Downhole Power Cable Communication via Triplet Encoding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional communication systems over power cables in wells, such as those used for ESPs, fail to reliably transmit data due to bit errors caused by degradation, leading to potential system damage and downtime, as they cannot handle single bit errors in messages exceeding 100 bits.
Innovation Solution
Implementing forward error correction by parsing message bits into pairs, generating a parity bit for each pair, and transmitting these three bits concurrently on separate phases of the power cable, allowing for automatic detection and correction of bit errors, thereby increasing data transmission reliability and rate.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional comms on power protocols are used to transmit data over power cables, then data transmission is achieved, but the system cannot handle bit errors and communication reliability deteriorates due to degradation and noise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments each data bit into multiple transmitted bits by encoding one data bit into three transmitted bits using three different frequencies. This segmentation allows the system to tolerate bit errors during transmission, as the receiver can determine the original data bit even if one of the three transmitted bits is corrupted, thereby improving communication reliability without requiring complex error handling protocols
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the frequency parameter of the transmitted signals by using three distinct frequencies to represent a single data bit. This parameter change enables the system to transmit redundant information in a way that is robust against noise and degradation, allowing error tolerance without increasing message overhead or reducing data transmission rate
2Productivity
If data transmission rate is increased by sending more bits, then productivity improves, but the system becomes more susceptible to noise and attenuation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments one data bit into three transmitted bits using different frequencies, enabling the system to maintain high data transmission rates while protecting against noise. The segmentation provides inherent redundancy that makes the transmission robust against attenuation and interference, allowing productivity improvement without increasing noise susceptibility
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a frequency dimension to the data transmission by using three different frequencies to represent a single data bit. This dimensional change allows the system to transmit data more efficiently and reliably, as the frequency diversity provides protection against noise and attenuation that affect single-frequency transmissions, thereby improving productivity without increasing vulnerability to harmful factors
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for communicating messages over a three-phase power cable between surface equipment and downhole equipment in a well. A transmitter parses messages into data bit pairs and generates a parity bit for each pair (a triplet). The bits of each triplet are concurrently but separately transmitted over the power cable. Each triplet is received from the power cable by a receiver and is decoded to identify the data bits. The receiver may verify the received bits and/or recover a lost bit in each triplet. The data bits are then reconstructed into the original message. Since each triplet has two bits, the effective data rate is twice the data rate of transmitting a single bit at a time. The parity bit enables recovery of data with a bit error rate of up to 1 in 3.