TWI853173B - Flexibly expand meter management system, method, computer readable medium and head-end subsystem thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a flexibly expand meter management system, method, computer readable medium and head-end subsystem thereof. A meter data collection module collects meter data of meters, a data storage module and a head-end system core module respectively store and manage the meter data, and a northbound system interface module uploads the meter data to a meter data management subsystem. Then, flexibly expands the number of the meter data collection module, data storage module, head-end system core module, northbound system interface module or their micro-services according to demand, so as to increase meter data collection capability of the meter data collection module, meter data storage capability of the data storage module, meter data management capability of the head-end system core module, or meter data upload capability of the northbound system interface module.

Description

Flexible expandable meter management system, method, computer readable medium and head terminal system thereof

The present invention relates to an electric meter management technology, and more particularly to a flexible and expandable electric meter management system, method, computer-readable medium and its terminal system.

Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) systems usually include smart meters, communication systems, and meter data management servers to provide users with energy usage information, allowing users to understand energy usage status and save energy.

The prior art proposes a smart meter and its management system and operation method, a remote server and its operation method, and a management method of an electrical appliance power characteristic database, wherein the management system includes a remote server and at least one smart meter. The smart meter can be coupled to the remote server through a communication network to measure the power of at least one power line to obtain at least one power consumption data. In addition, the smart meter can detect whether a load event occurs. If a load event occurs, the smart meter compresses the power consumption data during the event period corresponding to the load event to obtain the compressed power consumption data, and then uploads the compressed power consumption data to the remote server. The remote server can decompress the compressed power usage data to obtain the decompressed power usage data, and then the remote server can perform load identification based on the decompressed power usage data.

However, this existing technology cannot flexibly expand the number of modules or their microservices, nor does it have the functions of data caching, data exchange or buffer storage, and cannot provide high-performance and high-availability message transmission services. It is also impossible to use virtualization technology and containerization technology to establish, deploy or flexibly expand (add) modules or their microservices, and it is even impossible to use load balancing modules to evenly distribute meter data (packets).

Therefore, how to provide an innovative meter management technology to solve the above problems or provide related functions (technology/services) has become a major research topic for technical personnel in this field.

The present invention provides an innovative flexibly scalable meter management system, method, computer-readable medium and head-end system thereof, which can flexibly expand the number of each module or its microservices, or have data caching, data exchange or buffer storage functions to provide high-performance and high-availability message transmission services, or use virtualization technology and containerization technology to establish, deploy or flexibly expand (add) each module or its microservices, or use a load balancing module to evenly distribute meter data (packets).

The flexible and expandable meter management system of the present invention includes: a plurality of meters and a meter data management subsystem (MDMS); and a head-end system, which has at least one meter data collection module, at least one data storage module, at least one head-end system core module and at least one northbound system interface module, wherein the meter data collection module collects meter data of a plurality of meters, the data storage module stores the meter data of a plurality of meters collected by the meter data collection module, and the head-end system core module manages the meter data of a plurality of meters, so that The northbound system interface module uploads the meter data of multiple meters to the meter data management subsystem, wherein the meter management system can be flexibly expanded to further flexibly expand at least one of the meter data collection module, data storage module, headend system core module and northbound system interface module or the number of their microservices, so as to increase at least one of the meter data collection capability of the meter data collection module, the meter data storage capability of the data storage module, the meter data management capability of the headend system core module and the meter data upload capability of the northbound system interface module.

The head-end terminal system of the present invention is connected to a plurality of electric meters. The head-end terminal system includes: at least one electric meter data collection module, at least one data storage module, at least one head-end system core module and at least one northbound system interface module. The electric meter data collection module collects the electric meter data of the plurality of electric meters, and the data storage module stores the electric meter data of the plurality of electric meters collected by the electric meter data collection module. The electric meter data of the plurality of electric meters is managed by the head-end system core module so that the electric meter data of the plurality of electric meters can be stored by the head-end system core module. The northbound system interface module uploads the meter data of multiple meters to further flexibly expand the number of at least one of the meter data collection module, data storage module, headend system core module and northbound system interface module or its microservices, so as to increase at least one of the meter data collection capability of the meter data collection module, the meter data storage capability of the data storage module, the meter data management capability of the headend system core module and the meter data upload capability of the northbound system interface module.

The flexible expansion meter management method of the present invention includes: providing a plurality of meters, a head-end system and a meter data management subsystem (MDMS), wherein the head-end system has at least one meter data collection module, at least one data storage module, at least one head-end system core module and at least one northbound system interface module; the meter data collection module collects meter data of the plurality of meters, the data storage module stores the meter data of the plurality of meters collected by the meter data collection module, and the head-end system core module manages the plurality of meters. The meter data of the meter can be uploaded from the northbound system interface module to the meter data management subsystem; and the meter data collection module, data storage module, headend system core module and northbound system interface module or the number of their microservices can be flexibly expanded to increase the meter data collection capability of the meter data collection module, the meter data storage capability of the data storage module, the meter data management capability of the headend system core module and the meter data upload capability of the northbound system interface module.

The computer-readable medium of the present invention is applied to a computing device or a computer, and stores instructions to execute the above-mentioned flexible and expandable electricity meter management method.

In order to make the above features and advantages of the present invention more clearly understandable, the following examples are given and detailed descriptions are provided in conjunction with the attached drawings. The following description will partially explain the additional features and advantages of the present invention, and these features and advantages will be partially known from the description or can be learned through the practice of the present invention. It should be understood that both the general description above and the detailed description below are exemplary and explanatory, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.

1: Flexible expansion of the meter management system

10: Electricity meter

20: Wired or wireless network

21: Load balancing module

30: Head terminal system

31: Electricity meter data collection module

32:Register module

321:Registration Center

33: Cache service module

331: Exchange unit

332: Queue

34: Data storage module

35: Headend system core module

36: Northbound system interface module

37: User interface

38: Data storage

40: Electricity meter data management subsystem

51: Physical machine

52:Hardware resources

53: Virtual machine management module

54: Virtual Machine

55:Containerized management module

A:Container

A1: Application

A2: Dependent resources

B1: Service provider

B2: Service consumption side

C1: Information production end

C2: Message consumer

S1 to S3: Steps

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the basic architecture of the flexibly expandable electric meter management system of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the virtualization technology and containerization technology in the flexible and scalable electric meter management system of the present invention;

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the process of the flexible expansion meter management method of the present invention;

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the meter data collection module in the flexibly expandable meter management system and method of the present invention;

Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the registration module in the flexibly expandable electric meter management system and method of the present invention;

Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the cache service module in the flexibly expandable electric meter management system and method of the present invention;

Figure 7 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the data storage module in the flexibly expandable electric meter management system and method of the present invention;

FIG8 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the northbound system interface module in the flexibly expandable electric meter management system and method of the present invention; and

Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the core module of the key head-end system in the flexibly expandable electric meter management system and method of the present invention.

The following describes the implementation of the present invention through a specific concrete implementation form. People familiar with this technology can understand other advantages and effects of the present invention from the content disclosed in this manual, and can also implement or use it through other different specific equivalent implementation forms.

FIG1 is a schematic diagram of the basic structure of the flexible expandable meter management system 1 of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the flexible expandable meter management system 1 may include a plurality of meters 10 that are sequentially (inter) connected or communicated, at least one (such as a plurality of) wired networks or wireless networks 20, a terminal system 30, and a meter data management subsystem (Meter Data Management System; MDMS) 40, etc., and the "plurality" mentioned in the present invention represents more than two (such as two, three, four or five or more).

The head end subsystem 30 may have at least one (or more) meter data collection module 31, a registration module 32, a cache service module 33, at least one (or more) data storage module 34, at least one (or more) head end system (HES) core module 35, at least one (or more) northbound system interface module 36, a user interface (UI) 37, and a data storage 38, etc., and the flexibly scalable meter management system 1 can flexibly expand at least one of the meter data collection module 31, the data storage module 34, the head end system core module 35 and the northbound system interface module 36 or the number of their micro-services according to requirements (such as system requirements or load requirements).

For example, the meter data collection module 31 may be a meter data collection software (program), etc., the registration module 32 may be a register (chip/circuit/host/server), a registration software (program), etc., the cache service module 33 may be a cache server (chip/circuit/host/server), a cache service software (program), etc., the data storage module 34 may be a storage device (data storage module), a storage device (data storage module), a storage device (data storage module), etc. It can be data storage software (program), etc., the head-end system core module 35 can be the head-end system core software (program), etc., the northbound system interface module 36 can be the northbound system interface software (program), etc., and the data storage 38 can be a hard disk (such as a network/cloud hard disk), memory, memory card, data server, database, etc., but is not limited thereto.

The meter data collection module 31 can transmit meter data (packets) of a plurality of meters 10 through at least one (eg, a plurality of) wired networks or wireless networks 20, and collect meter data of a plurality of meters 10 according to a meter communication protocol standard. For example, the wired network may be a fiber optic access (Fiber To The X; FTTx) network, an asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), a leased line, etc., the wireless network may be a wireless fidelity (WiFi) network, a third-generation (3G) mobile communication network, a fourth-generation (4G) mobile communication network, a fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication network, a narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), etc., and the meter communication protocol standard may be a device language message specification/companion specification for energy metering (DLMS/COSEM), etc., but is not limited thereto.

Each microservice (such as different microservices) of the meter data collection module 31, the data storage module 34, the headend system core module 35 or the northbound system interface module 36 can communicate with each other through the registration module 32, and the registration module 32 can centrally register the name, type and location of the microservices of the meter data collection module 31, the data storage module 34, the headend system core module 35 or the northbound system interface module 36 to properly manage the microservices, so that there will be no conflict between multiple microservices due to the flexible expansion of the number of microservices.

The cache service module 33 may have a high-performance data cache, data exchange or buffer storage function of a queue 332 (such as a message queue) to enhance the ability of the microservice of the cache service module 33 to process (large amounts of) meter data of multiple meters 10. In addition, the cache service module 33 may provide data cache, data exchange or buffer storage services to the meter data collection module 31, the data storage module 34 or the northbound system interface module 36, and the cache service module 33 has a request or response function call technology based on the application program interface of the queue 332 (such as a message queue, see FIG. 6).

The data storage module 34 can be connected or communicated with the cache service module 33 and the data storage 38, etc., and obtain the (large amount of) meter data of multiple meters 10 collected by the meter data collection module 31 through the cache service module 33. The data storage module 34 can have a meter data storage function to store the meter data of multiple meters 10 and store them in the data storage 38.

The head-end system core module 35 can be connected or communicated with the data storage module 34 and the user operation interface (UI) 37, etc., and has functions such as analysis, management or statistics (such as statistical report calculation) of the meter data of the plurality of meters 10. The user operation interface (UI) 37 can be connected or communicated with the head-end system core module 35, so that the user can select the meter number and other information of the desired meter 10 through the user operation interface (UI) 37 through the head-end system core module 35. In addition, the head-end system core module 35 can obtain the meter data of the meter 10 to be operated from the data storage 38 through the data storage module 34 according to the meter number and other information of the meter 10 to be operated, so as to analyze, manage (such as add/delete/modify) or perform statistics (such as statistical report calculation) on the meter data of the meter 10 to be operated.

The northbound system interface module 36 can connect or communicate with the cache service module 33 and the meter data management subsystem (MDMS) 40, etc., to obtain the meter data of multiple meters 10 from the cache service module 33, and then the northbound system interface module 36 uploads the meter data of multiple meters 10 to the meter data management subsystem (MDMS) 40 to complete the upload operation of the meter data of the meters 10.

The present invention can integrate the microservices of the meter data collection module 31, the registration module 32, the data storage module 34, the northbound system interface module 36 and the user operation interface (UI) 37 through the head-end system core module 35, and manage the meter data or meter configuration of multiple meters 10. At the same time, the flexibly scalable meter management system 1 can flexibly expand at least one of the meter data collection module 31, the data storage module 34, the head-end system core module 35 and the northbound system interface module 36 or the number of their microservices according to the needs (such as system needs or load needs) to increase the meter data collection capability of the meter data collection module 31, the meter data storage capability of the data storage module 34, and the meter data storage capability of the data storage module 34. At least one of the storage capacity, the meter data management capability of the head-end system core module 35, and the meter data upload capability of the northbound system interface module 36 is conducive to quickly completing operations (actions) such as (large amounts of) meter data collection, data storage, data management, or data upload of multiple meters 10, and can also reduce the additional equipment and labor costs caused by a significant increase in the number of meters 10.

FIG2 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the virtualization technology and containerization technology in the flexible scalable meter management system 1 of the present invention, which is used to provide virtualization and containerization of microservices, and is explained with reference to FIG1.

As shown in FIG. 2 , the flexibly scalable electric meter management system 1 may further include at least one (e.g., multiple) physical machines (PM) 51, a virtual machine management module 53, at least one (e.g., multiple) virtual machines (VM) 54, and a containerized management module 55, and each physical machine (PM) 51 may have at least one (e.g., multiple) hardware resources 52. For example, the hardware resources 52 of the physical machine (PM) 51 may be a processor (such as a central processing unit/microprocessor), a memory (such as a random access memory/cache memory/flash memory), a hard disk, a network card, etc., the virtual machine management module 53 may be a virtual machine management tool (Virtual Machine Manager; VMM), a virtual machine management platform (host/server), a virtual machine management software (program), etc., and the containerized management module 55 may be a containerized management tool, a containerized management platform (host/server), a containerized management software (program), etc., but is not limited thereto.

The virtual machine management module 53 and the containerization management module 55 can respectively use virtualization technology and containerization technology to jointly establish, deploy or flexibly expand (add) at least one of the meter data collection module 31, the data storage module 34, the head-end system core module 35 and the northbound system interface module 36 or their microservices. In other words, the virtual machine management module 53 can divide the physical machine (PM) 51 into at least one (e.g., multiple) virtual machines (VM) 54, and convert the hardware resources 52 of the physical machine (PM) 51 into virtual resources, so that the virtual machine management module 53 can allocate the virtual resources converted from the hardware resources 52 of the physical machine (PM) 51 to at least one (e.g., multiple) virtual machines (VM) 54 according to requirements (e.g., system requirements or load requirements) to complete virtualization, which is conducive to properly allocating and managing the resources of the physical machine (PM) 51, and can also improve the utilization efficiency of the resources of the physical machine (PM) 51. The virtual machine management module 53 can generate or manage at least one (such as multiple) virtual machines (VM) 54, and the containerization management module 55 can generate a container (container) A based on an application (App) A1, and encapsulate the application (App) A1 and its dependency resources A2 in the container A, so that the container A can be reused or moved.

A virtual machine (VM) 54 can execute at least one or more containers A, for example, a container A having a plurality of identical or different applications (App) A1, to achieve the purpose of flexible expansion. Moreover, according to the resources consumed by the application (App) A1 of the container A, the container A can be executed in any one of at least one (such as a plurality of) virtual machines (VM) 54 to form microservices of the meter data collection module 31, the data storage module 34, the head-end system core module 35 or the northbound system interface module 36, and then according to the requirements (such as system requirements or load requirements), the packaged container A can be executed in the virtual machine 54 to complete the meter data collection module. 31. The microservices of the data storage module 34, the headend system core module 35 or the northbound system interface module 36 can be flexibly expanded. Therefore, the container A of the same microservice will not be affected by running in different virtual machines (VMs) 54, so that at least one of the meter data collection module 31, the data storage module 34, the headend system core module 35 and the northbound system interface module 36 or its microservice has flexible expansion and high flexibility.

The present invention uses the microservice architecture, the virtualization technology of the virtual machine management module 53 and the containerization technology of the containerization management module 55 to effectively establish, deploy or flexibly expand (add) the meter data collection module 31, the data storage module 34, the head-end system core module 35, the northbound system interface module 36 or their microservices. Moreover, each microservice of the meter data collection module 31, the data storage module 34, the headend system core module 35 or the northbound system interface module 36 is independently deployed, so it is easier to manage, correct errors or update versions of each microservice, and it is also possible to effectively control the computing resources of the microservices, so as to facilitate the flexible expansion of the meter management system 1. The meter data collection module 31, the data storage module 34, the headend system core module 35 and the northbound system interface module 36 or the number of their microservices can be flexibly expanded. At the same time, the virtualization technology of the virtual machine management module 53 can properly manage the resources of the virtual machine (VM) 54, and run the microservices of the meter data collection module 31, data storage module 34, headend system core module 35 or northbound system interface module 36 on the specified virtual machine (VM) 54 according to the requirements (such as user requirements, system requirements or load requirements), so as to effectively allocate resources and reduce the resource requirements generated by flexible expansion.

FIG3 is a schematic diagram of the process of the flexible expandable meter management method of the present invention, and is explained with reference to FIG1 to FIG2. At the same time, the main contents of this flexible expandable meter management method are as shown in steps S1 to S3 of FIG3, and the rest of the contents are the same as the descriptions of FIG1 to FIG2 above and FIG4 to FIG9 below, and will not be repeated here.

In step S1, a plurality of electric meters 10, a head-end system 30 and an electric meter data management subsystem (MDMS) 40 are provided, and the head-end system 30 has at least one electric meter data collection module 31, at least one data storage module 34, at least one head-end system core module 35 and at least one northbound system interface module 36.

In step S2, the meter data collection module 31 collects the meter data of the plurality of meters 10, and the data storage module 34 stores the meter data of the plurality of meters 10 collected by the meter data collection module 31, and the head-end system core module 35 manages the meter data of the plurality of meters 10, so that the northbound system interface module 36 uploads the meter data of the plurality of meters 10 to the meter data management subsystem (MDMS) 40.

In step S3, at least one of the meter data collection module 31, the data storage module 34, the headend system core module 35 and the northbound system interface module 36 or the number of their microservices is flexibly expanded according to demand to increase at least one of the meter data collection capability of the meter data collection module 31, the meter data storage capability of the data storage module 34, the meter data management capability of the headend system core module 35 and the meter data upload capability of the northbound system interface module 36.

FIG4 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the meter data collection module 31 in the flexibly expandable meter management system 1 and method of the present invention, which is used to provide a method for collecting meter data or flexibly expanding it, and is explained with reference to FIG1 .

As shown in FIG4 , the flexibly scalable meter management system 1 may further include at least one (e.g., multiple) load balancing modules 21, such as a load balancer (Server Load Balance; SLB), load balancing software (program), etc. After being started, the meter data collection module 31 registers with the registration module 32, and the meter data collection module 31 may act as a service provider B1 to provide services, or as a service consumer B2 to call (e.g., remote call) services on the registered service list of the service provider B1 (see FIG5 ).

The meter data collection module 31 can transmit the meter data (packets) of the plurality of meters 10 according to the meter communication protocol standard (such as the Device Language Message Specification/Energy Metering Support Specification; DLMS/COSEM) through at least one (such as a plurality of) wired networks or wireless networks 20. In addition, the meter data collection module 31 can parse the collected meter data of the plurality of meters 10 to transmit the parsed meter data to the subscribed or designated queue 332 (see FIG. 6 ), so as to complete the collection operation (procedure) of the meter data of the plurality of meters 10. If the number of meters 10 or their meter data (packets) managed by the meter data collection module 31 exceeds the load, the number of meter data collection modules 31 or their microservices can be flexibly expanded according to demand (such as system demand or load demand) to increase the meter data collection capability of the meter data collection module 31.

The load balancing module 21 can evenly distribute (distribute) the meter data (packets) of multiple meters 10 to multiple meter data collection modules 31 or their microservices, so that the workload of the meter data (packets) collected by multiple meter data collection modules 31 or their microservices can be maintained average (balanced), and the collection speed of the meter data collection module 31 or its microservice will not be slowed down or interrupted due to excessive transmission flow of the meter data (packets) of the meter 10, nor will the meter data collection module 31 or its microservice be paralyzed due to excessive workload of the meter data (packets) collected by a certain meter data collection module 31 or its microservice.

FIG5 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the registration module 32 in the flexibly expandable meter management system 1 and method of the present invention, which is used to provide a method for service registration, renewal or cancellation of the registration module 32, and is explained with reference to FIG1.

As shown in FIG5 , the registration module 32 can provide a registration function based on Representational State Transfer (REST) to realize the automatic registration and discovery of at least one of the meter data collection module 31, cache service module 33, data storage module 34, headend system core module 35 and northbound system interface module 36 or its microservices. At the same time, any one of the meter data collection module 31, cache service module 33, data storage module 34, headend system core module 35 and northbound system interface module 36 or its microservices can serve as a service provider (provider) B1 or a service consumer (consumer) B2, but the service provider B1 is different from the service consumer B2.

The registration module 32 can establish a registration center 321, so that each service provider B1 can request to register itself to the registration center 321 of the registration module 32 when it is started. For example, the service provider B1 can register information including the host, port number, service version or communication protocol of the service to the registration center 321 of the registration module 32. In addition, the registration center 321 of the registration module 32 can register the services provided by each service provider B1, and the call between multiple (such as at least two) services can be realized without specifying a specific service address, but by initiating a request call through the service name of the service provider B1, but not limited to this.

The service provider B1 can also use heartbeats to continuously indicate to the registration module 32 that it is still providing services to complete the renewal operation (action). If the registration module 32 does not receive the heartbeat of the service provider B1 within a period of time (such as 1 minute or 1 hour), the service provider B1 can be removed from the registration center 321. For example, when the service provider B1 is not operating normally (such as lost or shut down), a service offline or service stop request will be triggered to the registration module 32, so that the registration module 32 notifies the service consumer B2 that the service provider B1 has been offline or stopped, and removes the service provider B1 from the registered service list.

The registration center 321 of the registration module 32 can classify the services registered by the service provider B1 according to the service name of each service provider B1, so as to form or add the services of the service provider B1 into a registered service list. The service consumer B2 can obtain the registered service list of the service provider B1 from the registration center 321 of the registration module 32 to update the information of the services of the service provider B1 regularly (e.g., every certain period of time), and can also consume the required services according to the content of the registered service list of the service provider B1. After the service consumer B2 obtains the registered service list of the service provider B1, it can call the service provider B1 through the service name (such as a remote call), and can also use the built-in load balancing function of the registration module 32 to achieve (achieve) load balancing of calls to each service provider B1 or its service. The registration module 32 can have a client component (such as a JAVA client component) to communicate between multiple (such as at least two) services, making the communication between multiple (such as at least two) services smoother.

FIG6 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the cache service module 33 in the flexibly expandable electric meter management system 1 and its method of the present invention, which is used to provide a method for message exchange or buffer storage, and is explained with reference to FIG1.

As shown in FIG. 6 , the cache service module 33 may have an exchange unit 331 and at least one (e.g., multiple) queues 332, and provide data caching, data exchange, or buffer storage functions based on the Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP). The exchange unit 331 may be, for example, a switch, a switch, or an exchange software (program). Any of the meter data collection module 31 and the data storage module 34 or their microservices can serve as the message producer C1, and any of the data storage module 34, the headend system core module 35 and the northbound system interface module 36 or their microservices can serve as the message consumer C2, but the message producer C1 is different from the message consumer C2.

The message production end C1 can generate a message with a routing key to transmit the message with the routing key to the switching unit 331 of the cache service module 33 for message distribution. At this time, the switching unit 331 of the cache service module 33 can transmit the message to the subscribed or specified queue 332 according to the routing key and the predetermined rules (such as special rules), so that the message consumption end C2 can extract the message from the subscribed or specified queue 332 and then process the extracted message.

If the message consumer C2 is not operating normally (e.g., disconnected or shut down) and cannot extract messages from the queue 332, the cache service module 33 can store the messages in the queue 332 so that the message consumer C2 can extract and process the messages from the queue 332 after resuming normal operation, so that the messages will not be lost due to the abnormal operation of the message consumer C2. Therefore, the number of message production terminals C1 or message consumption terminals C2 (such as meter data collection module 31, data storage module 34, head-end system core module 35, northbound system interface module 36 or its microservices) can be increased according to the needs (such as system needs or load needs) to achieve the purpose of flexible expansion, so that the cache service module 33 has high-performance and high-availability message transmission functions.

FIG7 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the data storage module 34 in the flexibly expandable meter management system 1 and method of the present invention, which is used to provide a method for data storage, query, management or flexible expansion, and is explained with reference to FIG1.

As shown in FIG7 , after being started, the data storage module 34 registers with the registration module 32, and the data storage module 34 can be used as a service provider B1 to provide services, or as a service consumer B2 to call (such as a remote call) the services on the registered service list of the service provider B1 (see FIG5 ). In addition, the data storage module 34 can be, for example, a data storage software or program based on a structured query language (SQL) to provide data storage, query, update or management functions through the structured query language (SQL). When the data storage module 34 is called by multiple service consumers B2, the load balancing function built into the registration module 32 can be used to distribute the call instructions of multiple service consumers B2.

The data storage module 34 can obtain the meter data of the meter 10 from the queue 332 of the subscribed cache service module 33, and perform batch data storage operations (actions) on the meter data of the meter 10 according to the predetermined (specific) meter data volume and time to store them in the data storage 38. When the number of messages in the queue 332 of the cache service module 33 reaches a certain amount or the data storage operation exceeds the predetermined time, the data storage module 34 can take the message out of the queue 332 to store the message in the data storage 38.

The flexibly scalable meter management system 1 can flexibly expand the number of data storage modules 34 or their microservices according to requirements (such as system requirements or load requirements) to increase the meter data storage capacity (data processing capacity) of the data storage module 34, and these data storage modules 34 or their microservices can complete the storage operation (action) of the meter data of the meter 10 by subscribing to the same queue 332. In addition, the data storage module 34 can also receive the call command of the head-end system core module 35 to query the meter data in the data storage 38, and return the meter data to the head-end system core module 35, and then the head-end system core module 35 will analyze, manage (such as adding/deleting/modifying) or statistics (such as statistical report calculation) on the meter data, and then the head-end system core module 35 will present the meter data on the user interface (UI) 37 or the relevant system web page (such as web report).

FIG8 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the northbound system interface module 36 in the flexibly expandable meter management system 1 and method of the present invention, which is used to provide data upload, command forwarding or flexible expansion, and is explained with reference to FIG1.

As shown in FIG8 , after being started, the northbound system interface module 36 registers with the registration module 32, and the northbound system interface module 36 can act as a service provider B1 to provide services, or act as a service consumer B2 to call (such as a remote call) the services on the registered service list of the service provider B1 (see FIG5 ).

The northbound system interface module 36 can provide the function of uploading the meter data of the meter 10, and can also obtain the meter data of the meter 10 from the queue 332 of the subscribed cache service module 33 for parsing or compression, and then upload the meter data of the meter 10 to the meter data management subsystem (MDMS) 40 to complete the meter data upload operation (action). If the number of managed meters 10 increases and the uploaded meter data exceeds the amount that the northbound system interface module 36 can load, the northbound system interface module 36 or the number of its microservices can be flexibly expanded according to the needs (such as system requirements or load requirements) to increase the meter data upload capacity of the northbound system interface module 36.

The northbound system interface module 36 can forward the real-time reading command, meter setting command or demand recovery command from the meter data management subsystem (MDMS) 40 to the headend system core module 35, and then upload the data obtained by the headend system core module 35 according to the real-time reading command, meter setting command, demand recovery command, etc. to the meter data management subsystem (MDMS) 40 to complete the command operation of the meter data management subsystem (MDMS) 40. At the same time, the number of northbound system interface modules 36 or their microservices can be flexibly expanded according to needs (such as system needs or load needs) to increase the data upload or command forwarding capabilities of the northbound system interface module 36.

FIG9 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the key head-end system core module 35 in the flexible expandable meter management system 1 and method of the present invention, which is used to provide a management method for meter data or meter configuration of the meter 10, and is explained with reference to FIG1.

As shown in FIG9 , the head-end system core module 35 can provide management functions for the meter data or meter configuration of multiple meters 10, and perform operations (actions) such as querying the meter data or meter configuration of the meter 10, real-time reading, and command transmission through the user interface (UI) 37, meter data collection module 31, data storage module 34, and northbound system interface module 36.

The user can query the meter configuration of the meter 10 through the user operation interface (UI) 37, or issue a real-time reading command or a firmware update command for a specific meter 10, so that the head-end system core module 35 transfers the real-time reading command or the firmware update command to the meter data collection module 31, and then the meter data collection module 31 sends the real-time reading command or the firmware update command to the meter 10, which is conducive to quickly completing the real-time reading or firmware update operation of the meter 10.

The user can also issue a meter data query command through the user operation interface (UI) 37, so that the head-end system core module 35 transfers the meter data query command to the data storage module 34, and the data storage module 34 queries the meter data from the data storage 38 according to the meter data query command, and then the data storage module 34 returns the queried meter data to the head-end system core module 35 to complete the meter data query, and then the head-end system core module 35 presents the queried meter data in the user operation interface (UI) 37 or a related system web page (such as a web report).

The northbound system interface module 36 can transfer the command from the meter data management subsystem (MDMS) 40 to the headend system core module 35, so that the headend system core module 35 processes the command according to the command type, and then the headend system core module 35 transmits the processed command to the meter data collection module 31 or the data storage module 34 to obtain the corresponding meter data or its packet, and then the headend system core module 35 uploads the meter data or its packet obtained from the meter data collection module 31 or the data storage module 34 to the meter data management subsystem (MDMS) 40 through the northbound system interface module 36.

In addition, the present invention also provides a computer-readable medium for flexibly expanding the meter management method, which is applied to a computing device or computer having a processor and a memory, and the computer-readable medium stores instructions, and the computing device or computer can execute the computer-readable medium through the processor and the memory to execute the above content when executing the computer-readable medium. For example, the processor can be a microprocessor, a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), etc., and the memory can be a random access memory (RAM), a cache memory (cache), a flash memory (flash), a memory card, a hard disk (such as a cloud/network hard disk), etc., but it is not limited to this.

In summary, the flexible expandable meter management system, method, computer-readable medium and head terminal system of the present invention have at least the following features, advantages or technical effects.

1. The present invention can flexibly expand the number of meter data collection modules, data storage modules, headend system core modules, northbound system interface modules or their microservices to complete operations such as (large amounts of) meter data collection, data storage, data management or data upload for multiple meters, and can also reduce the additional equipment and labor costs caused by a significant increase in the number of meters.

2. The present invention has a flexible and scalable meter management function, and can also establish, deploy or flexibly expand (add) meter data collection modules, data storage modules, head-end system core modules, northbound system interface modules or their microservices through virtualization technology and containerization technology. It can also effectively utilize computing resources or significantly reduce the resource requirements generated by flexible expansion, and can also improve resource utilization efficiency and reduce costs.

3. The meter data collection module of the present invention has a flexibly expandable meter data collection function, and can also flexibly expand the number of meter data collection modules or their microservices according to the number of meters managed by the system.

4. The cache service module of the present invention has the functions of data caching, data exchange or buffer storage, and can also provide high-performance and high-availability message transmission services.

5. The registration module of the present invention can provide a registration function and can also effectively manage the communication and work between the meter data collection module, the data storage module, the headend system core module or the northbound system interface module.

6. The registration module of the present invention can centrally register the names, types and locations of multiple (different) microservices to properly manage microservices. It can also enable multiple (different) microservices such as meter data collection modules, data storage modules, headend system core modules or northbound system interface modules to communicate with each other, and can also assist each microservice in finding the registration center it needs to support.

7. The meter data collection module of the present invention can collect meter data of the meter, and can also transfer the meter data of the meter to the cache service module for data caching, data exchange or buffer storage, and the data storage module or the northbound system interface module can obtain the meter data of the meter from the cache service module, and the meter data can be stored in the data storage or uploaded to the meter data management subsystem (MDMS), so as to quickly or efficiently complete the meter reading operation.

8. The transmission of meter data (packets) between multiple meter data collection modules of the present invention can utilize a load balancing module to evenly distribute meter data (packets), which is helpful to avoid overload caused by excessive concentration of meter data (packets) on a single or a few meter data collection modules.

9. If the number of packets of electricity meters or their electricity meter data increases, causing a single or a few electricity meter data collection modules to be overloaded and discard packets or packet congestion, the present invention can flexibly expand (increase) the electricity meter data collection module or its microservices to cope with the increased number of electricity meters (electricity meter data) or packets, and there is no need to make additional adjustments to the system architecture.

10. The present invention can be applied to equipment such as AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) smart electricity meters, smart power grids, distribution transformers, smart water meters, etc., to solve the problem of additional equipment and labor costs caused by the increase in the number of equipment.

The above implementation forms are only illustrative of the principles, features and effects of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of implementation of the present invention. Anyone familiar with this technology can modify and change the above implementation forms without violating the spirit and scope of the present invention. Any equivalent changes and modifications completed using the content disclosed by the present invention should still be covered by the scope of the patent application. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention should be as listed in the scope of the patent application.

1: Flexible expansion of the meter management system

10: Electricity meter

20: Wired or wireless network

30: Head terminal system

31: Electricity meter data collection module

32:Register module

33: Cache service module

34: Data storage module

35: Headend system core module

36: Northbound system interface module

37: User interface

38: Data storage

40: Electricity meter data management subsystem

Claims (20)

A flexible and expandable electric meter management system includes: a plurality of electric meters and an electric meter data management subsystem; a head terminal system, which has a plurality of electric meter data collection modules, at least one data storage module, at least one head end system core module and at least one northbound system interface module, wherein the plurality of electric meter data collection modules of the head terminal system collect the electric meter data of the plurality of electric meters, and the data storage module of the head terminal system stores the data of the plurality of electric meters collected by the plurality of electric meter data collection modules. The head-end system core module of the head-end system manages the meter data of the plurality of meters, so that the northbound system interface module of the head-end system uploads the meter data of the plurality of meters to the meter data management subsystem; and a load balancing module, a virtual machine management module and a containerized management module, the load balancing module evenly distributes the meter data or packets of the plurality of meters to the plurality of meter data collection modules of the head-end system, so that the virtual machine management module and the containerized management module can be used to manage the meter data or packets of the plurality of meters. The containerized management module uses virtualization technology and containerized technology to flexibly expand the number of the plurality of meter data collection modules having meter data or packets of the plurality of meters evenly distributed by the load balancing module, and the virtual machine management module and the containerized management module use the virtualization technology and the containerized technology to flexibly expand the number of the data storage modules of the head-end subsystem, the number of the head-end system core modules, and the number of the northbound system interface modules, so that the virtual The virtualization technology of the machine management module and the containerization technology of the containerization management module are used together to flexibly expand the number of the multiple meter data collection modules, the data storage module, the head-end system core module and the northbound system interface module of the head-end subsystem to increase the meter data collection capability of the multiple meter data collection modules, the meter data storage capability of the data storage module, the meter data management capability of the head-end system core module and the meter data upload capability of the northbound system interface module. As described in claim 1, the flexibly expandable meter management system, wherein the head-end system further has a registration module, and any one of the meter data collection module, the data storage module, the head-end system core module and the northbound system interface module or its microservice serves as a service provider, wherein the registration module establishes a registration center for each service provider to register with the registration center of the registration module when it is started, and then the registration center of the registration module registers the services provided by each service provider. As described in claim 1, the flexible expansion meter management system, wherein the head-end subsystem further has a registration module, and any one of the meter data collection module, data storage module, head-end system core module and northbound system interface module or its microservice serves as a service provider or service consumer, and the service provider is different from the service consumer, wherein the service provider uses a heartbeat to continuously indicate to the registration module that it is still providing services, and the service consumer obtains the registration service list of the service provider from the registration center of the registration module to update the service information of the service provider. The flexibly expandable meter management system as described in claim 1, wherein the head terminal system further has a cache service module, which has the function of queuing data cache, data exchange or buffer storage, so that the cache service module provides data cache, data exchange or buffer storage services to the meter data collection module, data storage module or northbound system interface module. The flexibly expandable meter management system as described in claim 1, wherein the head-end subsystem further has a cache service module, the cache service module has a switching unit and at least one queue, and any one of the meter data collection module and the data storage module or its microservice serves as a message production end, and any one of the data storage module, the head-end system core module and the northbound system interface module or its microservice serves as a message consumption end, and The message production end is different from the message consumption end, wherein after the message production end generates a message with a routing key, the message with the routing key is transmitted to the switching unit of the cache service module for message distribution, and then the switching unit of the cache service module transmits the message to the subscribed or specified queue according to the routing key and the predetermined rules, and then the message consumer end extracts the message from the subscribed or specified queue. As described in claim 1, the flexibly expandable meter management system, wherein the head-end system further has a user operation interface and a data storage device, so that the meter number of the meter to be operated among the plurality of meters is selected through the user operation interface through the head-end system core module, and then the head-end system core module obtains the meter data of the meter to be operated from the data storage device through the data storage module according to the meter number of the meter to be operated, and then the head-end system core module analyzes, manages or compiles statistics on the meter data of the meter to be operated. As described in claim 1, the flexibly scalable meter management system, wherein the load balancing module evenly distributes the meter data or packets of the plurality of meters to the microservices of the plurality of meter data collection modules, so that the workload of the meter data or packets collected by the plurality of meter data collection modules or their microservices is kept average or balanced. The flexibly scalable electric meter management system as described in claim 1, wherein the virtual machine management module and the containerized management module respectively use the virtualization technology and the containerized technology to jointly establish, deploy and flexibly expand the electric meter data collection module, data storage module, head-end system core module and northbound system interface module or its microservices. The flexibly scalable electric meter management system as described in claim 1 further includes a virtual machine management module, a physical machine with hardware resources, and at least one virtual machine, wherein the virtual machine management module divides the physical machine into the at least one virtual machine and converts the hardware resources of the physical machine into virtual resources, so that the virtual resources converted from the hardware resources of the physical machine by the virtual machine management module are allocated to the at least one virtual machine. The flexibly scalable electric meter management system as described in claim 1 further includes a virtual machine management module, at least one virtual machine, and a containerized management module, wherein the virtual machine management module generates or manages the at least one virtual machine, and the containerized management module generates a container based on an application, and then encapsulates the application and its dependent resources in the container. A head-end system is connected to a plurality of electric meters, a load balancing module, a virtual machine management module and a containerized management module. The head-end system includes: a plurality of electric meter data collection modules; at least one data storage module; at least one head-end system core module; and at least one northbound system interface module. The plurality of electric meter data collection modules of the head-end system collect electric meter data of the plurality of electric meters, and the data storage module of the head-end system stores the plurality of electric meter data. The meter data of the plurality of meters collected by the data collection module are managed by the head-end system core module of the head-end system, so that the meter data of the plurality of meters are uploaded by the northbound system interface module of the head-end system, wherein the load balancing module evenly distributes the meter data or packets of the plurality of meters to the plurality of meter data collection modules of the head-end system, so that the virtual machine management module and the container management module respectively use virtualization The technology and containerization technology are used to flexibly expand the number of the plurality of meter data collection modules having the meter data or packets of the plurality of meters evenly distributed by the load balancing module, and the virtual machine management module and the containerization management module respectively use the virtualization technology and the containerization technology to flexibly expand the number of the data storage modules of the head-end subsystem, the number of the head-end system core modules and the number of the northbound system interface modules, so that the virtual machine management module can The virtualization technology and the containerization technology of the containerized management module flexibly expand the number of the multiple meter data collection modules, the data storage module, the head-end system core module and the northbound system interface module of the head-end subsystem to increase the meter data collection capability of the multiple meter data collection modules, the meter data storage capability of the data storage module, the meter data management capability of the head-end system core module and the meter data upload capability of the northbound system interface module. A flexible and scalable electric meter management method includes: providing a plurality of electric meters, a head terminal system, an electric meter data management subsystem, a load balancing module, a virtual machine management module and a containerized management module, wherein the head terminal system has a plurality of electric meter data collection modules, at least one data storage module, at least one head end system core module and at least one northbound system interface module; the plurality of electric meter data collection modules of the head terminal system collect the electric meter data of the plurality of electric meters, and ... The data storage module stores the meter data of the plurality of meters collected by the plurality of meter data collection modules, and the head-end system core module of the head-end system manages the meter data of the plurality of meters, so that the northbound system interface module of the head-end system uploads the meter data of the plurality of meters to the meter data management subsystem; and the load balancing module evenly distributes the meter data or packets of the plurality of meters to the plurality of meter data collection modules of the head-end system so that the virtual machine manages the meter data of the plurality of meters. The module and the containerized management module respectively use virtualization technology and containerization technology to flexibly expand the number of the plurality of meter data collection modules having the meter data or packets of the plurality of meters evenly distributed by the load balancing module, and the virtual machine management module and the containerized management module respectively use the virtualization technology and the containerization technology to flexibly expand the number of the data storage modules of the head-end subsystem, the number of the head-end system core modules and the number of the northbound system interface modules, so that the load balancing module can be used to load the meter data or packets of the plurality of meters evenly distributed by the load balancing module. The virtualization technology of the virtual machine management module and the containerization technology of the containerization management module flexibly expand the number of the multiple meter data collection modules, the data storage module, the head-end system core module and the northbound system interface module of the head-end subsystem to increase the meter data collection capability of the multiple meter data collection modules, the meter data storage capability of the data storage module, the meter data management capability of the head-end system core module and the meter data upload capability of the northbound system interface module. The flexibly scalable meter management method as described in claim 12 further includes using any one of the meter data collection module, data storage module, headend system core module and northbound system interface module or their microservices as service providers, and establishing a registration center by a registration module, so that each service provider registers to the registration center of the registration module when it is started, and then the registration center of the registration module registers the services provided by each service provider. The flexibly scalable meter management method as described in claim 12 further includes using any one of the meter data collection module, data storage module, headend system core module, northbound system interface module or its microservice as a service provider or service consumer, wherein the service provider is different from the service consumer, the service provider uses a heartbeat to continuously indicate to the registration module that it is still providing services, and the service consumer obtains the registered service list of the service provider from the registration center of the registration module to update the service information of the service provider. The flexibly scalable meter management method as described in claim 12 further includes providing a cache service module having a switching unit and a queue, so as to use any one of the meter data collection module and the data storage module or its microservice as a message production end, and use any one of the data storage module, the head-end system core module and the northbound system interface module or its microservice as a message consumption end, wherein the message production end The producer is different from the message consumer. After the message producer generates a message with a routing key, it transmits the message with the routing key to the switching unit of the cache service module for message distribution. The switching unit of the cache service module then transmits the message to the subscribed or specified queue according to the routing key and the predetermined rules, and then the message consumer extracts the message from the subscribed or specified queue. The flexibly expandable meter management method as described in claim 12 further includes providing a user operation interface and a data storage device, so that the user operation interface selects the meter number of the multiple meters to be operated through the head-end system core module, and then the head-end system core module obtains the meter data of the meter to be operated from the data storage device through the data storage module according to the meter number of the meter to be operated, and then the head-end system core module analyzes, manages or performs statistical operations on the meter data of the meter to be operated. As described in claim 12, the flexibly scalable meter management method, wherein the load balancing module evenly distributes the meter data or packets of the plurality of meters to the microservices of the plurality of meter data collection modules, so that the workload of the meter data or packets collected by the plurality of meter data collection modules or their microservices is kept average or balanced. The flexibly scalable electricity meter management method as described in claim 12, wherein the virtual machine management module and the containerized management module respectively use the virtualization technology and the containerized technology to jointly establish, deploy and flexibly expand the electricity meter data collection module, data storage module, head-end system core module and northbound system interface module or its microservices. The flexibly scalable electricity meter management method as described in claim 12 further includes providing a virtual machine management module, a physical machine with hardware resources, and at least one virtual machine, so that the virtual machine management module divides the physical machine into the at least one virtual machine and converts the hardware resources of the physical machine into virtual resources, and then the virtual machine management module allocates the virtual resources converted from the hardware resources of the physical machine to the at least one virtual machine. A computer-readable medium is used in a computing device or a computer, and the computer-readable medium stores instructions to execute the flexible expansion meter management method as described in at least one of claims 12 to 19.

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