Optical activation of one or more communication units in a survey system
AssigneeWesternGeco L.L.C.
InventorDaniel Golparian
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
To control activation of one or more communication units in a survey system that performs surveying of a subterranean structure, optical activity on at least one optical link connected to at least one communication unit that is part of a survey system is detected. In response to determining that the optical activity has a characteristic that satisfies a predetermined criterion, the at least one communication unit is awakened.
Claims22
A method of controlling activation of one or more communication units in a survey system that performs surveying of a subterranean structure, comprising:
- detecting optical activity on at least one optical link connected to at least one communication unit that is part of the survey system for performing surveying of the subterranean structure;
- determining whether the optical activity has a characteristic that satisfies a predetermined criterion, wherein determining that the optical activity has the characteristic that satisfies the predetermined criterion is performed without processing content of any message associated with the optical activity;
- and
- in response to determining that the optical activity has the characteristic that satisfies the predetermined criterion, waking up the at least one communication unit.
A method of controlling activation of one or more communication units in a survey system that performs surveying of a subterranean structure, comprising:
- detecting optical activity on at least one optical link connected to at least one communication unit that is part of the survey system for performing surveying of the subterranean structure;
- determining whether the optical activity has a characteristic that satisfies a predetermined criterion;
- in response to determining that the optical activity has the characteristic that satisfies the predetermined criterion, waking up the at least one communication unit;
- after waking up the at least one communication unit, determining whether there is lack of optical activity for some predetermined time duration, wherein determining whether there has been lack of optical activity for the predetermined time duration is performed after a predetermined time window after waking up the at least one communication unit;
- and
- in response to determining that there has been lack of optical activity for the predetermined time duration, placing the at least one communication unit into a low-power mode.
A method of controlling activation of one or more communication units in a survey system that performs surveying of a subterranean structure, comprising:
- detecting optical activity on at least one optical link connected to at least one communication unit that is part of the survey system for performing surveying of the subterranean structure;
- determining whether the optical activity has a characteristic that satisfies a predetermined criterion;
- in response to determining that the optical activity has the characteristic that satisfies the predetermined criterion, waking up the at least one communication unit;
- receiving a command to place the at least one communication unit into a low-power mode;
- and
- in response to receiving the command, placing the at least one communication unit into the low-power mode;
- and
- in response to the command, the at least one communication unit propagating a second command to immediate neighboring communication units to cause the immediate neighboring communication units to disable respective transmitters connected to optical links that interconnect the immediate neighboring communication units to the at least one communication unit.
A first communication unit for use in a survey system that performs surveying of a subterranean structure, comprising:
- a main processing core;
- an optical activity detector to:
- detect optical activity on an optical link connected to the first communication unit that is part of the survey system for performing surveying of the subterranean structure,
- in response to determining that the optical activity has a characteristic that satisfies a predetermined criterion, awaken the main processing core from a powered-off state to a powered-on state;
- and
- an optical transmitter that is to be awakened from a powered-off state to a powered-on state in response to the optical activity detector determining the optical activity having the characteristic that satisfies the predetermined criterion, wherein the optical transmitter being awakened causes the optical transmitter to transmit an optical activity to a second communication unit to awaken the second communication unit.
A survey system for performing a survey of a subterranean structure, comprising:
- a plurality of communication units to be coupled to an optical network, wherein at least one of the communication units includes:
- an optical activity detector to:
- detect optical activity in the optical network;
- and
- in response to determining that the optical activity has a characteristic that satisfies a predetermined criterion, awaken the at least one communication unit, wherein determining that the optical activity has the characteristic that satisfies the predetermined criterion is performed without processing content of any message associated with the optical activity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.