Patent ID: 8161191

Claim:
A wireless local area utility network system, comprising: a plurality of utility nodes that are part of a wireless local area utility network, each of the utility nodes being configured to transmit information on a metered commodity; a plurality of access points in communication with at least one of the utility nodes in the wireless local area utility network, the access points being in communication with a wide area network and each respectively constituting an interface between the wide area network and the wireless local area utility network; and at least one back office system in communication with the wide area network, and configured to communicate with at least one of the plurality of utility nodes via at least one of the access points, wherein at least one of the utility nodes is configured to: discover next hop utility nodes in the wireless local area utility network; discover at least two of the access points constituting an interface between the wide area network and the wireless local area utility network; register with the discovered access points; select a plurality of utility nodes among the discovered next hop utility nodes as next hop utility nodes for communicating with at least one of the discovered access points; receive routing information from at least one of the discovered next hop utility nodes; and construct a routing table from the routing information received from the discovered next hop utility nodes, wherein the routing table includes a first path and at least one alternate path to a given destination node in the wireless local area utility network, wherein the at least one of the utility nodes has at least two unique network addresses each respectively associated with a corresponding one of the at least two access points with which the at least one of the utility nodes has registered, wherein the at least one of the utility nodes is configured to forward, via at least one of the access points with which the at least one of the utility nodes has registered, the at least two unique network addresses to the back office server to provide the back office server with at least two routes to reach the at least one of the utility nodes, and wherein the at least two routes are respectively associated with a corresponding one of the at least two access points.