Patent ID: 6078785
Filing Date: 2000-06-20
Classification: G01D,H04B,Y02B,Y04S

Abstract:
A communications method where a great multiplicity of geographically-distributed monitors of the use of electricity report the amounts and times of use of the electricity by radio upon and responsively to successive demands originating from an associated one of a plurality of regional central stations, the communications method comprising:assigning to each of the great multiplicity of geographically-distributed monitors of the use of electricity a unique identification, to which unique identification each monitor will uniquely respond when addressed by radio of an appropriate frequency;classifying each of a multiplicity of geographically-distributed monitors out of the great multiplicity of monitors to be within a particular one geographical zone out of a plurality of such zones, each of which zones is geographically adjacent to no more than six other zones and each of which zones has a regional central station, the monitors of each geographical zone responding to radio only of a particular frequency out of a plurality of radio frequencies;wherein only three different radio frequencies need be used to preclude that the monitors of any one zone will not respond to the radio frequency of any adjacent zone;addressing from the regional central station of each zone, in sequence and upon successive known times, each of the multiplicity of the geographically-distributed monitors within that zone by sending at a one of the plurality of radio frequencies a demand message string includinga unique address of each of any number of selected geographically intervening monitors as do, in total, provide a outward communications relay path from the regional central station to a terminus monitor within the zone,a command to each such outward-relay-path monitor so informing it that it is intervening in the outward communications relay path and that, so being, it is not presently the terminus monitor,a unique address of a one monitor that is presently the terminus monitor,a command to this monitor informing it that it is presently the terminus monitor,a unique address of each of any number of selected geographically intervening monitors as do, in total, provide a inward communications relay path from the terminus monitor back to the zone's regional central station, anda command to each such inward-relay-path monitor so informing it that it is intervening in the inward communications relay path and, so being, that it is not presently the terminus monitor,wherein the time of the transmission of said demand message string, which time is known to the regional central station, is inherent in the act of transmitting said demand message string;responding, successively in each of the outward-relay-path monitors of each zone upon occasion of being addressed in sequence and upon successive times, to remove its own unique address from the demand message string, and to retransmit at the same frequency as received the demand message string so abbreviated to successive outward-relay-path monitors within the zone until an abbreviated demand message string including relayed commands, an address of the terminus monitor and addresses of inward-relay-path monitors reaches the terminus monitor;responding in the terminus monitor to remove its own address from the demand message string, and to retransmit at the same frequency as received the relayed abbreviated demand message string, including commands and addresses of inward-relay-path monitors, now in accompaniment to data regarding the amount and time of usage of electricity, which amount and time of usage data is relational to the time of receipt of the demand message string; andresponding, successively in each of the inward-relay-path monitors of each zone upon occasions of being addressed in sequence and upon successive times, to remove its own unique address from the abbreviated demand message string, and to retransmit at the same frequency as received the demand message string so abbreviated and accompanying data to successive inward-relay-path monitors within the zone until the data reaches the regional central station of the zone;wherein the central station of each zone retrieves the data responsively to its own demand from the addressed terminus monitor of the same zone through a succession of radio relays both outward from the central station through intervening monitors of the zone to the terminus monitor, and also inward from the terminus monitor back through intervening monitors of the zone to the central station;wherein, by successive interrogations upon successive times, each central station ultimately receives via radio of a particular one of the plurality of frequencies both the amount and time of usage of electricity usage as is monitored by the multiplicity of geographically-distributed monitors within its own zone, and is able to interpret said amount and said time of usage relative to the known time at which it did transmit the demand message string.