Relative-Adaptive Meter Encoding for Revenue-Grade IoT Packets
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electricity monitoring devices face challenges in transmitting high-precision data over IoT protocols with limited bandwidth, such as LoRaWAN and SigFox, which restricts data packet size and frequency, making it difficult to meet 'revenue grade' accuracy requirements for electrical measurements.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a relative-adaptive decoding (RAD) scheme that adjusts precision based on the probability distribution of measurement values, reserving higher resolution for values close to the baseline and reducing precision for less frequent values, allowing for efficient data transmission in smaller packets while maintaining accuracy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If high-precision data transmission is implemented, then measurement precision is improved, but bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by allocating different precision levels to different data values based on their probability of occurrence. High-precision encoding is applied only to the most probable values (prime band), while less probable values (excursion bands) use lower precision. This resolves the contradiction by making precision local rather than uniform, reducing overall bandwidth consumption while maintaining measurement precision where it matters most.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of precision dynamically based on the probability distribution of measurement values. By adjusting the number of bits allocated to represent different voltage ranges according to their likelihood of occurrence, the system optimizes the balance between measurement precision and bandwidth consumption, transmitting only the necessary amount of data for each measurement scenario.
2Quantity of substance
If data packet size is reduced to fit IoT protocol limits, then bandwidth consumption is reduced, but measurement precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent reduces data packet size by applying local quality encoding where only the most critical measurement ranges (prime band with highest probability) use full precision. Less critical ranges (excursion bands) use reduced precision, fitting within IoT protocol limits while maintaining overall measurement precision for the most likely scenarios.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by encoding only the necessary precision for each measurement value based on its probability. Instead of uniformly applying maximum precision to all values, the system applies precision selectively - full precision for probable values and reduced precision for improbable values - achieving adequate measurement precision with smaller data packets.
Data Source
AI summary
An electricity usage monitor may include a coupling component to couple the electricity usage monitor to monitor an electrical circuit, a meter to measure electricity usage of the electrical circuit, an encoder to receive, from the meter, an electricity usage measurement to generate a measurement transmission based on the electricity usage measurement, and a communication interface configured to receive the measurement transmission from the encoder and to transmit the measurement transmission into a communication network for communication to a destination on the communication network.