Telecommunications networks for remote electricity supply metering and load control

The aims and objectives of this thesis are to investigate remote electricity supply metering and load control in terms of the now availble UK Electricity Supply Industry (ESI) private and national telecommunications networks, the intelligent building, the home computer and domestic energy management concepts. This work commences with an overview of private telecommunications systems utilised within the U.K. electricity supply industry together with those network services provided by Public Telecommunications Service Operators (PTO's) for customer access (Chapters 1 and 2). The thesis continues by describing the meter reading and billing processes (Chapter 3) and introduces the concepts of remote metering, the consumer billing interface (Chapters 4 and 5), load control and spot pricing theory (Chapter 6). A review of recent load control and remote metering field trials, conducted in the UK, including feasibility studies are then detailed (Chapter 7). A mathematical analysis of two basic approaches to the principle of 'idle-line' working is also considered (Chapter 7). The 'intelligent home' concept and the customer billing interface are then considered in conjunction with the development of a 'home computer' applications strategy (Chapter 8). The development of text, communications and control simulation on the BBC microcomputer, are then detailed by reference to the 'Adaptive Microprocessor based System for Experimentation in the Transmission of Text' (AMTEXT) developed to test the feasibility of the home computer applications strategy developed in Chapter 8 (Chapter 9). The concept of 'idle-time working is then introduced coupled with the concept of 'integration' by way of the national telecommunications network services. Proposals for a Modular Integrated Data Aquisition System (MIDAS) are then considered as a means of illustrating a practical application of both integration and idle-time working (Chapter 10). The thesis continues by considering network integrity, security and reliability in terms of network architecture and the development of a strategy for quantifying network resilience as a design parameter (Chapter 11). Finally, the thesis concludes by summarisirig the work undertaken and the results obtained with respect to the initial objectives, and details potential areas for further research

Power Systems Monitoring and Control using Telecom Network Management Standards

Historically, different solutions have been developed for power systems control and telecommunications network management environments. The former was characterized by proprietary solutions, while the latter has been involved for years in a strong standardization process guided by criteria of openness. Today, power systems control standardization is in progress, but it is at an early stage compared to the telecommunications management area, especially in terms of information modeling. Today, control equipment tends to exhibit more computational power, and communication lines have increased their performance. These trends hint at some conceptual convergence between power systems and telecommunications networks from a management perspective. This convergence leads us to suggest the application of well-established telecommunications management standards for power systems control. This paper shows that this is a real medium-to-long term possibility

FIESTA: An operational decision aid for space network fault isolation

The Fault Tolerance Expert System for Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) Applications (FIESTA) is a fault detection and fault diagnosis expert system being developed as a decision aid to support operations in the Network Control Center (NCC) for NASA's Space Network. The operational objectives which influenced FIESTA development are presented and an overview of the architecture used to achieve these goals are provided. The approach to the knowledge engineering effort and the methodology employed are also presented and illustrated with examples drawn from the FIESTA domain

Constructing a Virtual Training Laboratory Using Intelligent Agents

This paper reports on the results and experiences of the Trilogy project; a collaborative project concerned with the development of a virtual research laboratory using intelligence agents. This laboratory is designed to support the training of research students in telecommunications traffic engineering. Training research students involves a number of basic activities. They may seek guidance from, or exchange ideas with, more experienced colleagues. High quality academic papers, books and research reports provide a sound basis for developing and maintaining a good understanding of an area of research. Experimental tools enable new ideas to be evaluated, and hypotheses tested. These three components-collaboration, information and experimentation- are central to any research activity, and a good training environment for research should integrate them in a seamless fashion. To this end, we describe the design and implementation of an agent-based virtual laboratory

Frameworks: the future of formal software development?

It could be argued that the primary issue to be dealt with in software engineering today is re-use of software. Current software development rarely, if ever, starts from nothing. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the development of specifications. To overcome this problem, various works have attempted to show how specifications can be built using architectural principles. We discuss one such approach in particular, the Architectural Semantics of Open Distributed Processing. We show the limitations of this work with regard to the architecting of specifications and propose a new approach, based on frameworks. To highlight the approach we use the work currently being done in the TOSCA project in its development of a service creation and validation environment for telecommunication services