Intelligent bridge between PSTN and asynchronous communication channel

Abstract

An intelligent communications bridge device (“Meterpod”) of a remote Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system advantageously facilitates monitoring, reporting and control of public utility meters. The Meterpod is an intelligent gateway that installs onto existing metering and monitoring equipment and provides a wireless communications link from the remote equipment being monitored or controlled to the host computer or program tracking or controlling the device providing clear advantages over existing remote telemetry equipment in that it can (1) support any wireless communications protocol, including CDMA, GSM/GPRS, VSAT, and GPRS standards, (2) be installed and configured in minutes by regular maintenance personnel, and (3) provide control capabilities beyond the remote device by utilizing a broad array of additional interfaces (RJ-11, Ethernet, RS-232 and RS-485) that all come standard, supporting customer sites that cannot be monitored using existing fixed wireless or radio frequency (RF) monitoring solutions.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.