主权项 |
1. In a wireless network comprising a collector and a plurality of electricity meters that measure consumption of electricity and that bi-directionally communicate wirelessly with the collector to transmit information about measured consumption of electricity to the collector, each of the electricity meters having a wireless communication path to the collector that is either a direct communication path to the collector or an indirect communication path through one or more other electricity meters that serve as repeaters, a method performed by a select one of the electricity meters, comprising:
receiving a message, from a battery-powered meter that measures consumption of a commodity other than electricity, which designates the select one of the electricity meters as an associated meter, such that an association is established with the battery-powered meter that measures consumption of a commodity other than electricity; in response to establishing the association, receiving information about measured consumption of the other commodity from the associated battery-powered meter and storing the received information; and transmitting both information about consumption of electricity measured by the select one electricity meter and the information about consumption of the other commodity received from the associated battery-powered meter to the collector via the wireless network. |