Patent ID: 8619657

Claim:
A system for managing cost in a wireless enabled advanced metering infrastructure, the system comprising: (a) a remote server (b) a wide area network coupled to the remote server; (c) at least one access point device coupled to the remote server through the wide area network, (d) at least one neighborhood area network that includes one or more wireless enabled meters coupled to each other and to the access point; (e) one or more datasinks wherein each datasink is configured to being a data coordinator and configured to receiving metering information from the one or more wireless enabled meters, processing metering information, and transmitting metering information to at least one access point; (i) wherein each wireless enabled meter is configured to be a node, wherein the node is selected from the group consisting of a routing node and an endpoint node; (ii) wherein a first set of wireless enabled meters are configured to be one or more routing nodes and a second set of wireless enabled meters are configured to be one or more end point nodes based on a graph theoretic algorithm and to configure each wireless enabled meter to a minimum power level based on a bridging distance to a neighboring meter thereby reducing overall the cost of the wireless enabled advanced metering infrastructure; (f) wherein implementing the graph theoretic algorithm results in generating a spanning tree that increases the ratio of wireless enabled meters to access points in a neighborhood area network.