A set-top-box (STB) provides capability for monitoring and control of power usage and the ability to establish communications. A smart residential service system (SRSS) is provided that uses power line communication (PLC) technology to provide secure in-home LAN communication and also to monitor and provide remote control of connected appliances in the home. An embodiment combines the STB with a master unit (MST) that is used with PLC to meet the requirements of the central device in the SRSS.

A method for differentiating power distribution areas and phases by using voltage characteristics, where the method includes performing similarity comparison on a voltage curve of a node to be determined and a voltage curve recorded by a concentrator to determine whether the node belongs to a current power distribution area. Using the method for identifying power distribution areas and phases according to voltage characteristics, the problem of inaccurate electric power measurement due to power distribution area archive errors, communication crosstalk, and others is effectively resolved, a collection success rate and meter reading stability of a power distribution area are improved, a line loss rate of a power distribution area is moderately reduced, correctness of ammeter archive information of an SG186 system is ensured, occurrences of power distribution area crossing of carrier communications and ammeter archive errors are eradicated, and delicacy management of a marketing system is realized.

Disclosed are a three-phase power line communication apparatus and a communication method thereof, and more particularly, to a three-phase power line communication apparatus capable of establishing a network group for each of three phases, performing communication by each established network group, setting a communication plan by each established network group, and performing communication with meters installed on each phase, in order to solve the conventional communication collision occurring on a single network group, and a communication method thereof. Since a network group is established for each of three phases and communication is performed by each network group, communication can be performed precisely and systematically, and data exchange and data management between communication apparatuses can be facilitated.

A method and system for providing a secure communication network using an electrical distribution grid is disclosed. A device connected to the electrical distribution grid initiates a request for a secured key token by signaling an intelligent communicating device residing at or near an edge of the grid. The intelligent communicating device forwards the request to a receiver at a distribution substation on the electrical grid. This receiver enhances the properties of the request such that a grid location for the request can be inferred. The enhanced request is forwarded to a server at the distribution substation, which compares the request grid location to a Grid Map and Policies of known secure grid locations. Any inconsistencies between the grid location inferred from the enhanced request and the Grid Map and Policies locations are considered evidence of tampering, and the server rejects the request.

In a disclosed embodiment, a power line communication (PLC) device sends an active channel scan request from a host layer to an adaptation layer. In response to the adaptation layer receiving the request, a MAC layer is instructed to broadcast a beacon request frame. The PLC device receives from each of one or more neighboring devices that respond to the beacon request frame a beacon frame including an address and a personal area network (PAN) identifier. A listing of PAN identifiers indicated by the beacon frames is provided to the host layer. The host layer selects a target network corresponding to a selected PAN identifier and selects one of the one or more neighboring devices associated with the selected PAN identifier as a target bootstrapping agent. The host layer instructs the adaptation layer to join the target network using the target bootstrapping agent.

To provide network connectivity in a building using existing electrical wiring and circuitry, a circuit panel network system is provided to interface between a network connection and the electrical circuit. Traditional breakers on the electrical panel that provide overload circuit-protection devices can be replaced with circuit breaker devices that have transceivers and power line communication chipsets in addition to overload circuit-protection devices. A network interface unit that receives broadband network connectivity from a network demarcation point inside or outside the building can wirelessly transfer data to and from the circuit breaker devices, which then distribute the data over the electrical circuits via the power line communication chipsets on the circuit breaker devices.

A new version of a software is broken down into successive blocks in order to be transferred block by block in two phases by a concentrator device: a first phase during which said concentrator device performs (S308) the transfer according to a sequencing independent of whether or not each block has been correctly received, and a second phase during which the concentrator device performs (S310) the transfer of each block that has not been correctly received. The new version of the software is thus transferred to electricity meters via a communication network. Each electricity meter stores in non-volatile memory a context including an indication of each block of the new version of the software that has not been correctly received and, when the transfer of the new version of the software to at least one electricity meter is interrupted, the subsequent resumption of the transfer of the new version of the software to said electricity meter or meters takes place according to the second phase by means of their respective contexts.

Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for using a smart meter as a reliable crowd-sourcing agent are presented. In some embodiments, a smart meter installed at a location may observe one or more wireless signals at the location. Subsequently, the smart meter may provide, to at least one signal almanac server, information that identifies the location and describes one or more detected properties of the one or more observed wireless signals. In at least one arrangement, the information provided to the at least one signal almanac server may be configured to be used by the at least one signal almanac server in providing position assistance information to one or more mobile devices located in a vicinity of the location.

Power Line Communications (PLC) device for enhanced carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) protocols are described. The PLC device includes a modem, an AC interface and a PLC engine. The engine is configured for transmitting PLC packets over a plurality of electrical wires using a particular channel. Transmitting a normal priority packet may include attempting to access a communications channel to transmit a frame after a backoff time proportional to a randomly generated number within a contention window (CW), the CW having an initial value carried over from a previous transmission of a different frame. Additionally or alternatively, some of techniques described herein may facilitate the spreading of the time over which devices attempt to transmit packets, thereby reducing the probability of collisions using, for example, Additive Decrease Multiplicative Increase (ADMI) mechanisms.

A device (200) for linking a personal controller (10) to a smartmeter (300) and a home automation device (24) which includes a wireless communications module (202) configurable to communicate with the personal controller selectively using peer-to-peer and non-peer-to-peer communications protocols. The device also includes a local network communications module (206) operable for communication with the smartmeter and the home automation device. The device is adapted to report energy usage without locally storing the energy usage data.