Patent ID: 7986718

Claim:
A method for enabling a newly installed network end device to establish a link to an existing advanced metering system frequency hopping network, comprising: establishing a network including a central facility and a plurality of end devices, at least some of which end devices comprise metrology devices; configuring the network for bi-directional communications between the central facility and each of the plurality of end devices; causing a newly installed end device to transmit a discovery beacon, the discovery beacon including information as to a specific listening channel on which the newly installed end device will listen during a listening window; configuring selected of the plurality of end devices to transmit a response to a received discovery beacon; placing the newly installed end device in a listen mode during a listening window on the listening channel specified in the transmitted discovery beacon; configuring the newly installed end device to collect and store information transmitted from one or more of the plurality of end devices in response to the discovery beacon; and configuring the newly installed end device to synchronize with a preferred network based on the lowest number of end points within a cell of end points.