Edge Gateway Protocol Conversion for EV Charging Session Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing adoption of electric vehicles requires a standardized management system for distributed energy resources, as different charging stations and vehicles use incompatible communication protocols, leading to complexity in payment processing and energy management.
Innovation Solution
A scalable edge hardware system that receives and converts charge data from various communication protocols into a common protocol, creating session entries for each charging session and determining charges by solving a charge curve, enabling interoperability and centralized coordination across distributed energy resources.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If different charging stations use different communication protocols, then each station can operate independently with its own billing system, but interoperability and standardized management across distributed energy resources deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an edge gateway as an intermediary component that receives charge data from multiple charging stations using different communication protocols and converts them into a common protocol. This gateway acts as a mediator between heterogeneous charging stations and the centralized management system, enabling interoperability without requiring each station to support all protocols directly, thus resolving the contradiction between protocol compatibility and system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The edge gateway is designed with multi-functional capability to handle multiple communication protocols simultaneously. It can receive data in various protocols (CAN, LIN, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.) and convert them all to a unified internal protocol, making the system universally compatible with different charging stations while maintaining a single standardized interface for management, thereby achieving adaptability without proportionally increasing complexity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If charge data from multiple protocols is converted to a common protocol, then interoperability improves, but data processing and protocol conversion complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The edge gateway serves as a protocol conversion intermediary that handles the complexity of multiple protocol translations. Instead of requiring the central cloud system to directly communicate with each different protocol, the gateway pre-converts all incoming data to a common protocol format, isolating the conversion complexity to a single component and simplifying the overall system architecture while maintaining interoperability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system architecture is segmented into distinct functional layers: protocol-specific reception modules at the edge gateway, a protocol conversion layer, and a unified data processing layer. This segmentation allows each module to handle specific protocol conversion tasks independently, making the complexity manageable and modular rather than monolithic, thereby enabling interoperability without overwhelming system complexity.
3Productivity
If centralized charge management is implemented across distributed charging stations, then demand management and load shifting capabilities improve, but communication infrastructure requirements and system complexity worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an edge computing dimension between the charging stations and the cloud infrastructure. Instead of direct cloud-to-station communication, edge gateways are deployed at local sites to perform preliminary data processing and protocol conversion. This dimensional addition (edge layer) reduces the communication burden on the cloud infrastructure and enables centralized management capabilities without proportionally increasing communication infrastructure complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The edge gateway acts as a communication intermediary that aggregates and standardizes data from multiple charging stations before transmitting to the cloud. This mediation reduces the total communication traffic and infrastructure requirements compared to direct individual connections from each station to the cloud, enabling centralized demand management while controlling communication infrastructure complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for system for providing an electric vehicle (EV) computing platform that includes an edge environment located at a site that causes the system to perform actions that include receiving first charge data from the edge gateway in a first communication protocol, receiving second charge data from the edge gateway in a second communication protocol, and converting the first charge data and the second charge data into a common protocol. The actions further including creating a first session entry for the first charge session and a second session entry for the second charge session and solving a charge curve associated with the first charge session and the second charge session to determine a first charge to the first energy asset for usage of the first charging station and a second charge of the second energy asset for usage of the second charging station.