A system, referred to as a reading system, used in an automated metering management system in the context of a fluid-distribution service comprising a plurality of fluid meters is disclosed. The first communication module in accordance with a wireless communication standard is used by each fluid meter and a second communication module suitable for communicating by powerline with a data concentrator via a first network, said data concentrator communicating with a management entity of the automated metering management system via a second network. Instancing an application emulating a virtual fluid meter able to communicate directly with the data concentrator for each fluid meter in the plurality, and, for each fluid meter in the plurality, the corresponding virtual fluid meter takes responsibility for retransmitting information representing a fluid-consumption reading, said information having been supplied to the reading system by said fluid meter to the management entity via the data concentrator.

Systems and methods for setting a carrier-sensing mechanism in a PLC node are disclosed. In a PLC standard, coexistence is achieved by having the nodes detect a common preamble and backing off by a Coexistence InterFrame Space (cEIFS) time period to help the node to avoid interfering with the other technologies. In one embodiment, a PHY primitive is sent from the PHY to the MAC know that there has been a preamble detection. A two-level indication may be used—one indication after receiving the preamble and other indication after decoding the entire frame. The MAC sets the carrier-sensing mechanism based on the preamble detection.

Systems and methods for setting a carrier-sensing mechanism in a PLC node are disclosed. In a PLC standard, coexistence is achieved by having the nodes detect a common preamble and backing off by a Coexistence InterFrame Space (cEIFS) time period to help the node to avoid interfering with the other technologies. In one embodiment, a PHY primitive is sent from the PHY to the MAC know that there has been a preamble detection. A two-level indication may be used—one indication after receiving the preamble and other indication after decoding the entire frame. The MAC sets the carrier-sensing mechanism based on the preamble detection.

A method and device for transmitting a message from a first node device to a second node device, the devices using powerline communications. The first node device is able to send and receive fragments of the message on at least one frequency band using powerline communications and over a radio channel. The first node device, prior to the transmission of the fragment: estimates, for at least one frequency band, the theoretical duration of transmission of the fragment on the frequency band, and for the radio channel, the theoretical duration of transmission of the fragment on the radio channel, obtains, from a database, the result of integration of the degree of occupation of the frequency band and of the result of integration of the degree of occupation of the radio channel, selects, from the results of integration, the frequency band or the radio channel and transmits the fragment.

A transmission method for transmitting a packet from a first node device to a second node device of an electrical supply network, the transmission method includes the following steps performed by the first node device: transmitting the IP packet by radio frequency in the case where a level of use by the first node device of the transmission by radio frequency calculated on a sliding time window with respect to a maximum use time is below a first threshold, the first threshold being below a second threshold beyond which any transmission by radio frequency is interrupted; transmitting the IP packet by powerline otherwise, and, in the case where the powerline transmission fails, transmitting the IP packet by radio frequency in the case where the level of use is below the second threshold.

A transmission method for transmitting a fragment of an IP packet from a first node device to a third node device through a second node device. The first and second node devices are configured for communicating by powerline and by radio frequency. The second and third node devices can communicate only using a single communication medium from powerline and radio frequency. A first fragment sent by said first node device either by powerline or by radio frequency is received. An acknowledgement message is sent by to said first node device using a second communication medium selected from powerline and radio frequency so that it is different from said single medium. Then said first fragment is transmitted to said third node device using said single communication medium.

A method for connecting a smart electricity meter connected to a data concentrator, referred to as the current data concentrator, in a powerline or radio-frequency communication network for the automated management of metering in the context of an electrical distribution service is described. The smart electricity meter disconnects from the current data concentrator in the case where the latter is posing a problem. It next attaches itself to a neighbouring data concentrator different from the current data concentrator. It then listens to the frames containing an identifier of said current data concentrator. Finally, it disconnects from the neighbouring data concentrator and attaches itself to a data concentrator using the same identifier as the current data concentrator when at least N frames containing the identifier of the current data concentrator are received, with N an integer greater than or equal to 1.

An embodiment is a method including receiving, by a first device via a mesh communication network, a first broadcast message over a first communication channel, the first broadcast message having a first hop count, receiving, by the first device via the mesh communication network, a second broadcast message over the first communication channel, and determining, by the first device, whether the second broadcast message is a consistent broadcast message as the first broadcast message, the determining including determining, by the first device, whether the first broadcast message has a same originator address as the second broadcast message, and determining, by the first device, whether the second hop count is larger than the first hop count.

Electricity meter, arranged to measure electrical energy supplied to an installation by a distribution network comprising a plurality of phases, the electricity meter including a communication module arranged to implement a communication by power-line communication; a switching circuit arranged to selectively connect the communication module to one of the phases; a processing unit arranged to control the switching circuit so as to connect the communication module to an optimised phase, from among the phases, which is selected dynamically to optimise a quality of the communication by power-line communication.

A method and a device for transmitting a message from a first node device to one or more node devices that are neighbours of the node device, the node devices belonging to an electrical supply network using powerline and radio communications. The first node device detects a disconnection of the electrical energy supply; the first node device checks in a routing table whether it is connected by a radio link to a neighbouring node device, if so, the first node device sends a unicast message by the radio link to the neighbouring node device indicating a disconnection of the electrical energy supply to the first node device, if not, the first node device sends a radio broadcast message indicating that a disconnection of the electrical energy supply is detected by the first node device.