Electricity meter comprising a powerline interface and at least one radio-frequency interface

A smart electricity meter intended to be used in a system comprising a powerline communication network with reactive routing protocol for putting in contact nodes in the system and a centralised management device of the system with which smart electricity meters that are nodes in the system shall be registered, each path between one said node in the system and the centralised management device consisting of a link or a set of links, each link being associated with a route cost, wherein the system comprises at least one gateway comprising a powerline communication interface for communicating via the powerline communication network and at least one radio-frequency communication interface,

• and wherein said smart electricity meter, seeking to connect to the system and also comprising a powerline communication interface and at least one radio-frequency communication interface, comprises electronic circuitry configured for performing a registration phase comprising:
• broadcasting an announcement request message on each of its communication interfaces;
• after reception of one or more announcement messages in response to the announcement request message from respectively one or more neighbours in the system, selecting a relay agent, the relay agent being the neighbour in the system having the lowest route cost for joining the centralised management device, each announcement message including information on route cost between the neighbour that sent said announcement message and the centralised management device;
• and
• making a request for registration of said smart electricity meter with the centralised management device, using the selected relay agent as a proxy via the communication interface via which the relay agent sent the announcement message that enabled obtaining said lowest route cost;
• wherein, the route costs of links relying on powerline communication interfaces and radio-frequency communication links being defined so as to be consistent with each other,
• and wherein, after registration of said smart electricity meter, the routing of messages coming from or going to said smart electricity meter takes place at the data link layer of the OSI model.

A method implemented by a gateway in a system further comprising a powerline communication network with reactive routing protocol for putting in contact nodes of the system and a centralised management device of the system with which smart electricity meters that are nodes in the system shall be registered, each path between one said node in the system and the centralised management device consisting of a link or a set of links, each link being associated with a route cost,

• wherein said gateway comprises a powerline communication interface for communicating via the powerline communication network and at least one radio-frequency communication interface,
• and wherein, when a smart electricity meter seeking to connect to the system and also comprising a powerline communication interface and at least one radio-frequency communication interface performs a registration phase, said gateway, in a first configuration, performs:
• receiving an announcement request message;
• transmitting, in response to the announcement request message and on each communication interface via which said announcement request message was received, an announcement message including information on route cost between said gateway and the centralised management device;
• and,
• on request for registration of said smart electricity meter with the centralised management device, adopting a proxy role vis-à-vis said smart electricity meter for propagating said registration request in the powerline communication network;
• wherein, the route costs of links relying on powerline communication interfaces and radio-frequency communication links being defined so as to be consistent with each other,
• and wherein, after registration of said smart electricity meter, the gateway is configured so that the routing of messages coming from or going to said smart electricity meter takes place at the data link layer of the OSI model.

A gateway intended to be used in a system comprising a powerline communication network with reactive routing protocol for putting in contact nodes in the system and a centralised management device of the system with which smart electricity meters that are nodes in the system shall be registered, each path between one said node in the system and the centralised management device consisting of a link or a set of links, each link being associated with a route cost,

• wherein said gateway comprises a powerline communication interface for communicating via the powerline communication network and at least one radio-frequency communication interface,
• and wherein, when a smart electricity meter seeking to connect to the system and also comprising a powerline communication interface and at least one radio-frequency communication interface performs a registration phase, said gateway comprises electronic circuitry configured for:
• receiving an announcement request message;
• transmitting, in response to the announcement request message and on each communication interface via which said announcement request message was received, an announcement message including information on route cost between said gateway and the centralised management device;
• and
• on a request for registration of said smart electricity meter with the centralised management device, adopting a proxy role vis-à-vis said smart electricity meter for propagating said registration request in the powerline communication network;
• wherein the route costs of links relying on powerline communication interfaces and radio-frequency communication links being defined so as to be consistent with each other,
• and wherein, after registration of said smart electricity meter, the gateway is configured so that the routing of messages coming from or going to said smart electricity meter takes place at the data link layer of the OSI model.