WIRELESS AREA NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS MODULE FOR UTILITY METERS

摘要

A communication module as shown in the Fig. that permits remote meter readingof a utility meter (30) via a wireless modem (12)that communicates using data packet networks (80) along a communicationssystem such as ARDIS (80). The communications module isa microprocessor-based transmitter/receiver (25) which receives datacollection requests from a system server (70), initiates data collectionfrom a utility meter, and reports the data back to a host computer systemresiding, for example, at a central office. Preferably, session-basedcommunication using the meter protocol is implemented between thecommuncations module and the meter, and packet switching is usedbetween the communications server and the communications module through thenetwork.