Method and system for remotely monitoring and controlling field devices with a street lamp elevated mesh network

A system for communicating data between a remote field device and a back-end computer system comprising:

• a remote field device comprising a packet transceiver module, wherein the remote field device is one of a plurality of remote field devices;
• an elevated mesh network comprising a plurality of nodes, each node comprising a packet transceiver module, at least one node in communication with the remote field device;
• and a communications gateway forming a part of the elevated mesh network and receiving data originating from the remote field device from one of a node in the mesh network and the remote field device, the communications gateway determining if the data should be communicated to a back-end computer system and selectively establishing a link with the back-end computer system on a periodic basis, the data indicating a traffic condition being monitored by the remote field device, wherein the back-end computer system or the communications gateway adjusts a rate of operation of one or more traffic devices associated with at least one of the plurality of remote field devices responsive at least in part to the traffic condition indicated by the data.