KR101066818B1 - Automatic meter reading system using gateway and method for operating the gateway of automatic meter reading system - Google Patents

Abstract

A remote meter reading system using a gateway according to the present embodiment includes a plurality of gateways for performing power line communication with an electricity meter measuring power usage and collecting metering information from the electricity meter; And a meter reading server connected to the gateway network, wherein any one of the gateways becomes a master gateway, and another gateway except the master gateway becomes a slave gateway, and the master gateway is a slave gateway including a master gateway itself. Determining the priority of each gateway consisting of, and sequentially collect the metering information from each gateway according to the determined priority, and delivers directly to the metering server.
As described above, the data transmission between the gateways does not collide with each other during the data communication due to the meter reading system, and thus the metering server may more efficiently acquire meter information of the electricity meters.

Description

Automatic meter reading system using gateway and method for operating the gateway of automatic meter reading system}

The present invention relates to a remote meter reading system using a gateway capable of remotely reading information of a electricity meter and a gateway operating method of the remote meter reading system.

The remote meter reading system represents, for example, a collection system for collecting data of meter readings of electricity, gas, water and the like from a remote location by wireless or wired data.

In general, this kind of data collection system allows communication of one data collection unit and each terminal radio unit which is connected and connected to the collection unit in a wired or wireless manner, from the data collection unit to each of the terminal radio units. Collecting measurement data.

In addition, with increasing demand of the measuring apparatus, many terminal radio units are used, and accordingly, improvement of data collection capability on the data collection unit side is demanded.

An embodiment of the present invention is to provide a remote metering system that is easy to access a plurality of network-connected electricity meters by allowing a gateway for connecting heterogeneous or homogeneous networks to act as a data collection unit.

In particular, in order to collect metering data more efficiently for a plurality of meters, the gateway of the present embodiment is assigned a priority and accordingly, the metering information of the meters are collected sequentially, thereby improving data collection capability. We propose a remote meter reading system using gateway.

A remote meter reading system using a gateway according to the present embodiment includes a plurality of gateways for performing power line communication with an electricity meter measuring power usage and collecting metering information from the electricity meter; And a meter reading server connected to the gateway and a network, wherein any one of the gateways becomes a master gateway and another gateway except the master gateway becomes a slave gateway.

The master gateway determines priority of each slave gateway by using the waiting time for the slave gateways to collect meter information, and requests meter information from the slave gateway according to the determined priority. It is done.

The slave gateway returns the time required for collecting meter information from at least one electricity meter connected to the power line communication to the master gateway in response to a message for requesting collection of a time delay transmitted from the master gateway. It is done.

In addition, the gateway operating method of the remote meter reading system according to the present embodiment comprises a plurality of gateways for performing power line communication with the electricity meter measuring power consumption, collecting metering information from the electricity meter, and a meter reading server connected to the gateway network. A meter reading system, the gateway comprising: a master gateway and a slave gateway; Sending, by the master gateway, a message of a wait time collection request to the slave gateway; Receiving, by the master gateway, information on a wait time calculated by the slave gateway; The master gateway assigning a priority to each gateway configured as a slave gateway including the master gateway itself; Sending, by the master gateway, a message of an information collection request requesting transmission of the meter reading information to the respective gateways in order of priority; And directly reading the metering information collected from each gateway receiving the message of the information collection request according to the priority to the metering server in sequence.

In the remote meter reading system using the gateway and the gateway operating method of the remote meter reading system according to the present invention, even if data communication is performed through power line communication between the gateways, data collision does not occur. There is an advantage that can be obtained more stably the meter reading information.

In addition, by reading the meter information collected from each meter directly to the meter reading server according to the priority set by the master gateway, there is an advantage that the load does not occur in the meter reading server, and thus the meter reading information collected by the meter There is an advantage that can be obtained easily.

1 is a block diagram of a remote meter reading system using a gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram of a gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a master gateway and a slave gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 and 5 are diagrams for explaining data communication between a master gateway and a slave gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings for the present embodiment will be described in detail. However, the scope of the inventive idea of the present embodiment may be determined from the matters disclosed by the present embodiment, and the inventive idea of the present embodiment may be implemented by adding, deleting, or modifying components to the proposed embodiment. It will be said to include variations.

1 is a block diagram of a remote meter reading system using a gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the remote meter reading system using the gateway according to the present embodiment includes a plurality of remote meter meters 111, 112, 211 and 212 for reading power usage from a power user and a gateway 130 and 230 provided with a communication modem for communicating with the meter. And a metering server 500 for storing and managing metering information of each power meter collected by the gateways 130 and 230.

The gateways 130 and 230 are equipped with a PLC communication modem and perform power line communication with the respective electricity meters. In this case, a hierarchical structure of a master-slave is formed between the gateways, and meter reading information collected through power line communication is directly transmitted to the meter reading server 500 by the master gateway 130 and the slave gateway 230.

The remote meter reading system using the gateway of the present invention will be described in more detail.

The meter reading server 500 according to the present embodiment collects power usage information for a plurality of spaces in a single building or collects power usage information collected through a power meter provided in each place for a plurality of places (buildings). Can be collected. For example, when the metering server 500 is used to collect power consumption of a specific building, the gateways 130 and 230 provided for each floor may read metering information from a plurality of power meters 111, 112, 211 and 212 through power line communication. In this case, reference numerals 100 and 200 shown as dotted lines may be spaces on each floor where the gateways are installed.

On the other hand, if the meter reading server 500 of the present embodiment collects the information of the power consumption for a particular urban area, the reference numerals 100 and 200 shown in dotted lines may be a separate building or area, respectively 'S gateways communicate with electricity meters that read power usage in lighting, air conditioning, offices, boilers, etc. via power line communication.

In addition, the meter reading server 500 stores information on power usage for each place / region transmitted from the master gateway 130 and the slave gateway 230, and the user accessing the meter reading server 500 for each time zone In order to easily check the power usage by region, the data stored in the meter reading server 500 may be provided to the user in a table or a graph.

The electricity meters 111, 112, 211 and 212 are used to measure the amount of power used for a device or a region in which power consumption is being made, and the accumulated power amount may be read every predetermined period, for example, every 30 minutes. In addition, the electricity meter may also store information such as power failure, and when there is a request for information transmission from the gateway, in addition to the information on the amount of power used, it may also transmit information such as the date and time when the power failure occurs.

Data is moved between the electricity meter and a gateway that collects power consumption information of an area / area to be managed from the electricity meters. However, these matters are also just one embodiment of the present invention, and it will be possible to perform remote data collection in a Zigbee method.

In addition to the role of connecting heterogeneous or homogeneous networks, a gateway for collecting metering information from respective electricity meters according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 2.

The gateway according to the embodiment of the present invention forms a network such that the data input unit 133 communicating data with at least one electricity meter and the meter reading information collected through the data input unit 133 are transferred to the meter reading server 500. The communication unit 134, a user interface unit 135 for displaying the amount of power used by the user through the home network, and the control unit 131 for controlling the operation of the power supply unit 132 and the gateway. Include.

In detail, the data input unit 133 serves to receive meter reading information transmitted from the electricity meter, and a PLC modem 1332 is provided to perform power line communication with the electricity meters. In particular, according to the present embodiment, priority is determined between the gateways, and the information collected at each gateway is sequentially transferred directly to the meter reading server 500 according to the determined priority. Thus, for data communication between gateways, a communication unit 134 is provided to enable TCP / IP network communication.

In addition, when the power meter supports only serial communication in the data input unit 133, the communication between the serial communication unit capable of RS-485 communication of the multi-drop method and the power meter supporting power line communication is easy. Is done through.

In addition, communication between the gateways and data communication with the remote meter reading server is made through a communication unit 134 capable of wired and wireless communication, the communication unit 134 is a wired or wireless LAN, WAN, etc. that supports wired and wireless communication It is provided to be connected to the network.

As described above, the data transferred from the electricity meters to the data input unit 133 may also be transmitted with information on whether there is a power failure, power failure time, and time in addition to the meter reading information on the amount of power used.

In addition, the controller 131 of the gateway collects meter reading information transmitted through the data input unit 133 and controls it to be delivered to the meter reading server 500 through the communication unit 134.

In addition, the user interface unit 135 may include an IHD (In Home Display) function to provide a user with real-time or periodically used power amount measured from each meter. For example, in case of installing gateways by zones such as offices, public spaces and facilities (toilet, boiler, etc.) in the building, users can check the energy use status if necessary, and also use AMI or Receiving the DR (Demand Response) related screen provided by the building energy management system, it is possible to set appropriate facility operation criteria.

The meter information collected through the gateway through the home network is provided to the user in real time or periodically, so that the user can easily obtain information on the power usage of the lighting, air conditioner, office, boiler, and the like.

For example, when the gateway 130 performs power line communication with electricity meters installed in a home, the amount of power used may be displayed as a graph / chart through a TV or a dedicated terminal through a home network.

On the other hand, many power meters and multiple gateways are often applied to the same power system, and in the power meter communication, a request and response communication procedure according to the OBIS code of the DLMS / COSEM protocol is sequentially performed. In the case of a base, there is a possibility of data collision between multiple gateways. To this end, in the embodiment of the present invention, priorities are determined between the gateways, and thus data collection and delivery are sequentially performed.

3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a master gateway and a slave gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are diagrams for explaining data communication between a master gateway and a slave gateway according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In an embodiment, among the gateways connected to the meter reading server 500, a specific gateway may be set as a master gateway. Here, the setting of the master gateway may be set by an administrator connectable to the meter reading server 500.

After a specific gateway among the plurality of gateways is set as a master gateway, other gateways except the master gateway become slave gateways, and the master gateway stores address information of the slave gateway.

Hereinafter, a case where the first gateway 130 that reads the amount of power used by the lighting and the air conditioner is the master gateway 130 will be described as an example.

The master gateway 130 collects the amount of used power read by the electricity meter every cycle set by the user. At this time, the master gateway 130 transmits a message of the wait time collection request to at least one slave gateway (230,330) (S101).

Here, the standby time of the gateway indicates the total communication time of the electricity meter performing power line communication with the gateway, and each gateway may calculate a time required to collect metering information from the electricity meters connected thereto. For example, a power meter installed in an area where a large number of power meters performing power line communication or a power consumption is always consumed may have a large amount of collected data. Much required. The gateway latency can be calculated by multiplying the quantity of electricity meters connected to the gateway by the collection time (DLMS / COSEM) per unit.

The slave gateways 230 and 330 that receive the gateway latency request from the master gateway 130 return the latency calculated by the master gateway 130 (S102 and S103).

Next, the master gateway 130 determines and executes the priority of each gateway 130, 230, 330, which is composed of the slave gateways 230, 330, including the master gateway 130 itself (S104). The master gateway 130 may give priority to each of the gateways 130, 230, and 330 according to the communication state of the network. For example, when network communication is not smooth, the meter information is collected from the gateway with low latency, so that when the network condition becomes better, the meter information is obtained from the slave gateway with a long latency (high collection data volume). Can be received.

The master gateway 130 may determine the priority of each gateway 130, 230, 330 with reference to the communication history of each gateway 130, 230, 330. For example, lower priority is given to gateways that have not been delivered successfully due to other factors, such as deterioration of meter reading information and deterioration of network conditions, so that sequential metering information collection can be performed more smoothly. have.

After the priorities of the respective gateways 130, 230, and 330 are determined by the master gateway 130, the master gateway 130 requests collection of information to each of the gateways 130, 230, and 330 sequentially. (S105, S107, S109).

Meanwhile, the master gateway 130 may reuse the priorities for which information collection was previously used without determining the priorities of the respective gateways 130, 230, and 330 each time the meter information is collected. That is, the master gateway 130 omits the message delivery of the wait time collection request according to the priority used at the time of collecting the previous data, and sends the request of collecting the meter information to each gateway 130, 230, 330 according to the used priority. You may. In addition, the priority determination by the master gateway is set by the user, or periodically determined by collecting the waiting time of each gateway (130, 230, 330), or reset the priority according to the communication status with each gateway (130, 230, 330) And the like may be variously implemented.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, when the master gateway 130 determines itself as the first priority, the first slave gateway 230 as the second priority, and the second slave gateway 330 as the third priority, 1 The master gateway 130, which is a rank, transmits the used power amount information read by the plurality of power meters connected to the lower portion to the meter reading server 500 (S106).

Then, the master gateway 130 transmits a message of the information collection request to the first slave gateway 230 of the second rank (S107), the first slave gateway 230 in response to the information collection request, The meter information collected from the electricity meter is transferred to the meter server 500 (S108).

Then, the master gateway 130 transmits a message of the information collection request to the second slave gateway 330 of the third rank (S109), the second slave gateway 330 in response to the information collection request The meter information collected from the electricity meter is transferred to the meter server 500 (S110).

As described above, the slave gateways 230 and 330 may start collecting the metering information from each electricity meter after receiving the waiting time collection request and delivering the calculated waiting time to the master gateway 130 in response thereto. In this case, the collected metering information may be delivered to the metering server 500 earlier than the previously calculated waiting time.

That is, each of the gateways 130, 230, and 330 collects meter reading information in the order determined by the master gateway 130 and transmits data directly to the meter reading server 500 through the network.

On the other hand, when data transmission and reception are not performed smoothly due to deterioration of network conditions during data communication between the master gateway and the slave gateway, data transmission and reception may be performed according to a time-out rule. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the master gateway 130 sends a message of a wait time collection request to the slave gateway 230 (S201), or sequentially delivers the information collection request messages according to priority. In the case (S301), the master gateway 130 may not receive necessary information from the slave gateway 230 due to a problem such as deterioration of the communication state.

In this case, when data is not transmitted from the slave gateway 230 within the waiting time set by the master gateway 130 (S202), a message of a communication status confirmation request is transmitted to the slave gateway 230 ( S203). At this time, in response to the message of the communication status check request, the slave gateway 230 transmits communication status information and the calculated waiting period to the master gateway 130 (S204), or collects the meter reading information. Directly to 500 (S302).

On the other hand, even after the master gateway 130 does not receive a response message from the slave gateway for a preset waiting time even after the message of the communication status confirmation request is sent, the master gateway 130 records information on the communication interruption with the corresponding slave gateway, and ranks next. Attempt to communicate with the slave gateway. Here, for a slave gateway that does not perform power line communication smoothly, it may be assigned a lower priority according to the network environment, or may be reflected when determining the next priority.

In the above-described process, the master gateway 130 determines the priority of each gateway 130, 230, 330, and sequentially collects meter reading information at each gateway 130, 230, 330 according to the determined priority, and then directly reads the metering server ( By transmitting to 500, the data transmission between the gateways 130, 230, and 330 does not collide in the process of data communication, so that the meter reading server 500 may more efficiently acquire meter reading information of the electricity meters.

130, 230, 330: Gateway
131: control unit
132: user interface unit
133: data input unit
134: communication unit
500: meter reading server

Claims (5)

A plurality of gateways performing power line communication with the electricity meter measuring power usage, and collecting metering information from the electricity meter; And
A meter reading system consisting of a meter server connected to the network network,
One of the gateways becomes a master gateway, and other gateways except the master gateway become slave gateways.
And the slave gateway delivers the collected meter reading information to the meter reading server when a message for requesting information collection is transmitted from the master gateway. The method of claim 1,
The master gateway,
Prior to delivering the message of the information collection request, the priority of the plurality of slave gateways is determined by using the waiting time for the slave gateways to collect meter reading information, and the message of the information collection request according to the determined priority. Remote metering system using a gateway, characterized in that for delivering. The method of claim 2,
The slave gateways return the time required to collect meter information from at least one power meter connected to the power line communication to the master gateway in response to a message for requesting collection of a time delay transmitted from the master gateway. Remote metering system using gateway. A method of operating the gateway in a metering system comprising a plurality of gateways performing power line communication with an electricity meter measuring power consumption and collecting metering information from the electricity meter, and a metering server connected to the gateway,
Distinguishing the gateways into a master gateway and a slave gateway;
Sending, by the master gateway, a message of a wait time collection request to the slave gateway;
Receiving, by the master gateway, information on a wait time calculated by the slave gateway;
The master gateway assigning a priority to each gateway configured as a slave gateway including the master gateway itself;
Transmitting, by the master gateway, a message of an information collection request requesting transmission of the meter reading information to each gateway according to priority;
And directly reading the metering information collected from each gateway receiving the message of the information collection request according to the priority, directly to the metering server. The method of claim 4, wherein
Upon receiving the message of the information collection request from the master gateway, the slave gateway, together with information on the power usage measured by the electricity meter connected by power line communication, information on the occurrence date or occurrence time of the power failure in case of power failure Gateway operation method of a remote meter reading system, characterized in that for direct delivery to the meter reading server.

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