Electronic electric meter for networked meter reading
First Claim
1. A metering system for measuring a commodity characteristic and reporting the commodity characteristic to a commodity receiver, the system comprising:
- a first meter having a first transducer operable to sense the commodity characteristic and generate data representative of the commodity characteristic, and a communication section operable to transmit the data from the first meter; and
a second meter having a second communication section configured to relay the data from the first meter to the commodity receiver or a subsequent meter.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic electric meter for use in a networked automatic meter reading environment. The electric meter retrofits into existing meter sockets and is available for new meter installations for both single phase and three phase electric power connections. The meter utilizes an all electronic design including a meter microcontroller, a measurement microcontroller, a communication microcontroller and spread spectrum processor, and a plurality of other communication interface modules for communicating commodity utilization and power quality data to a utility. The electric meter utilizes a modular design which allows the interface modules to be changed depending upon the desired communication network interface. The meter measures electricity usage and monitors power quality parameters for transmission to the utility over a two-way 900 MHz spread spectrum local area network (LAN) to a remotely located gateway node. The gateway node transmits this data to the utility over a commercially available fixed wide area network (WAN). The meter also provides direct communication to the utility over a commercially available network interface that plugs into the meter'"'"'s backplane or bus system bypassing the local area network communication link and gateway node.
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Citations
69 Claims
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1. A metering system for measuring a commodity characteristic and reporting the commodity characteristic to a commodity receiver, the system comprising:
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a first meter having a first transducer operable to sense the commodity characteristic and generate data representative of the commodity characteristic, and a communication section operable to transmit the data from the first meter; and
a second meter having a second communication section configured to relay the data from the first meter to the commodity receiver or a subsequent meter. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A metering system for measuring a commodity characteristic and reporting the commodity characteristic to a commodity receiver, the system comprising:
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a first meter having a first transducer means for sensing the commodity characteristic and generating data representative of the commodity characteristic, and a communication means for transmitting the data from the first meter; and
a second meter having a second communication section configured to relay the data from the first meter to the commodity receiver or a subsequent meter. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A method of relaying data representative of a commodity characteristic, the method comprising the acts of:
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generating data using the commodity characteristic at a first meter;
transmitting the data with a first transceiver from the first meter;
receiving the data from the first meter at a second meter; and
transmitting the data using the second meter to a remote commodity receiver or a third meter. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51)
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52. A meter relay system comprising:
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a commodity transceiver; and
a plurality of meters including at least one meter being a target meter, each meter having a transducer operable to sense a commodity characteristic and generate data representative of the commodity characteristic, and each meter having a communication section operable to receive a request from the commodity transceiver and from an adjacent meter, to transmit the request to an adjacent meter until the request reaches the target meter, to receive the data from an adjacent meter, and to transmit the data to an adjacent meter and to the commodity transceiver. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69)
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Specification