36results about "Powerline communication systems" patented technology

An apparatus is provided for high frequency multiplexed electrical line communication for cable TV, telephone, internet, security and other control applications over the mid and low voltage power lines and directly through the transformers. The apparatus includes a transmitter, a receiver, a modem, a multiplexer and multiple couplers at each of two or more locations along an electrical line. The couplers have capacitive circuits serially connected with an air-core or dielectric-core transformer. The capacitive circuits resonate with the transformer at a preselected frequency. The coupler eliminates noise and is matched to the characteristic impedance of the line at the preselected frequency, which linearizes communication on the line and allows high speed data and voice communication over long distances. Multiple modulators and demodulators are used to produce multiple modulated carrier frequencies.

Disclosed is a power line broadband communication system having broadband coupler devices capable of direct electrical connection to an energized power line. The coupler includes a conductive portion movable by an adjustable member from a non-conducting retracted position spaced apart from the power transmission line to a forward conducting position in electrical contact with the power line. An insulated arm supports the coupler on the power line. A base on the coupler is engageable with a remotely activated tool in order to accomplish the electrical connection in a safe and secure manner. Broadband data signals are sent to and from customer premises along the shared energized power lines. New coupler connections to the energized power lines allow the additional broadband customers and / or repeaters to join the communication system. Also couplers may provide connections to control electronics, routers, wireless transceivers, and may allow the broadband signals to bypass transformers on the power lines. The invention helps to minimize risk by allowing an installer to be remotely spaced from the energized power line while making the electrical coupling contact with the energized power line.

Low-cost intelligent control and communication devices are arranged to communicate with one another over one or more shared physical media, such as a powerline or a radio frequency band. No network controller is needed, because any device can act as a master, slave, or repeater. Adding more devices makes the system more robust, by virtue of a simple protocol for communication retransmissions and retries.

A system including a wall switch device, a system including a power outlet device, and methods for using are described. In one embodiment, the system includes at least one wall switch device and a wireless transceiver base. The wall switch device is fastened to a wall switch module and communicates with a network. The wireless transceiver base enables communication between the wall switch device and the network via a wireless data transfer protocol.

Data signals are communicated between a power line and a computer, wherein the power line provides power to the computer via a distribution transformer and the computer is in communication with a wireless communication path. A first data signal is communicated with the power line. A conversion is made between the first data signal and a second data signal capable of being communicated wirelessly. The second data signal is wirelessly communicated with the wireless communication path.

A method for communication over a network of power lines (34), including establishing a communication link within a selected frequency band over the network between a first transceiver (32B) coupled to the network and a second transceiver (32C) coupled to the network. The method further includes transmitting a first signal over the link from the first transceiver to the second transceiver at a transmission power level that is sufficiently strong that the signal can be decoded by the second transceiver, but is attenuated sufficiently when it reaches a third transceiver (32E) coupled to the network so that the third transceiver can receive a second signal over the network in the selected frequency band substantially without interference by the first signal.

An in-line power tap device that can be deployed in a data communication network in which two ports of the in-line power tap device are interchangeably coupled between any two communicating nodes to pass in-line power and data signals. The in-line power tap device also has a pair of tap ports that are coupled to external analyzers to monitor the quality of data signals without interrupting the on-going communication between the two communicating nodes. The apparatus allows one to tap into an Ethernet unshielded twisted pair data transmission line, or other source of data transmission, without disturbing the in-line power transmission and to maintain the integrity of data transmitted.

A method for concurrently communicating over each phase of an electrical power distribution network (N). A first outbound signal (SO1) is transmitted over one phase (AN-A) of a bus (S) by an outbound modulation unit. The unit is released as soon as the first outbound signal (SO1) is transmitted so the unit can transmit a second outbound signal (SO2) over a second phase (BN-B or CN-C) of the bus. The second outbound signal is transmitted concurrently with an inbound signal (IB1) sent in response to the first outbound signal (SO1). The unit is again released, as soon as the second outbound signal (SO2) is transmitted, so the unit can transmit a third outbound signal (SO3) over the third phase (BN-B or CN-C) of the bus. This third outbound signal is transmitted concurrently with a second inbound signal (IB2) sent in response to the second outbound signal (SO2). The method allows concurrent communications over all three phases of the network (N).

Disclosed is a power line broadband communication system having broadband coupler devices capable of direct electrical connection to an energized power line. The coupler includes a conductive portion movable by an adjustable member from a non-conducting retracted position spaced apart from the power transmission line to a forward conducting position in electrical contact with the power line. An insulated arm supports the coupler on the power line. A base on the coupler is engageable with a remotely activated tool in order to accomplish the electrical connection in a safe and secure manner. Broadband data signals are sent to and from customer premises along the shared energized power lines. New coupler connections to the energized power lines allow the additional broadband customers and / or repeaters to join the communication system. Also couplers may provide connections to control electronics, routers, wireless transceivers, and may allow the broadband signals to bypass transformers on the power lines. The invention helps to minimize risk by allowing an installer to be remotely spaced from the energized power line while making the electrical coupling contact with the energized power line.

A power supply that includes networking capabilities where networking data is sent and received to and from other systems over the power line and to and from the rest of the system that is being powered over the power supplies output power. The power supply can be included within a system or be external to the system, but in either case, the data from the network is transferred to and from the rest of the system over the same cables that are used to transfer output power from the power supply to the system.

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for reducing inbound interference in a broadband powerline communication system. Data modulated on first and second carrier frequencies is received via respective first and second lines of the powerline system. A characteristic of at least one of the carrier signals (e.g., phase or amplitude) is adjusted at the receiver in order to reduce the effects of inbound interference on the transmission system. The adjustment parameters may be determined by adjusting the parameters, during a period of no data transmission, until the output of a differential receiver is zero.

A coupling apparatus (1) having a mains connection (2) for connection to a low-voltage mains power supply system, and having an appliance connection (3) for connection of any appliance for transmitting and / or receiving an RF signal has a voltage converter (5) and a high-pass filter (6.1, 6.2). The voltage converter converts the mains voltage which is present at the mains connection to a very-low voltage, which is suitable for supplying the appliance connected to the appliance connection. Inductances (4.3 to 4.6) of suitable size are interposed in the appropriate connecting lines as low-pass filters for decoupling the RF signal path from the supply signal path, and for suppressing undesirable, radio-frequency signal components in the supply voltages. RF signals which are transmitted or are to be transmitted via the low-voltage mains power supply system are coupled from the mains connection via the high-pass filter to the appliance connection, and from the appliance connection to the mains connection. In order to supply further appliances with mains voltage, the coupling apparatus has an additional appliance connection (7), which is likewise low-pass-filtered by means of inductances (4.3, 4.4).

A power line communication device for a vehicle is provided with an internal electronic control unit connected to a connection point on a power line, which communicates with an external electronic control unit by a communication signal superimposed on a supply voltage applied to the power line, and an impedance element inserted between the connection point and an external load. The impedance element suppresses attenuation of the communication signal.

During the communication with a house through an electric power line, a control device determines whether an engine is operating or not. If it is determined that the engine is operating, the control device stops the engine and a motor generator to stop the electric power generation by the motor generator using the output of the engine.

A powerline network system. The system includes a power transformer device at a public utility facility. The system has a powerline box coupled to the transformer device. In a preferred embodiment, the powerline box comprises at least three lines including a first phase, a second phase, and a third phase. The first phase, the second phase, and the third phase are derived from the power transformer device. The system has a powerline coupler coupled to the first phase, the second phase, and the third phase and a multichannel data communication device coupled to the powerline coupler. In a preferred embodiment, the multichannel data communication device includes N channels, whereupon N is an integer greater than 8. The system has a first capacitor and a second capacitor coupled to the first phase and a first length of wiring between the first capacitor and the second capacitor. Preferably, the first length of wire is inductively coupled to one or more power line communication devices. The system has a third capacitor and a fourth capacitor coupled to the second phase and a second length of wiring between the third capacitor and the fourth capacitor. Preferably, the second length of wiring is inductively coupled to one or more power line communication devices. The system has a fifth capacitor and a sixth capacitor coupled to the third phase and a third length of wiring between the fifth capacitor and the sixth capacitor. Preferably, the third length of wiring is inductively coupled to one or more powerline communication devices.

A method and system for bidirectional data and power transmission are shown and described. An exemplary embodiment comprises a current receiver, including a microprocessor and a driver, and a plurality of nodes connected to the current receiver through a plurality of wires that allow both power supply and bidirectional data transfer between the current receiver and the plurality of nodes. The use of the plurality of wires for both power and data transmission offers significant advantages over the prior art in terms of weight reduction and system modularity.

An apparatus and method is provided for minimizing frequency distortion in the transmit path of an XDSL modem implementing digital multi-tone (DMT) line code. The current invention provides a means for both determining and correcting for distortion in the frequency domain. The apparatus may be incorporated in an existing X-DSL architecture without additional circuitry. In an embodiment of the invention the apparatus may include a calibration phase which may be implemented using the existing analog-to-digital (ADC) conversion and demodulation capabilities on the receive path of the modem. This calibration phase takes place before the training phase associated with establishing communications with a remote site. During the calibration phase a calibration sequence with known spectral characteristics in the frequency domain is injected digitally at the beginning of the transmit path into each of the tone bins of the inverse Fourier Transform engine (IFFT). The receive path is configured to receive feedback of a resultant analog output signal from the transmit path. A frequency analyzer is used to determine the spectral properties of the feedback from the analog output signal and a normalizer is used to compute a local gain table with gain factors for each tone bin which effect the required normalization.

In one embodiment, a powerline system includes a data connection, a powerline module coupled to the data connection, a physical socket coupled to the powerline module and including a female connector device, a male connector device inserted into the female connector device, and a pair of wires coupled to and extending from the male connector device. The female connector device comprises a first female connector and a second female connector. The male connector device comprises a first male connector coupled to the first female connector and a second male connector coupled to the second female connector. The first wire of the pair of wires is coupled to and extending from the first male connector, and the second wire of the pair of wires is coupled to and extending from the second male connector respectively.

A system and method for a distribution network is provided wherein cascaded power amplifiers with bypass switching are disposed along the branches of the network. The amplifiers may have an RF modem and a programmable digital computer that enables communication with a headend or a controlling computer as well as a bypass switch control for disabling the amplification function of the amplifiers. The amplifier may have a wireless communication system for communicating with individual subscriber's homes and communicating with a neighboring amplifier system for use in emergency situations or during installation and configuration of the network. The network comprised of the amplifiers may have redundant signal paths, using the wireless communication devices of the amplifiers, which may be used as backup signal paths for certain communications requiring high uptime such as telephony.

There is provided a method for blocking a portion of energy of a signal in a power line. The method includes equipping a high frequency magnetic core with a coil, connecting a capacitor across terminals of the coil to create a resonant circuit that resonates at a frequency of the signal, and placing the magnetic core around the power line, at a location where the blocking is desired.

The invention relates to a method for ensuring communication of an electric power circuit in fault and maintenance states. A to-be-detected electric power circuit used for electric power circuit communication and a communication module arranged on the to-be-detected electric power circuit are provided. The communication module comprises a coupler which is coupled to the to-be-detected electric power circuit, a far-distance electric power circuit broadband communication device and a computer terminal. The computer terminal acquires to-be-detected electric power signals of the to-be-detected electric power circuit through the coupler, compares the to-be-detected electric power signals with reference electric power signals in the computer terminal and judges current operation states of the to-be-detected electric power circuit. The computer terminal adjusts electric power carrier sending power of the electric power signals according to the current operation states of the to-be-detected electric power circuit by controlling the far-distance electric power circuit broadband communication device, and injects the signals into the to-be-detected electric power circuit, so electric power circuit communication of the to-be-detected electric power circuit is ensured.

A powerline system including non-intrusive coupling for powerline communications. The system has a powerline module couple to a data connection. In a specific embodiment, the powerline module is configured to process a first data signal in a first format to a second data signal in a second format, which is an OFDM format capable of being configured for transmission through one or more powerline cables. The system has a physical socket coupled to the powerline module. In a specific embodiment, the physical socket has a female connector device, which includes at least a first connector and a second connector. In a specific embodiment, the first connector and the second connector are electrically coupled to the second data signal in the second format. The system also has a male connector device, which is inserted into the female connector device. The male connector includes at least a first male connector and a second male connector are coupled respectively to the first connector and the second connector. In a specific embodiment, a first wire coupled to the first male connector and a second wire coupled to the second male connector. In a preferred embodiment, the system includes a twisted pair of wires including at least the first wire and the second wire. Preferably, the twisted pair of wires extend from the male connector and have a length of no greater than fifty feet, but can be other lengths depending upon the specific embodiment.

The invention belongs to the power transmission and transformation technical field and relates to a household power grid. The household power grid comprises a power line, a plurality of electrical appliances connected with the power line and controllers corresponding to the electrical appliances; the household power grid further comprises a field control unit and a central control unit; the field control unit comprises a modulator connected with the controllers and a demodulator connected with the electrical appliances, wherein the modulator is used for generating and transmitting switch control signals, and the demodulator is used for receiving and extracting electrical appliance control signals; the central control unit is connected with the modulator and demodulator and is used for receiving the switch control signals of the modulator, generating corresponding on-off control signals, and sending the on-off control signals to the demodulator; the demodulator receives the on-off control signals and adopts the same as the electrical appliance control signals. The household power grid has the advantages of simple and easily-editable control logic, high security, low cost and so on.

Data signals are communicated between a power line and a computer, wherein the power line provides power to the computer via a distribution transformer and the computer is in communication with a wireless communication path. A first data signal is communicated with the power line. A conversion is made between the first data signal and a second data signal capable of being communicated wirelessly. The second data signal is wirelessly communicated with the wireless communication path.

The invention belongs to the technical field of communication, and particularly relates to a network communication system, method and device based on a power line. The system comprises a control center which is used for sending a control command and controlling a wire channel selected during data transmission; the data base station is used for receiving far-end data and sending the data accordingto a command of the control center; the self-adaptive modulation sending end is used for carrying out self-adaptive modulation on the data sent by the data base station; the step-down transformer is used for carrying out step-down on the electric wire channel, and the first data encryption device is used for carrying out first encryption on data sent to the first electric wire channel; the seconddata encryption device is used for carrying out secondary encryption on the data sent to the second electric wire channel; and the third data encryption device is used for encrypting the data sent tothe third telecommunication channel for the third time. And the method has the advantages of high safety and high efficiency.

A transmission line set includes male plug transmission lines, having a first protruding portion and a second protruding portion, a third groove in a ring-shape formed between the first protrusion portion and the second protruding portion, at least two upper conductive interfaces and at least two lower conductive interfaces being symmetrically conductive with each other at opposite angles; and female plug transmission lines, having a third protruding portion and a fourth protruding portion, a fourth protruding portion formed in a ring shape and a second recess formed between the fourth protruding portion and the third protrusion, at least two upper conductive elastic sheets and at least two lower conductive elastic sheets being symmetrically conductive with each other at opposite angles.

The invention discloses an HPLC-based point-to-multipoint network data transmission method and system, and the system comprises a system communication terminal, a gateway and a data service flow part; the system communication terminal and the gateway take a special network processing chip as a main control unit, are associated with an acquisition equipment interface, and perform data transmission through an HPLC, an Ethernet and a 4G communication interface; and the complex environment communication requirement is met. The invention relates to a point-to-multipoint network data transmission method and system based on HPLC, and belongs to the field of electric power communication. An HPLC communication terminal and an HPLC communication gateway can be in butt joint, communication transmission can be better carried out under wide butt joint, and the network communication rate requirement of acquisition type terminal equipment with low rate requirement can be completely met; data of equipment in a connectable environment can be collected, the data is transmitted to an HPLC communication gateway through a power cable in a point-to-multipoint mode realized by an HPLC module, and the communication gateway transmits the data to a cloud management platform through 4G wireless.

The invention relates to a method for ensuring communication of an electric power circuit in fault and maintenance states. A to-be-detected electric power circuit used for electric power circuit communication and a communication module arranged on the to-be-detected electric power circuit are provided. The communication module comprises a coupler which is coupled to the to-be-detected electric power circuit, a far-distance electric power circuit broadband communication device and a computer terminal. The computer terminal acquires to-be-detected electric power signals of the to-be-detected electric power circuit through the coupler, compares the to-be-detected electric power signals with reference electric power signals in the computer terminal and judges current operation states of the to-be-detected electric power circuit. The computer terminal adjusts electric power carrier sending power of the electric power signals according to the current operation states of the to-be-detected electric power circuit by controlling the far-distance electric power circuit broadband communication device, and injects the signals into the to-be-detected electric power circuit, so electric power circuit communication of the to-be-detected electric power circuit is ensured.