Common Pool Database for Utility Infrastructure Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Field crews face challenges in accessing and updating utility infrastructure data, as multiple utility databases often lack real-time information, leading to potential accidents and inefficiencies in maintenance and repair operations.
Innovation Solution
A common pool database system that allows for real-time data sharing and updating through mobile devices, utilizing location-based queries to provide localized field information, with layered data access and integrity checks to ensure accurate and secure data management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If field crews access multiple utility databases to obtain complete infrastructure information, then information completeness improves, but system complexity and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple utility databases (electrical, communication, water, sewer, oil and gas) into a single integrated common pool database. This consolidation provides field crews with comprehensive infrastructure information from all utility types through one unified system, eliminating the need to query multiple separate databases while reducing system complexity and access time.
Solution Approach 2:
The common pool database serves as a universal platform that handles multiple functions: storing diverse utility infrastructure data, providing location-based queries, enabling real-time updates, and supporting various field operations. This multi-functional design replaces multiple specialized databases with one versatile system that addresses all information needs.
2Reliability
If field crews use multiple separate utility databases, then data specialization improves, but access time and operational efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
By combining multiple specialized utility databases into one common pool database, the system maintains the specialized data structures and accuracy requirements for each utility type while enabling simultaneous access to all data types through a single interface, thereby improving operational efficiency without sacrificing data accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The common pool database is segmented into distinct utility-specific data sections (electrical, communication, water, sewer, oil and gas), each maintaining its specialized data structure and integrity rules. This segmentation allows the system to preserve data specialization and accuracy while providing unified access that improves overall operational efficiency.
3Loss of information
If real-time data updates are implemented across multiple databases, then information currency improves, but synchronization complexity and error risk increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent consolidates update operations into a single common pool database, eliminating the synchronization problems inherent in multiple separate databases. When data is updated, the change is immediately reflected across all utility types within the unified database, ensuring real-time information currency without the complexity of inter-database synchronization or risk of inconsistent data states.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where data updates are immediately reflected and verified within the common pool database. The unified structure allows real-time validation and consistency checks across all utility data types, ensuring that information remains current while maintaining data integrity through immediate feedback on update operations.
4Loss of information
If location-based queries are implemented to provide localized field information, then relevance of information improves, but query processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The common pool database implements local quality by providing location-specific information tailored to the field crew's current position. The system queries the unified database using location data (GPS coordinates) to retrieve only the relevant utility infrastructure information for that specific geographic area, filtering out unrelated data while maintaining simplicity through the database's organized spatial structure.
Data Source
AI summary
Certain embodiments of the invention may include systems, methods, and apparatus for providing for utility common pool database. According to an example embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for utilizing a common pool database. The method may include transmitting, by one or more networks, one or more queries comprising location data from a mobile device to a server in communication with a database; receiving, from the database by the one or more networks, localized field information based at least in part on the one or more queries; and outputting the localized field information via the mobile device.