Alarm Filtering by Viewing Authority to Cut Terminal Traffic

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Solution Overview

Problem

The existing alarm management systems experience high communication volume between the server and monitoring terminals due to unnecessary transmission of alarm message information, leading to inefficient data processing and potential overlooking of important alarms.

Innovation Solution

An alarm management system that filters alarms based on filtering conditions, such as viewing authority and desired targets, and identifies updated information to reduce data transmission, with the filtering performed on the alarm management apparatus side and only updated information sent to the monitoring terminal.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the server transmits alarm message information to every monitoring terminal and each terminal judges whether to display based on operator authority, then complete alarm information is provided to all terminals, but the communication volume between the server and monitoring terminals becomes very large

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvealarm information completenessVSAvoidcommunication volume
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The alarm management apparatus performs preliminary filtering of alarm messages before transmission to monitoring terminals. It determines viewing authority in advance and filters out alarm messages that operators cannot view, so that only relevant alarm messages are transmitted to each monitoring terminal. This preliminary action reduces communication volume while ensuring complete alarm information is provided to authorized terminals.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements local quality by customizing alarm message transmission for each monitoring terminal based on the specific viewing authority of operators at that terminal. Each terminal receives a tailored set of alarm messages relevant to its operators, rather than a universal set. This ensures reliability for each local context while reducing overall communication volume.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

2Ease of operation

If all alarm messages are transmitted to monitoring terminals for local filtering, then filtering can be performed on the terminal side, but the communication volume increases due to transmission of unnecessary alarm information

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveterminal-side filtering capabilityVSAvoiddata transmission amount
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The alarm management apparatus performs preliminary filtering before transmission, determining which alarm messages should be sent to each monitoring terminal based on operator viewing authority. This preliminary action eliminates unnecessary alarm messages from the transmission stream, reducing data transmission amount while still allowing terminals to perform their filtering operations on the received subset.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system extracts and transmits only the necessary alarm messages to each monitoring terminal based on specific viewing authority criteria. By taking out only the relevant alarm messages from the complete set and transmitting those, the system maintains terminal filtering capability while minimizing data transmission amount.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentEP3772676B1Alarm management system and alarm management method
Publication Date: 2023.06.14 YOKOGAWA ELECTRIC CORP
  • EP3772676B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3772676B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3772676B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

An alarm management system of the present disclosure includes an alarm management apparatus, a monitoring terminal, and a controller. The alarm management apparatus is configured to generate an alarm based on information received from the controller or receive an alarm from the controller, receive information related to a filtering condition from the monitoring terminal, perform filtering on the alarm based on the filtering condition, and present the alarm subjected to the filtering to an operator via the monitoring terminal.