Atomic self-healing architecture in an electric power network

1. In an electric power network, an advanced communications system employing an atomic communications system architecture, comprising:

a plurality of node elements deployable on said electric power network and each having a respective global port and an inward port, the electric power network having a plurality of hierarchy levels, including a hierarchy of high voltage, medium voltage, and low voltage, and wherein at least one node element is deployed at each hierarchy level;

each node element having a global data store that is populated with information supplied via said global port and is accessible via said inward port;

each node element having a local data store that is populated with information supplied via said inward port and is accessible via said global port;

each node element being configured to selectably support at least one of three planes of interaction using the information maintained within said global and inward data stores:

a power analysis plane of interaction,

a data plane of interaction, and

a control plane of interaction,

wherein each node element allows a plurality of load devices to exchange data, through the node element, using respective different protocols of the load devices; and

wherein each node element includes a proxy having a universal format interface that makes available a local control interface of a first local load device available and that allows remote control of the first local load device, through the universal format interface, using a universal format different from a local control protocol of the first load device.

2. The communications system architecture of claim 1 wherein each node element is implemented using modular blocks providing sets of features that can be selectively included or excluded.

3. The communications system architecture of claim 1 wherein each node element is adapted to selectively enable and disable selected ones of said planes of interaction.

4. The communications system architecture of claim 2 wherein said sets of features include features to selectively enable and disable said planes of interaction.

5. The communications system architecture of claim 1 wherein said global data store is configured to store aggregate information that is periodically updated, wherein the aggregation information provides knowledge of faults in the electric power network, wherein the node element is reconfigured for supporting at least one of the three planes of interaction based on the knowledge.

6. The communications system architecture of claim 1 wherein said local data store is configured to store aggregate information that is periodically updated.

7. The communications system architecture of claim 1 wherein said local data store is configured to store local interface information about with a device associated with said node element.

8. The communications system architecture of claim 1 wherein a first node element is configured to acquire local interface information about a device associated with said node element and to propagate that local interface information to another node element on said electric power network.

9. The communications system architecture of claim 8 wherein said first node element acquires local interface information through said inward port and propagates said local interface information through said global port.

10. The communications system architecture of claim 1 wherein said node element implements said power analysis plane of interaction to collect and disseminate power quality of service information.

11. The communications system architecture of claim 1 wherein said node element implements said data plane of interaction to couple a device associated with said node element to an external source of information.

12. The communications system architecture of claim 11 wherein said external source of information is the internet.

13. The communications system architecture of claim 1 wherein said node element implements said control plane of interaction to control a device associated with said node element.

14. The communications system architecture of claim 1 wherein said node element implements said power analysis plane of interaction and said control plane of interaction to assess power conditions on said electric power network and to control a device associated with said node element to meet a predefined objective.

15. The communications system architecture of claim 14 wherein said predefined objective is a self-healing objective to selectively control power consumption to thereby balance load on said electric power network.

16. The communications system architecture of claim 1 wherein each node element implements a proxy mechanism whereby a device associated with said node may be controlled by entities external to said device that are coupled to said electric power network.

17. The communications system architecture of claim 1 wherein each node element implements data encryption to control access to information via said global port.

18. The communications system architecture of claim 1 , wherein the universal format interface of the proxy is at a first hierarchy level different from the level of the first local load device and allows remote control of the first local load device at the first hierarchy level.

19. The communications system architecture of claim 1 , wherein each node element retrieves and stores data from each of a first plurality of devices using a respective different protocol of that device.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of said plurality of load devices consumes or generates power.