U.S. patent application number 14/239542 was filed with the patent office on 2014-08-07 for multi-scheme downhole tool bus system and methods.
This patent application is currently assigned to SCHLUMBERGER TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION. The applicant listed for this patent is Yuichi Kobayashi, Motohiro Nakanouchi, Takeaki Nakayama, David Santoso, Theodorus Tjhang. Invention is credited to Yuichi Kobayashi, Motohiro Nakanouchi, Takeaki Nakayama, David Santoso, Theodorus Tjhang.
Application Number | 20140218206 14/239542 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 47883858 |
Filed Date | 2014-08-07 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140218206 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Tjhang; Theodorus ; et
al. |
August 7, 2014 |
Multi-Scheme Downhole Tool Bus System and Methods
Abstract
A multi-scheme downhole tool bus system is provided. The system
may comprise a tool bus master and a number tool bus slaves coupled
together via a communications link The communications link may
include an uplink communication and a downlink communication. The
uplink communication and the downlink communication may include a
number of communication schemes or data rates.
Inventors: |
Tjhang; Theodorus;
(Sagamihara-shi, JP) ; Kobayashi; Yuichi;
(Machida-shi, JP) ; Nakayama; Takeaki;
(Machida-shi, JP) ; Nakanouchi; Motohiro;
(Hachioji-shi, JP) ; Santoso; David; (Sugar Land,
TX) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Tjhang; Theodorus
Kobayashi; Yuichi
Nakayama; Takeaki
Nakanouchi; Motohiro
Santoso; David |
Sagamihara-shi
Machida-shi
Machida-shi
Hachioji-shi
Sugar Land |
TX |
JP
JP
JP
JP
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
SCHLUMBERGER TECHNOLOGY
CORPORATION
Sugar Land
US
|
Family ID: |
47883858 |
Appl. No.: |
14/239542 |
Filed: |
September 11, 2012 |
PCT Filed: |
September 11, 2012 |
PCT NO: |
PCT/IB2012/054720 |
371 Date: |
February 19, 2014 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
61533302 |
Sep 12, 2011 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
340/854.3 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 27/0008 20130101;
H04L 27/10 20130101; E21B 47/13 20200501; E21B 47/12 20130101; H04L
5/1446 20130101; H04L 1/0041 20130101; H04L 12/40136 20130101; H04L
5/1453 20130101; H04L 12/40169 20130101; H04L 25/4908 20130101;
H04L 1/0003 20130101; H04L 25/4904 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
340/854.3 |
International
Class: |
E21B 47/12 20060101
E21B047/12 |
Claims
1. A downhole tool bus system comprising: a tool bus master; one or
more tool bus slaves communicatively coupled to the tool bus master
via an uplink communication and a downlink communication; wherein
the uplink communication and the downlink communication each
includes one or more communication schemes.
2. The downhole tool bus system recited in claim 1, wherein the one
or more communication schemes include a first communication scheme
at a first data rate and a second communication scheme at a second
data rate.
3. The downhole tool bus system recited in claim 2, wherein the
first communication scheme is the same as the second communication
scheme.
4. The downhole tool bus system recited in claim 2, wherein the
first communication scheme is different than the second
communication scheme.
5. The downhole tool bus system recited in claim 2, wherein the
first communication scheme is biphase and the second communication
scheme is 8b/10b.
6. A tool bus slave system comprising: a transceiver electronics
receiver; a transceiver electronics transmitter; a first
communication scheme demodulator; a first communication scheme
modulator; a second communication scheme demodulator; a second
communication scheme modulator; wherein demodulator and modulator
are synonymous to decoder and encoder respectively in digital
baseband transmission, and wherein a multi-coding scheme is
received on the transceiver electronics receiver and transmitted on
the transceiver electronics transmitter.
7. The tool bus slave system recited in claim 6, wherein: the first
communication scheme of the multi-coding scheme is processed by the
first communication scheme demodulator and the first communication
scheme modulator; and the second communication scheme of the
multi-coding scheme is processed by the second communication scheme
demodulator and the second communication scheme modulator.
8. The tool bus slave system recited in claim 6, wherein the first
communication scheme of the multi-coding scheme is processed by the
first communication scheme demodulator and the second communication
scheme modulator.
9. The tool bus slave system recited in claim 6, wherein the first
communication scheme is biphase and the second communication scheme
is 8b/10b.
10. A method for communicatively coupling a tool bus master to one
or more tool bus slaves comprising: communicatively coupling the
tool bus master to the one or more tool bus slaves via an uplink
communication and a downlink communication; wherein the uplink
communication and the downlink communication each includes one or
more communication schemes.
11. The method recited in claim 10, wherein the one or more
communication schemes include a first communication scheme at a
first data rate and a second communication scheme at a second data
rate.
12. The method recited in claim 11, wherein the first communication
scheme is the same as the second communication scheme.
13. The method recited in claim 11, wherein the first communication
scheme is different than the second communication scheme.
14. The method recited in claim 11, wherein the first communication
scheme is biphase and the second communication scheme is 8b/10b.
Description
BACKGROUND
[0001] Hydrocarbon fluids such as oil and natural gas are obtained
from a subterranean geologic formation, referred to as a reservoir,
by drilling a well that penetrates the hydrocarbon-bearing
formation. A variety of downhole tools may be used in all areas of
oil and natural gas services. In some cases, downhole tools may be
used in a well for surveying, drilling, and production of
hydrocarbons. These downhole tools may communicate with the surface
via various telemetry systems.
[0002] Tool bus systems may be used to transmit data. However,
legacy tool bus systems have a single scheme construction enabling
only a low data rate. According to new downhole tool development,
higher acquisition data should be transmitted to surface.
SUMMARY
[0003] The present disclosure provides systems, tools and methods
for transmitting data to surface. In some embodiments, the
disclosure provides downhole tool bus systems, tool bus slave
systems, and methods for communicatively coupling a tool bus master
to one or more tool bus slaves. In some embodiments, contrary to
new tool bus systems which may be developed for use with the new
downhole tools to permit higher acquisition data transfer to
surface and are not compatible with legacy tools, the multi-scheme
tool bus systems according to this disclosure enable a higher data
rate than the legacy single scheme tool bus systems and thus can be
used with new downhole tools while also maintaining backward
compatibility to legacy tools.
[0004] In some embodiments, the tool bus system may comprise a tool
bus master and one or more tool bus slaves communicatively coupled
together via uplink and downlink communication. Each of the one or
more tool bus slaves may communicate with the tool bus master via
two or more communication schemes. In some cases, the two or more
communication schemes may be the same scheme at two or more data
rates. Each uplink and downlink communication may include one or
more communication schemes.
[0005] In some embodiments, the tool bus slave includes a
transceiver electronics receiver, a transceiver electronics
transmitter, a first communication scheme demodulator (decoder), a
first communication scheme modulator (encoder), a second
communication scheme demodulator (decoder), a second communication
scheme modulator (encoder), and the transceiver electronics
receiver receives a multi-coding scheme, the transceiver
electronics transceiver transmits a multi-coding scheme, the first
communication scheme of the multi-coding scheme is processed by the
first communication scheme demodulator (decoder) and the first
communication scheme modulator (encoder), and the second
communication scheme of the multi-coding scheme is processed by the
second communication scheme demodulator (decoder) and the second
communication scheme modulator (encoder). In some embodiments, the
first communication scheme is biphase and the second communication
scheme is 8b/10b. In some embodiments, the multi-coding scheme can
be changed in the slaves. For example, the communication scheme of
the multi-coding scheme may be processed by the first communication
scheme demodulator (decoder) and the second communication scheme
modulator (encoder). In such embodiments, the effective data rate
may be the same but the scheme can be chosen according to the
downhole environment, for example taking into account a longer
communication path in between tools, and/or a protocol change such
as addition of an error coding correction.
[0006] In some embodiments, the method for communicatively coupling
a tool bus master to one or more tool bus slaves includes
communicatively coupling a tool bus master to one or more tool bus
slaves via an uplink communication and a downlink communication
such that the uplink communication and the downlink communication
each include one or more schemes. In some embodiments, the one or
more communication schemes includes a first communication scheme at
a first data rate and a second communication scheme at a second
data rate. In some embodiments, the first communication scheme is
the same as the second communication scheme. In some embodiments,
the first communication is different than the second communication
scheme. In some embodiments, the first communication scheme is
biphase and the second communication scheme is 8b/10b.
[0007] Other or alternative features will become apparent from the
following description, from the drawings, and from the claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] Certain embodiments of the present disclosure will hereafter
be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein
like reference numerals denote like elements. It should be
understood, however, that the accompanying drawings illustrate only
the various implementations described herein and are not meant to
limit the scope of various technologies described herein. The
drawings are as follows:
[0009] FIG. 1 is a multi-coding scheme tool bus system according to
an embodiment; and
[0010] FIG. 2 is a series of mixed modulation schemes in
time-division according to an embodiment; and
[0011] FIG. 3 is a schematic of a tool bus slave design for a
multi-coding scheme tool bus system according to an embodiment;
and
[0012] FIG. 4 is a schematic of a multi-data rate tool bus system
according to an embodiment; and
[0013] FIG. 5 is an actual experimental result to show multi-scheme
switching between biphase and 8b/10b.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0014] Illustrative embodiments and aspects are described below. It
will of course be appreciated that in the development of any such
actual embodiment, numerous implementation-specific decisions must
be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as
compliance with system-related and business-related constraints,
which will vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it
will be appreciated that such development effort might be complex
and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking
for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this
disclosure.
[0015] Reference throughout the specification to "one embodiment,"
"an embodiment," "some embodiments," "one aspect," "an aspect," or
"some aspects" means that a particular feature, structure, method,
or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or
aspect is included in at least one embodiment of the present
disclosure. Thus, the appearance of the phrases "in one embodiment"
or "in an embodiment" or "in some embodiments" in various places
throughout the specification are not necessarily all referring to
the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features,
structures, methods, or characteristics may be combined in any
suitable manner in one or more embodiments. The words "including"
and "having" shall have the same meaning as the word
"comprising."
[0016] In the specification and appended claims: the terms
"connect", "connection", "connected", "in connection with", and
"connecting" are used to mean "in direct connection with" or "in
connection with via one or more elements"; and the term "set" is
used to mean "one element" or "more than one element". Further, the
terms "couple", "coupling", "coupled", "coupled together", and
"coupled with" are used to mean "directly coupled together" or
"coupled together via one or more elements". As used herein, the
terms "up" and "down", "upper" and "lower", "upwardly" and
downwardly", "upstream" and "downstream"; "above" and "below"; and
other like terms indicating relative positions above or below a
given point or element are used in this description to more clearly
describe some embodiments of the disclosure.
[0017] As used throughout the specification and claims, the term
"downhole" refers to a subterranean environment, particularly in a
wellbore. "Downhole tool" is used broadly to mean any tool used in
a subterranean environment including, but not limited to, a logging
tool, an imaging tool, an acoustic tool, a permanent monitoring
tool, and a combination tool.
[0018] For digital broadband transmission, the terms demodulator
and decoder are used in the alternative, are synonymous and have
the same meaning. Similarly, for digital broadband transmission,
the terms modulator and encoder are used in the alternative, are
synonymous and have the same meaning.
[0019] The various techniques disclosed herein may be utilized to
facilitate and improve data acquisition and analysis in downhole
tools and systems. In this, downhole tools and systems are provided
that may utilize arrays of sensing devices that are configured or
designed for easy attachment and detachment in downhole sensor
tools or modules that are deployed for purposes of sensing data
relating to environmental and tool parameters downhole, within a
borehole. The tools and sensing systems disclosed herein may
effectively sense and store characteristics relating to components
of downhole tools as well as formation parameters at elevated
temperatures and pressures.
[0020] Chemicals and chemical properties of interest in oilfield
exploration and development may also be measured and stored by the
sensing systems contemplated by the present disclosure. The sensing
systems herein may be incorporated in tool systems such as wireline
logging tools, measurement-while-drilling and
logging-while-drilling tools, permanent monitoring systems, drill
bits, drill collars, sondes, among others. For purposes of this
disclosure, when any one of the terms wireline, cable line,
slickline or coiled tubing or conveyance is used it is understood
that any of the referenced deployment means, or any other suitable
equivalent means, may be used with the present disclosure without
departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.
[0021] Moreover, inventive aspects lie in less than all features of
a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claims following the
Detailed Description are hereby expressly incorporated into this
Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a
separate embodiment of this disclosure.
[0022] Referring generally to FIGS. 1(a)-(d), various schematics of
multi-coding schemes tool bus systems are shown according to
embodiments of the present disclosure. In the systems FIG. 1(a)
through FIG. 1(d), both 8b/10b and biphase schemes are used to
illustrate general communication schemes for in the interest of
simplifying the description. As readily apparent to a person of
skill in the art, many types and combinations of schemes may be
used in accordance with the teachings of this description. For
example, a non-limiting listing of schemes may include FSK
(Frequency Shift Keying) modulation, 64b/66b, and LVDS (Low Voltage
Differential Signaling), among others not expressly identified.
[0023] In some embodiments, the downhole tool bus system for data
communication coupling between downhole tools may include a tool
bus master in a telemetry cartridge and a tool bus slave in one or
more of the various downhole application tools. Data communication
includes all forms of communicative coupling such as instructions,
time stamps, synchronization signals, data transmission, among
other forms of communicative coupling. The downhole tools may
include sonic, seismic, and other various forms of tools, such as
analytical and logging, among others.
[0024] As shown in FIG. 1(a) and FIG. 1(d), both the uplink and
downlink communication couplings may use the same scheme. For
example, in FIG. 1(a) 8b/10b are used for both the uplink and
downlink communication couplings whereas in FIG. 1(d) biphase
schemes are used. In addition to using the same scheme for uplinks
and downlinks, various combinations of schemes may be used.
[0025] In FIG. 1(b) 8b/10b is used for the uplink communication and
biphase is used for the downlink communication. Alternatively, in
FIG. 1(c) biphase is used for the uplink communication and 8b/10b
is used for the downlink communication. As stated earlier, 8b/10b
and biphase are used for the purposes of illustration in order to
simplify the description, scheme 1 and scheme 2 could be
substituted as more general descriptors of communication
systems.
[0026] Referring generally now to FIG. 2, various schematics of
mixed modulation in time-division are shown according to
embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, in some
embodiments, an uplink communication may use a combination of
8b/10b and biphase coding scheme in a time-division manner. The
downlink communication may use a biphase coding scheme as
illustrated in FIG. 2(a). Whereas in other embodiments, the uplink
communication may use a combination of 8b/10b and biphase coding
scheme in a time-division manner while the downlink communication
uses an 8b/10b coding scheme (as shown in FIG. 2(b)).
[0027] In still other embodiments, a downhole tool bus system may
use a biphase coding scheme for the uplink communication coupling
while using a combination of 8b/10b and biphase coding schemes in
the downlink communication coupling, as shown in FIG. 2(c).
Alternatively, some embodiments may use an 8b/10b coding scheme for
the uplink communication coupling while the downlink communication
coupling may use a combination of 8b/10b and biphase coding schemes
in a time-division manner, as seen in FIG. 2(d).
[0028] In some cases, an embodiment of a downhole tool bus system
may include a combination of biphase coding schemes and 8b/10b
coding schemes in both the uplink and downlink communication
coupling. The schematic shown in FIG. 2(e) is an illustration of
this exemplary embodiment. Additional combinations and
configurations of schemes including alternative or additional
schemes are considered within the scope of this disclosure. In some
configurations, more than two schemes may be used. In some
embodiments, guard bands may be used to separate the various
schemes and allow the electronics to recognize and receive the
different communication coupling schemes.
[0029] Turning generally to FIG. 3, this drawing shows a schematic
of an illustrative example of a tool bus slave design for a
multi-coding scheme tool bus system, according to an embodiment of
this disclosure. As with previous examples, biphase and 8b/10b
coding schemes are used as illustrative examples in order to
simplify the detailed descriptions, and embodiments of this
disclosure should not be limited to these schemes or to the
schematic shown in FIG. 3.
[0030] In general, in some embodiments, a tool bus slave design
includes a transceiver electronics receiver, a transceiver
electronics transmitter, a first communication scheme demodulator,
a first communication modulator, a second communication scheme
demodulator, a second communication scheme modulator, and the
transceiver electronics receiver receives a multi-coding scheme,
the transceiver electronics transceiver transmits a multi-coding
scheme, the first communication scheme of the multi-coding scheme
is processed by the first communication scheme demodulator and the
first communication scheme modulator, and the second communication
scheme or the multi-coding scheme is processed by the second scheme
demodulator and the second communication scheme modulator. In
either case (whether referring to the first communication scheme or
the second communication scheme), the term demodulator is
synonymous to the term decoder for digital base baseband
transmission, and the term modulator is synonymous to the term
encoder for digital base band transmission.
[0031] In the embodiment of FIG. 3, the tool bus slave design
includes transceiver electronics as a receiver in which an incoming
signal is split between a biphase decoder and a 8b/10b decoder. The
biphase decoder may then take the biphase portion of the signal and
send via FIFO (First in First Out) to a biphase encoder. The
biphase encoder will then pass the signal along to transceiver
electronics as a transmitter for sending along a communicative
pathway.
[0032] The 8b/10b decoder may take the 8b/10b signal portion of the
signal and send via FIFO to an 8b/10b encoder. The 8b10b encoder
will then pass the signal to transceiver electronics as a
transmitter for sending along the communicative pathway.
[0033] In some configurations of a tool slave design, a CDR (Clock
and Data Recovery) module may be used for example to detect the
various schemes in the data stream automatically. Other
configurations may include a method for detecting and repeating a
mixed 8b/10b and biphase uplink and downlink from the adjacent
tools.
[0034] Referring generally to FIG. 4, a schematic is shown
comprising an illustrative configuration of five tool bus slaves
communicatively coupled together with a tool bus master. In some
embodiments, a mixture of tool bus slave schemes and speeds may be
present depending upon the availability of tools and the type of
function required downhole. In this schematic, there are biphase
schemes of varying bit rates (e.g., 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps for example)
and an 8b/10b scheme of 8 Mbps. In some embodiments, the
multi-scheme approach facilitates backward compatibility with
legacy tools and thus the systems of the present disclosure may be
used simultaneously or alternatively with new downhole tools as
well as legacy downhole tools.
[0035] In some embodiments, the lower bit rate biphase tools may be
located farthest away from the tool bus master and increase in bit
rate capability as the tools are located closer to the tool bus
master along the communicative coupling. A configuration structured
as such may allow the data to communicate at high speed. Without
wishing to be bound by theory, if a 2 Mbps tool were located lower
(in terms of the figure) than a 1 Mbps tool, the data from the 2
Mbps tool may be constrained by the capability of the 1 Mbps tool
as it traveled from the 2 Mbps tool to the tool bus master. As
shown in FIG. 4, in addition to various schemes, embodiments of the
disclosure may accommodate various data rates as well.
[0036] The graphs of FIG. 5 illustrate use of multi-scheme
switching between biphase and 8b/10. As shown, a bi-phase scheme
and an 8b10b scheme are processed in one slave, and the two schemes
are mixed in time division multiplexing. Further as shown, the
scheme is changed from bi-phase, which has about 2 Mbps speed
performance, to 8b10b, which has about 8 Mbps speed performance in
a certain frame period. The multi-scheme selection is automatically
done by the CDR part.
[0037] While the detailed description has been made with respect to
a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having
the benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate numerous
modifications and variations there from. It is intended that the
appended claims cover such modifications and variations as fall
within the true spirit and scope of this disclosure.
* * * * *