Abstract:
The present disclosure introduces a simple method for an Automated Meter Reading (AMR) system for determining quantities of a consumed utility product including electric, gas, and water service, using wireless data transfer. To compensate for the frequency drifts of the transmitters, the embodiments of this invention, with minimum pre-processing of the received data, allow for on-the-fly adjustability of the receiver bandwidth by merely changing a pre-calculated weighting function. As such, it is possible to use a fixed size Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), or in particular a fixed N-point Fast Fourier Transform, for signals of different bandwidths.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/970,738 (Attorney Docket No. 101458019US) filed Oct. 20, 2004, which is herein incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0002]     The embodiments of the invention relate generally to an automated meter reading (AMR) system such as automated utility resource measurements, data collection, and exercise of control and notification, and more particularly to mobile or fixed AMR receivers for monitoring of utility consumption.  
       BACKGROUND  
       [0003]     Historically the meter readings of the consumption of utility resources such as water, gas, or electricity has been accomplished manually by human meter readers at the customers&#39; premises. The relatively recent advances in this area include collection of data by telephone lines, radio transmission, walk-by, or drive-by reading systems using radio communications between the meters and the meter reading devices. Although some of these methods require close physical proximity to the meters, they have become more desirable than the manual reading and recording of the consumption levels. Over the last few years, there has been a concerted effort to automate meter reading by installing fixed networks that allow data to flow from the meter to a host computer system without human intervention. These systems are referred to in the art as Automated Meter Reading (AMR) systems.  
         [0004]     A mobile radio AMR system consists of three basic components: an Encoder-Receiver-Transmitter (ERT), a Data Collection Unit (DCU), and AMR Software. The ERT is a meter interface device attached to the meter, which either periodically transmits utility consumption data (“bubble-up” ERTs), or receives a “wake up” polling signal or a request for their meter information from a transceiver mounted in a passing vehicle or carried by the meter reader. The ERT, in response to a wake-up signal, broadcasts the meter number, the meter reading, and other information to the DCU, which is a mobile computer in, for example, the meter reading vehicle. The DCU collects the information from the ERTs for subsequent uploading into the AMR Software system. The AMR Software interfaces with the main system and updates the appropriate accounts of the billing system with the new meter readings.  
         [0005]     Today&#39;s ERT signals are not synthesized and drift in frequency due to temperature changes, location of the ERT modules with respect to the other objects, and internal heating and pulling. The frequency shifts, in turn, create problems for a narrowband receiver. As such, wideband receivers are required to read ERTs, but wideband receivers are more prone to unwanted interference and other problems. One of the possible solutions for this problem is to synthesize the ERT signals as wideband signals. However, it is not possible to read a wideband ERT with a narrowband receiver. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0006]      FIG. 1  illustrates the basic elements and processes of a mobile AMR system.  
         [0007]      FIG. 2  is a high level schematic diagram of the signal path within a typical AMR system.  
         [0008]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram of the windowing, partitioning, overlaping, adding, and the FFT processing of the Weighted Overlap-Add (WOLA) method.  
         [0009]      FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram of an application of four window functions in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.  
         [0010]      FIG. 5  is a flow diagram of the proposed method in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0011]     Embodiments of the present invention relates generally to an AMR system such as automated utility resource measurements, data collection, and exercise of control and notification, and more particularly to AMR receivers that are adjustable to accept signals of different bandwidths. In light of the fact that there is certainly a need for a receiver that can easily and efficiently change its bandwidth to accommodate different transmitters while keeping the computational requirements relatively unchanged, the embodiments of this invention keep the signal processing computational requirements and complexity of the different bandwidths relatively constant. This is done by basic manipulation of the received data prior to Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) or, in particular, prior to Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) operations.  
         [0012]     In the following description, several specific details are presented to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the invention can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or in combination with or with other components, etc. In other instances, well-known implementations or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of various embodiments of the invention.  
         [0013]     The terminology used in the description presented below is intended to be interpreted in its broadest reasonable manner, even though it is being used in conjunction with a detailed description of certain specific embodiments of the invention. Certain terms may even be emphasized below; however, any terminology intended to be interpreted in any restricted manner will be overtly and specifically defined as such in this Detailed Description section.  
         [0014]     Reference throughout the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, implementation, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, uses of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, implementation, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.  
         [0015]      FIG. 1  illustrates the basic elements and processes of a typical mobile AMR system. As illustrated in  FIG. 1 , a passing data-collecting vehicle  102  first sends a wake-up signal  104  to each ERT, such as ERT  106 . Upon the receipt of the wake-up call  104 , each ERT transmits the required information  108 , which is subsequently received by a DCU  110  of the passing vehicle  102 . Afterward, the received ERT signal goes through several signal-processing steps and the embedded data is retrieved from it. Finally, the retrieved data may be uploaded from the DCU  110  to a main system or computer  112  for billing and other purposes.  
         [0016]     In general, if a receiver, such as the one included in the DCU  110 , utilizes an N-point FFT to process a synthesized narrowband ERT signal, the same receiver may use an M×N-point FFT to process another ERT&#39;s signal with a bandwidth M times narrower. Alternatively, a receiver may use the same N-point FFT to merely process every K th  point of the FFT output (where K is an integer multiple of 2), which is called “decimation” of the FFT.  
         [0017]      FIG. 2  is a high level schematic diagram of a signal path within an AMR system. As depicted in  FIG. 2 , a receiver  202  portion of the DCU  110  receives the ERT  106  transmitted signal  108 . As part of the receiving process the received signal is passed through a low-noise amplifier LNA before Radio Frequency (RF) filtering of the signal. The gain of the RF filtered signal will be subsequently controlled by passing it through an automatic gain controller AGC, after which the signal goes through a mixer and filtered again by an intermediate filter of 70 MHz. This signal is again amplified by an IF amplifier before being input to block  204 . After some pre-processing on the signal under block  204  (described below), such as sampling, scaling, parsing, and combining, the resulting data points go through some form of transformation such as under an FFT  206 . Subsequently, the transformed data is decoded and embedded information is deciphered under block  208 , to be later uploaded into the main system  112 . In block  208 , the digital signal processing (DSP) of the data comprises inputs from the channel correlator and an automatic gain controller, before the processed data becomes available on a serial port through a universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter UART.  
         [0018]     Gumas, in his paper titled “Window-presum FFT achieves high-dynamic range, resolution”, which is incorporated by reference, mathematically shows that the mere computation of every M th  point of an FFT output can be achieved by partitioning the M×N data points into M equal data groups (where M is an integer multiple of 2), overlapping and adding them together, and processing the resulting N data points by an N-point FFT. Furthermore, prior to such partitioning, the wideband signal can be multiplied by a window function to scale different segments of its spectrum. It is known to those skilled in the relevant arts that a windowed FFT serves as a filter bank of uniformly spaced and shaped digital filters, and the window itself is the filters&#39; impulse response.  
         [0019]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram of the windowing, partitioning, overlapping, adding, and the FFT processing of the Weighted Overlap-Add (WOLA) method. In  FIG. 3  the sampled data  302  is loaded into an input buffer  304 . During the next step of the process, the data residing in the buffer  304  is multiplied by a weighting function  306 , which represents the windowing process, to produce multiplied data  308 . Subsequent to the multiplication of the buffer  304  data with the weighting function  306 , the multiplied data  308  is partitioned into M groups of data, each having N-data points. Afterward, the M groups are all overlapped and all corresponding data points of all groups are added together to form one resulting group with N-data points,  310 . This N-data-point group resulting from the addition process,  310 , will later enter an N-point FFT (block  312 ) before being decoded (block  314 ).  
         [0020]     Embodiments of the present invention take advantage of this mathematical concept to process a range of narrow to wideband signals by a fixed N-point FFT while the entire computation process remains the same for all bandwidths (except for the value of a multiplier). Each multiplier is a windowing function, which is pre-calculated and stored in a memory. Therefore, the embodiments can process the signals of various bandwidths by performing the exact same operations except for using a different memory content in one of its steps. Therefore, with this method, a mere change of a multiplier adjusts the receiver bandwidth for receiving a wider- or a narrower-band signal.  
         [0021]      FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram of the application of four window functions in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment an input buffer  304  is used to hold 4N input data points at all times, regardless of the input signal bandwidth, while an N-point FFT processes the data after it is multiplied by a weighting function, partitioned, overlapped, and added together. For example, if a narrow window is desired for an incoming wideband ERT signal, a window can be formed to only multiply the first N datapoints of the buffer while the other 3N points are multiplied by zeros (or very small numbers),  402 , before partitioning, overlapping, adding, and passing through the N-point FFT. If a wide window is desired for a narrowband ERT signal, a window can be formed to multiply the entire 4N datapoints,  406 , of the buffer before partitioning, overlapping, adding, and passing through the N-point FFT. Yet other windows can be formed to cover 2N data points of the buffer and multiply the rest by zeros or very small numbers, such as that shown at  404 .  
         [0022]     According to this embodiment a fixed size input buffer (e.g. 4N) and a fixed size FFT process (N-point FFT) is used to process a wide range of bandwidths. In effect, this process can reduce any bandwidth by as much as 4 fold. All it requires is to address a memory containing a new pre-calculated window function to multiply with the buffer entries. Data oversampling may be considered to prevent problems such as aliasing.  
         [0023]      FIG. 5  is a flow diagram of the proposed method in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. At block  501  a data collecting unit, such as a DCU, receives the signal transmitted by a data transmitting unit, such as an ERT. At block  502  the received signal is sampled. At block  503  the sampled data enters into an input buffer; for example an M×N-point input buffer, where N is the FFT process size and M is an integer. At block  504  the buffer data content is multiplied by a window (weighting) function which may contain (M−1)N, (M−2)N, . . . , or (M−M)N zeros or very small numbers reflecting the bandwidth. At block  505  the multiplied data is parsed into M groups of N-point data. At block  506  the N-point data groups are combined together, such as being added together in a manner that: the 1 st , (N+1) th , (2N+1) th , . . . , [(M−1)N+1)] th  points of the buffered data are added together and 2 nd , (N+2) th , (2N+2) th , . . . , [(M−1)N+2)] th  points are added together and 3 rd , (N+3) th , (2N+3) th , . . . , [(M−1)N+3)] th  points are added together, up to and including N th , (N+N) th , (2N+N) th , . . . , [(M−1)N+N)] th  points of the buffered data. And, at the block  507 , the result of combining the segments is mathematically transformed to another domain, such as with an FFT process.  
         [0024]     It is important to recognize that the different aspects of the present invention apply to both fixed and mobile receivers, and that the mention of one does not exclude the other. An example of a fixed receiver is an AMR system mounted on an erected pole to facilitate the meter reading of its surrounding utility customers.  
         [0025]     Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense of “including, but not limited to.” Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portions of this application. Where the context permits, words in the above Detailed Description using the singular or plural number may also include the plural or singular number respectively. When the claims use the word “or” in reference to a list of two or more items, that word covers all of the following interpretations of the word: any of the items in the list, all of the items in the list, and any combination of the items in the list.  
         [0026]     The above detailed description of embodiments of the invention is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed above. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the invention are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. Also, the teachings of the invention provided herein can be applied to other systems, not necessarily the system described above. The elements and acts of the various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments.  
         [0027]     All of the above patents and applications and other references, including any that may be listed in accompanying filing papers, are incorporated herein by reference. Aspects of the invention can be modified, if necessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the various references described above to provide yet further embodiments of the invention.  
         [0028]     Changes can be made to the invention in light of the above “Detailed Description.” While the above description details certain embodiments of the invention and describes the best mode contemplated, no matter how detailed the above appears in text, the invention can be practiced in many ways. Therefore, implementation details may vary considerably while still being encompassed by the invention disclosed herein. As noted above, particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspects of the invention should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects of the invention with which that terminology is associated. In general, the terms used in the following claims should not be construed to limit the invention to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Description section explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope of the invention encompasses not only the disclosed embodiments, but also all equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention under the claims. For example the invention is not limited to AMR.  
         [0029]     While certain aspects of the invention are presented below in certain claim forms, the inventors contemplate the various aspects of the invention in any number of claim forms. For example, while only one aspect of the invention is recited as embodied in a computer-readable medium, other aspects may likewise be embodied in a computer-readable medium. Accordingly, the inventors reserve the right to add additional claims after filing the application to pursue such additional claim forms for other aspects of the invention.