Wakeup and interrogation of meter-reading devices using licensed narrowband and unlicensed wideband radio communication

摘要

A meter data collection system in which a licensed narrowband frequency channel is used to wake up carrier-sensed, battery-powered meter reading devices (MRDs) is disclosed herein. In the meter data collection system disclosed herein, an unlicensed wideband channel is used to transmit data replies from the MRDs to a mobile data collection device. In another embodiment disclosed herein, a meshed network of MRDs communicating on the unlicensed channel is combined with a roaming interrogator that uses the licensed channel to send commands or to perform on-demand reads.