <not shown>, and the status of the EMIT terminals is monitored remotely from an external terminal. Thus, it becomes possible to perform energy management of the entire building and remote meter reading of gas, water, and electricity in the building.

  Here, the power monitoring systems according to the first to seventh embodiments of the present invention described above may naturally have a configuration in which the parent device terminals 4 and the child device terminals 5 are dispersedly arranged in the buildings that constitute the above-described EMIT system.

(A) is the packet format of the control command used for Embodiment 1, (b) is operation | movement explanatory drawing. It is a system configuration example figure for personal houses of the present invention. (A) is a system configuration example diagram for an apartment house of the present invention, (b) is a wiring example diagram in a dwelling unit, and (c) is another wiring example diagram in a dwelling unit. (A) is a block diagram of the main | base station terminal used for this invention, (b) is a block diagram of a subunit | mobile_unit terminal. (A) is the packet format of the control command used for Embodiment 2, (b) is operation | movement explanatory drawing. (A) is the packet format of the control command used for Embodiment 3, (b) is operation | movement explanatory drawing. FIG. 10 is an operation explanatory diagram of the fourth embodiment. FIG. 10 is an operation explanatory diagram of the fifth embodiment. (A) is a packet format of a control command used in Embodiment 6, (b) is a packet format of control information, and (c) is an operation explanatory diagram. (A) is the packet format of the control command used for Embodiment 7, (b) is the packet format of control information, (c) is operation | movement explanatory drawing.

Explanation of symbols

1 Distribution board 2a1 ... 2b1 ... Home appliance 3 Power monitoring device 4 Master terminal L Power line

Claims (8)

A power monitoring device for monitoring the amount of power used;
A power line communication unit that transmits and receives a power line communication signal using the power line as a transmission path, and also includes a power amount information acquisition unit that acquires power consumption information monitored by the power monitoring device, and an off control based on the power usage information A base unit terminal comprising communication processing means for flooding and transmitting a packet of a control command instructing an electrical device to be performed by the amount of power from the power line communication means to a slave terminal by a power line communication signal;
In addition to providing another power line communication means for transmitting and receiving a power line communication signal using the power line as a transmission line, and receiving a control command packet addressed to itself by the power line communication signal according to the content of the control command. Control means for turning off the electrical device connected to itself, and a packet having a control command having the same content as the received control command is sent from the other power communication means to the parent terminal by a power line communication signal. A plurality of handset terminals having different communication processing means for sending flooding to the handset terminal,
The communication processing means of the communication processing means of the master terminal and the slave terminal may have line discarding process when receiving a packet of control commands addressed to after the packet transmission of the control command,
The control instruction packet is provided with a cell for indicating the required number of off-controls of the electrical equipment. When the slave terminal receives the control command packet addressed to itself, the slave terminal determines that the required number of off-controls is zero. After the off control of the electrical equipment connected to is not performed, and the required number of off control is not 0, the off electrical control of the electrical equipment connected to the self is performed and the off control required number is decremented A power monitoring system, wherein the control command packet is flooded and transmitted . The control instruction packet is provided with a cell indicating the remaining number of flooding, and when the slave terminal receives the control command packet addressed to itself, if the remaining flooding count is zero, The off control of the connected electric device is unconditionally performed, and when the remaining number of flooding is not 0, the control command packet is flooded and transmitted after the remaining number of flooding is decremented. Item 4. The power monitoring system according to Item 1. The operation parameter when the electrical device connected to the slave terminal is in the case of an electric device capable of operating changes in operating parameters, the slave unit terminal receives a packet of control instructions remaining number of flooding is 0 The power monitoring system according to claim 2, wherein control is performed to change the power in the direction of reducing the amount of power. After receiving the packet of the control instruction in the slave terminal, during a packet control command to the master terminal and the other slave terminals until flooding transmitted and received packets of control commands of the same sequence number from another terminal The power monitoring system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a packet having a content based on a packet having the least number of required controls is flooded . After off control of electrical devices connected to the self-packet contents of the control command received earlier by the slave terminal to receive another packet of control instructions between until flooding transmission, control of the packet 5. The power monitoring system according to claim 4, wherein when the required number is 0, the electric device is on-controlled . After flooding transmits the packet of the control instruction in the slave terminal, power monitoring system according to claim 4, characterized in that the OFF control of the electric devices connected to the self-packet contents of the control instruction. When off control of the home appliance connected to the self in accordance with the contents of the packet of the control instruction to another communication processing means of said slave terminal, the other slave terminal as required by unicast A function of relaying control information packets addressed to the parent terminal to be transmitted from the other power line communication means by a power line communication signal,
The base unit terminal has a function of grasping and managing a state of an electric device controlled by the slave unit terminal based on a control information packet received. Power monitoring system. The control command packet includes a cell for adding the node ID of the controlled electrical device when the handset terminal controls the electrical device connected to the slave device to OFF, and the control received in the control information packet Comprising a cell describing the node ID of the electrical equipment attached to the instruction packet;
The slave terminal is provided with a timer function that counts a standby time from when the electrical device to which it is connected is turned off to when the control information packet is transmitted to the master terminal. 8. The control information packet transmission from itself to the parent device terminal is canceled when the control information packet from another child device terminal is relay-transmitted before counting up power monitoring system described.

Images