PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching method and system based on signal detection

Abstract

The invention provides a PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching method and system based on signal detection, and the method comprises the steps: monitoring effective PRIME signals in a power line environment through a physical layer protocol, detecting BEACON signals in the effective PRIME signals, identifying a current PRIME protocol version through the protocol analysis of the BEACON signals, and carrying out the adaptive switching of the current PRIME protocol version. The method comprises the following steps of: pre-storing two pieces of firmware which respectively accord with PRIME v1.3.6 and v1.4 protocol versions in an internal program storage area of the electric energy meter, calling firmware updating and self-starting related processes based on the identified versions, running the firmware of the corresponding protocol version, and realizing self-adaptive switching and running of the electric energy meter equipment in the current PRIME v1.3.6 and / or v1.4 network; therefore, the self-adaptive compatibility of the network and the equipment of the two PRIME protocol versions can be realized without manual intervention.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This patent relates to the field of power line carrier communications, and in particular to a method and system for PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching. Background Art

[0002] PRIME is an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) power line carrier communication technology standard currently widely used in low-voltage power metering systems. It is developed and maintained by the PRIME Alliance. After several years of development, the PRIME standard version v1.3.6 has been widely used in many countries around the world due to its perfect definition and mature certification. More than 10 million-level electric energy meter products of many equipment manufacturers have been deployed and applied on site. The PRIME network is mainly composed of two types of network nodes, namely the Base Node (BN, master node) integrated in the concentrator device and the Service Node (SN, slave node) integrated in the electric energy meter and repeater equipment.

[0003] In recent years, with the continuous improvement of the AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) system's requirements for the development of smart grids, in addition to the increasing amount of collected data, higher requirements have been put forward for the communication rate, latency, and network stability of the communication system. Therefore, the PRIME Alliance has formulated the PRIME standard version v1.4. Version v1.4 is expanded on the basis of v1.3.6. It maintains the basic protocol architecture of v1.3.6, but has been updated in terms of communication frequency band range, communication reliability, rate, network management efficiency and stability, and data security, and has become increasingly perfect.

[0004] At present, electric energy meter equipment that complies with the PRIME v1.4 standard has been gradually introduced to the market and has begun to be deployed on site. However, due to the differences in the definitions of the v1.4 standard and the v1.3.6 standard protocols, the two are not directly compatible. Although the v1.4 standard defines the backward compatibility feature for forward compatibility with the v1.3.6 protocol, its limitations greatly reduce the network operation efficiency and are not very practical. This means that during on-site deployment, all concentrators, electric energy meters, repeaters and other equipment that comply with the v1.3.6 standard in the entire area must be replaced with equipment that complies with the v1.4 standard at the same time. When individual equipment in the existing area running the v1.3.6 standard needs to be replaced, it is impossible to use the latest products to directly replace it, which greatly reduces the smoothness of the on-site equipment upgrade and increases the deployment and maintenance costs. Summary of the invention

[0005] The purpose of the present invention is to address the problem that when the electric energy meter equipment deployed on site is updated from the v1.3.6 standard to the v1.4 standard, the latest products cannot be used for direct replacement due to protocol incompatibility, and the smoothness of the field equipment update is poor. A method and system for PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching based on signal detection are proposed, which can achieve adaptive compatibility of networks and devices of two PRIME protocol versions without manual intervention.

[0006] The technical solution of the present invention is:

[0007] The present invention provides a method for PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching based on signal detection, comprising:

[0008] Acquire a PRIME signal in a power line environment, wherein the PRIME signal includes a BEACON signal;

[0009] Determine the protocol version of the PRIME network running in the current power line environment according to the protocol analysis result of the BEACON signal;

[0010] Acquire a first firmware and a second firmware that are pre-stored and comply with PRIME v1.3.6 and v1.4 protocol versions respectively, wherein the first firmware and the second firmware have the same interface with the electric energy meter protocol layer;

[0011] If the protocol version is PRIME v1.3.6, running the first firmware;

[0012] If the protocol version is PRIME v1.4, running the second firmware;

[0013] By running the firmware corresponding to the protocol version, the electric energy meter device operates with the correct protocol version in the current PRIME network.

[0014] Furthermore, the PRIME signal in the power line environment is collected through the communication module of the electric energy meter device; and the BEACON signal is extracted from the PRIME signal.

[0015] Further, judging the protocol version of the PRIME network running in the current power line environment according to the protocol analysis result of the BEACON signal includes:

[0016] Performing protocol analysis on the BEACON signal to obtain a protocol analysis result;

[0017] According to the protocol analysis result, it is determined whether the PRIME network running in the current power line environment adopts the PRIMEv1.3.6 protocol or the PRIME v1.4 protocol, and a protocol version determination result is obtained.

[0018] Further, according to the protocol analysis result, it is determined whether the PRIME network running in the current power line environment adopts the PRIME v1.3.6 protocol or the PRIME v1.4 protocol, and the protocol version determination result is specifically:

[0019] Get the length and field position information of the BEACON beacon frame in the PRIMEv1.3.6 and v1.4 protocols;

[0020] Determine the time period of the BEACON beacon frame according to the transmission mechanism characteristics of the BEACON beacon frame; perform statistical analysis on the length and field position information of the BEACON beacon frame within the time period;

[0021] If only BEACON frames of the PRIMEv1.4 protocol type are received, the current power line environment is determined to be the v1.4 protocol version;

[0022] If only BEACON frames of the PRIMEv1.3.6 protocol type are received, the current power line environment is determined to be the v1.3.6 protocol version;

[0023] If two types of BEACON frames are received at the same time, the v1.4 protocol version is prioritized.

[0024] Furthermore, the obtaining of the pre-stored first firmware and the second firmware that comply with PRIME v1.3.6 and v1.4 protocol versions respectively includes: reading the pre-stored first firmware and the second firmware from the memory of the electric energy meter device; the first firmware complies with the PRIME v1.3.6 protocol, and the second firmware complies with the PRIME v1.4 protocol.

[0025] Furthermore, after identifying the PRIME protocol version applicable to the current power line environment, the firmware update and self-start process is called to copy the corresponding version of the firmware from the corresponding storage area to the program running area, and the PRIME protocol firmware is restarted by self-reset.

[0026] A PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching system based on BEACON signal detection, comprising: one or more processors;

[0027] The processor is used to store one or more programs;

[0028] When the one or more programs are executed by the one or more processors, the PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching system based on BEACON signal detection is implemented.

[0029] Beneficial effects of the present invention:

[0030] The present invention obtains the BEACON signal in the power line and analyzes its protocol version to determine the PRIME protocol version currently running in the network. Then, according to the judgment result, the firmware matching the current network protocol version is selected from the pre-stored firmware for operation. Although these firmwares correspond to different versions of the PRIME protocol, they all have the same interface with the electric energy meter protocol layer, ensuring compatibility. By running the firmware matching the network protocol version, the electric energy meter can operate correctly in different versions of the PRIME network and achieve interconnection with other devices in the same area.

[0031] The present invention solves the compatibility problem of electric energy meters in different versions of PRIME networks, improves the adaptability and communication reliability of electric energy meters, and provides technical support for the stable operation of smart grids.

[0032] Other features and advantages of the present invention will be described in detail in the following detailed description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0033] The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent through a more detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals generally represent like components throughout the exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

[0034] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the PRIME network structure is shown.

[0035] Figure 2 A flow chart of a method for PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching based on signal detection is shown.

[0036] Figure 3 A flow chart of BEACON signal analysis and decision of PRIME v1.3.6 and v1.4 protocols according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown.

[0037] Figure 4 A firmware switching flow chart according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0038] The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown in the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that the present invention can be implemented in various forms and should not be limited to the embodiments set forth herein.

[0039] Example 1

[0040] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the PRIME network structure is shown.

[0041] In the PRIME network, according to the standard, the BEACON beacon frame is broadcasted at a certain transmission frequency by the concentrator BN node and each SN node in the relay state of the power meter or repeater. The purpose is to propagate the MAC layer frame structure information of the network so that each node in the network can correctly access the channel of the network.

[0042] In the two protocol versions of PRIME v1.3.6 and v1.4, the physical layer frame format, preamble, modulation method of OFDM symbols, etc. are all different, but the types and formats defined in v1.3.6 are included and supported in v1.4, so that the devices currently supporting the v1.4 protocol have the ability to adaptively receive the physical layer frames of the two protocol versions at the physical layer.

[0043] The length and field position of the BEACON beacon frame defined in the two protocol versions PRIME v1.3.6 and v1.4 are also different. Therefore, the SN node of the electric energy meter can receive the BEACON beacon frame of any protocol version based on the above characteristics, and identify the protocol version to which the currently received BEACON beacon frame belongs.

[0044] Figure 2 A flow chart of a method for PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching based on signal detection is shown.

[0045] like Figure 2 As shown, the present invention provides a method for PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching based on signal detection, comprising:

[0046] Acquire a PRIME signal in a power line environment, wherein the PRIME signal includes a BEACON signal;

[0047] Determine the protocol version of the PRIME network running in the current power line environment according to the protocol analysis result of the BEACON signal;

[0048] Acquire a first firmware and a second firmware that are pre-stored and comply with PRIME v1.3.6 and v1.4 protocol versions respectively, wherein the first firmware and the second firmware have the same interface with the electric energy meter protocol layer;

[0049] If the protocol version is PRIME v1.3.6, running the first firmware;

[0050] If the protocol version is PRIME v1.4, running the second firmware;

[0051] By running the firmware corresponding to the protocol version, the electric energy meter device operates with the correct protocol version in the current PRIME network.

[0052] In this embodiment, a transceiver chip that complies with the PRIME physical layer standard is used to receive signals from the power line environment. According to the receiver processing flow, the signals are identified, demodulated, error corrected, and checked. Then, the BEACON signal is identified according to the PRIME MAC protocol PDU format and reported to the application. If a valid BEACON signal is received, it is determined whether the BEACON signal belongs to the PRIMEv1.3.6 or v1.4 protocol version based on the definition differences of the BEACON frame length and field position. If only the v1.3.6 version of the BEACON signal is received within a certain period of time, it is determined that the PRIMEv1.3.6 protocol network is currently running in the power line environment. If the v1.4 version of the BEACON signal is received within a certain period of time, it is immediately determined that the PRIMEv1.4 protocol network is currently running in the power line environment. According to the previous judgment results, Determine the firmware corresponding to the PRIME protocol version that needs to be run, which is consistent with the DLMS / COSEM protocol layer interface of the electric energy meter; copy the required version of the PRIME protocol firmware from the corresponding location in the electric energy meter firmware storage area to the program running area; through the self-reset operation, reboot the PRIME protocol firmware copied to the program running area to run; after the PRIME protocol firmware runs, the electric energy meter device adopts the PRIME protocol version that matches the current power line environment to achieve interconnection with other devices in the same area; the entire process is automatically completed by software without manual intervention, and the data between each step is interconnected to form a complete closed loop from obtaining physical signals to protocol identification switching

[0053] In one example, a PRIME signal in a power line environment is collected through a communication module of an electric energy meter device; and a BEACON signal is extracted from the PRIME signal.

[0054] In this embodiment, if Figure 3 The PRIME v1.3.6 and v1.4 protocol BEACON signal analysis and determination flow chart is shown; the physical layer frame data is parsed according to the PRIME MAC protocol PDU format, the BEACON beacon frame is identified, and the content of the BEACON beacon frame is extracted; if the current PRIME network protocol version is inconsistent with the PRIME protocol version running in the electric energy meter device, the protocol switching process is triggered; if no valid BEACON beacon frame is detected within the preset time, the PRIME network communication is judged to be interrupted, the electric energy meter device enters the off-grid operation state, and the BEACON signal detection process is regularly executed until the PRIME network is reconnected.

[0055] In one example, judging the protocol version of the PRIME network currently running in the power line environment according to the protocol analysis result of the BEACON signal includes:

[0056] Performing protocol analysis on the BEACON signal to obtain a protocol analysis result;

[0057] Get the length and field position information of the BEACON beacon frame in the PRIMEv1.3.6 and v1.4 protocols;

[0058] Determine the time period of the BEACON beacon frame according to the transmission mechanism characteristics of the BEACON beacon frame; perform statistical analysis on the length and field position information of the BEACON beacon frame within the time period;

[0059] If only BEACON frames of the PRIMEv1.4 protocol type are received, the current power line environment is determined to be the v1.4 protocol version;

[0060] If only BEACON frames of the PRIMEv1.3.6 protocol type are received, the current power line environment is determined to be the v1.3.6 protocol version;

[0061] If two types of BEACON frames are received at the same time, the v1.4 protocol version is prioritized.

[0062] In this embodiment, according to the definition of the BEACON beacon frame in the PRIMEv1.3.6 and v1.4 protocols, the length and field position information of the BEACON frame in the two protocol versions are obtained.

[0063] According to the frame structure length defined in the two protocol versions, the minimum transmission interval of each frame in the typical v1.3.6 protocol is about 618 milliseconds, and in v1.4 it is about 1236 milliseconds. The transmission interval ranges of the BEACON beacon frames in the two protocol versions can be calculated as follows:

[0064]

[0065] Meanwhile, considering that in field applications, signal transmission may fail due to the influence of the power line communication environment, the transmission duration of three BEACON beacon frames is used as the monitoring period (cycle) of the signal.

[0066] Therefore, based on the above definition and calculation, the monitoring period for the electric energy meter device to monitor and determine whether there is a BEACON beacon frame is: 3×39552 milliseconds=118656 milliseconds. Considering the error and implementation convenience, 120 seconds is taken in the program.

[0067] Because in actual application scenarios, PRIME v1.4 is the version expected to be developed and applied, while v1.3.6 is the historical version for forward compatibility, so v1.4 has a higher priority in protocol determination. The monitoring, analysis and protocol determination process of BEACON beacon frames defined by this is as follows: Figure 2 As shown, that is, during the BEACON beacon frame monitoring period, if a valid BEACON frame of the PRIME v1.4 protocol type is received, the current network type is immediately determined to be version v1.4; if a BEACON frame of the v1.3.6 protocol type is received, it is only recorded; at the end of the monitoring period, if only BEACON frames of the v1.3.6 type are found, the current network type is determined to be version v1.3.6; if no valid BEACON frames are received, the monitoring process is terminated directly.

[0068] In one example, obtaining the pre-stored first firmware and second firmware that comply with PRIME v1.3.6 and v1.4 protocol versions respectively includes: reading the pre-stored first firmware and second firmware from the memory of the electric energy meter device; the first firmware complies with the PRIME v1.3.6 protocol, and the second firmware complies with the PRIME v1.4 protocol.

[0069] In this embodiment, as described in the background technology, the two protocol versions PRIME v1.3.6 and v1.4 are not fully compatible, but the protocol architectures of the two are basically the same. In this electric energy meter product, two firmwares that comply with the two protocol versions are implemented according to their respective standards, and the two firmwares have the same interface definition as the DLMS / COSEM application layer protocol in the electric meter.

[0070] At the same time, in the firmware storage space of the energy meter, two areas are allocated to store firmware that conforms to the two protocol versions. In addition to implementing the PRIME v1.3.6 and v1.4 protocols respectively, the two firmwares also implement the same PRIME protocol and the interface handler of the meter DLMS / COSEM application. After determining the current network type, the energy meter SN node can confirm the protocol consistency of the current firmware or switch to another firmware.

[0071] In one example, if Figure 4 A firmware switching flow chart according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown; after identifying the PRIME protocol version applicable to the current power line environment, the firmware update and self-start process is called to copy the corresponding version of the firmware from the corresponding storage area location to the program running area, and the PRIME protocol firmware is rebooted by self-reset.

[0072] In this embodiment, the switching of the PRIME protocol version is completed by switching and running firmware that complies with the v1.3.6 and v1.4 protocols respectively. Through the aforementioned steps, the SN node at the meter end completes the identification and determination of the two protocol versions of PRIME v1.3.6 and v1.4 by monitoring, counting and analyzing the BEACON beacon frame, and then implements the two protocol versions respectively by using two firmwares and partitioning the storage, so that the protocol firmware can be switched when necessary, thereby realizing the adaptive compatibility of the meter product with the two protocol network types.

[0073] Example 2

[0074] The present invention provides a PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching system based on BEACON signal detection, comprising: one or more processors;

[0075] The processor is used to store one or more programs;

[0076] When the one or more programs are executed by the one or more processors, the PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching system based on BEACON signal detection is implemented.

[0077] The embodiments of the present invention have been described above, and the above description is exemplary, not exhaustive, and is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Many modifications and changes will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments.

Claims

1. A method for PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching based on signal detection, characterized in that: include: Acquire a PRIME signal in a power line environment, wherein the PRIME signal includes a BEACON signal; Determine the protocol version of the PRIME network running in the current power line environment according to the protocol analysis result of the BEACON signal; Acquire a first firmware and a second firmware that are pre-stored and comply with PRIME v1.3.6 and v1.4 protocol versions respectively, wherein the first firmware and the second firmware have the same interface with the electric energy meter protocol layer; If the protocol version is PRIME v1.3.6, running the first firmware; If the protocol version is PRIME v1.4, running the second firmware; By running the firmware corresponding to the protocol version, the electric energy meter device operates with the correct protocol version in the current PRIME network.

2. The method for PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching based on signal detection according to claim 1, characterized in that: The PRIME signal in the power line environment is collected through the communication module of the electric energy meter device; and the BEACON signal is extracted from the PRIME signal.

3. The method of PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching based on signal detection according to claim 1, characterized in that: According to the protocol analysis result of the BEACON signal, the protocol version of the PRIME network running in the current power line environment is determined, including: Performing protocol analysis on the BEACON signal to obtain a protocol analysis result; According to the protocol analysis result, it is determined whether the PRIME network running in the current power line environment adopts the PRIMEv1.3.6 protocol or the PRIME v1.4 protocol, and a protocol version determination result is obtained.

4. The method of PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching based on signal detection according to claim 3, characterized in that: According to the protocol analysis result, it is determined whether the PRIME network running in the current power line environment adopts the PRIME v1.3.6 protocol or the PRIME v1.4 protocol, and the protocol version determination result is specifically as follows: Get the length and field position information of the BEACON beacon frame in the PRIMEv1.3.6 and v1.4 protocols; Determine the time period of the BEACON beacon frame according to the transmission mechanism characteristics of the BEACON beacon frame; perform statistical analysis on the length and field position information of the BEACON beacon frame within the time period; If only BEACON frames of the PRIMEv1.4 protocol type are received, the current power line environment is determined to be the v1.4 protocol version; If only BEACON frames of the PRIMEv1.3.6 protocol type are received, the current power line environment is determined to be the v1.3.6 protocol version; If two types of BEACON frames are received at the same time, the v1.4 protocol version is prioritized.

5. The method of PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching based on signal detection according to claim 1, characterized in that: The obtaining of the pre-stored first firmware and the second firmware respectively complying with PRIME v1.3.6 and v1.4 protocol versions includes: reading the pre-stored first firmware and the second firmware from the memory of the electric energy meter device; the first firmware complies with the PRIME v1.3.6 protocol, and the second firmware complies with the PRIME v1.4 protocol.

6. The method of PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching based on signal detection according to claim 1, characterized in that: After identifying the PRIME protocol version applicable to the current power line environment, the firmware update and self-start process is called to copy the corresponding version of the firmware from the corresponding storage area to the program running area, and the PRIME protocol firmware is restarted by self-reset.

7. A PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching system based on BEACON signal detection, characterized in that: include: one or more processors; The processor is used to store one or more programs; When the one or more programs are executed by the one or more processors, the PRIME protocol identification and adaptive switching system based on BEACON signal detection as described in any one of claims 1 to 6 is implemented.

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