Stored program power control system for improving energy efficiency for telephone sets connected into a local telephone communications system
AssigneeAT&T Bell Laboratories
InventorsJames N. Giacopelli, James D. McElroy, Thomas M. Taylor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A stored program energy control system operates with the control of a telephone communications system to improve its energy efficiency by removing power from station sets and their associated visual indicators when they are inactive. Inactive station sets are identified by establishing minimal intervals of nonuse to define the inactive status. The energy control system responds to events like incoming calls and switchhook activity to restore power to the station set. Since energy is applied to a station set only when precisely needed, the overall energy drain of the system is greatly reduced.
Claims12
An energy management system for a telephone communications system comprising;
- a switching network interconnecting a plurality of station sets to a central office, and
- a central controller for controlling the switching network and associated interface circuits and further including energy control means for controlling energizing of individual station sets,
- the energy control means comprising power down means for de-energizing inactive station sets,
- the power down means including:
- a first control means for establishing a count associated with each individual station set,
- a second control means for periodically investigating the count and decrementing it while the station set is inactive, and
- a third control means for de-energizing a station set when its associated count is fully decremented, and
- energizing means for restoring energy to de-energized station sets in response to indicia of activity.
A telephone communications system having a plurality of individual station sets,
- means for enabling application of energy to each station set including a plurality of port cards, each port card coupled to individual groups of station sets, and
- a stored program control for the communications system comprising memory means including energy management instructions,
- said energy management instructions including:
- a first set of instructions for determining an inactive station set and disabling an energy path through a port card to a station set connected thereto,
- a second set of instructions for identifying station sets needing energy and operative to activate a station set by enabling an energy path through a port card to a station set needing energy, and
- a third set of instructions for de-energizing a port card if all station sets coupled to that port card have been de-energized.
A method of reducing energy dissipation in a telephone communications system including a plurality of station sets comprising the steps of
- identifying station sets that are presently inactive by polling all station sets sequentially to determine their status by,
- associating a power down count with each station set, and
- periodically decrementing the power down count when a station set is inactive, and
- identifying a station set as inactive when the power down count is fully decremented to some predetermined threshold count,
- removing power from station sets that have been determined to be inactive, and
- identifying station sets that have a need to be powered by responding to interrupts generated by service request actions, and
- restoring power to the station sets having a need to be powered.
A stored program power control system for improving energy efficiency by energy management for telephone sets connected into a local telephone communications system comprising:
- a plurality of station sets subdivided into groups of station sets,
- a switching network,
- a plurality of port cards for interconnecting groups of station sets to the switching network,
- a central controller including a stored program control for controlling the switching network and for controlling energization of the port cards and station sets,
- the stored program control including energy management instructions comprising:
- a first set of instructions for identifying inactive station sets by associating a count with each station set and decrementing the count as long as a station set is not in use, and de-energizing an inactive station set when a decremented count threshold is attained by disabling an energy path through a port card to the inactive station set,
- a second set of instructions for de-energizing a port card if all station sets coupled to that port card have been de-energized, and
- a third set of instructions for enabling an energy path through a port card and energizing a station set when it becomes active.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.