Patent ID: 8799481

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a signal, via a first hardware processor, wherein the signal indicates a presence of communication activities between the first hardware processor included in a first advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) or automatic meter reading (AMR) board of a meter and a device over a network, wherein the signal comprises a pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal representative of a type of the communication activities; providing the PWM signal representative of the type of the communication activities, via the first hardware processor, to a second hardware processor included in a second AMI or AMR board of the meter; determining, via the second hardware processor, the type of the communications activities between the first processor and the device based on the PWM signal, wherein the meter comprises circuitry to track energy usage; and providing, via the second hardware processor, an output that indicates the type for the communication activities between the first hardware processor and the device, wherein the second board comprises a metrology and data manager board of the meter.