Patent ID: 6421354
Filing Date: 2002-07-16
Classification: G05B,G08C,H04L

Abstract:
A data acquisition system, comprising:a network operations center, said network operations center having a transport interface, a dissemination system, a message and command handler, and a message storage module, wherein said message and command handler is connected to said transport interface and to said dissemination system, wherein said message storage module is connected to said message and command handler, wherein said transport interface receives data from a transport system in one of a plurality of predetermined data formats, wherein said transport interface converts the data into a common format if the data is not already in the common format, and wherein said message and command handler receives the formatted data from said transport interface; a communicator, said communicator comprising a processor, a sensor interface, and a transport interface, said sensor interface connected to said processor, said sensor interface connected to said processor, said transport interface connected to said sensor interface and said processor, wherein said sensor interface receives data from a sensor in accordance with a data monitoring instruction, said data in a first format, said sensor interface converts the data into a common format if the data is not already in the common format, and said transport interface receives the formatted data from said sensor interface and transmits the data to a transport system, wherein said data monitoring instruction identifies at least one monitoring parameter, said monitoring parameter selected from a group of monitoring parameters comprising a monitoring frequency, a reporting threshold, and a reporting frequency; wherein the transport system comprises at least two communications paths chosen from a list of communications paths consisting of a cellular transmission path, a satellite cellular transmission path, a publicly switched telephone network, and a pager network; wherein said dissemination system communicates revised data monitoring instructions from a data customer to said message and command handler, and said message and message handler transmits the revised data monitoring instructions to the communicator via the transport system; wherein said dissemination system receives the formatted data from said message and command handler and transmits the formatted data to at least one customer in a prioritized list of customers; and wherein the at least one customer is selected by progressively transmitting the formatted data to the customer with the highest priority on the prioritized list to whom the formatted data has not yet been transmitted until an acknowledgement is received by the network operations center that at least one customer on the prioritized list has received the formatted data.