Description:FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to an automated remote meter reading, meter monitoring and diagnostic system. More particularly, the present invention relates to an automated remote meter reading system involving data pull and data push mechanism, configured using different communication protocols, working over long range wireless communication technology.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Electricity distribution companies, known at ‘Utility/Discoms’ are responsible for distribution of electricity to end-users. They have to bill the users for their electricity usage. For this purpose, an electricity meter is installed at the end-user i.e. the customer’s premises. Utility/Discoms have to check the meter readings every month to bill the users. Currently, utility service professionals have to visit each meter installed at customer’s premises. The meter data is recorded in two ways.
a) Manual method. The person takes a picture of the energy meter. At the end of the day, all the data is manually fed into the system for billing purposes.
b) Using AMR (Automatic Meter Reader) to record the reading. The person instead of taking picture, he records the meter data into AMR using optical port. Instead of manually feeding the data into the system, the AMR device is connected to system.
However, in both the methods each meter has to be visited to record the data. Visiting each meter to record the meter data adds to the operational cost of the Utility/Discoms. Sometimes, visiting the place is not feasible. For example, during recent Covid Pandemic, visiting user’s site was prohibited by government orders.
Several efforts have been made to develop automatic meter reading systems for utility meters that avoid employing meter reading personnel to physically inspect each individual meter within the consumer premises. Some such systems incorporate low-powered RF transceivers in the meters that broadcast system information, such as consumption data. Thus, the broadcast area may be such that meter reading personnel may drive near the location of the individual meter to collect any data stored in the meter. A problem with this configuration is that the data may be collected from an individual meter in the geographic area of meters when the utility personnel is within the broadcast range of the individual meters at each location.
Another solution for this problem involves an arrangement in which communication with electric meters, for example, is carried out using the power transmission line coupled to an individual residence or commercial location. It carries the risk of high voltage electricity, thereby making this approach less practical.
Patent application US20080117077A1, discloses an invention wherein remote meter monitoring can be carried out by connecting meters to a radio frequency network and simultaneously to a power line carrier network. Needless to say, there are risks involved with this kind of arrangement. The power carrier line needs careful handling and adds to a much higher component of risk as compared to the benefits it adds.
Another proposal involves providing each utility meter with the capability of wirelessly communicating with other utility meters within a predetermined communication range. However, meters may communicate with each other due to the relative proximity of their respective locations, getting the data back to the central monitoring and control location would still be problematic.
Another solution includes installing modems and other communication devices in the remotely located meters that couple to phone lines and other communication links in the residence or commercial location. However, this proposal involves third parties, reliance over which may not be foolproof.
In patent application US8581743B2, an invention is disclosed wherein utility/Discoms connect the Smart meter to a Home Area Network for energy monitoring and demand responses and correspondingly charging its consumer on Time-of-Use (ToU) rates. However, the initial investment to procure a Home Area Network can be high. Moreover, this invention does not help in monitoring and analysing the usage pattern.
There are different types and categories of users. Their electricity requirement and usage pattern differ. There are variations depending upon the time of the day, day of the week, months and even season. Since, reading of data is done monthly, there is no way to know the usage pattern of users in real time. At present, there are no mechanisms to record the changes in real time at the minute level.
The Automated Remote Metering, Meter Monitoring & Diagnostic System solves all the problems mentioned above by its innovative and ingenuous technology stack.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
As illustrated in Figure 12, a block diagram explains in brief the functioning of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention showing the three standalone and separate units of the system i.e. Meter Attached Remote Communicator (MARC) card, Bi-Directional Communication Aggregation Module (BICAM) and MARC Controller System (MCS). According to one embodiment of the present invention, the MARC card is a piece of hardware, which would be connected to a meter such as an electric energy meter at the consumer premises. Other embodiments can have the system connected to other type of suitable meters. The consumer may be a residential/non-commercial user or an industrial/commercial user. The energy meter may be implementing a DLMS (Device Language Message Specification or Distribution Line Message Specification) standard or a Non-DLMS standard. These are protocol standard needed for interoperability, connectivity and efficiency in smart meter data exchanges. The data from the meter would be transferred through wired (instead of wireless) serial communication. The supported communication interfaces for this data transfer are RS232 via optical interface, RS232 via RJ9/RJ11, RS485 communication interfaces. Any of these three protocols may be used for data transfer from a suitable meter such as energy meter to the MARC card. Once the data reaches the MARC card, it is sent to the BICAM unit over public telephone network. The transfer of data from MARC card to BICAM unit is done by using the telecommunication signaling system, in particular Dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) system. DTMF uses a combination of two sine wave tones(a high frequency signal with a low frequency signal creating a unique signal) and can convey(at a minimum) 5 bytes of data per second which makes it a robust system to use over long range distances. The data carried over by the DTMF signal is sent over voice frequency band and hence the name data-over-voice (DoV). To enable the transfer of data over DTMF from MARC card to BICAM unit, an antenna may be installed near said meters to assess and access telecommunication signals. At the distribution company end (Discom), several such BICAM units would be kept in a BICAM bank or BICAM pool.
A BICAM bank is a set of BICAMs kept inside a rack. MCS can choose any BICAM and assign the task of calling the MARC for data collection. In case any BICAM fails, MCS can assign the task to other available BICAM.
Once the MCS unit receives the data from the BICAM it analyses, stores, and visualizes the data and prepares a report for monitoring, forecasting and diagnostic purposes.
In case of multiple MCS locations under the Discom, the Discom can communicate with any BICAM Banks connected to any of the MCS installations using their VPN/TCP IP stack or any other secure industry standard network.
The automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system as discussed above works in two different mechanisms as depicted in Figure 2 and 3. In the Data pull mechanism, the MCS unit initiates the process to pull energy meter data from the energy meters installed at consumer premises (non-commercial/residential or commercial/industrial). In this mechanism, MCS requests BICAM units to initiate the data pull process, BICAM units call respective MARC cards under its cluster. MARC card either retrieves the data from cache (if immediately available) and sends it to BICAM immediately or fetches the instantaneous data from energy meter and then sends it to BICAM (after a lapse of a short amount of time, usually in seconds). BICAM unit receives the requested data in the same call over DTMF and disconnects the call with the MARC card. The process is repeated for all the MARC cards under one single cluster of BICAM bank simultaneously, thereby reducing the overall processing time. The data so collected from MARC card is transferred from the BICAM unit to the MCS unit using asynchronous wired / wireless communication mode.
The Data push mechanism is employed in case of signaling alerts or events or announcements. In this mechanism, the MARC card can initiate the call on its own and push data to BICAM instantaneously. The mechanism is simple in that, MARC card initiates the call to a dedicated BICAM from the BICAM bank. The BICAM bank will reserve certain BICAM units to receive alerts, events, announcements or any ill-conceived tampering activity from the MARC. The BICAM unit receives the data over DTMF and sends it to MCS using asynchronous wired / wireless communication mode for perusal or any other necessary action.
Although the subject matter has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, other embodiments are possible. As such, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the preferred embodiment contained therein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Other aspects of the invention will become apparent by consideration of the accompanying drawings and their description stated below, which are merely illustrative of a preferred embodiment of the invention and do not limit in any way the nature and scope of the invention.
Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention showing the key components of the system i.e. MARC card, BICAM and MCS.
Figure 2 illustrates the working of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention in data pull mechanism.
Figure 3 illustrates the working of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention in data push mechanism.
Figure 4 illustrates the hardware configuration of the MARC card of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 5 illustrates the different communication protocols over which the energy meter connects with the MARC card of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system as well as the communication of data from the MARC card over public telephone network.
Figure 6 illustrates the hardware configuration of the BICAM unit of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 7 illustrates the interface of data transfer from MARC card to the BICAM units of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 8 illustrates the interface of data transfer from BICAM units to MCS unit of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 9 illustrates the flow of data received from MARC card over public telephone network to the BICAM Bank of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 10 illustrates with a block diagram the configuration of the MCS unit of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 11 illustrates with a block diagram the configuration of multiple MCS units within utility/Discoms, in accordance with the present invention.
Figure 12 illustrates with a block diagram the functioning of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention showing the three standalone and separate units of the system i.e. MARC card, BICAM and MCS, the flow of data from one unit to the other.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings which do not limit the scope and ambit of the invention. The description provided is purely by way of example and illustration.
Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention showing the key components of the system i.e. MARC card, BICAM and MCS. To enable the transfer of data over DTMF from MARC card to BICAM unit, an antenna may be installed near energy meters to assess and access telecommunication signals. The MARC card is a piece of hardware, which would be connected to an energy meter at the consumer premises. The data from the meter would be transferred through wired (instead of wireless) serial communication. Once the data reaches the MARC card, it is sent to the BICAM unit over public telephone network. At the distribution company end (Discom), several such BICAM units are placed inside BICAM bank. BICAM units inside the BICAM bank are connected to MCS via wireless/wired communication.. Once the MCS unit receives the data from BICAMs, it analyses, stores, and visualizes the data and prepares a report for monitoring, forecasting and diagnostic purposes.

Figure 2 illustrates the working of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention in data pull mechanism. In the Data pull mechanism, the MCS unit initiates the process to pull energy meter data from the energy meters installed at consumer premises (non-commercial/residential or commercial/industrial). In this mechanism, MCS requests BICAM units to initiate the data pull process, BICAM units calls respective MARC cards under its cluster. MARC card either retrieves the data from the cache (if immediately available) and sends it to the BICAM immediately or fetches the instantaneous data from energy meter and then sends it to the BICAM (after a lapse of a short amount of time, usually in seconds). BICAM unit receives the requested data in the same call over DTMF and disconnects the call with the MARC card. The process is repeated for all the MARC cards. The data so collected from MARC card is transferred from the BICAM unit to the MCS unit using asynchronous wired / wireless communication mode.

Figure 3 illustrates the working of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention in data push mechanism. The Data push mechanism is employed in case of signaling alerts or events or announcements. In this mechanism, the MARC card can initiate the call on its own and push data to BICAM instantaneously. MARC card initiates the call to a dedicated BICAM from the BICAM bank. The BICAM bank will reserve certain BICAM units to receive alerts, events, announcements, or any ill-conceived tampering activity from the MARC. The BICAM unit receives the data over DTMF and sends it to MCS using asynchronous wired / wireless communication mode for perusal or any other necessary action.

Figure 4 illustrates the hardware configuration of the MARC card of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention. The MARC card is connected to a power supply at 230V AC at 50 Hertz. The AC input is converted to DC in the range of 12V-24V, and is fitted with surge protection to safeguard the MARC card from a sudden voltage spike. The relay connected at other end of the surge protector connects or disconnects the electronic signals from MARC card outwards. The MARC card has a driver connected to the energy meter. The supported communication interfaces for this data transfer are RS232 via optical interface, RS232 via RJ9/RJ11, RS485 communication interfaces. This active data signal received from the energy meter is transferred to the microcontroller. The microcontroller either stores the data signals so received from the energy meter and forwards it to encoder to be sent over DTMF or receives signals from decoder to be sent towards energy meter. The microcontroller sends data to encoder to convert the data into digital format. This output is sent to the GSM Module to convert it into frequency signals and be sent over DTMF as data over voice frequency band. Conversely, a microcontroller receives data signals from a decoder after a decoder converts binary codes received from GSM Module to data signals.

Figure 5 illustrates the different communication protocols over which the energy meter connects with the MARC card of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system as well as the communication of data from the MARC card over public telephone network. The supported communication interfaces for this data transfer are RS232 via optical interface, RS232 via RJ9/RJ11, RS485 communication interfaces. Any of these interfaces may be used for data transfer from energy meter to the MARC card. The transfer of data from MARC card to BICAM unit is done by using the telecommunication signaling system, in particular Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) system. DTMF uses a combination of two sine wave tones (a high frequency signal with a low frequency signal creating a unique signal) and can convey (at a minimum) 5 bytes of data per second which makes it a robust system to use over long range distances. The data carried over by the DTMF signal is sent over voice frequency band and hence the name data-over-voice (DoV).

Figure 6 illustrates the hardware configuration of the BICAM unit of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention. The BICAM unit is connected to a power supply at 230V AC at 50 Hertz. The AC input is converted to DC in the range of 12V-24V, and is fitted with surge protection to safeguard the BICAM unit from a sudden voltage spike. The binary codes sent from MARC card through DTMF over voice frequency band is received by a GSM Module in the respective BICAM unit. The binary codes are stored in a microcontroller and sent to a decoder which then decodes the binary codes to data signals. This data can be sent via any of these communication interfaces i.e. Serial, Wi-Fi and Wired (Ethernet). Conversely, data received from MCS unit can be received through these interfaces (i.e. Serial, Wi-Fi and Wired (Ethernet)).

Figure 7 illustrates the interface of data transfer from MARC card to BICAM units of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention. When the MARC card receives the data, it is sent to the BICAM unit over public telephone network. The transfer of data from MARC card to BICAM unit is done by using the telecommunication signaling system, in particular Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) system. DTMF uses a combination of two sine wave tones(a high frequency signal with a low frequency signal creating a unique signal) and can convey(at a minimum) 5 bytes of data per second which makes it a robust system to use over long range distances. The data carried over by the DTMF signal is sent over voice frequency band and hence the name data-over-voice (DoV). To enable the transfer of data over DTMF from MARC card to BICAM unit, an antenna may be installed near electric meters to assess and access telecommunication signals.

Figure 8 illustrates the interface of data transfer from BICAM units to MCS unit of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention. The transfer of data from BICAM units is sent via BICAM bank to the MCS unit via a router over a wired or a wireless connection.

Figure 9 illustrates the flow of data received from MARC card over public telephone network to the BICAM Bank of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention. It illustrates the concept of BICAM Bank. As the name suggests, BICAM Bank is a set of multiple BICAMS (arranged inside a Rack) each performing a specific task. These tasks are assigned by the MCS. There are some BICAMs that are on stand-by mode. They are active, but not assigned any task. MCS may assign some tasks to them or shift some task load to them, in case, existing BICAM(s) malfunction. BICAMs from the BICAM Bank will communicate with MCS using IP address assigned through DHCP or NAT(wired or wireless connection) or through command pattern enabling DLMS/non-DLMS interpretation for MARC to electric energy meter commands/data so received.

Figure 10 illustrates with a block diagram the configuration of the MCS unit of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention. The MCS has five major modules, device hub, policy setting, call scheduler, BICAM bank handler, and visualization & analytics module. The device hub or digital twin keeps track of all the MARCs and BICAMs required for the tasks. It also stores the current state of the devices. The policy setting module is used to define and configure what meter data is to be fetched. The call scheduler module schedules the call with MARC via BICAM. It uses the policies set in the previous module to schedule the call. The BICAM Bank handler manages the individual BICAMS. The data signals received from MARC are stored on the data store. The visualization and analytics module performs the task of analyzing, diagnostic, categorizing, etc. the data so received. Analyzed data is sent to form a consolidated report. The watcher service manages the MCS system modules. The flow of data in MCS unit is very often two way, i.e. a component of the MCS unit may both receive and send data.

Figure 11 illustrates with a block diagram the configuration of multiple MCS units within utility/Discoms, in accordance with the present invention. In case there are multiple distribution offices within a utility company, there would be multiple MCS installations at those offices. In that case, a distributed MCS architecture will be used. A master MCS will be installed at the main office of the utility company. It will be connected to slave MCS nodes installed at distribution offices. The slave MCS nodes will have the BICAM Bank handler module installed at distributed offices. The Master MCS will have the rest of the modules such as the call scheduler, policy settings and device hub. The master MCS can communicate with slave MCS using their VPN/TCP IP stack or any other industry standard secure network.

Figure 12 illustrates with a block diagram the functioning of the automated remote metering, meter monitoring & diagnostic system in accordance with the present invention showing the three standalone and separate units of the system i.e. MARC card, BICAM and MCS, the flow of data from one unit to the other. The connection and communication protocols, along with working of the whole system has been explained with the earlier diagrams and is hereby incorporated by reference.

LIST OF REFERENCE
100 - Automated Remote Metering, Meter Monitoring & Diagnostic System
AC - Alternating Current
BICAM - Bi-directional Communication Aggregation Module
DC - Direct Current
DHCP – Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
Discom - Distribution Company
DLMS - Device Language Message Specification or Distribution Line Message Specification
DoV - Data over Voice
DTMF - Dual tone multi frequency
GSM – Global System for Mobile
IP – Internet Protocol
MARC - Meter Attached Remote Communicator
MCS - MARC Controller System
NAT - Network address translation
VPN – Virtual Private Network
TCP – Transmission Control Protocol
Wi-Fi – Wireless Network Protocols
, C , C , Claims:I/We Claim:
1. An Automated Remote Metering, Meter Monitoring & Diagnostic System(100), having: an electric energy meter, an Antenna, a MARC Card having a communication protocol driver, a microcontroller and an encoder/decoder unit connected to a GSM Module, a BICAM unit having a GSM Module, a microcontroller, an encoder/decoder unit and a communication protocol driver, a BICAM Bank/Pool, a Rack, a Router, an MCS unit having a BICAM Bank Handler Module, a BICAM Call Scheduler Module, a Policy Setting Module, a Device Hub Module, a Data Store, a Watcher Service Module and a Data Visualization and Analytics Module,
wherein the MARC card is connected to the electric energy meter through a wired serial connection using optical or other communication protocols for data exchange from the electric energy meter to the MARC Card,
wherein the MARC Card connects to the BICAM unit using DoV over Public Telephony Network using DTMF system through the Antenna,
characterized in that,
in data pull mechanism, the MARC Card receives a Data Pull Call decoded by the encoder/decoder unit, from the BICAM unit, retrieves the data collected by the communication protocol driver and stored by the microcontroller, encodes the data by the encoder/decoder unit and sends towards the GSM Module,
in data push mechanism, the MARC Card transfers the data collected by the communication protocol driver and stored by the microcontroller, encodes the data by the encoder/decoder unit and sends towards the GSM Module,
wherein each such BICAM unit is placed over a rack within the BICAM Bank/Pool,
wherein the MCS unit,
in data pull mechanism, randomly choses the BICAM unit for data collection from the electric energy meter via the MARC Card, receives the data from the BICAM unit via a wired or wireless asynchronous communication through the Router via the BICAM Bank Handler Module, scheduled by the BICAM Call Scheduler Module using policies set by the Policy Setting Module and tracked by the Device Hub Module, disconnects the data call, analyzed by the Data Visualization and Analytics Module and sends the data towards the Data Store,
in data push mechanism, receives the data from the electric energy meter, collected by the MARC Card via the BICAM unit via a wireless asynchronous communication through the Router,
wherein all modules are simultaneously being managed by the watcher service module.
2. The said Automated Remote Metering, Meter Monitoring & Diagnostic System (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein DTMF is used for machine-to-machine communication of data generated from the electric energy meter.
3. The said Automated Remote Metering, Meter Monitoring & Diagnostic System (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein DTMF is used for machine-to-machine bi-directional communication of low throughput data generated from the electric energy meter.
4. The said Automated Remote Metering, Meter Monitoring & Diagnostic System (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein internet(data channels) is not used for machine-to-machine communication of low throughput data generated from the electric energy meter, in data pull mechanism.
5. The said Automated Remote Metering, Meter Monitoring & Diagnostic System (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein internet(data channels) is not used for machine-to-machine communication of low throughput data generated from the electric energy meter, in data push mechanism.
6. The said Automated Remote Metering, Meter Monitoring & Diagnostic System (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein command pattern is used for BICAM to MARC communication of data, enabling DLMS/non-DLMS interpretation for MARC to electric energy meter commands/data, in data pull mechanism.
7. The said Automated Remote Metering, Meter Monitoring & Diagnostic System (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein command pattern is used for BICAM to MARC communication of data, enabling DLMS/non-DLMS interpretation for MARC to electric energy meter commands/data, in data push mechanism.