Commercial power restore indicator for sites, such as for cellular telecommunications sites
AssigneeT-Mobile USA, Inc.
InventorGregory Pelletier
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods are described herein for determining the restoration of power at a site, such as the restoration of commercial power to a cell site within a telecommunications network. The systems and methods may be utilized to determine whether power is restored at a cell site when a generator is currently or temporarily providing power to the cell site (e.g., during a power outage on a utility grid that provided the power to the cell site), such as by determining the presence of a generator is running alarm message and the absence of a commercial power failure message, among other messages.
Claims15
A system, comprising:
- a monitoring circuit connected to a power protection cabinet of a wireless telecommunications site,
- wherein the monitoring circuit generates
- a first signal representing a lost power state of the wireless telecommunications site, and
- a second signal representing a generator supplied power state of the wireless telecommunications site;
- a processor or microcontroller, coupled to the monitoring circuit, and programmed to determine that power is again available from a commercial utility at the wireless telecommunications site after the lost power state,
- wherein the processor or microcontroller determines that power is again available from the commercial utility upon detecting an alarm associated with the second signal and detecting no alarm associated with the first signal.
At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium, carrying instructions, which when executed by at least one processor, performs a method for determining restoration of power, the method comprising:
- receiving a first message from a power protection facility of a wireless telecommunications site,
- wherein the first message indicates an outage of power at the wireless telecommunications site, and
- wherein the power protection facility is configured to receive power from a commercial utility, and from a generator, and distribute received power to the wireless telecommunications site;
- receiving a second message from the power protection facility that indicates the generator is providing power to the wireless telecommunications site;
- and
- determining power has been restored at the wireless telecommunications site based on a status of the second message that indicates the generator is providing power to the wireless telecommunications site combined with a status of the first message that indicates power from the commercial utility to the wireless telecommunications site has resumed.
An apparatus for monitoring power provided to a wireless site, the apparatus comprising:
- a utility monitoring circuit that monitors whether an electric utility connected to the wireless site is providing power to the wireless site;
- a generator monitoring circuit that monitors whether a generator connected to the wireless site is providing power to the wireless site;
- and
- a status circuit that determines whether the utility is providing power to the wireless site after an outage at the wireless site when the utility monitoring circuit and generator monitoring circuit indicate power is being provided to the wireless site by:
- receiving a first signal indicating an outage of power at the wireless site via the utility monitoring circuit;
- receiving a second signal indicating the generator is providing power to the wireless site via the generator monitoring circuit;
- and
- receiving an indication of power again at the wireless site from the electric utility.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.