Channel allocation and device configuration

1. A method for assigning communication channels for communication between endpoint devices and one or more collectors over power distribution lines carrying alternating current (AC) power, the method comprising:

at the one or more collectors, collecting transmission quality data for a plurality of sub-channels;

communicating the transmission quality data from the one or more collectors to a command center; and

at the command center:

based on the transmission quality data, organizing unused ones of the plurality of sub-channels into respective ones of the communication channels, each communication channel having the same number of contiguous sub-channels that includes at least two sub-channels,

assigning one or more endpoint devices to respective ones of the communications channels; and

transmitting a first command to at least one of the one or more collectors;

in response to the at least one collector receiving the first command, transmitting data from the collector over the power distribution lines to configure at least one of the one or more endpoint devices to use a corresponding respective one of the communication channels allocated to the at least one of the one or more endpoint devices.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein

the plurality of sub-channels subdivide a limited bandwidth; and

the organizing unused ones of the plurality of sub-channels into respective ones of the communication channels includes dividing the unused ones of the plurality of sub-channels into contiguous groups of contiguous sub-channels.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein

each of the communication channels includes N sub-channels; and

the organizing unused ones of the plurality of sub-channels into respective ones of the communication channels includes determining a transmission quality value for each grouping of N contiguous sub-channels in the plurality of sub-channels.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein determining an average transmission quality value for each grouping of N contiguous sub-channels includes calculating the transmission quality using a sliding window of size N across the plurality of sub-channels.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

different endpoint devices exhibit different transmission characteristics for different communication channels; and

the assigning one or more of the endpoint devices respective ones of the communications channels is performed as a function of a transmission quality of sub-channels and performance of the end point devices.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the organizing the unused ones of the plurality of sub-channels into the respective ones of the communication channels is further based on multiple transmission quality values corresponding to different time periods, for of each of the plurality of sub-channels.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the one or more endpoint devices includes, an endpoint device included in a switching group of collectors; and

assigning the one or more endpoint devices to respective ones of the communications channels includes, for the endpoint device in the switching group:

determining one or more channels of the respective ones of communication channels that are indicated as unused by each of collectors in the switching group;

for each of the one or more channels across the collectors, determining an overall quality rating of the channel for the collectors in the switching group as a whole; and

assigning the endpoint device in the switching group, for each collector in the switching group, the channel of the one of more channels that has the best of the overall quality ratings.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein collecting transmission quality data for the plurality of sub-channels includes:

monitoring data transmitted by endpoint devices on the plurality of sub-channels using the one or more collectors;

determining a quantized transmission quality value for each of the plurality of sub-channels;

partitioning the plurality of sub-channels into groups of contiguous sub-channels;

formatting the determined transmission quality values corresponding to each group of contiguous sub-channels into a respective data block having only one address associated with the corresponding sub-channels; and

for each group of contiguous sub-channels, transmitting the respective the data block to the command center.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein organizing the unused ones of the plurality of sub-channels, at the command center, includes grouping the unused ones of the plurality of sub-channels into groups of contiguous sub-channels.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first command is a find endpoint command indicating an identification (ID) for an endpoint to find, further comprising

in response to the at least one of the one or more collectors receiving the find endpoint command from the command center, broadcasting a configuration command from the one or more collectors, over the power distribution lines, the configuration command configured to prompt an endpoint device having the ID to transmit a response using a selected one of the communication channels.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the selected one of the communication channels is indicated by the find endpoint command.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the configuration command is configured to prompt the endpoint device having the ID to repeat transmission of the response until an acknowledgement (ACK) packet is received by the endpoint device having the ID.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein:

the configuration command indicates a retry limit value; and

the endpoint is configured and arranged to repeat transmission of the response if the response is unacknowledged by the one or more collectors and transmission has not been repeated a number of times greater than the retry limit.

14. A method for monitoring communication channels used for communication between endpoint devices and one or more collectors over power distribution lines carrying alternating current (AC) power distribution lines communication network, the method comprising:

at the one or more collectors:

monitoring a plurality of sub-channels of the communication channels on the power distribution lines;

determining a quantized transmission quality value for each of the plurality of sub-channels;

partitioning the plurality of sub-channels into groups of contiguous sub-channels;

formatting the determined quantized transmission quality values corresponding to each group of contiguous sub-channels into a respective data block having only one address associated the corresponding sub-channels; and

for each group of contiguous sub-channels, transmitting respective the data block to a command center.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

in response to the command center receiving the data blocks corresponding to the contiguous groups of sub-channels, organizing groups of unused ones of the plurality of sub-channels into respective ones of the communication channels based on transmission quality data, each communication channel having the same number of contiguous sub-channels.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising in response to a user command indicating an identification (ID) of an endpoint device to find:

assigning one of the respective ones of the communication channels to the endpoint device;

transmitting a find-endpoint command to one or more collectors indicating the ID and the assigned one of the respective ones of the communication channels; and

at each of the one or more collectors, in response to receiving the find endpoint command from the command center, broadcasting a configuration command over the power distribution lines, the configuration command configured to prompt an endpoint device having the ID to transmit a response using the assigned one of the respective ones of the communication channels.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein:

the user command indicates a subset of a plurality of collectors that are physically located near the endpoint; and

the transmitting the find-endpoint command to one or more collectors only transmits the find-endpoint command to collectors in the subset.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the configuration command is configured to prompt the endpoint device having the ID to repeat transmission of the response until an acknowledgement (ACK) packet is received by the endpoint device having the ID.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein:

the configuration command indicates a retry limit value; and

the endpoint is configured and arranged to repeat transmission of the response if the response is unacknowledged by the one or more collectors and transmission has not been repeated a number of times greater than the retry limit.

20. The method of claim 15 , wherein

the plurality of sub-channels subdivide a limited bandwidth; and

the organizing groups of the plurality of sub-channels into the respective ones of the communication channels includes dividing the plurality of sub-channels into contiguous groups of contiguous sub-channels.

21. The method of claim 15 , wherein

each of the communication channels includes N sub-channels; and

the organizing groups of the plurality of sub-channels into the respective ones of the communication channels includes determining an average transmission quality value for each grouping of N contiguous sub-channels in the plurality of sub-channels.

22. A system for assigning communication channels for communication between endpoint devices and one or more collector over power distribution lines carrying alternating current (AC) power, the system comprising:

one or more collectors connected to the power distribution lines and configured and arranged to collect transmission quality data for a plurality of sub-channels used by the communication channels; and

a command center, configured and arranged to:

receive the transmission quality data from the one or more collectors via a data network;

organize groups of unused ones of the plurality of sub-channels into respective ones of the communication channels based on the transmission quality data, each communication channel having the same number of contiguous sub-channels,

assign one or more endpoint devices respective ones of the communications channels; and

transmit a channel configuration command to one or more collectors, the one or more collectors being configured, in response to the channel configuration command, to configure the at least one of the one or more endpoint devices to use the respective communication channel assigned to the endpoint device.