Multihop Wireless Meter Reading System Failure Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automatic inspection systems using multihop wireless networks for meter reading face inefficiencies due to unnecessary data transfer retries without identifying the cause of communication failures, leading to power wastage in slave devices.
Innovation Solution
An automatic inspection system with a data collecting device and inspection target reading devices that analyze failure causes and retry data acquisition only for specific devices based on identified failure types, reducing unnecessary retries and conserving power by prioritizing data transfer through a multihop wireless network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data transfer is retried without analyzing failure causes in multihop wireless network, then data acquisition reliability is improved, but power consumption of slave devices increases and battery life decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of failure causes before executing retry operations. The master device receives failure cause information from slave devices and determines whether to retry based on this analysis, preventing unnecessary power consumption from futile retry attempts while maintaining reliable data acquisition when failures are transient
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where slave devices transmit failure cause information back to the master device. This feedback enables the master device to make informed decisions about retry operations, balancing reliability requirements with power conservation by only retrying when failure causes indicate potential for success
2Device complexity
If measurement data is transferred sequentially through multihop wireless network, then device complexity is reduced, but communication time increases and power is wasted on unsuccessful transfers
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary assessment of failure causes before initiating sequential data transfer retries. By analyzing why a transfer failed upfront, the system can make informed decisions about whether to proceed with sequential transfer through intermediate devices, reducing wasted communication time while maintaining the simplicity of multihop network structure
Solution Approach 2:
Slave devices autonomously analyze their own measurement data and determine failure causes without requiring complex centralized control. This self-service approach allows each device to independently decide whether to retry data transfer, reducing overall communication time while keeping the network structure simple and decentralized
Data Source
AI summary
A reading device includes wireless slave devices that communicate via a multihop wireless network, a measuring unit that measures the state of an inspection target to generate measurement data, a measurement data analysis unit, and a failure cause analysis unit that analyzes a failure cause when the analysis of the failure cause analysis unit fails. The reading device transmits the measurement data to the data collecting device by associating the measurement data with failure cause information. The data collecting device includes a wireless master device, a measurement data acquisition unit that acquires measurement data from each reading device, a recording unit that records the measurement data when the measurement data is not associated with failure cause information, and a retry control unit that retries data acquisition according to the type of the failure cause when the measurement data is associated with the failure cause information.