System and method for an intelligent load center with integrated powerline communications network switching and network management capabilities
View Patent ↗In a typical powerline communications environment, all electrical outlets and branches are connected to a load center. In this type of electrical system, all communication devices will share the same frequency spectrum, limiting the maximum bandwidth of the network, where all nodes are in contention with each other. In the inventive system, the electrical load center would provide filtering to isolate all branches off the load center into different network segments all capable of carrying the maximum bandwidth allowed by the physical layer technology. The advantages of the method described by this invention will be most noticeable when high bandwidth devices are communicating with each other on the same electrical segment, for example a HDTV receiver communicating with a HDTV monitor in the same room.
1. A method of operating a multi-carrier communications system, the multi-carrier communications system including a plurality of communications nodes coupled to one another over a communications medium, wherein the communications medium includes a load center comprising a main power feed line and a plurality of powerline branch circuits, the method comprising: (a) receiving, over a powerline, from a data source a multi-cast signal destined to be transmitted over a powerline to a plurality of devices on a plurality of respective powerline branch circuits, (b) determining at the load center optimized communication parameters for each of the plurality of powerline branch circuits, (c) re-transmitting the multi-cast signal over the plurality of powerline branch circuits using a plurality of respective optimized communication parameters, (d) providing blocking filtering for undesired powerline communications signals on each powerline branch circuit, (e) passing desired powerline communications signals on respective powerline branch circuits and thereby isolating each powerline branch circuit to its own communications signals, (f) providing noise filtering to reduce the effect of noise on the aggregate communications bandwidth, (g) operating the load center as a network switch or a router where each switch or router port is connected to a respective isolated branch circuit or main feed circuit, and (h) monitoring power quality on each segment of the network using the load center.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, providing a network segmentation function by using blocking filters on each powerline branch circuit and the main power feed line, where the main power feed line is connected to a utility network, with a broadband powerline network outside of a home portion of the powerline network.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the load center is also equipped with high frequency signal ports connected to respective segments of the powerline network on the house side and an external feed side.
4. The method of claim 1 further comprising, configuring the load center to monitor high-frequency components of the power on each segment of the network and detect signatures indicative of a present or imminent equipment failure.
5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, configuring the load center to monitor power consumption on each powerline branch circuit or selected powerline branch circuits.
6. The method of claim 1 further comprising, configuring the load center to communicate with a power meter and outside and inside temperature sensors.
7. The method of claim 6 further comprising, configuring the load center to process power consumption data, and temperature information to determine equipment efficiency.
8. The method of claim 7 further comprising, configuring the load center to store locally, or on the network, historical data that can be used to analyze equipment performance and detect maintenance requirements.
9. The method of claim 8 further comprising, configuring the load center to generate email/sms alerts.
10. The method of claim 1 further comprising, configuring the load center with a power plane configuration designed to either couple branch circuits at a high frequency (2 MHz to 100 MHz) or create signal auto-canceling.