Geographic addressing of field equipment

1 . A headend comprising:

a transceiver configured to transmit and receive messages to and from one or more units of addressable field equipment in a power distribution network; and,

an addressing and commanding transmission circuit configured to:

receive an indication of the one or more units of addressable field equipment in the power distribution network to be addressed;

receive a selection of one or more commands to be executed by the one or more units of addressable field equipment to be addressed;

construct an addressing and commanding message with an addressing portion including one or more coordinate pairs and a boundary indicator for the one or more coordinate pairs, and with a commanding portion including a selection of one or more executable commands from a list of commands generated by the headend and associated with a type of the one or more units of addressable field equipment;

transmit the addressing and commanding message via the transceiver to the one or more units of addressable field equipment configured to confirm, based upon a geographical location of the one or more units of addressable field equipment, whether the one or more units of addressable field equipment is located within a selection boundary indicated in the addressing and commanding message; and

receive a confirmation message containing data detailing which of the commands were successfully executed by at least one of the one or more units of addressable field equipment,

wherein the geographical location of the one or more units of addressable field equipment is stored in memory of the one or more units of addressable field equipment during fabrication at a production facility, or by an installing engineer or technician during installation,

wherein the addressing and commanding transmission circuit is further configured to optimize the received indication of one or more units of addressable field equipment to be addressed by determining, at the headend, that the addressing and commanding message can be constructed by translating the received indication of one or more units of addressable field equipment to the one or more coordinate pairs forming the selection boundary shaped like a polygon encompassing the units of addressable field equipment.

2 . The headend of claim 1 , wherein receiving the indication of one or more units of addressable field equipment to be addressed includes receiving the indication via the transceiver from software including a user interface accepting as input a selection of one or more coordinate pairs on a geographical map.

3 . The headend of claim 1 , wherein the received indication of one or more units of addressable field equipment to be addressed is communicated from a source external to the headend and received at the transceiver.

4 . The headend of claim 3 , wherein the source external to the headend is a metering tool.

5 . The headend of claim 1 , wherein the headend is further configured to update a repository of units of addressable field equipment with status data received from addressable units of field equipment via the transceiver.

6 . A method comprising:

receiving, at an electronic processor of a headend of a power distribution network, an indication of one or more units of addressable field equipment in the power distribution network to be addressed;

translating the received indication of one or more units of addressable field equipment to a set of coordinate pairs forming a selection boundary shaped like a polygon encompassing the one or more units of addressable field equipment;

receiving, with the electronic processor, a selection of one or more executable commands from a list of commands generated by a headend and associated with a type of a unit of addressable field equipment;

constructing, with the electronic processor, one or more messages collectively including the set of coordinate pairs, the selection boundary, and the one or more executable commands, the one or more executable commands interpretable by the one or more units of addressable field equipment;

transmitting, with a transmitter, the one or more messages to the one or more units of addressable field equipment, and

receiving, with a receiver, a confirmation message containing data detailing which of the one or more executable commands were successfully executed by the one or more units of addressable field equipment,

wherein the one or more units of addressable field equipment is configured to confirm whether the one or more units of addressable field equipment is located within the selection boundary indicated in the addressing and commanding message based upon a geographical location of the one or more units of addressable field equipment, and

wherein the geographical location of the one or more units of addressable field equipment is stored in memory of the one or more units of addressable field equipment during fabrication at a production facility, or by an installing engineer or technician during installation.

7 . The method of claim 6 , where the one or more messages include an addressing message and a commanding message, the method further comprising:

inserting an addressing transmission ID into the addressing message; and,

inserting a commanding transmission ID into the commanding message.

8 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

presenting, with an electronic display, a graphical user interface including a rendering of a geographical map;

receiving, with the electronic processor, point and click or tap input on the rendering of the geographical map;

determining, with the electronic processor, the set of coordinate pairs based upon the point and click or tap input;

drawing, with the electronic processor, a graphical representation of the set of coordinate pairs on the rendering of the geographical map.

9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

drawing, with the electronic processor, a graphical representation of the selection boundary on the rendering of the geographical map.

10 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the one or more units of addressable field equipment is self-addressing.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more units of addressable field equipment is a connected lighting device.

12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more units of addressable field equipment is a connected metering device.