Patent ID: 7961554
Filing Date: 2011-06-14
Classification: G01D,G04G,H04J,H04W,Y02B,Y04S

Abstract:
1. A system comprising: a data collection device for collecting commodity consumption-related data from endpoint devices; and a mesh network comprising radio nodes, wherein each radio node is capable of communicating with one or more neighboring radio nodes of the mesh network and wherein at least some of the radio nodes are attached to endpoint devices; wherein a first radio node of the mesh network comprises a first crystal oscillator and a neighboring radio node of the mesh network comprises a neighboring crystal oscillator having greater time-keeping precision than the first crystal oscillator, the first radio node configured to estimate an error rate of the first crystal oscillator by communicating with the neighboring radio node to compare elapsed time according to the neighboring crystal oscillator with elapsed time according to the first crystal oscillator; and wherein the first radio node further comprises a battery as the only power source for the first crystal oscillator and the neighboring crystal oscillator receives power from a non-battery power source.