Data processing: measuring – calibrating – or testing – Measurement system – Remote supervisory monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-21
2001-05-29
Shah, Kamini (Department: 2857)
Data processing: measuring, calibrating, or testing
Measurement system
Remote supervisory monitoring
C340S870030
Reexamination Certificate
active
06240373
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a technique for centrally managing a plurality of transmitters that each provide a cable-locating tone on an associated underground conveyance to assure that each transmitter possesses the most recent upgrade to its operating software.
BACKGROUND ART
Most utilities, such as those that provide electric, water, gas and telephone service, bury their conveyances (i.e., pipes and cables) underground both for reasons of safety and esthetics. Underground burial also protects such conveyances from direct exposure to the elements. Once a utility buries a conveyance, the utility marks the location on a map relative to an existing physical landmark, such as a building, road, or bridge, to facilitate location of the conveyance in the event of a repair. Using a physical landmark as a point of reference incurs the disadvantage that such landmarks can and do undergo change. For example, a building may undergo renovation or even demolition whereas a road may under widening, thus altering the previously existing physical relationship between the landmark and the buried conveyance. Consequently, relying on the physical relationship between a landmark and the conveyance may not always yield an accurate indication of the location of the conveyance.
To facilitate greater precision in the location of their conveyances, utilities often use electromagnetic detection techniques. One such locating technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,237, issued in the names of Hossein Eslambolchi and John Huffinan on Jul. 1, 1997 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. The Eslambolchi et al. '237 patent (hereinafter incorporated by reference) describes and claims a locating technique, whereby a first transmitter impresses a first locating tone on a conveyance to allow a technician to generally locate the conveyance using a signal-locating receiver. Additionally, a second transmitter provides a coded, near DC signal on the conveyance to allow the technician, using a second receiver, to precisely locate the conveyance of interest.
Service providers, such as AT&T, often utilize a large number of transmitters for providing cable-locating tones on their buried conveyances. Often the transmitters are located at remote unmanned facilities, requiring that a technician travel to such a facility to undertake an upgrade of the operating software of the cable-locating transmitter. Thus, to undertake an expeditious software upgrade of all of the cable-locating transmitters associated with a large network of underground conveyances will require a large commitment of personnel so that each transmitter can receive the new operating software typically via an EPROM replacement at within the same time interval. Without committing a large number of personnel, software upgrades will not occur within the same time frame, creating a mix of cable-locating transmitters with different operating software, which is undesirable from a standpoint of network administration.
Thus, there is a need for a technique for controlling the upgrading the operating software each of a plurality of remote cable-locating transmitters.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Briefly, the present invention provides a method for managing a plurality of remotely-situated cable-locating transmitters from a central location, and particularly, for managing the upgrading of the operating software of each transmitter. In accordance with the invention, a database, accessible from the central location, stores information about each cable-locating transmitter, including the identity (e.g., the particular version) of the operating software resident at each transmitter. To manage the cable-locating tone transmitters, the database is accessed, typically upon the release of a new version of the transmitter operating software, to determine which cable-locating transmitter has which version of operating software. Among all of cable-locating transmitters, a set of such transmitters are selected to receive an operating software upgrade based on the version of operating software currently resident at each individual transmitter as identified from the database. The selected set of cable-locating transmitters then each receive a communication from the central location that includes the upgrade of operating system software. Thereafter, the database is updated to reflect the upgrade of operating system software made to each cable-locating transmitter.
The above-described method affords the advantage of upgrading only those cable-locating transmitters not running the latest version of the operating system software. In a large communications network that includes a large number of cable-locating transmitters, there may exist one or more recently installed transmitters that already include the most recent operating system software and thus require no upgrade. Thus, by keeping track in the database of the operating system software running on each cable-locating transmitter, and by accessing the database to determine which transmitters require a software upgrade, the process of managing the transmitters streamlined.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5644237 (1997-07-01), Eslambolchi et al.
Boggs Patricia J.
Eslambolchi Hossein
Huffman John Sinclair
AT&T Corp.
Levy Robert B.
Raymond Edward
Shah Kamini
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