Silver Spring Networks, Inc.

Itron Networked Solutions, Inc.

Rosom Corporation

George Flammer

Raj Vaswani

Sterling Hughes

Daniel McKernan

James Pace

Jay Ramasastry

Brian Matsuo

Jay Ramasatry

Donald L Reeves, Iii

Guttorm Ringstad Opshaug

Matthew Rabinowitz

Scott Furman

David Burgess

Andy Lee

Dalton Victor

Harvind Samra

James Alexander Howarth

Daniel Mckernan

Systems and methods for charging vehicles includes at least one mobile device and a utility network management center ('NMC'). The at least one mobile device is configured as an electronic utility device and includes a network interface card (“NIC”). The at least one mobile device is also associated with a utility billing account and at least one utility commodity meter. The utility NMC is configured to communicate with the at least one mobile device and the at least one utility commodity meter over a network, locate the at least one mobile device, and monitor a state of the at least one utility commodity meter. The utility NMC is also configured to determine a usage of a commodity based on the state of the at least one utility commodity meter and bill the utility billing account associated with the mobile device for the usage of the commodity.

Systems and method for charging vehicles

Systems and methods for charging vehicles. In some embodiments, a system includes at least one mobile device and a utility network management center ('NMC'). The at least one mobile device is configured as an electronic utility device and includes a network interface card ('NIC'). The at least one mobile device is also associated with a utility billing account and at least one utility commodity meter. The utility NMC is configured to communicate with the at least one mobile device and the at least one utility commodity meter over a network, locate the at least one mobile device, and monitor a state of the at least one utility commodity meter. The utility NMC is also configured to determine a usage of a commodity based on the state of the at least one utility commodity meter, and bill the utility billing account associated with the mobile device for the usage of the commodity.

Systems and methods for charging vehicles

A method for directing a vehicle to a parking space within an environment is disclosed. The method includes selecting a parking space from a collection of parking spaces within the environment, further selecting one or more lighting devices within the environment based at least on a location of the selected parking space, and sending a signal to the one or more lighting devices to generate a lighting pattern visible to a driver of the vehicle, where the lighting pattern directs the driver to navigate the vehicle toward the parking space. In addition, the vehicle may be navigated using radio navigation algorithms based on beacon signals broadcasted from streetside devices, such as lighting devices or parking meters.

Using lighting and other streetside devices to indicate parking space availability and navigation information

One example embodiment provides a method and system where a node in a utility network registers with one or more access point devices associated with one or more local area utility networks. The utility node generates a unique network address using a network address prefix of a network address associated with the access point device. The utility node registers with a DNS server. Messages sent to the utility node are routed through the access point corresponding to the received prefix used to generate the unique network address for the utility node. The network address for the utility node and access point may be IPv6 addresses and the network address prefix may be an IPv6 prefix, or may be an IPv4 address.

Method and system of providing IP-based packet communications in a utility network

A method and system of operating a utility node to communicate in a wireless utility network are provided. A utility node in the wireless utility network discovers at least two access points each respectively constituting an interface between a wide area network and the wireless utility network. The node discovers at least two access points constituting an interface between the two networks, registers with the discovered access points, and obtains at least two unique network addresses each respectively associated with a corresponding one of the access points with which the node has registered. The node provides the at least two addresses to a back office server which is communication with the wide area network to provide the back office server with at least two routes to reach the node. The at least two routes are respectively associated with a corresponding one of the access points with which the node registered.

Method and system for providing network and routing protocols for utility services

A method and system for providing a network and routing protocol for utility services are disclosed. In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises discovering a utility network, wherein a utility device (for example, a constant powered meter) sends network discovery messages to find the utility network. Neighboring meters are discovered and the device listens for advertised routes for one or more networks from the neighbors. The device is then registered with one or more utility networks, receiving a unique address for each network registration. Also illustrated in this invention disclosure is how each device of a class of devices (for example, battery powered meter) finds and associates itself with another device (for example, constant powered meter). The constant powered meter also registers its associate battery powered meter with the utility networks. The constant powered meter registers itself with the access points and the upstream nodes in the path out of each network. Each upstream node can independently make forwarding decisions on both upstream and downstream packets i.e. choose the next hop according to the best information available to it. The constant powered meter can sense transient link problems, outage problems, and traffic characteristics. It uses the information to find the best route out of and within each network. Each network device thus maintains multi-egress, multi-ingress network routing options both for itself and the device(s) associated with it.

Method and system for providing routing protocols in a frequency hopping spread spectrum network

Apparatus having corresponding methods and computer-readable media comprises a receiver to receive a wireless stereo frequency-modulation (FM) signal comprising a plurality of spectral signal components including a first tone and one or more frequency bands; one or more tone generators each to generate a respective second tone based on a respective one of the frequency bands; a plurality of phase circuits each to measure a phase of a respective one of the first and second tones; and a difference element to determine a phase difference between two of the phases.

Wide-lane pseudorange measurements using FM signals

Growing community of inventors

Cupertino, CA, United States of America

George Flammer