Municipalities administer and/or outsource numerous utility and safety systems within each municipality. Such systems are usually complex infrastructures and include but are not limited to water distribution, gas distribution, electricity distribution, waste management, traffic control, fire departments, police departments, and emergency response departments. Each of these systems needs to be monitored for use (authorized or unauthorized), faults, tampering, events, interruptions or blockages, leaks, contamination, and/or other issues.
To obtain an understanding of the state of any one system, or for ordinary use, billing or repair purposes, personnel must typically be sent into the municipality to check for problems within the system manually. This process is slow, is labor-intensive, and can lead to overlooked problems. Furthermore, preferred aspects of the system may be evaluated irregularly or infrequently, thereby allowing a problem to go unchecked for long periods of time. By way of example, a leak in a water main may cost a water company a significant amount of money in lost water, energy usage, and chemical treatment, particularly if the leak is not discovered for a relatively long period of time. Furthermore, a leak can lead to underground structural erosion. Interference with a system may go unnoticed unless it is reported to a central location.
Another problem and disadvantage associated with current systems is the lack of property rights sufficient to maintain a network of monitors and device controllers capable of creating a transmission infrastructure that can adapt to multiple monitors and controllers and form an information network for providing information about the system to the utility monitoring the network. For example, some networks require that new poles or towers be erected for placement of the communication devices. Municipalities may have to rent space on a utility company's poles for placement of such devices.
Furthermore, an issue in one system may cause an issue in another system. For example, a fire reported to the fire department may require the gas company to turn off gas flow to the vicinity of the fire and may require the water company to redirect water or additional water pressure to the vicinity. However, many current systems are not interoperable.
It is, therefore, desirable to have a single system that can monitor different aspects of at least one municipality system continuously and communicate with several entities at the same time.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds