Patent ID: 9306624
Filing Date: 2016-04-05
CPC Classification: H02J,H04B,Y02E,Y04S

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus comprising: a first power-line communication circuit configured and arranged to communicate data with a second power-line communication circuit over power lines of a power-line communication network and using a communication protocol requiring that one of the first power-line communication circuit or the second power-line communication circuit join into regular communications in response to an initiation message being recognized as received over the power lines of the power-line communication network, the communicated data including power-meter data collected by at least one of a plurality of endpoint devices; the first power-line communication circuit being further configured and arranged to communicate data regularly with the second power-line communication circuit over the power lines after being joined into regular communications by the initiation message being recognized as received over the power lines of the power-line communication network, the initiation message being communicated over the power lines at an initiation time interval, the initiation time interval being based on a random interval that is within an interval range and that is based on a relative time at which at least two of the plurality of endpoint devices are designated to join within the interval range.