Patent ID: 8902901

Claim:
One or more devices comprising: a processing unit configured to perform acts including: receiving a plurality of communication packets from one or more first nodes, at least one of the plurality of communication packets being received at a first data rate, each communication packet of the plurality of communication packets comprising control data and payload data, the control data for controlling sending and/or receiving of the payload data, the payload data comprising electricity consumption data, water consumption data, and/or natural gas consumption data, wherein the receiving the plurality of communication packets includes receiving the plurality of communication packets from multiple different nodes over one or more wireless connections; extracting the payload data from each communication packet of the plurality of communication packets; storing each extracted payload data of the plurality of communication packets for a time period; determining that a second data rate supported by the one or more devices and one or more second nodes is greater than or equal to the first data rate; concatenating each extracted payload data of the plurality of communication packets at least partly in response to the determining; and sending the concatenated payload data to the one or more second nodes in a single communication packet at the second data rate that is greater than or equal to the first data rate.