On Mon, 22 Jan 2007, Daniel Golding wrote:
One interesting point - they plan to use Broadband over Power Line (BPL) technology to do this. Meter monitoring is the killer app for BPL, which can then also be used for home broadband, Meter reading is one of the top costs and trickiest problems for utilities.
Why is IP required, and even if you used IP for transport why must the meter identification be based on an IP address? If meters only report information, they don't need a unique transport address and could put the meter identifier in the application data. Even if the intent is to include additional controls, e.g. cycle air conditioners during peak periods, you still don't need to use IP or unique IP transport addresses. Just because you have the hammer called IP, doesn't mean you must use it on everything.