WIRELESS AREA NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS MODULE FOR UTILITY METERS

摘要

A communications module as shown in the figure that permits remote meter reading of a utility meter (30) via a wireless modem (12) that communicates using data packet networks (80) along a communications system such as ARDIS (80). The communications module is a microprocessor-based transmitter/receiver (25) which receives data collection requests from a system server (70), initiates data collection from a utility meter, and reports the data back to a host computer system residing, for example, at a central office. Preferably, session-based communications using the meter protocol is implemented between the communcations module and the meter, and packet switching is used between the communications server and the communications module through the network.