Fuel gas management integrated system based on IMS platform
By using an integrated gas management system based on the IMS platform, data collection and analysis are performed using sensors and GIS service modules, which solves the problem of low gas management efficiency, realizes comprehensive and real-time monitoring and safety management of the gas system, and improves management efficiency and safety.
Patent Information
- Application Number
- CN202510992047.9
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Applications(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2025-07-18
- Publication Date
- 2025-10-24
- Estimated Expiration
- Not applicable · inactive patent
AI Technical Summary
Existing gas management systems are inefficient, difficult to manage, and lack comprehensive, real-time monitoring and management capabilities.
The gas management system adopts an integrated system based on the IMS platform, which includes an intelligent control and decision-making dispatch center, a basic software architecture layer, and hardware infrastructure. It collects data through semiconductor gas sensors, flow meter sensors, temperature sensors, pressure sensors, and GPS locators, and processes and analyzes the data in conjunction with GIS service modules, data management modules, and workflow engine modules to achieve remote monitoring and management of gas.
It enables comprehensive, real-time monitoring of the gas system, improving the efficiency and safety of gas management, and creating a visualized GIS 3D pipeline model for real-time pipeline management, enhancing the system's safety and convenience.
Smart Images

Figure CN120833073A_ABST
Abstract
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The application belongs to the technical field of data management, and particularly relates to a gas management integrated system based on an IMS platform. BACKGROUND
[0002] IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) platform is an IP (Internet Protocol) based telecommunication architecture, which is specially used for providing multimedia communication services, including voice, video, message, etc. The original intention of IMS is to support IP based multimedia communication, so that users can use unified multimedia services on different access networks (such as cellular networks, Wi-Fi, fixed networks).
[0003] At present, with the acceleration of social informatization, people's work, life and communication, information are increasingly closely related. The informatization society changes people's lifestyle and work habits, and also challenges the traditional residence. The progress of society, technology and economy also makes people's concepts change greatly. People's requirements for home are not only physical space, but also a safe, convenient and comfortable home environment.
[0004] Through the network, not only can the occupants realize the control function of the gas intelligent system, but also allows the engineering personnel to remotely check the working condition of the gas system and diagnose the faults of the system. In some traditional communities, since the gas pipeline enters the house, how to integrate these gas pipelines into the intelligent home through technical improvement has become a major issue. It not only increases convenience, but also increases safety, and has great social benefits. SUMMARY
[0005] The purpose of the present application is to provide a gas management integrated system based on an IMS platform, which strictly controls the pipeline gas system nodes and the flow, pressure and the like under the running state, realizes omnibearing and real-time monitoring, and realizes remote monitoring of the gas, thereby solving the problems of low efficiency and great difficulty in management of the existing gas management.
[0006] To solve the above technical problems, the present application is realized by the following technical scheme: The present application is a gas management integrated system based on an IMS platform, which comprises a wisdom management and control decision scheduling center, a basic software architecture layer, a safety system and a hardware infrastructure. The hardware infrastructure comprises one or more of a semiconductor gas sensor, a contact combustion sensor, a flow meter sensor, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor and a GPS locator. The data collected by the hardware infrastructure is uploaded to the basic software architecture layer through the safety system; The safety system comprises one or more of a firewall, intrusion monitoring and a security gateway. The basic software architecture layer includes a GIS service module, a data management module, a BPM management module and a workflow engine module; the GIS service module is used to obtain geographic data information uploaded on a GPS locator installed on a pipeline to generate a geographic information data service platform; the data management module is used to process gas data collected by a hardware infrastructure; the BPM management module is used to analyze, model, execute and monitor the processed gas data to improve the business process of gas management; and the workflow engine module is a middleware module for business process automation, and is used to define, execute and monitor the business process. The intelligent management and control decision dispatch center includes a gas management system, a gas monitoring system, a video monitoring management system, a pipe network GIS system, a pipe network inspection and maintenance system, a business charge management system, a meter management system, a gas security management system, an engineering vehicle management system, an accident emergency command system, a data visualization system and a KPI decision analysis system.
[0007] As a preferred technical solution, the semiconductor gas sensor is used to detect combustible gas by using the sensitivity of a specific metal oxide semiconductor material; the contact combustion sensor detects combustible gas by catalytic combustion; the flow meter sensor is used to measure the flow of natural gas, converts the flow into an electrical signal output, and realizes real-time monitoring; the temperature sensor is used to measure the temperature change of natural gas and transmit data to the monitoring system; the pressure sensor is used to measure the pressure change of natural gas, provide real-time pressure data, and help users reasonably adjust the supply and use of natural gas; and the GPS locator is installed on a pipeline conveying gas to provide GPS information uploaded to the pipe network GIS system to generate a GIS pipeline system.
[0008] As a preferred technical solution, the data collected by the hardware infrastructure needs to be preprocessed before uploading, and the specific preprocessing operation includes the following steps: Step Y1, data cleaning: including missing value processing, abnormal value processing and repeated data processing; Step Y2, data conversion: normalizing the cleaned data; Step Y3, feature engineering: combining, converting or extracting original features, and converting non-numerical features into numerical features.
[0009] As a preferred technical solution, the specific workflow of the GIS service module is as follows: Step G1: the GPS locator is installed at a turning point of the gas pipeline; Step G2: the GPS locator collects GPS data of the pipe turning point, specifically including longitude, latitude and time information; Step G3: Import GPS into GIS software or Python environment; Step G4: Software keeps all GPS data in the same coordinate system; Step G5: Convert GPS data into point layers on the map; Step G6: Connect trajectory points in coordinate order into lines to form a preliminary pipeline map.
[0010] As a preferred technical solution, the workflow of the BPM management module is as follows: Step S1, data collection and arrangement: The collected hardware infrastructure includes data type, occurrence time, occurrence area, and treatment object. The data is collected and arranged to make a historical gas database; Step S2, data analysis: By statistically analyzing the historical gas data, the abnormal fault trend is analyzed; Step S3, data visualization: The data analysis results are displayed through charts; Step S4, prediction and suggestion: According to the data analysis results, maintenance personnel are dispatched for maintenance.
[0011] As a preferred technical solution, in step S2, the features of the data are fused according to the difference in the change of the hardware infrastructure when the abnormal fault type occurs, and the data is divided into a leakage data set and a blockage data set; according to the integrity of the gas pipeline, the second training set is divided into a high-temperature data set and a high-pressure data set; the real-time data of the gas pipeline to be identified for the abnormal fault type are input into the hybrid model, the trained RNN model architecture is used to extract time series features, and the trained CNN model architecture is used to extract image features; the time series features extracted by the RNN model architecture are fused with the data features extracted by the CNN model architecture for identification of the abnormal fault type.
[0012] As a preferred technical solution, the workflow engine module proposes corresponding workflow suggestions according to the analysis results of the BPM management module, and the specific process is as follows: Step S41: Collect and analyze all historical data of the work maintenance process, and clean and arrange them; Step S42: Use statistical charts and data summaries to preliminarily explore the data; Step S43: According to the analysis purpose and data characteristics, select appropriate models and algorithms, use a part of historical data as a training set to train the selected model, and use another part of data as a test set to verify the accuracy and generalization ability of the model; Step S44: Interpret the analysis results output by the model, and develop corresponding strategies or suggestions according to the analysis results; Step S45: searching for a scheme matching the current demand in the scheme library based on the data analysis result.
[0013] As a preferred technical solution, when a business process needs to be executed, the workflow engine creates a process instance according to the predefined process model, after the process instance is instantiated, the engine assigns the tasks to the corresponding maintenance personnel or gas controller according to the task allocation rules in the process definition; the participants can perform the corresponding operation after receiving the task, the workflow engine records the execution of the task, and decides the next flow direction according to the rules in the process definition; when the maintenance task is executed, the workflow engine updates the state of the process instance in real time, ensuring that all maintenance personnel can obtain the latest process information; during the process execution, the workflow engine determines the branch direction of the process according to the preset condition judgment rules; if an abnormal situation occurs during the process execution, the workflow engine triggers the preset exception handling mechanism to reassign the task or send a reminder notification; when all tasks are executed, the workflow engine marks the process instance as a completed state, and may trigger some subsequent operations, and the completed workflow data is archived and stored; the workflow engine is provided with an API interface for integration with other enterprise application systems, realizing automatic data transmission and seamless connection of the process.
[0014] The present application has the following advantages: The present application strictly controls the nodes of the pipeline gas system and the flow, pressure and the like under the running state thereof, realizes remote monitoring of the gas, forms a visual GIS three-dimensional pipeline model according to the GPS positioning information of the pipeline, realizes visual management of the pipeline in real time, and improves the gas management efficiency and gas safety.
[0015] Of course, any product implementing the present application does not necessarily need to achieve all the advantages described above. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0016] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the following will briefly introduce the drawings needed to be used in the embodiment description. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and other drawings can also be obtained by those skilled in the art without creative labor.
[0017] Figure 1 A structure schematic diagram of a gas management integrated system based on an IMS platform. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0018] With reference to the drawings, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, but not all the embodiments of the present application. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all the other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art without creative effort should fall into the scope of the present application.
[0019] In addition, the technical features involved in each of the embodiments of the present application described below can be combined with each other as long as there is no conflict.
[0020] For the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the present application to be more clear, the following will be combined with the accompanying drawings to further describe the embodiments of the present application in detail. Figure 1 The embodiments of the present application are further described in detail.
[0021] Before introducing the embodiments of the present application, first, the related IMS platform is described.
[0022] The data management of the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) platform mainly involves database structure definition, service data organization, data query execution and transaction processing and so on.
[0023] The following is a detailed introduction to the IMS platform: Definition: IMS is a brand-new multimedia service form, which can meet the needs of terminal customers for more novel and diversified multimedia services. It is considered as the core technology of the next-generation network, and is also an important way to solve the integration of mobile and fixed networks and introduce differentiated services such as voice, data and video triple convergence.
[0024] Core features: Access independence: IMS supports multiple access methods, including fixed telephone networks, mobile telephone networks and the Internet, so that users can cross different networks and use multiple terminals to enjoy the integrated communication experience. This access-independent feature makes IMS a means to integrate mobile and fixed networks.
[0025] Multimedia support capability: IMS not only supports traditional voice call services, but also provides rich multimedia services such as video calls, multimedia messaging and unified communications. These services are all based on SIP (Session Initiation Protocol).
[0026] Protocol standardization: IMS is based on a series of standardized protocols, mainly including SIP, Diameter, etc., which ensures its interoperability in various access technologies.
[0027] In summary, as a telecommunication architecture based on IP network, IMS platform has the characteristics of access independence, multimedia support capability, protocol standardization and so on, and plays an important role in modern communication networks.
[0028] In order to make the purposes, technical solutions and advantages of the present application clearer, the present application will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the present application and not used to limit the present application.
[0029] Please refer to Figure 1 The present application is a gas management integrated system based on IMS platform, which comprises a smart management and control decision-making dispatch center, a basic software architecture layer, a security system and a hardware infrastructure. The hardware infrastructure comprises one or more of a semiconductor gas sensor, a contact combustion sensor, a flow meter sensor, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor and a GPS locator; the data collected by the hardware infrastructure is uploaded to the basic software architecture layer through the security system; The security system comprises one or more of a firewall, intrusion monitoring and a security gateway; The basic software architecture layer comprises a GIS service module, a data management module, a BPM management module and a workflow engine module; the GIS service module is used to obtain geographic data information uploaded by the GPS locator installed on the pipeline to generate a geographic information data service platform; the data management module is used to process the gas data collected by the hardware infrastructure; the BPM management module is used to analyze, model, execute and monitor the processed gas data to improve the business process of gas management; the workflow engine module is a middleware module for business process automation, which is used to define, execute and monitor the business process for support; The smart management and control decision-making dispatch center comprises a gas management system, a gas monitoring system, a video monitoring management system, a pipe network GIS system, a pipe network inspection and maintenance system, a business charge management system, a meter management system, a gas security management system, an engineering vehicle management system, an accident emergency command system, a data visualization system and a KPI decision analysis system.
[0030] Semiconductor gas sensors use the sensitivity of certain metal oxide semiconductor materials to combustible gases for detection. When gas molecules come into contact with the semiconductor surface, it causes a change in the electrical conductivity of the semiconductor, thereby sensing the presence of the gas; contact combustion sensors detect combustible gases through catalytic combustion. When the gas burns under the action of the catalyst, the heat generated causes a change in the resistance of the platinum coil, thereby sensing the gas concentration; flow meter sensors are used to measure the flow of natural gas, converting the flow into an electrical signal output to achieve real-time monitoring; temperature sensors are used to measure the temperature changes of natural gas and transmit data to the monitoring system to help understand the use and efficiency of natural gas; pressure sensors are used to measure the pressure changes of natural gas, providing real-time pressure data to help users adjust the supply and use of natural gas reasonably; GPS locators are installed on gas pipelines to provide GPS information uploaded to the GIS pipeline system.
[0031] The data collected by the hardware infrastructure needs to be preprocessed before uploading, and the specific preprocessing operations include the following steps: Step Y1, data cleaning: including missing value processing, outlier processing and duplicate data processing; Step Y2, data conversion: normalizing the cleaned data; Step Y3, feature engineering: combining, converting or extracting original features, and converting non-numeric features into numeric features.
[0032] The specific workflow of the GIS service module is as follows: Step G1: GPS locators are installed at the bends of gas pipelines; Step G2: GPS locators collect GPS data of pipeline inflection points, including longitude, latitude and time information; Step G3: Import GPS into GIS software or Python environment; Step G4: The software keeps all GPS data in the same coordinate system; Step G5: Convert GPS data into point layers on the map; Step G6: Connect the track points in coordinate order into a line to form a preliminary pipeline map.
[0033] The workflow of the BPM management module is as follows: Step S1, data collection and arrangement: the collected hardware infrastructure includes data type, occurrence time, occurrence area, and disposal object, and the data is collected and arranged to make a historical gas database; Step S2, data analysis: analyze the abnormal fault trend by statistically analyzing the historical gas data; Step S3, data visualization: show the data analysis results through charts; Step S4, prediction and suggestion: send maintenance personnel to maintain according to the data analysis results.
[0034] In step S2, the features of the data are fused according to the change difference of the hardware infrastructure when the abnormal fault type occurs, and the data is divided into a leakage data set and a blockage data set; the second training set is divided into a high-temperature data set and a high-pressure data set according to the integrity of the gas pipeline; the real-time data of the gas pipeline to be identified for the abnormal fault type are input into the hybrid model, the trained RNN model architecture is used to extract time series features, and the trained CNN model architecture is used to extract image features; the time series features extracted by the RNN model architecture are fused with the data features extracted by the CNN model architecture for identification of the abnormal fault type.
[0035] The workflow engine module proposes corresponding workflow suggestions according to the analysis results of the BPM management module, and the specific process is as follows: Step S41: collect and analyze all historical data of the work maintenance process, and clean and organize them; Step S42: use statistical charts and data summaries to preliminarily explore the data; Step S43: select appropriate models and algorithms according to the analysis purpose and data characteristics, use a part of the historical data as a training set to train the selected model, and use another part of the data as a test set to verify the accuracy and generalization ability of the model; Step S44: interpret the analysis results output by the model, and develop corresponding strategies or suggestions according to the analysis results; Step S45: search for a scheme matching the current demand in the scheme library based on the data analysis results.
[0036] When the workflow engine needs to execute a business process, it creates a process instance according to the predefined process model. After the process instance is instantiated, the engine assigns tasks to the corresponding maintenance personnel or gas controllers according to the task allocation rules in the process definition. After the participants receive the tasks, they can perform the corresponding operations, and the workflow engine records the execution of the tasks and determines the next flow direction according to the rules in the process definition. When the maintenance tasks are executed, the workflow engine updates the state of the process instance in real time to ensure that all maintenance personnel can obtain the latest process information. During the process execution, the workflow engine determines the branch direction of the process according to the preset condition judgment rules. If an abnormal situation occurs during the process execution, the workflow engine triggers the preset exception handling mechanism to reassign tasks or send reminder notifications. When all tasks are completed, the workflow engine marks the process instance as complete and may trigger some subsequent operations. The completed workflow data is archived and stored. The workflow engine provides API interfaces for integration with other enterprise application systems to achieve automatic data transfer and seamless process connection.
[0037] The workflow of the KPI decision analysis system is as follows: Data collection and integration: The KPI decision analysis system can automatically or manually collect data from multiple data sources, including equipment management, human resource data, equipment feedback, abnormal data, etc., and integrate these data into a unified platform.
[0038] Data analysis and processing: The system provides powerful data analysis tools that can deeply mine and analyze the collected data, identify key factors affecting performance, and predict future trends through various algorithms and models.
[0039] Performance tracking and evaluation: The KPI decision analysis system can track the collected data of the hardware infrastructure in real time, helping gas management to discover problems and make adjustments in a timely manner. At the same time, the system can also scientifically evaluate performance according to preset KPI indicators.
[0040] Decision support and reporting: The system provides intuitive reports and dashboards that convert complex data into easy-to-understand visual forms, helping management quickly grasp performance status and make decisions. In addition, the system can generate various reports to provide decision support for management.
[0041] The advantages are: improve data accuracy: through automated data collection and integration, KPI decision analysis system can greatly improve the accuracy of data, reduce human error. Realize data visualization: the system is usually equipped with data visualization tools, such as charts, dashboards, etc. These tools can convert complex data into easy-to-understand visual forms. Improve decision efficiency: through real-time data analysis and reporting functions, KPI decision analysis system can significantly improve decision efficiency.
[0042] It is worth noting that in the above system embodiments, each unit included is only divided according to the functional logic, but is not limited to the above division, as long as the corresponding functions can be realized; in addition, the specific name of each functional unit is only for easy mutual differentiation, and is not used to limit the protection scope of the present application.
[0043] In addition, those skilled in the art can understand that all or part of the steps of the above-mentioned embodiments can be completed by programs instructing relevant hardware, and the corresponding programs can be stored in a computer readable storage medium.
[0044] The preferred embodiments of the application disclosed above are only used to help explain the application. The preferred embodiments do not describe all the details and do not limit the application to the specific embodiments described. Obviously, many modifications and changes can be made according to the content of the present application. The present application selects and describes these embodiments in order to better explain the principles and practical applications of the present application, so that those skilled in the art can well understand and utilize the present application. The present application is limited only by the claims and their full scope and equivalents.
Claims
1. An IMS platform-based gas management integrated system, comprising a smart management and control decision-making dispatch center, a basic software architecture layer, a security system and a hardware infrastructure, characterized in that: the hardware infrastructure comprises one or more of a semiconductor gas sensor, a contact combustion sensor, a flow meter sensor, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor and a GPS locator; the data collected by the hardware infrastructure is uploaded to the basic software architecture layer through the security system; the security system comprises one or more of a firewall, intrusion monitoring and a security gateway; the basic software architecture layer comprises a GIS service module, a data management module, a BPM management module and a workflow engine module; the GIS service module is used to obtain geographic data information uploaded by the GPS locator installed on the pipeline to generate a geographic information data service platform; the data management module is used to process the gas data collected by the hardware infrastructure; the BPM management module is used to analyze, model, execute and monitor the processed gas data to improve the business process of gas management; the workflow engine module is a middleware module for business process automation, used to define, execute and monitor support for the business process; the smart management and control decision-making dispatch center comprises a gas management system, a gas monitoring system, a video monitoring management system, a pipeline GIS system, a pipeline inspection and maintenance system, a business charge management system, a meter management system, a gas security management system, an engineering vehicle management system, an accident emergency command system, a data visualization system and a KPI decision analysis system. the semiconductor gas sensor is used to detect combustible gas by using the sensitivity of a specific metal oxide semiconductor material; the contact combustion sensor detects combustible gas by catalytic combustion; the flow meter sensor is used to measure the flow of natural gas, convert the flow into an electrical signal output and realize real-time monitoring; the temperature sensor is used to measure the temperature change of natural gas and transmit the data to the monitoring system; the pressure sensor is used to measure the pressure change of natural gas, provide real-time pressure data and help users reasonably adjust the supply and use of natural gas; the GPS locator is installed on the pipeline conveying gas to provide GPS information uploaded to the pipeline GIS system to generate a GIS pipeline system.
2. The integrated gas management system based on IMS platform according to claim 1, characterized in that, The data collected by the hardware infrastructure needs to be preprocessed before uploading, and the specific preprocessing operations include the following steps:
3. The integrated gas management system based on IMS platform according to claim 1, characterized in that, Step Y1, data cleaning: including missing value processing, outlier processing and duplicate data processing; Step Y2, data conversion: normalizing the cleaned data; Step Y3, feature engineering: combining, converting or extracting original features, and converting non-numeric features into numeric features. The specific workflow of the GIS service module is as follows:
4. The integrated gas management system based on IMS platform according to claim 1, characterized in that, Step G1: the GPS locator is installed at the bend of the gas pipeline; Step G2: the GPS locator collects GPS data of the pipeline inflection point, including longitude, latitude and time information; Step G3: import the GPS into GIS software or a Python environment; Step G4: The software keeps all GPS data in the same coordinate system; Step G5: Convert GPS data into a point layer on the map; Step G6: Connect the track points in coordinate order into a line to form a preliminary pipeline map.
5. The integrated gas management system based on IMS platform according to claim 1, characterized in that, The working process of the BPM management module is as follows: Step S1, data collection and arrangement: the collected hardware infrastructure includes data type, occurrence time, occurrence area, and treatment object, the data is collected and arranged, and a historical gas database is made; Step S2, data analysis: analyze the abnormal fault trend by statistical analysis of historical gas data; Step S3, data visualization: display the data analysis results through charts; Step S4, prediction and suggestion: according to the data analysis results, send maintenance personnel to maintain.
6. The integrated gas management system based on IMS platform according to claim 5, characterized in that, In step S2, the characteristics of the data are fused according to the difference in the change of the hardware infrastructure when the abnormal fault type occurs, and the data is divided into a leakage data set and a blockage data set; according to the integrity of the gas pipeline, the second training set is divided into a high temperature data set and a high pressure data set; the real-time data of the gas pipeline to be identified for the abnormal fault type are input into the hybrid model, the trained RNN model architecture is used to extract time series features, and the trained CNN model architecture is used to extract image features; the time series features extracted by the RNN model architecture are fused with the data features extracted by the CNN model architecture for identification of the abnormal fault type.
7. The integrated gas management system based on IMS platform according to claim 1, characterized in that, The workflow engine module proposes corresponding workflow suggestions according to the analysis results of the BPM management module, and the specific process is as follows: Step S41: Collect and analyze all historical data of the work maintenance process, and clean and arrange them; Step S42: Use statistical charts and data summaries to perform preliminary exploratory analysis on the data; Step S43: Select appropriate models and algorithms according to the analysis purpose and data characteristics, use a part of historical data as a training set to train the selected model, and use another part of data as a test set to verify the accuracy and generalization ability of the model; Step S44: Interpret the analysis results output by the model, and develop corresponding strategies or suggestions according to the analysis results; Step S45: Based on the data analysis results, search for a scheme matching the current demand in the scheme library.
8. The integrated gas management system based on IMS platform according to claim 1, characterized in that, When the workflow engine needs to execute a business process, the workflow engine will create a process instance according to the predefined process model. After the process instance is instantiated, the engine will assign tasks to the corresponding maintenance personnel or gas controllers according to the task allocation rules in the process definition; the participants can perform corresponding operations after receiving the tasks, and the workflow engine will record the execution of the tasks, and decide the next flow direction according to the rules in the process definition; when the maintenance task is executed, the workflow engine will update the state of the process instance in real time to ensure that all maintenance personnel can obtain the latest process information; During the process execution, the workflow engine will determine the branch direction of the process according to the preset condition judgment rules. If an abnormal situation occurs in the process execution, the workflow engine triggers the preset exception handling mechanism, reassigns the task or sends a reminder notification; when all tasks are executed, the workflow engine marks the process instance as complete and may trigger some subsequent operations, and the completed workflow data is archived and stored; the workflow engine provides an API interface for integration with other enterprise application systems, enabling automatic data transfer and seamless process connection.