Patent ID: 7554459

Claim:
A method of remote metering the consumption of utilities distributed through a public distribution network to a plurality of consumers, each consumer being associated with at least one remote meter, wherein: each remote meter measures a consumption and reports the measured consumption over a power line of an electricity distribution network to a concentrator associated with a plurality of remote meters; said concentrator communicates over one or more power lines of the electricity distribution network with said plurality of remote meters in order to collect consumption data and perform tasks related to the administration of its associated remote meters; each of said remote meters has a host controller and a program memory, said host controller executing programs stored in said program memory; said concentrator transmits program data including information defining a sequence of program instructions to at least one of said plurality of remote meters over the one or more power lines of the electricity distribution network; each of plural ones of said remote meters: receives said program data, and updates at least a portion of said programs stored in said program memory in accordance with the received program data; said transmitting said program data comprises successively transmitting program data messages each comprising a portion of said program data; and said concentrator: successively queries over the one or more power lines of the electricity distribution network each of said plural meters whether it has received the successively transmitted program data messages comprising different portions of said program data; and if a queried meter reports one or more missing or incorrectly received program data messages, retransmits in a broadcast mode the one or more program data messages reported by the queried meter to be incorrect or missing; and each of said plural meters receives those one or more program data messages during said retransmission which the respective meter has missed or incorrectly received.