Patent ID: 7756078
Filing Date: 2010-07-13
Classification: G01D,G08C,H01L,H04B,H04L,H04W,Y02B,Y04S

Abstract:
1. A method for managing cell size in an advanced metering system mesh network, comprising: establishing a mesh network including at least one cell incorporating at least one master node and a plurality of node devices, with at least some of the node devices comprising metrology devices, and with at least some of the node devices being organized into at least one cell; configuring the network for bi-directional communications among the at least one master node and each of the plurality of node devices using a repeating hyperframe subdivided into a repeating time slot packet protocol; synchronizing a plurality of the node devices to the at least one master node; establishing a cell size indicator based on the number of node devices synchronized to the master node; establishing average propagation delay respectively between each node device and the master node; establishing a global average propagation delay based on the average propagation delay respectively between each node device and the master node; transmitting the cell size indicator and the global average propagation delay information as a portion of any message transmitted from the master node to the node devices; and at each respective node device, sorting and selecting neighbors thereof to select the best access for synchronization and to make a choice between different available cells based on messages received from the master node.