| 摘要 |
A system and method for remote sensing of utilities and other data incorporates a multiple level network hierarchy. Individual sensor units, such as electrical meters, may be equipped with a relativity small, low-cost wireless link, such as a Bluetooth link, to create self-configuring piconets in a neighborhood or other reporting cell. Metering or other data collected by the sensors may be relayed through an access node which communicates the LAN-based information to a WAN resource, such as a Mobitex transceiver. That transceiver may operate an extended geographic region of 30 kilometers or more, collecting information from reporting cells or groups of reporting cells for transmission to a base station. One or more of those base stations communicate via a switch to a network management center, which receives, conditions, restores and processes the data, for instance, for billing or other purposes. Because the reporting devices may be low cost, low power units, a large quantity of utility or other resources may be monitored and a large number of reporting cells may be economically maintained. |
