Patent ID: 8429295

Claim:
A wireless communication system comprising: a plurality of utility nodes configured to receive commodity meter information, the utility nodes being connected in a utility network; and a plurality of access point devices connected to the utility network, the access point devices providing communication between the plurality of utility nodes and at least one wide area network; wherein at least one of the plurality of utility nodes is configured to: register with a plurality of access points by: sending registration messages to more than one of said plurality of access point devices, and for each of the plurality of access point devices that acknowledges a registration message sent by the at least one node, obtaining a unique network address of the at least one node corresponding, to that access point device in response to receipt of the acknowledgement, to thereby obtain a plurality of unique network addresses that are concurrently available for communications via the respective access point devices with which the at least one node is registered; generate a message intended for a network destination accessible though the at least one wide area network connected with one of the plurality of access point devices with which the at least one node is registered; and send the generated message to the intended network destination via said one of the plurality of access point devices by utilizing the unique network address obtained for said one of the plurality of access point devices.