METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING PATH REDUNDANCY IN THE ACQUISITION OF UTILITY METER DATA

摘要

A method and system by which certain radio transmitters (12a-12d) are assigned to certain reception nodes (14a, 14b) for the purpose of transmitting metering data derived from a plurality of utility meters to a system management computer (16, 17). The reception nodes (14a, 14b) are configured to receive and process data transmissions only from those transmitters (12a-12d) with data paths assigned to particular reception nodes, and to ignore data transmissions from non- listed transmitters, thereby assuring that on a continuous basis, a majority of the transmitters will utilize only one data path. Lists (19a, 19b) may be formed for the transmitters and reception nodes in the system management computer and transmitted to the reception nodes. The status of data transmissions through the repeaters (14a, 14b) may also be uploaded to the system management computer (16, 17) for analysis of data update rates and data path redundancy.