System and method for fast detection of specific on-air data rate

A method for communicating with at least one endpoint device in an automatic meter reading (AMR) system, wherein the at least one endpoint device includes a meter device and a meter interface module adapted for radio frequency (RF) communications, the method comprising:

• initializing a device timer of a digital squelch circuit arrangement of the meter interface module of the at least one endpoint device, wherein the squelch circuit arrangement is configured to respond differently to a predetermined at least one target data rate of an on-air signal transmitted for use by the endpoint device than to a non-predetermined non-target data rate of any other on-air signal;
• filtering inbound RF communication signals at the at least one endpoint device until a valid communication is detected, wherein a valid communication comprises the inbound RF communication signal having a data rate that matches the target data rate, wherein the filtering includes monitoring the inbound RF communication signal to determine a count of good edges indicative of a data rate that matches the target data rate and monitoring the inbound RF communication signal to determine a count of bad edges indicative of a data rate that does not match the target data rate;
• performing a communication capture sequence in the at least one endpoint device in response to a detection of the target data rate represented by the count of good edges exceeding the count of bad edges;
• and
• stopping communication activity in the at least one endpoint device in response to a detection of the non-target data rate represented by the count of bad edges exceeding the count of good edges.

An endpoint meter device for use in an automatic meter reading system, wherein the endpoint meter device includes a meter interface module adapted to filter inbound radio frequency (RF) communication signals received from a meter reading device, the endpoint meter device comprising:

• an extraction circuit adapted to receive and quantize an incoming data signal;
• and
• an edge detector circuit adapted to receive a quantized data signal from the extraction circuit and detect edges in the quantized data signal, wherein the edge detector circuit includes a first counter to track a number of good edges indicative of a predetermined at least one target data rate of an on-air signal transmitted for use by the endpoint meter device and a second counter to track a number of bad edges indicative of a non-predetermined non-target data rate of any other on-air signal;
• wherein the extraction circuit is adapted to pass a recovered clock signal and a recovered data signal to the edge detector circuit when the first counter reaches a first predetermined value, and wherein the extraction circuit is adapted to reject the incoming data signal when the second counter reaches a second predetermined value.

A digital squelch circuit arrangement adapted for use with a meter interface module of an automatic meter reading (AMR) system, the squelch circuit arrangement comprising:

• means for detecting an inbound radio frequency (RF) data signal having a data rate, wherein the data rate is represented by a series of edges and wherein the squelch circuit arrangement is adapted to respond differently to a target data rate of an inbound RF data signal transmitted for use by the meter interface module than to a non-predetermined non-target data rate of any other signal;
• means for detecting good edges corresponding to the at least one predetermined target data rate and bad edges corresponding to the non-predetermined non-target data rate within the inbound RF data signal;
• means for determining whether the data rate of the inbound data signal as a function of the detected good edges and bad edges matches the target data rate of the squelch circuit arrangement;
• means for processing the data within the data signal if the data rate matches the target data rate;
• and
• means for terminating signal detection in response to a detected failure of the data rate to match the target data rate based on a count of bad edges exceeding a count of good edges.