Application US20200005403

OPERATING SMART SENSORS USING DISTRIBUTED LEDGERS
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US20200005403

1. A method implemented by a smart utility meter, the method comprising: (6) (4)

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;

performing an action based on the activity instruction; 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.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: (0) (2)

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity instruction comprises a rate contract having an address representing a location in the distributed ledger, at least one payee, and at least one payer, the rate contract specifying a bill rate based on at least one of: (0) (7)

a time of day;

a forward consumption of a resource;

a reverse consumption of a resource;

a peak demand;

a power factor;

a class of customer; or

a type of payee.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity instruction includes meter configuration data configured to cause the smart utility meter to perform at least one of: (0) (6)

updating software on the smart utility meter;

setting a channel hopping sequence;

setting a data rate used by the smart utility meter;

changing metrology channels collected by the smart utility meter;

setting a signal strength used by the smart utility meter; or

setting a communication protocol used by the smart utility meter.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity instruction comprises an instruction to transfer funds from an account associated with a user and to update a balance associated with the smart utility meter. (2) (0)

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising: (1) (4)

determining an amount of a resource to be provided during a period of time;

determining a value associated with the amount of the resource;

determining that the balance is greater than the value associated with the amount of the resource; and

causing the resource to be provided to a site associated with the user in response to determining that the balance is greater than the value.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising debiting the balance based on an amount of resource provided to the site and on a rate specified by a rate contract. (0)

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising: (0) (4)

determining an amount of a resource to be provided during a period of time;

determining a value associated with the amount of the resource;

determining that the balance is less than the value associated with the amount of the resource; and

refraining from providing the resource to a site associated with the user in response to determining that the balance is less than the value associated with the amount of the resource.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the activity instruction includes a reference to at least one rate contract of multiple rate contracts stored in the distributed ledger and the action comprises applying rules specified in the rate contract. (0)

10. The method of claim 1, wherein: (0) (2)

11. A smart utility meter comprising: (2) (7)

at least one processor; and

performing an action;

determining a result of the action;

generating a transaction summary including the result; and

sending, to a broker node, a transmission including the transaction summary and

indicating performance of the action, the transmission causing the broker node to perform

an update to a distributed ledger.

12. The smart utility meter of claim 11, wherein the transmission comprises a first transmission and the operations further comprise, prior to performing the action, receiving a second transmission from the broker node; (0) (1)

13. The smart utility meter of claim 11, wherein the action includes scanning an identification tag located in proximity to the smart utility meter and performing validation of the identification tag. (1) (0)

16. A utility network system comprising: (3) (3)

a master node including a master node distributed ledger, the master node configured to receive a customer transaction and to update 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: receive a first transmission including an activity instruction from the plurality of broker nodes;

perform an action based on the activity instruction; and

send, to the plurality of broker nodes, a second transmission indicating performance of the action, the second transmission causing the plurality of broker nodes to perform a second update to their respective distributed ledger.

17. The utility network system of claim 16, wherein the master node distributed ledger comprises a cross-reference based distributed ledger and the broker node distributed ledger comprises a transaction based distributed ledger. (0)

18. The utility network system of claim 16, wherein each smart utility meter of the plurality of smart utility meters includes a smart utility meter distributed ledger comprised of an instance of a portion of the broker node distributed ledger that is applicable to the respective smart utility meter. (1) (0)

20. The utility network system of claim 16, wherein the activity instruction comprises a at least one of a rate contract or meter configuration data. (0)

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Application US20200005403

OPERATING SMART SENSORS USING DISTRIBUTED LEDGERS

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