The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 04, 2013
Filed:
Aug. 09, 2007
Quentin Spencer, Champaign, IL (US);
Quentin Spencer, Champaign, IL (US);
Aclara Power-Line Systems, Inc., St. Louis, MO (US);
Abstract
A method for use in a power line communication systems for an electrical distribution system () to quickly and accurately poll electrical meters () installed at user facilities to determine if an outage has occurred at a facility. An outbound communications message is transmitted to the meter at the facility requesting a short response consisting of a bit pattern that is either partially or completely known to the receiver. Any perceived response from the meter is then processed to ascertain whether or not the meter actually transmitted a message. Receipt of a message indicates that an outage has not occurred at that site, while an indication the message was not received indicates an outage has likely occurred. In processing the received message, two types of errors can potentially occur; i.e., a false positive or a false negative.