Patent ID: 8150950

Claim:
A method of determining identities of a plurality of devices of a plurality of different types, including a first device and a second device, which communicate with a central computer system in a utility monitoring system, the method comprising: attempting a first scattered read from a plurality of memory addresses of a memory in the first device the memory of the first device arranged according to a first register layout configuration and storing first identification information indicative of (a) the identity of the first device and (b) a type of the first device; attempting a second scattered read from a plurality of memory addresses of a memory of the second device, the memory of the second device arranged according to a second register layout configuration different than that of the first register layout configuration and storing second identification information indicative of (a) the identity of the second device and (b) a type of the second device different than that of the type of the first device, the second device being linked together with the first device in the utility monitoring system; receiving at the central computer system a response from the first attempted scattered read of the first device; determining whether the response is valid; if the response is valid, determining whether any of the plurality of memory addresses of the first device includes the first identification information indicative of an identity of the first device and, if so, storing the first identification information associated with the first device in the central computer system; and if the response is not valid: (a) attempting to block read from a block of memory addresses of the memory of the first device, (b) determining whether the block of memory addresses includes the first identification information, (c) if the block of memory addresses includes the first identification information, storing the first identification information in the central computer system, and (d) if the block of memory addresses does not include the first identification information, reading from the memory of the first device in seriatim until the first identification information is read and then storing the first identification information in the central computer system.