WO2000057382A2

WO2000057382A2 - A wireles amr network

Info

Publication number: WO2000057382A2
Application number: PCT/US2000/007485
Authority: WO
Inventors: Lawrence P. Muirhead
Original assignee: Conectisys Corporation
Priority date: 1999-03-24
Filing date: 2000-03-21
Publication date: 2000-09-28
Also published as: WO2000057382A3; AU4018300A

Abstract

An automatic meter reading (AMR) network (100) designed to schedule short range, concurrent data transmissions between metering units (120). Theses concurrent data transmission increase system throughput, reduce data latency and allow low-cost deployment of the AMR network (100). The AMR network (100) comprises a base station (110) and a plurality of metering units (120) arranged in hop layers (1301-130N) with each hop layer (1301-130N) including at least a cluster (1401-140N) of metering units (120). Each metering unit (120) includes an electronic metering device (310) to access metered data and to propagate the metered data to the base station (110). In particular, the electronic metering device (310) includes a processing unit (330), a transceiver (350) and a memory (360). The transceiver (350) modifies the metered data into a recognized message header and data packet. After appropriate configuration and scheduling for the AMR network (100), each metering unit (120) within a cluster (1401-140N) is able to communicate with all other metering units (120) in that cluster (1401-140N) while some of these metering units (120) are in communication with another cluster (1401-140N) or the base station (110).

Description

A WIRELESS AMR NETWORK

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communications. In particular, the present invention relates to an automatic meter reading (AMR) network supporting concurrent communications by a plurality of metering units, each including an electronic metering device.

2. Related Art

With the advent of energy deregulation, measures have been taken to require utility companies to perform more frequent reporting of electricity usage by their customers instead of relying on conventional reporting practices. For conventional reporting practices, an employee of a utility company is dispatched to visually read electricity meters of customers approximately once a month. When using this conventional reporting practice, higher electricity costs are realized because utility companies are unable to ascertain usage levels from other local or distant suppliers. This prevents utility companies from purchasing electricity as needed from those suppliers with low usage levels to incur substantial cost savings. Also, conventional reporting practices tend to spread costs disproportionately among all customers because a majority of customers normally subsidize the excessive demands of electricity by a few customers since per unit costs tend to rise as demand rises.

To increase competition between utility companies, a federal regulation, namely Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order No. 889, has been enacted to require utility companies to report electricity usage by each customer at specified intervals of approximately one hour or less. To accomplish this task, wireless technologies have been contemplated. Unfortunately, it is cost prohibitive for utility companies to license a frequency from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). While it is possible for utility companies to utilize an unlicensed frequency band such as a 900 megahertz (MHz) ISM band ranging between 902 MHz and 928 MHz or a 2.5 gigahertz (GHz) ISM band, current wireless technology is unable to provide a cost- effective architecture for automatic meter reading even, if an unlicensed frequency band is used, because the traditional architectures used in wireless communications were developed for voice communications and paging.

Wireless voice communication architectures normally employ a small number of channels (e.g., approximately forty) allocated for establishing new connections and hundreds of data transmission channels. The large discrepancy in channel allocation is partially due to the fact that talk time for cellular calls is substantially longer in duration than the few seconds needed for connecting the call. The opposite is true for an automatic meter reading communication scheme in which the duration for data transmissions is small compared to the call connection time. Hence, if a voice communication architecture is used, most of the nominally available bandwidth would not be utilized.

Wireless paging architectures typically are set up to transfer small amounts of data on an infrequent basis. In particular, paging systems are designed to support a small number of simultaneous users with no requirements for short data latency or predictable scheduling of the availability of network resources.

Furthermore, both of these traditional architectures are designed for mobile users, hence they must employ sophisticated connection schemes. Additionally, they require direct communication with a base station. Since base stations are expensive, coverage area is typically increased by increasing the transmitter power beyond the level allowed for unlicensed radio communications by the FCC, hence requiring the use of licensed frequencies. Fixed site implementations typically require connection to a predetermined base station, often requiring careful and time consuming positioning of the transmitting units. As a result, the data transmission costs incurred by both of these approaches negates the cost advantage to the consumer allowed by deregulation.

Hence, it would be advantageous to develop an AMR wireless network including its associated hardware and software to overcome the above-identified disadvantages.

SUMMARY Briefly, the present invention relates to an automatic meter reading (AMR) network that schedules short range, concurrent data transmissions between metering units. These concurrent data transmission increase system throughput, reduce data latency and allow low-cost deployment of the AMR network. In one embodiment, the AMR network comprises a base station and a plurality of metering units arranged in hop layers with each hop layer including at least a cluster of metering units. After appropriate configuration and scheduling for the AMR network, each metering unit within a cluster is able to communicate with all other metering units in that cluster. One or more of these metering units are in communication with another cluster or the base station.

In one embodiment, the metering unit includes an electronic metering device to access metered data and to propagate the metered data to the base station. In particular, the electronic metering device includes a processing unit, a transceiver and a memory. The transceiver modifies the metered data into a recognized message header and data packet formats.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention in which:

Figure 1 is an illustrative embodiment of an automatic meter reading (AMR) network.

Figure 2 is an illustrative embodiment of base station of the AMR network of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a general illustrative embodiment of a metering unit of the AMR network of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a detailed illustrative embodiment of the metering unit of Figure 3.

Figure 5 is an illustrative embodiment of a message header packet produced by the base station of Figure 2 or the metering unit of Figure 3.

Figure 6 is an illustrative embodiment of a data packet produced by the transceiver of the electronic metering device of Figures 3 and 4 or by the base station of Figure 2.

Figure 7 is an illustrative flowchart of the operations of the metering unit placed in an AMR network of Figures 1, 3 and 4.

Figure 8 is an illustrative flowchart of the network connectivity procedure between the base station and the metering units of Figure 1. Figure 9 is an illustrative flowchart of the scheduling procedure to establish the timing for the data transmission shown in Figure 7.

DET AILED DESCRIPTION

Certain embodiments of the invention are described to provide an automatic meter reading (AMR) network comprising a plurality of metering units organized into unique clusters to support concurrent transmissions of information with a base station. Each metering unit employs an electronic metering device acting as a transceiver to receive incoming data and to transmit outgoing data. Herein, various examples of circuitry and methods of operation are described. These examples should broadly be construed as illustrative in nature in order to represent the spirit of the invention.

Certain terminology is used to describe various embodiments of the network. For example, a "metering unit" includes a meter and an electronic metering device. The "meter" monitors the usage of resources (e.g., electricity, water, gas, or any other measured unit). The "electronic metering device" includes one or more integrated circuits that periodically transmit and/or receive at least one packet. A "packet" includes a sequence of information signals, represented as one or more bytes of information (e.g., data, address, control, or any combination thereof), that is organized for propagation through electrical, optical, acoustic or other types of propagation medium (also referred to as a "communication link"). Examples of a communication link include one or more channels using an unlicensed frequency band (e.g., 900 megahertz "MHz" up to 928 MHz ISM bands) or a licensed frequency band. Other examples of a communication link include fiber optics, coaxial cable, Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) lines, Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN) lines, T-l lines and the like.

In addition, a "cluster" of metering units comprises one or more metering units that work as a collective group to transfer information over a communication link in accordance with a predetermined scheduling scheme. A "processing unit" is a device that processes information such as, for example, a microprocessor, a micro-controller, a state machine, and the like. A "transceiver" includes electronics to transmit and receive information. It is contemplated that the transceiver may include separate transmitter and receiver components or an integrated transmitter-receiver component.

A. System Architecture (Hardware) Referring now to Figure 1 , an illustrative embodiment of an automatic meter reading (AMR) network 100 is shown. In this embodiment, AMR network 100 comprises a base station 110 and a plurality of metering units 120. Each metering unit (MU) 120 is associated with one of "N" hop layers 1301-130N ("N" being a positive number equal to the number of data transmission steps from that layer to base station 110). In one embodiment, the organization of hop layers 1301-130N is based on the strength (volts/meter or decibels) of packets received by a previous (e.g., N-lth) hop layer, or in the case n=l, by base station 110. Of course, this signal strength is influenced by the physical proximity of metering units 120 to each other and base station 110.

Besides being assigned to hop layers 1301-130N, metering units 120 are organized into "M" clusters 1401-140M ("M" being a positive number) where any hop layer may have one or more clusters of metering units. All of the units in a given cluster can communicate with all of the units in adjoining hop layers required by the network configuration. This provides a degree of fault tolerance since all of the units in a given cluster must fail before AMR network connectivity is affected. The organization of these clusters 1401-140M is negotiated by the metering units themselves as described in Figures 7-9.

Referring now to Figure 2, an illustrative embodiment of base station 110 is shown. Base station 110 comprises a computer 200 operating as a multi-channel transceiver. More specifically, computer 200 comprises a master processing unit 210 to control a plurality of transceivers 2201-220R, where "R" is a positive whole number (R=16 in this embodiment). In particular, transceivers 2201-22016 operate simultaneously on 16 different frequency channels 2301-23016 to receive incoming information from and to transmit outgoing information directly to a specified metering unit (e.g., metering unit 1201) or indirectly to/from the remaining metering units. These operations are controlled by dedicated processing units 2401-24016 which are implemented in transceivers 2201-22016, respectively. Master processing unit 210 controls the activation and deactivation of transceivers 2201-22016.

Metered data is gathered from the incoming information and downloaded to a storage unit 250 over a communication link 260. Being a stand-alone storage peripheral or a computer for example, storage unit 250 stores the metered data and provides remote access to the metered data. This remote access may be provided over the Internet, via a telephone and the like.

Referring to Figure 3, a general illustrative embodiment of a metering unit 120 is shown. Metering unit 120 comprises a meter 300 and an electronic metering device 310. More specifically, electronic metering device 310 comprises a first interface 320, a processing unit 330, a second interface 340, a transceiver 350 and a memory 360. Meter 300 monitors the amount of usage of a selected resource and periodically provides data associated with such usage to processing unit 330. In one embodiment, this "metered data" includes, but is not limited to, the total amount of resources used for a certain period of time (e.g., per hour, day, week, month, year or any portion thereof). Other embodiments of metered data may include the total (or average) number of hours of electricity used per day (in kilowatt hours), the total (or average) number of cubic feet of natural gas used per day, the total (or average) number of gallons of water used per day, and the like.

Herein, processing unit 330 asserts control signals to control when and how often the metered data is provided through first interface 320 (e.g., the periodicity). It is contemplated, however, that meter 300 may include circuitry for self-regulation of its transmissions of metered data. Upon receipt of the metered data, processing unit 330 routes the metered data to either dedicated memory 360 for storage or transceiver 350 for transmission from metering unit 120. Similarly, after receiving information from base station 110 or another metering unit remotely located from metering unit 120, transceiver 350 provides the information to processing unit 330 for storage in memory 360. Additional control signals may be sent from processing unit 330 to meter 300 to allow remote control of, for example, service activation and deactivation.

As shown, first interface 320 is configured to allow meter 300 to communicate with processing unit 330 through voltage adjustments, signal routing, serial protocols, and the like. Second interface 340 is configured to enable communications between processing unit 330 and certain circuitry of transceiver 350 as shown in Figure 4.

Referring now to Figure 4, a more-detailed illustrative embodiment of metering unit 120 is shown. Meter 300 is coupled to first interface 320 which, in this embodiment, is a serial interface operating in accordance with a well-known DGCOM protocol. Of course, many others protocols may be used, for example C-Bus or Mod Bus. First interface 320 enables metered data to be provided from meter 300 to processing unit 330 through one or more data signal lines 311 under processing unit 330 control through control line(s) 312. The metered data may be subsequently routed to transceiver 350 or memory 360. Meter 300 is coupled to transceiver 350 via a second interface 340 which , in this embodiment, includes a includes universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) 400 and signal conditioning circuits 410 and 420 of Figure 4. Herein, transmit (TX) conditioning circuit 410 performs voltage level adjustment to translate the digital information to the analog modulation control signals necessary for FSK data transmission. Also, receive (RX) conditioning circuit 420 employs a comparator to convert the output of the data sheer on the radio chip to the levels required by UART 400.

When metered data is provided to transceiver 350, processing unit 330 packetizes the metered data and encodes the packet of metered data in accordance with a well- known technique referred to as "Manchester encoding" in order to ensure zero DC signal level in the data and prevent PLL tracking errors as well as to allow detection of single bit data transmission errors. Also, processing unit 330 provides a control signal over control lines 313 and 314 to certain circuitry of transceiver 350 (e.g., UART 400 and a radio 430 as shown in Figure 4) to indicate the mode of operation of metering device 1201, namely whether it is in TRANSMIT mode, RECEIVE mode, or the transceiver is inactive.

As shown, second interface 340 and transceiver 350 combination includes UART 400, TX data condition circuit 410, RX data condition circuit 420, radio chip 430, a power amplifier 440, a frequency circuit 450, and an antenna 460. In TRANSMIT mode, the packet of encoded metered data is routed to UART 400 which performs serial conversion of the encoded metered data to produce a series of pulses. These pulses are provided to TX data condition circuit 410. In this embodiment, TX data condition circuit 410 sets the amplitude of the pulses in accordance to a predetermined voltage reference (e.g., Vcc), instead of a ground reference before being provided to radio chip 430. Radio chip 430 recognizes the pulses and in response, performs frequency-shift keying (FSK) modulation on the pulses for placement in a carrier wave. Power amplifier 440 increases an adjustable gain of the modulated pulses in the carrier wave before transmission over antenna 460. As shown, frequency circuit 450 comprises a crystal oscillator (XTRL) 451 that provides a base frequency to a phase lock loop (PLL) 452. PLL 452 generates an oscillating reference frequency based on the base frequency and feedback from a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) 431 of radio 430. The feedback information is routed to PLL 452 directly from VCO 431. The oscillating reference frequency signal is provided to VCO 431 of radio 430. While the oscillating reference frequency is being generated, PLL 452 maintains a LOCK DETECT signal in an inactive state in order to signal processing unit 330 to refrain from transmitting or receiving information. Once the oscillating reference frequency has stabilized, PLL 452 activates the LOCK DETECT signal to set latch 454 to indicate to processing unit 330 to continue transmission and/or reception of information. In this embodiment, frequency hopping control necessary to comply with FCC regulations §15.247 and §15.249 is provided from processing unit 330 to PLL 452 via a 3-wire RS-232 interface 453.

Similarly, in the RECEIVE mode, radio 430 receives a modulated data packet from antenna 460. The data packet is demodulated using VCO 431 of radio 430 to produce a series of pulses that are subsequently routed to RX data condition circuit 420. Concurrently, radio 430 provides a radio signal strength indicator (RSSI) signal to processing unit 330 to indicate the signal strength of the incoming data packet. The signal strength, measured in volts/meter or decibels referenced to 1 milliwatt (dBm), should reside within a prescribed range between a maximum signal strength value and a minimum signal strength value.

RX data condition circuit 420 adjusts the amplitude of the pulses from a predetermined voltage reference (e.g., Vcc) to a ground reference. UART 400 converts the series of pulses associated with the demodulated information into digital data for storage or retransmission. If necessary, processing unit 330 can decode the incoming digital data.

B. Packet Data Structures

Referring to Figure 5, an illustrative embodiment of a message header packet 500 is shown. Message header packet 500 comprises at least a device identification (DEVJLD) field 510, a timing synchronization (T_SYNC) field 520 , a message type (MSG TYPE field 530, and a message length (MSG LEN) field 540. For short messages, the data can be placed in field 550. DEV ID field 510 includes a predetermined binary value that uniquely identifies the particular electronic metering device. In this embodiment, DEV_ID field 510 is 8-bytes in length, although any bit size may be used. T SYNC field 520 includes control information to synchronize the base station with metering units that receive message header packet 500. The control information includes a control byte to identifying that subsequent bytes in field 520 include timing information. The metering unit includes a software filter in processing unit 330 of Figure 3 to update its estimated current time based on the timing information. This timing information is used by processing unit 330 of Figure 4 to ensure transceiver frequency synchronization as required by FCC regulation §15.247 as well as to schedule operations of transceiver 350.

As further shown in Figure 5, MSG TYPE field 530 contains control information to allow processing unit 330 of Figure 4 to correctly interpret the message, which may be a configuration message, an intra-cluster data message, a feed-forward data message, or a meter command. MSG_LEN field 540 contains message length information indicating either the number of data packets to follow or the length of the data field 550, depending on the message type. For example, in certain instances when only a small amount of data is being propagated, message header packet 500 includes data within data filed 550. Otherwise, one or more data packets 600 as shown in Figure 6 follow message header packet 500.

Referring now to Figure 6, an illustrative embodiment of a data packet 600 is shown. Produced by transceiver 350 of electronic metering device 310 or by a base station transceiver 240i, data packet 600 includes a packet length (PKT_LEN) field 610, a checksum (CHKJSUM) field 620, and a data field 630. PKTJLEN field 610 indicates the number of bytes in the transmission. CHK_SUM field 620 contains a checksum that is used to validate the transmitted information. The content of the data field 630 depends on the type of message being propagated as set forth in MSG_TYPE field 530. In this embodiment, the transmitted packets also contain embedded control fields to allow re synchronization in the event of jamming.

C. Operations Referring now to Figure 7, an illustrative flowchart of the operations of a metering unit placed in an AMR network is shown. Initially, the metering unit connects to the AMR network (block 700) and schedules the data transmission times for the subsequent data (710-740). In the intra-cluster communication phase (block 710), the metering units in a cluster transmit their metered data to a pre-selected master metering unit. In the data feed-forward phase (block 720), the master metering unit receives the data from outlying clusters, adds it to the local data, and transmits it to the next cluster or base station. In the acknowledgement phase (block 730), the metering units of a cluster receive an acknowledge message from the cluster or base station which received the data from the master metering unit. This acknowledge message indicates whether or not the data was successfully received by the base station. In the reconfiguration phase (block 740), each cluster or metering unit transmits a message looking for new metering units to join the AMR network or indicating that they have been disconnected from the AMR network. In either case, an initialization process substantially the same as that of block 700 is performed. A master metering unit for each cluster is also selected for the next iteration of blocks 710-740. The initialization process (block 700) consists of a network connectivity (configuration) and a scheduling phase as described in Figures 8 and 9, respectively.

As further shown in Figure 8, the configuration operation begins by placing an electronic metering device of the metering unit into RECEIVE mode to await a start configuration message on a predetermined, common channel (block 800). The start configuration message is first broadcast from the base station. If the metering unit receives a start configuration message from the base station, then it is in the first hop layer. Otherwise, it would await a start configuration message from a metering unit in a lower level hop layer such as hop layer 1402 (block 845) and would be in the next higher hop layer. In the description which follows, the metering unit will be taken to be in hop layer "N" and will be configured by hop layer (N-l), then proceed to configure hop layer (N+l). Once the first start configuration message is received, since a metering unit will typically receive many start configuration messages, it is necessary to wait until no new such messages are being received (block 805).

Upon receiving the start configuration message, the electronic metering device sets its clock and sets up a frequency hopping table retrieved from the message (block 810). The electronic metering device then receives a list of metering units from which the transmitting metering unit has received acknowledge messages (block 815). If the receiving metering unit is not in the list, it schedules an acknowledge message (block 825) based on the RSSI and the device ID. The receiving metering unit also builds a list of metering units in hop layer N from which it has intercepted acknowledge messages in block 815. This process continues until all receiving metering units in hop layer N have provided acknowledge messages. The transmitting metering unit in hop layer (N-1) detects this in block 860 and sends a final list (block 865) which the metering units of hop layer N detect in block 830. Each metering unit in hop layer N then acknowledges with a list of its peers (block 835). This whole process then repeats for each metering unit in the hop layer (N-1) with the loop exit being detected in block 805 by the metering units of hop layer N.

The metering units in the hop layer N then receive a provisional list of metering units in each cluster (block 840) which is used to determine the transmission scheduling in the process described below in which hop layer N configures hop layer (N+l). The process of the previous paragraph is then repeated with the metering units of hop layer N now playing the role previously played by hop layer (N-1). The start configuration message is sent following by or concurrently with the metering unit list (blocks 845 and 850). The acknowledge messages are received in block 855 and a list of metering units in hop layer (N+l) which can communicate with this metering unit is constructed until no new metering units are detected (block 860). The final list of metering units is then sent in block 865 and the corresponding replies are collected (block 870). This procedure is then repeated for each metering unit in each cluster in hop layer N using the predetermined scheduling provided by block 840.

As shown in Figure 8, the metering unit lists are then processed to reconfigure the clusters of hop layer n, if necessary, so that all of the metering units in each proposed cluster in hop layer (N+l) can communicate with all of the metering units of the designated cluster in hop layer N (block 875). During reclustering, the metering units of layer N are assigned to clusters and the metering units of layer (N+l) are assigned a cluster in hop layer N with which to communicate. Also, during reclustering, some metering units of a proposed cluster in hop layer N may be designated as "send only units." "Send only units" are metering units which can communicate with all of the hop layer N metering units of a given cluster, but cannot communicate with all of the metering units in hop layer (N+l) necessary to form clusters. Additionally, some metering units in hop layer (N+l) may not be in communication with sufficiently many metering units in hop layer N to ensure fault tolerance; these metering units will provisionally be moved to hop layer (N+2), although during reclustering of hop layer (N+l), they may be transformed to send only metering units in hop layer (N+l) if they can communicate with sufficiently many metering units in hop layer (N+l) and an insufficient number in hop layer (N+2). Once the proposed clusters of hop layer (N+l) are formed, they are sent to the metering units of hop layer (N+l) (block 880).

This process continues for subsequent hop layers until no more hop layers can be formed. This determines the edge of the AMR network. In the event that messages from metering units communicating with different base stations are received, the metering unit will connect to the base station the smallest number of hops away. A metering unit detecting the edge or receiving an edge message from all designated clusters in the (N+l) hop layer then sends an edge message including a list of all metering units feeding metered data through that metering unit (block 885). When the base station receives edge messages from all metering units in hop layer 1, the connectivity of the network is established and scheduling can begin as shown in Figure 9.

As shown in Figure 9, the base station assigns a communications channel to each of the clusters in hop layer 1 based on the loads received upon detection of the edge. The same communications channel will be used by all of the subsequent metering units feeding through a given hop layer 1 cluster. The intra-cluster transfers are scheduled for metering units within a given cluster based on device ID and ordering of clusters is based on the lowest device ID within a cluster (block 900). This is repeated for each subsequent hop layer until the edge of the network is reached. It should be noted that many hop layers will be communicating within themselves concurrently during this phase. The feed- forward transmissions are then scheduled in a similar manner, starting at the edge of the network and proceeding hop layer by hop layer towards the base station (block 910). The acknowledge messages are then scheduled for each cluster in each hop layer, starting at the base station and proceeding towards the edge of the network (block 920). Finally, the reconfiguration communications are scheduled based on the results of the intra-cluster operations (block 930). The network is now fully configured and is ready to begin operations as indicated in Figure 7.

The AMR network featuring the base station and the metering units are illustrative embodiments of the present invention. Of course, other embodiments may be employed without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, including different integrated circuits and/or discrete devices and circuits or functional modules, or components from different manufacturers. It is also evident that other well-known modulation techniques such as, for example, amplitude modulation can be utilized to perform the data transmission. The invention should, therefore, be measured in terms of the claims which follows.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. An automatic meter reading network comprising: a base station; and a first plurality of metering units in communication with the base station, each metering unit of the first plurality of metering units includes a meter to monitor usage of a selected resource for storage as metered data, and an electronic metering device coupled to the meter, the electronic metering device to receive metered data and to route packets of the metered data to the base station.

2. The automatic meter reading network of claim 1 ,wherein the base station comprises a multi-channel transceiver operating simultaneously on a plurality of frequency channels to communicate with selected metering units of the first plurality of metering units.

3. The automatic meter reading network of claim 1, wherein the base station further comprises a storage unit remotely situated from the transceiver, the storage unit to contain the metered data and to provide remote access to the metered data.

4. The automatic meter reading network of claim 1, wherein the selected resource is electricity.

5. The automatic meter reading network of claim 1 , wherein the selected resource is either gas or water.

6. The automatic meter reading network of claim 1, wherein the first plurality of metering units are arranged into clusters where each metering unit in a cluster can communicate with another metering unit in that cluster.

7. The automatic meter reading network of claim 1 further comprising a second plurality of metering units in communication with at least one metering unit of the first plurality of metering units, each metering unit of the second plurality of metering units providing packets of metered data to the at least one metering unit for routing to the base station.

8. A metering unit comprising: a meter; and an electronic metering device coupled to the meter, the electronic metering device including a processing unit, a transceiver and a memory.

9. The metering unit of claim 8, wherein the electronic metering device further includes (i) a first interface between the meter and the processing unit, and (ii) a second interface between the processing unit and the transceiver.

10. The metering unit of claim 9, wherein the second interface includes a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter, a transmit data condition circuit and a receive data condition circuit.

11. The metering unit of claim 10, wherein the transceiver of the electronic metering device includes a radio having a voltage-controlled oscillator, a power amplifier, a frequency circuit and an antenna.

12. The metering unit of claim 11 , wherein frequency circuit of the transceiver includes an oscillator; a phase lock loop coupled to the oscillator and the voltage-controlled oscillator of the radio; and a latch coupled to the phase lock loop and the processing unit of the electronic metering device.

13. A data signal embodied in a propagation medium comprising: a device identification field of a message header packet to identify an electronic metering device from which the carrier wave originated; a timing synchronization field of the message header packet to synchronize the base station with the electronic metering device; and a message type field of the message header packet to contain control information for use in interrupting a nature of the data signal.

14. The data signal embodied in the propagation medium of claim 13 further comprising a message length field of the message header packet to indicate a number of data packets following the message header packet.

15. The data signal embodied in the propagation medium of claim 14 further comprising a data field of the message header packet.

16. The data signal embodied in the propagation medium of claim 15 further including a data packet accompanying the message header packet, comprising: a packet length field to indicate a byte count of the data packet; and a data field including data used for a type of message indicated by the message type field.

17. The data signal embodied in the propagation medium of claim 16 wherein the data packet further comprises a check sum field.

18. A method comprising: scheduling a time for transmission of metered data by a first metering unit; performing an intra-cluster communication phase so that the first metering unit and other metering units in a cluster transmit the metered data to a preselected master metering unit; and performing an acknowledgement phase indicating to the first metering unit or the cluster that the metered data has been received by the preselected master metering unit;

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising: performing a reconfiguration phase to search for additional metering units to add to the cluster.

20. A method for configuring the automatic meter reading network comprising: receive a broadcasted, start configuration message by a metering unit; setting an internal clock and setting up a frequency hopping table; sending an acknowledgement message to a transmitting source; and receiving a list of metering units that received that acknowledgement