Patent ID: 8269651

Claim:
A fixed-base wireless network system for wide-area metering data collection, comprising: a plurality of meter modules, each meter module to monitor, store, encode, selectively insert a receive/transmit flag bit in the transmitted metering data and periodically transmit metering data; at least one receiver base station to receive, decode, store, and forward metering data; at least one network transceiver/relay device to receive and decode messages including the metering data from said plurality of meter modules, to identify, from the decoded messages, messages received from specified meter modules among said plurality of meter modules according to a list of the specified meter modules stored in a memory of said at least one network transceiver/relay device, the list of the specified meter modules specifying a subset of the plurality of meter modules, to encode and retransmit a first decoded message identified as being received from a meter module included in the list of the specified meter modules upon determination that the first decoded message includes the receive/transmit flag bit inserted by the meter module included in the list of the specified meter modules, and to not retransmit a second decoded message identified as being received from the meter module included in the list of the specified meter modules upon determination that the second decoded message does not include the receive/transmit flag bit; and a data operations center to communicate with said receiver base station, receive decoded metering data from said receiver base station, and validate and store metering data in a database for said plurality of meter modules.