FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See section 10, rule 13)

“An apparatus for monitoring parameters across isolation boundaries”

Tejas Networks Limited
No. 58, First Main Road, J.P Nagar,
3rd Phase, Bangalore – 560 078, Karnataka, India

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

Field of the Invention

The invention generally relates the art of electrical measurements. More particularly, relates to monitoring of isolation boundaries in telecom systems.

Background of the Invention

In Telecom systems, the system parameters are monitored continuously. For safety reasons, higher voltages need to be isolated from the low voltage sections. This creates a problem since now the higher voltages need to be monitored by the system supervisor in the low voltage section. Each of the voltages to be monitored is transported across an isolation boundary either using isolation amplifiers or analog opto-couplers. An electrical isolation boundary is one which does not have direct electrical connections across it but which still allows energy or information transfer across it. They are generally used for safety and interference reasons.
Typical examples would include power supplies which run off the wall plug, but have outputs which provide power that is isolated from the wall plug itself. Another example is interfaces to the telephone system. Voice, data, and supervisory functions must be transmitted between the telephone lines and telephone or computing equipment while maintaining a 1000V RMS electrical isolation between them. Even though a single isolation boundary is sufficient, the implementation normally employed uses multiple isolation devices. Moreover, such an employment of multiple isolation devices imposes a condition of requirement “n” isolation amplifiers for monitoring “n” parameters, as shown in figure 1. In addition, the number “n” does not change if the number of isolation boundaries reduces. Monitoring of parameters across such ‘n’ distinct isolation boundaries results in economic and volumetric penalties to system designers.
Hence there is a need for a method for efficient monitoring of system parameters across isolation boundaries. Further, there is also a need for a system that advantageously utilizes the method for efficient monitoring of parameters such as voltage across isolation boundaries.

Summary of the Invention

An aspect of the present invention is to address at least the above-mentioned problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages described below.
Accordingly, an aspect of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for efficient monitoring of multiple parameters across isolation boundaries, the system comprising: a plurality of prescalar unit for receiving one or more voltages over an isolation boundary, at least one Multi-Channel analog to digital converter for receiving the scaled input from the prescalar unit and converts the scaled voltages into digital frame and at least one opto-coupler coupled to the output of the Multi-Channel analog to digital converter to receive the digital frame and transmits the same over the isolation boundary.
Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.

Brief description of the drawings
The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 illustrates a standard technique for monitoring multiple parameters across a single isolation boundary.

Figure 2 shows the block diagram of a monitoring system for multiple parameters across a single isolation boundary employing principles and concepts of the invention.

Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and may have not been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figure may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
Detail description of the Invention

The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.
The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the invention. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention are provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the invention as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface” includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.
By the term “substantially” it is meant that the recited characteristic, parameter, or value need not be achieved exactly, but that deviations or variations, including for example, tolerances, measurement error, measurement accuracy limitations and other factors known to those of skill in the art, may occur in amounts that do not preclude the effect the characteristic was intended to provide.
Figs. 1 through 2, discussed below, and the various embodiments used to describe the principles of the present disclosure in this patent document are by way of illustration only and should not be construed in any way that would limit the scope of the disclosure. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged communications system. The terms used to describe various embodiments are exemplary. It should be understood that these are provided to merely aid the understanding of the description, and that their use and definitions in no way limit the scope of the invention. Terms first, second, and the like are used to differentiate between objects having the same terminology and are in no way intended to represent a chronological order, unless where explicitly stated otherwise. A set is defined as a non-empty set including at least one element.
According to one embodiment of the present invention and as represented in figure 2 shows a system for efficient monitoring of parameters such as voltage across isolation boundaries. Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of an example of an apparatus 200 in an embodiment of the invention. The apparatus 200 includes one or more prescalar unit 210, a Multi-Channel Analog to Digital Converter 220, an opto-coupler 230 and a system controller 240. In an example operation of the apparatus, all parameters over an isolation boundary converted to voltages are first scaled and then fed to a multi-channel ADC 220 with the help of a prescalar unit 210. The Mutli-channel Analog to Digital Converter 220 includes a multiplexer 222, a framer 224 and a driver 226. The one or more inputs are multiplexed with and selected as required. Further, the ADC 220 outputs are converted into a suitable frame with the help of a framer 224. The converted outputs are then sent digitally over the isolation boundary employing a suitable coupling mechanism. In an example of the invention at least one opto-coupler 230 is utilized as the said coupling mechanism. The opto-coupler 230 output is subsequently read by means provided for such a read. In an embodiment of the invention such a means could be any device capable of understanding the frame format. Further the apparatus 200 also may have the capabilities of recovering the individual ADC channel conversion data.
In an alternate embodiment of the invention involving multiple isolation boundaries, there are multiple ADCs and framers employed. All the framer outputs could then be received into a single device capable of recovering all the data.
In another embodiment of the invention, for example, telecom application, there would be two isolation boundaries, one on each power supply.
In a telecom system, there could be multiple power supplies in a single system. Under such a scenario, each power supply has its own isolation boundary as shown in the diagram. The parameters across the isolation boundary need to be transported to the system controller. The user of present set up apparatus enables reduce the number of ports, saves processing time, modularity, cost etc.
In an embodiment of the invention, the monitoring of parameters across such isolation boundaries is achieved by employment of a plurality of opto-couplers. In a specific embodiment of the invention, the said monitoring is achieved by advantageously utilizing at least two opto-couplers and at least three microcontrollers. The said microcontrollers utilized may have components comprising of multi-channel ADC, framer and decoder.
FIGS. 1-2 are merely representational and are not drawn to scale. Certain portions thereof may be exaggerated, while others may be minimized. FIGS. 1-2 illustrate various embodiments of the invention that can be understood and appropriately carried out by those of ordinary skill in the art.
In the foregoing detailed description of embodiments of the invention, various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments of the invention require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description of embodiments of the invention, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.
It is understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. It is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. Many other embodiments will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which” are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and “wherein,” respectively.

We Claim:
1. An apparatus for efficient monitoring of multiple parameters across isolation boundaries, the system comprising:
a plurality of prescalar unit for receiving one or more voltages over an isolation boundary;
at least one Multi-Channel analog to digital converter for receiving the scaled input from the prescalar unit and converts the scaled voltages into digital frame; and
at least one opto-coupler coupled to the output of the Multi-Channel analog to digital converter to receive the digital frame and transmits the same over the isolation boundary.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:
at least one system controller coupled with the opto-coupler, wherein the system controller receives the digital frame and processes to reproduce multiple system parameters.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the Multi-Channel analog to digital converter includes a multiplexer, a framer and a driver.
4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the multiplexer received all input from the prescalar unit for selecting at least one of several analog or digital input signals and forwards the selected input into a single line as output to the opto-coupler.
5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the framer is capable of generating a digital frame from the received analog voltage.
6. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the driver is capable of providing support to various interfaces between the analog to digital converter and opto-coupler.
7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the opto-coupler is capable of receiving digital ouput from analog to digital converter and forward digital frames digitally over the isolation boundary.
8. The apparatus of claim 1 and 2, wherein the system controller is coupled to opto-coupler output to read and understand the frame format to recover the individual analog to digital converter channel conversion data.
9. A method for monitoring system parameters across isolation boundaries, the method comprising:
scaling of Voltage at a defined isolation boundary;
conversion of the scaled voltages to a digital frame;
coupling of the converted outputs for transmission over a isolation boundary; and
recovery of the frame data to reproduce multiple system parameters.

10. The apparatus and method for efficient monitoring of multiple parameters across isolation boundaries substantially as herein described with reference to the description and accompanying drawings.
Dated this the 31st day of March, 2011
S Afsar
Of Krishna & Saurastri Associates
Agent for the Applicant
Registration No. IN/PA-1073