Micro-prepayment Water Delivery System Architecture
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Solution Overview
Problem
In developing countries, the urban poor face challenges in accessing affordable and reliable piped water due to high upfront costs and irregular incomes, leading to reliance on expensive and low-quality alternatives, with women and girls disproportionately affected by the burden of water collection and related health issues.
Innovation Solution
A system enabling micro-prepayments for water delivery through a distributed architecture that includes a central server, intermediate gateways, and supply outlets, allowing users to prepay for water using mobile devices, with supply outlets regulating the amount of water dispensed based on prepayment authorizations and using wireless communication networks that do not incur cellular charges.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If monthly billing is used for water delivery, then resource providers can charge users for water delivered, but users with irregular incomes cannot pay and high upfront connection costs are required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the water delivery system into multiple independent components: supply outlets with meters, intermediate gateways, and a central server. The payment system is segmented into micro-prepayments rather than monthly billing, allowing users to pay in small amounts frequently. This segmentation enables both payment accessibility for low-income users and reliable water supply through automated control.
Solution Approach 2:
The system requires preliminary micro-prepayments before water delivery is authorized. Users make small prepayments in advance, which are then stored and used to authorize future water deliveries. This preliminary action eliminates the need for high upfront connection costs while ensuring payment reliability through automated debit from prepaid balances.
2Reliability
If piped water delivery is implemented, then reliable water supply is provided, but high upfront connection costs and monthly billing create barriers for the urban poor
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces intermediate gateways as mediators between the central server and supply outlets. These gateways simplify the overall system architecture by handling local communication and control, reducing the complexity burden on both the central server and individual supply outlets. The intermediary layer enables scalable deployment without proportionally increasing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces manual billing and payment collection mechanisms with automated electronic processing. The central server automatically debits prepaid balances and authorizes water deliveries without human intervention. This substitution of mechanical/manual processes with automated electronic systems reduces operational complexity while maintaining reliability.
3Measurement precision
If supply outlets continuously monitor and control water delivery, then precise prepayment authorization is enforced, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The supply outlets perform measurements and communications periodically rather than continuously. The meter measures water flow and communicates with the gateway at scheduled intervals, rather than maintaining constant real-time communication. This periodic action maintains measurement precision for billing purposes while dramatically reducing energy consumption compared to continuous monitoring.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service through automated authorization and debit processes. Once prepayment is made, the system automatically authorizes water deliveries up to the prepaid amount without requiring continuous external verification. The supply outlet autonomously enforces prepayment authorization by checking local credentials, reducing the need for energy-intensive continuous communication with remote servers.
Data Source
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AI summary
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for delivering resources. The methods, systems, and apparatus include actions of based on measurements of amounts of a resource that are delivered from one or more supply outlets against amounts of value of electronic prepayments that have been authorized by corresponding users of mobile devices for the delivery of the resource at the one or more supply outlets, causing the one or more supply outlets to enable delivery of the resource in aggregate amounts that are not outside amounts of value of electronic prepayments that have been authorized by the corresponding users of mobile devices for the delivery of the resource.