Patent ID: 7945626

Claim:
A method for determining a physical location of an unknown position device (UPD) in a communication network, the communication network including plural known position devices (KPDs), said method comprising: storing known potential locations of the UPD, the known potential locations related to known positions of utility service lines; receiving a message transmitted by the UPD at least one of the plural KPDs; measuring a signal quality of the message received from the UPD by the at least one of the plural KPDs; and transmitting a data message from the at least one of the plural KPDs to a regional network interface, the data message including the signal quality; computing, at the regional network interface, an approximate physical location of the UPD based on a physical location of the at least one of the plural KPDs and the signal quality measured at the at least one of the plural KPDs; and producing a list of likely locations of the UPD based on the approximate physical location of the UPD and the known potential locations of the UPD, wherein the known potential locations include a physical location of a sensor that was suspected of exhibiting an error condition or was suspected of being tampered with.