PDHMS Surface Unit Data Recovery via Broadband Interface
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional Permanent Downhole Monitoring Systems (PDHMS) face limitations in storage capacity, bandwidth, and time synchronization, leading to data loss during communication outages or capacity overload conditions, which hampers effective reservoir management and control in the oil and gas industry.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of PDHMS surface units with serial and broadband interfaces, volatile and non-volatile storage, and a controller to detect communication failures, allowing for continuous data storage and recovery file transmission without disrupting real-time data acquisition, along with time synchronization capabilities to reassemble data in the correct sequence.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional PDHMS surface units use limited storage capacity, then device complexity is reduced, but data loss occurs during communication outages
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary data storage in volatile memory during normal operation, preparing data for potential recovery before communication failures occur. This allows the system to quickly switch to recovery mode when outages happen, ensuring data is already staged and ready for transmission without requiring complex real-time processing during failures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a broadband interface as an intermediary communication channel between the PDHMS surface unit and the host system. This intermediary provides an additional data path that can handle large volumes of recovered data without disrupting the primary serial communication channel, effectively mediating the data transfer during and after communication outages.
2Productivity
If conventional PDHMS surface units use single serial interface, then device complexity is reduced, but transmission bandwidth is insufficient for large data files
Solution Approach 1:
The communication interface is segmented into two distinct types: a serial interface for continuous real-time data streaming and a broadband interface for bulk data recovery and transfer. This segmentation allows each interface to be optimized for its specific function, with the serial interface handling low-volume continuous data and the broadband interface handling large-volume recovery data, thereby increasing overall transmission productivity without requiring a single complex interface to handle all scenarios.
Solution Approach 2:
The PDHMS surface unit is designed with multi-functional interface capabilities, where the same device can operate with both serial and broadband interfaces simultaneously. This universal design allows the system to adapt to different operational modes (real-time monitoring vs. data recovery) without requiring separate dedicated systems, achieving high transmission rates while maintaining reasonable device complexity through shared hardware resources.
3Reliability
If conventional PDHMS surface units lack time synchronization capability, then device complexity is reduced, but data sequencing becomes problematic during recovery
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a time synchronization mechanism where the host system provides timing reference information back to the PDHMS surface unit. This feedback loop allows the surface unit to adjust its internal timing and stamp data with accurate time references, ensuring that recovered data can be properly sequenced and correlated with host system timestamps without requiring complex autonomous timekeeping capabilities at the surface unit.
4Loss of information
If conventional PDHMS systems discard data during communication failures, then device complexity is reduced, but loss of information occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously stores data in volatile memory during normal operation, preparing it for potential recovery before communication failures occur. This preliminary data staging ensures that when outages happen, the data is already organized and ready for transmission, eliminating the need to discard information while keeping the data management system relatively simple through proactive rather than reactive handling.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a data recovery mechanism that actively retrieves and reconstructs data lost during communication outages. Instead of discarding data during failures, the system uses the broadband interface to recover previously stored data from the surface unit's volatile memory and reconstructs the complete data set at the host system, effectively undoing the data loss that would otherwise occur during communication failures.
Data Source
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AI summary
An apparatus (30), program product, and methods for data management, are provided. An exemplary apparatus (30) includes one or more PDEDVIS surface units (31) each having a serial interface (41) to provide a continuous real-time data stream of captured data, a data storage medium (47, 53) for storing collected downhole process data during a downstream communication link failure, a controller (43) configured to cause the PDHMS surface unit (31) to store recovery data during the downstream communication failure, and a broadband interface (45) to provide recovery file transmission of recovery data stored during the downstream communication link failure. The apparatus (30) can also include a RTU (37) configured to collect the continuous real-time data collected by the PDHMS surface unit (31) and to transmit the collected data to a SCADA system (35), which can function as a time synchronization master for the RTU (37) and PDHMS surface units (31), and which can forward the collected data to other systems.