Patent ID: 8024724

Claim:
A method for downloading a firmware image through a network to a plurality of network devices, comprising: establishing a network including a central facility and a plurality of end devices, wherein said plurality of end devices comprises metrology devices; configuring the network for bi-directional communications between the central facility and each of the plurality of end devices in accordance with an open standard meter communication protocol; notifying selected of the plurality of end device of a pending firmware image download; broadcasting the firmware image download as a series of individual fragments; configuring selected of the plurality of end devices to transmit previously received individual fragments of the firmware image to others of the plurality of end devices such that individual fragments of the firmware image are transmitted virally among portions of the network independently of any other network communication; establishing point-to-point communications between the central facility and the selected plurality of end devices, wherein said establishing point-to-point communications occurs only after broadcasting the firmware image a predetermined number of times; and determining whether all of the fragments of the firmware image download have been accurately received at each end device in the selected plurality of end devices, wherein if it is determined that at least one fragment was not accurately received by at least one of the selected plurality of end devices, retransmitting the firmware image to each end device that did not accurately receive the entire firmware image via the point-to-point communications established between the central facility and the selected plurality of end devices.