# US 7,902,972 B2 · Supervising arrangement > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 7,902,972 B2 - Document ID: US7902972B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 11/571,618 - Filed: 2005-06-21 - Published: 2008-12-25 - Granted: 2011-03-08 - Earliest claimed: 2004-07-08 - Assignees: Andrew Corporation - Inventors: Jan Söderkvist; Peter Wahlström; Per-Erik Sundvisson; Tauno Ruuska; Anders Elgcrona - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US7902972B2 ## CPC - H04Q 3/54591: {Supervision, e.g. fault localisation, traffic measurements, avoiding errors, failure recovery, monitoring, statistical analysis} - G05B 23/0251: {Abstraction hierarchy, e.g. "complex systems", i.e. system is divided in subsystems, subsystems are monitored and results are combined to decide on status of whole system} - H04L 41/0604: using filtering, e.g. reduction of information by using priority, element types, position or time - H04L 43/065: related to network devices - H04L 43/0817: by checking functioning - H04L 43/16: Threshold monitoring - H04Q 2213/13162: Fault indication and localisation - H04Q 2213/13172: Supervisory signals - H04Q 2213/13349: Network management - Y02P 90/02: Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] - H04Q: SELECTING (switches, relays, selectors H01H; wireless communication networks H04W) - G05B: CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS (systems for controlling or regulating non-electric variables G05D; systems for regulating electric or magnetic variables G05F; control devices or systems insofar as characterised by mechanical features only G05G) - H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M) - Y02P: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS ## Abstract A hierarchical fault handling system and method based on filtering data regarding entities in the system and coordinating said filtered data in order to determined if an entity is considered faulty or not. The result for all entities is coordinated in a system fault coordinating means (17) which makes the overall decision if the system considered to be faulty or not. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A supervising system for supervising the function of an assembly comprising a number of interworking parts, said system comprising At least a first detector for detecting a physical property of an entity of the system and providing measurement data about the physical property; At least a first determining means for determining the status of said entity; said supervising system comprising filter means arranged to receive measurement data from the at least first detector, filter said measurement data and output a signal indicating if said entity is faulty in dependence of said filtered measurement data; and in that the determining means is arranged to receive said output signal from a least a first and a second filter means, co-ordinate said output signals and, on the basis of said co-ordination, determine whether a fault report should be generated for the entity. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) A supervising system according to claim 1, wherein the filter means are arranged to filter the measurement data on the basis of comparison with at least one threshold. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) A supervising system according to claim 1, further comprising at least a first action means for taking action to correct the fault in dependence of the status of said entity. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) A supervising system according to claim 1, comprising a system fault determining means arranged to receive from at least two entity fault determining means reports regarding the status of at least two entities supervised by the at least two entity fault determining means and determine, on the basis of said reports a fault status for the system. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) A supervising system according to claim 4, wherein the system fault determining means is arranged to check periodically all overall entity states X and determine the fault status of the system on the basis of these checks, where X indicates whether the entity is faulty or not and the absolute value of X indicates the reliability of the state. ### Claim 6 (depends on 4) A supervising system according to claim 4, wherein the system fault determining means is arranged to request from each fault co-ordination means a report on the status of the entity or entities supervised by it. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) A supervising system according to claim 6, wherein the system fault determining means is arranged to request said report when a fault has been raised or ceased for at least one entity. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) A supervising system according to claim 1, wherein the filter means comprise at least one filter that is arranged to receive and filter analogue measurement data. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) A supervising system according to claim 8, wherein the filter means comprises a median filter arranged to receive an analogue value from a detector, calculate the median value of a number of such analogue values and pass the median value to a low-pass filter arranged to filter the median value and output the filtered median value is output to the limit checker arranged to check the filtered value received from the low-pass filter against at least one threshold, to determine if a fault is to be raised, or ceased, respectively. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) A supervising system according to claim 9, further comprising a step limiter arranged to receive the median value from the median filter, determine the difference between said median value and a previous median value and, if said difference is greater than a maximum raising step or a maximum decreasing step, adjust the median value to a value to keep the step within allowed limits. ### Claim 11 (depends on 9) A supervising system according to claim 9, wherein the low-pass filter is arranged to filter the median value. ### Claim 12 (depends on 9) A supervising system according to claim 9, wherein the limit checker is arranged to check the filtered value against an upper and a lower threshold so that hysteresis can be obtained. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) A supervising system according to claim 1, wherein the filter means comprises at least one filter that is arranged to receive and filter digital measurement data. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) A supervising system according to claim 13, wherein the filter means is arranged to filter data in the form of binary values, and comprises at least one buffer arranged to store the most recent samples of the binary value and determine, for each sample, whether or not it indicates a fault, and a limit checker connected to the buffer arranged to compare the number of samples indicating a fault to at least one threshold to determine if an alarm should be raised or ceased. ### Claim 15 (depends on 14) A supervising system according to claim 14, wherein the limit checker is arranged to compare the number of samples indicating a fault to an upper and a lower threshold to obtain hysteresis. ### Claim 16 (depends on 1) A supervising system according to claim 1, wherein the filter means comprises at least two buffers at least two limit checkers each connected to one of the buffers and voting means arranged to determine, on the basis of the output from all limit checkers if a fault should be raised or ceased. ### Claim 17 (depends on 1) A supervising system according to claim 1, wherein the filter means comprises means for filtering received measurement data on the basis of at least two different sets of filter constants, to produce at least two different logical values and means for determining a logical output signal from the filter means. ### Claim 18 (depends on 1) A supervising system according to claim 1, characterized in that it is arranged to supervise a telecommunications system. ### Claim 19 (depends on 1) A supervising system according to claim 1, wherein parameters controlling the function of said filter means are stored in the system during manufacturing. ### Claim 20 (depends on 1) A supervising system according to claim 1, wherein parameters controlling the function of said filter means are comprised in a software application package. ### Claim 21 (depends on 1) A supervising system according to claim 1, wherein parameters controlling the function of said filter means are comprised in configuration data created for a particular site. ### Claim 22 (depends on 1) A supervising system according to claim 1, wherein the system fault co-ordinator is arranged to order a dump of some or all fault filters in the system to be stored in persistent memory, said dump containing state variables for fault filters. ### Claim 23 (depends on 22) A supervising system according to claim 22, wherein the dump further comprises a traceback buffer containing the last minutes of detector data input to each fault filter. ### Claim 24 A method for supervising the function of an assembly comprising a number of interworking parts, comprising the following steps: defining at least one entity of the system that is to be supervised; detecting at least one physical property of the entity as at least one measured value; filtering the at least one measured value; determining whether or not the entity is faulty on the basis of the filtered value. ### Claim 25 (depends on 24) A method according to claim 24, wherein the filter is arranged to output a logical indication of whether or not the measured value indicates that the entity is considered faulty. ### Claim 26 (depends on 24) A method according to claim 24 further comprising the step of determining whether or not the entity is faulty on the basis of several filtered values output from several filters as a result of the filtering of several measured values each corresponding to a physical property of the entity. ### Claim 27 (depends on 26) A method according to claim 26 wherein a decision on whether or not an entity is faulty is determined on the basis of a weighted sum of the output from several filters. ### Claim 28 (depends on 24) A method according to claim 24, wherein a fault status for the entire assembly is determined on the basis of decisions regarding several entities in the assembly. ### Claim 29 (depends on 24) A method according to claim 24, wherein the step of filtering the at least one measured value comprises filtering the value on the basis of at least two different sets of filter constants to produce at least two different logical values and means for determining a logical output signal from the filter means. ### Claim 30 (depends on 23) A method according to claim 23, further comprising the step of ordering a dump of some or all fault filters in the system to be stored in persistent memory, said dump containing state variables for fault filters.