Patent ID: 8700754

Claim:
A method for discovering the topology of electric meter nodes connected by electrical power lines comprising: broadcasting over the power lines a first message requesting one or more of the meter nodes to respond, wherein the first message identifies the one or more meter notes to respond by a range of meter node ID numbers; examining one or more responses to the first message and selecting from the responses one or more of the meter nodes to act as first proxies; sending second messages from the one or more first proxies over the power lines requesting one or more meter nodes to respond; examining one or more responses from the second messages and selecting from the responses one or more meter nodes to act as second proxies wherein the response to the second message includes a measure of first signal strength of the second messages received at the nodes responding to the second message, and wherein the selecting takes into account the first signal strength and a second signal strength of the response from the second message; and creating a table of meter nodes including which proxies, if any, are used to reach each meter node.