Method and system for providing network and routing protocols for utility services

摘要

A method and system for providing a network and routing protocol for utility servicesare disclosed. In one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprisesdiscovering a utility network, wherein a utility device (for example, a constantpowered meter) sends network discovery messages to find the utility network.Neighboring meters are discovered and the device listens for advertised routesfor one or more networks from the neighbors. The device is then registered withone or more utility networks, receiving a unique address for each network registration.Also illustrated in this invention disclosure is how each device of a class ofdevices (for example, battery powered meter) finds and associates itself withanother device (for example, constant powered meter). The constant poweredmeter also registers its associate battery powered meter with the utility networks.The constant powered meter registers itself with the access points and the upstreamnodes in the path out of each network. Each upstream node can independently makeforwarding decisions on both upstream and downstream packets i.e. choose thenext hop according to the best information available to it. The constant poweredmeter can sense transient link problems, outage problems, and traffic characteristics.It uses the information to find the best route out of and within each network. Eachnetwork device thus maintains multi-egress, multi-ingress network routingoptions both for itself and the device(s) associated with it.