Application US20200005404 Cryptocurrency: Platforms

Search All Applications in Cryptocurrency: Platforms

Itron | Website | LinkedIn | Stock Symbol: ITRI | Headquarters: Liberty Lake, Washington

Application US20200005404

Published 2020-01-02

Operating Smart Sensors Using Distributed Ledgers

A distributed ledger based utility system architecture may be configured to enable secure payments, data transmission, and meter configuration of smart sensors. The utility system architecture may be a tiered architecture including multiple nodes at different levels of the architecture where each level may contain a different portion of the distributed ledger. As information is added to the distributed ledger, each portion of the distributed ledger may be updated based on whether the information is relevant to that node. The information may include rate contract transactions, meter configuration data transactions, payment transactions, or the like.

Much More than Average Length Specification

View the Patent Matrix® Diagram to Explore the Claim Relationships

USPTO Full Text Publication >

3 Independent Claims

1. A method implemented by a smart utility meter, the method comprising: identifying load data including a plurality of loads associated with the smart utility meter; sending the load data to a broker node; receiving a first transmission from a broker node; determining that the transmission indicates a first update to a distributed ledger associated with the smart utility meter, the first update to the distributed ledger including an activity instruction for the smart utility meter to perform an action, the action including altering an amount of resource provided to at least one load of the plurality of loads; and sending, to the broker node, a second transmission indicating performance of the action by the smart utility meter, the second transmission causing the broker node to perform a second update to the distributed ledger.
6. A smart utility meter comprising: at least one processor; and a memory storing instructions that cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising: identifying load data including a plurality of loads associated with the smart utility meter; sending the load data to a broker node; receiving a first transmission from a broker node; determining that the first transmission indicates a first update to a distributed ledger associated with the smart utility meter, the first update to the distributed ledger including an activity instruction for the smart utility meter to perform an action, the action including altering an amount of resource provided to at least one load of the plurality of loads; and sending, to the broker node, a second transmission indicating performance of the action by the smart utility meter, the second transmission causing the broker node to perform a second update to the distributed ledger.
11. A utility network system comprising: a master node including a master node distributed ledger, the master node configured to receive a customer transaction and to update the instance of the master node distributed ledger indicating occurrence of the customer transaction; a plurality of broker nodes, each broker node including a broker node distributed ledger that is applicable to the respective broker node; and a plurality of smart utility meters configured to: identify load data including one or more loads of a plurality of loads associated with each of the respective smart utility meters; send the load data to at least one broker node of the plurality of broker nodes; receive a demand response instruction to participate in a demand response event; altering an amount of resource provided to at least one load of the plurality of loads; and sending, to the broker node, a transmission indicating participation, by the smart utility meter, in the demand response event.