Patent ID: 8848521

Claim:
A method for assigning communication channels for communication between endpoint devices and one or more collectors over power distribution lines carrying alternating current (AC) power, the method comprising: at the one or more collectors, collecting transmission quality data for a plurality of sub-channels; communicating the transmission quality data from the one or more collectors to a command center; and at the command center: based on the transmission quality data, organizing unused ones of the plurality of sub-channels into respective ones of the communication channels, each communication channel having the same number of contiguous sub-channels that includes at least two sub-channels, assigning one or more endpoint devices to respective ones of the communications channels; and transmitting a first command to at least one of the one or more collectors; in response to the at least one collector receiving the first command, transmitting data from the collector over the power distribution lines to configure at least one of the one or more endpoint devices to use a corresponding respective one of the communication channels allocated to the at least one of the one or more endpoint devices.