NETWORK EDGE-BASED MULTIMODAL COMMUNICATION ARCHITECTURE FOR CONTROLLING ELECTRIC VEHICLE SUPPLY EQUIPMENT
Provided herein are techniques for managing charging stations with diverse communication capabilities. A system for EVSE management may include a first communication controller in communication with a first network to communicatively couple to a central control system, a second communication controller in communication with a second network to communicatively couple to a first EVSE charger, and a third communication controller in communication with a third network to communicatively couple to a second EVSE charger. A communication adapter may communicatively couple the first communication controller, the second communication controller, and third communication controller to receive a first message from the remote charging manager using a first application protocol, send the first message to the first EVSE charger using a second application protocol, receive a second message from the remote charging manager using the first application protocol, and send the second message to the second EVSE charger using a third application protocol.
1 . A system for electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) management, the system comprising:
a multimodal communication device comprising:
a first communication controller in communication with a first network configured to communicatively couple to a central control system;
a second communication controller in communication with a second network configured to communicatively couple to a first EVSE charger;
a third communication controller in communication with a third network configured to communicatively couple to a second EVSE charger; and
a communication adapter communicatively coupled to the first communication controller, the second communication controller, and the third communication controller, the communication adapter configured to:
receive a first message from the central control system using a first application protocol;
convert the first message from the first application protocol to a second application protocol associated with the first EVSE charger;
send the first message to the first EVSE charger using the second application protocol;
receive a second message from the central control system using the first application protocol;
convert the second message to a third application protocol associated with the second EVSE charger; and
send the second message to the second EVSE charger using the third application protocol.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the communication adapter stores a routing table that includes an entry for at least one of the first EVSE charger, the second EVSE charger, the second network for the first EVSE charger, or the third network for the second EVSE charger.
3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein to send the first message to the first EVSE charger, the communication adapter is configured to determine, using the routing table, to which of the first communication controller or the second communication controller the first EVSE charger is communicably coupled.
4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein each of the first application protocol, the second application protocol, and the third application protocol is, respectively, one of ModBus protocol, a distributed network protocol, a hypertext transfer protocol, an open charge point protocol, or a ZigBee protocol.
5 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a service interconnect that is configured to establish communication with the central control system over a wide area network (WAN).
6 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a local control system that handles local control of the first EVSE charger and the second EVSE charger.
7 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising communication hardware that includes at least one physical network device that implements hardware aspects of at least one of the first application protocol, the second application protocol, or the third application protocol.