Secure communication for commissioning and decommissioning circuit breakers and panel system
AssigneeLeviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.
InventorsScott Freeman, Abhishek Golwala, Rejaul Monir, Ozgur Keser
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Communication enabled circuit breakers are described. Methods associated with secure communication between communication enabled circuit breakers and a panel system are described. Additionally, methods for commissioning and decommissioning such communication enabled circuit breakers in the panel system are described. The communication enabled circuit breakers may be paired with a controller and information regarding such breakers can be added to a database.
Claims29
A method for commissioning a communicating circuit breaker, comprising:
- energizing the circuit breaker;
- electronically retrieving a unique identifier of the circuit breaker;
- calculating a delay time based on the unique identifier;
- periodically broadcasting a pairing beacon after the delay time has lapsed until a quiet command is received from a controller;
- receiving a channel ID assignment from the controller;
- receiving an encryption key pair from the controller;
- initializing secure communication with the controller using the encryption key pair across the assigned channel ID;
- receiving a device information command from the controller;
- and
- transmitting device information from the circuit breaker to the controller.
A method for commissioning a communicating circuit breaker, comprising:
- receiving, from a communicating breaker, a pairing beacon;
- sending a quiet command to the communicating breaker to cause the communicating breaker to cease broadcasting the paring beacon;
- sending a channel ID assignment to the communicating breaker;
- receiving an encryption key pair from the communicating breaker;
- initializing secure communication with the communicating breaker using the encryption key pair across the assigned channel ID;
- sending a device information command to the communicating breaker;
- and
- receiving device information from the communicating breaker in response to the sent device information command.
11-14. (canceled)
A circuit breaker, comprising:
- a wireless radio;
- a processor coupled to the wireless radio;
- and
- a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising commissioning instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the wireless radio to broadcast a pairing beacon after a delay calculated based on a random number and a unique identifier of the circuit breaker.
A circuit breaker controller, comprising:
- a wireless radio;
- a processor coupled to the wireless radio;
- and
- a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising commissioning instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the wireless radio to:
- send an information element comprising an indication of one or more circuit breakers with which the controller can pair;
- receive an indication to pair with a first one of the one or more circuit breakers;
- generate an encryption key pair and initialize a secure communication channel with the first one of the one or more circuit breakers based on the encryption key pair;
- pair the first one of the one or more circuit breakers with the controller for future communication using the secure communication channel;
- and
- send an indication on completion of the pairing with the first one of the one or more circuit breakers.
32-36. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.