Patent ID: 7336200

Claim:
An automatic meter reading (AMR) system, comprising: a reader; an endpoint interfaced to a utility meter, wherein said reader is capable of communicating with said plurality of endpoint devices via RF communication; and wherein said reader uses a single RF communication protocol in communicating with all of said plurality of endpoint devices and said single RF communication protocol supports both one-way communication and two-way communication, such that said reader uses said single RF communication protocol to permit communications with at least some of said plurality of endpoint devices via one-way communication and at least some of said endpoint devices via two-way communication; and wherein said single RF communication protocol includes: a physical layer that defines a common frequency band, channel bandwidth, modulation scheme, and preamble length for endpoint devices operating in one-way and two-way communication modes; and a transport layer that defines timing and packetization for all data transferred between said reader and endpoint, wherein said packetization provides packets originating from endpoints operating in one-way and two-way communication modes to include at least a common endpoint ID field, a common endpoint type field, and a message field following the endpoint type field.