Patent ID: 8274401

Claim:
A method of performing measurements with a portable meter and reporting measurement data from the portable meter to a central office having a server security certificate and a meter management table stored in the central office, comprising the steps of: (a) synchronizing the portable meter at a first location with the central office over a trusted interface resulting in the portable meter having a meter copy of a meter certificate and the central office having a predefined portion of the meter certificate in the meter management table, wherein the predefined portion uniquely identifies the portable meter; (b) performing the measurements with the portable meter and generating the measurement data; (c) establishing a secure channel between the portable meter connected to an IP network at a second location and the central office, including transmitting the server security certificate from the central office to the portable meter; transmitting the meter copy of the meter certificate from the portable meter to the central office, thereby providing the central office with a received copy of the meter certificate; verifying the received copy of the meter certificate at the central office; determining if the meter management table contains the predefined portion of the received copy of the meter certificate; transmitting the measurement data to the central office from the portable meter over the IP network though the secure channel if the received certificate is successfully verified and if the meter management table contains the predefined portion of the received copy of the meter certificate; wherein the second location is different from the first location; (d) processing the measurement data received from the portable meter at the central office.