Patent ID: 8803662

Claim:
A method for remotely collecting information via a light emitting diode (LED) based street light, comprising: collecting the information via the LED based street light from a utility meter coupled to a home, wherein the LED based street light is a part of an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI); establishing a two-way communication path via a communication module to a central office, wherein the communication module is coupled to the LED based street light, and wherein the LED based street light comprises a plurality of independently controllable groups of LEDs; sending the information from the utility meter to the central office via the two-way communication path, wherein said two-way communication path traverses the AMI; receiving, at the communication module, at least one a first control signal from the central office to control the utility meter and a second control signal to control the LED based street light, wherein the at least one first control signal turns off the utility meter and the second control signal turns on only a subset of the plurality of independently controllable groups of LEDs; and sending, by the communication module, the first control signal to the utility meter to turn off the utility meter.