Secure data transfer in a communication system including portable meters

1. A method of performing measurements with a portable meter and reporting measurement data from the portable meter to a central office having a server security certificate and a meter management table stored in the central office, comprising the steps of:

(a) synchronizing the portable meter at a first location with the central office over a trusted interface resulting in the portable meter having a meter copy of a meter certificate and the central office having a predefined portion of the meter certificate in the meter management table, wherein the predefined portion uniquely identifies the portable meter;

(b) performing the measurements with the portable meter and generating the measurement data;

(c) establishing a secure channel between the portable meter connected to an IP network at a second location and the central office, including

transmitting the server security certificate from the central office to the portable meter;

transmitting the meter copy of the meter certificate from the portable meter to the central office, thereby providing the central office with a received copy of the meter certificate;

verifying the received copy of the meter certificate at the central office;

determining if the meter management table contains the predefined portion of the received copy of the meter certificate;

transmitting the measurement data to the central office from the portable meter over the IP network though the secure channel if the received certificate is successfully verified and if the meter management table contains the predefined portion of the received copy of the meter certificate;

wherein the second location is different from the first location;

(d) processing the measurement data received from the portable meter at the central office.

2. A method defined in claim 1 , wherein the portable meter has a meter serial number stored therein; and wherein step (a) includes providing the central office with a first copy of the meter serial number, and storing the first copy in the meter management table together with the predefined portion of the meter certificate; and

step (c) includes transmitting a second copy of the meter serial number with the portable meter to the central office; determining the first copy of the meter serial number based on the predefined portion of the meter certificate; and comparing the first and second copies.

3. A method defined in claim 1 , wherein in step (a) the central office provides the meter certificate to the portable meter.

4. A method defined in claim 3 , wherein the predefined portion of the meter certificate includes a meter unique ID assigned by the central office to the portable meter.

5. A method defined in claim 1 , wherein in step (a) the meter certificate is signed by a certification authority.

6. A method defined in claim 1 , wherein the portable meter is a CATV meter for measuring signals transmitted over a CATV link.

7. A method defined in claim 1 , wherein step (c) includes using a SSL protocol or a TLS protocol.

8. A method defined in claim 1 , wherein step (a) includes establishing a secure connection using the server security certificate.

9. A method defined in claim 1 , comprising a step of removing the predefined portion of the meter certificate from the meter management table.

10. A method defined in claim 1 , wherein the first location is a trusted location and the second location is a customer location.

11. A portable meter for performing measurements at a first location and reporting measurement data through a secure channel over a network, comprising:

measuring means for performing the measurements at the first location and generating the measurement data,

a meter memory for storing a meter security certificate and having meter instructions stored therein including:

a synchronization instruction set

for synchronizing the portable meter at a second location with another end of the secure channel, resulting in the portable meter having the meter certificate and the another end having a predefined portion of the meter certificate, wherein the predefined portion uniquely identifies the portable meter; and

a meter networking instruction set

for sending the meter security certificate over the network to the another end, thereby establishing the secure channel between the portable meter at the first location and the another end, and

for sending the measurement data though the secure channel;

wherein the another end has secure channel means

for synchronizing with the portable meter resulting in the portable meter having the meter certificate stored therein and the another end having the predefined portion of the meter certificate stored therein,

for comparing the predefined portion of a received security certificate received over the network to the predefined portion of the meter certificate stored at the another end to determine if there is a match, and

for closing the secure channel if no match has been determined.

12. A portable meter defined in claim 11 , wherein the synchronization instruction set is for receiving the meter security certificate and a meter private key from the another end and for storing the meter security certificate and the meter private key in the meter memory.

13. A portable meter defined in claim 12 , having a meter serial number stored in the meter memory, wherein

the meter synchronization instruction set is for sending the serial number to the another end and receiving the meter security certificate in response to sending the serial number;

the meter networking instruction set is for transmitting the serial number to the another end together with the meter security certificate, over the network.

14. A measuring system comprising the portable meter defined in claim 11 and a computer readable memory device having secure channel instructions stored therein for providing the another end with the secure channel means, including:

a meter management component for providing a meter management table with a meter record containing the predefined portion of the meter security certificate;

a meter identification instruction set

for extracting the predefined portion from a received security certificate, and

for identifying a matching record in the meter management table, so that at least a portion of the matching record matches the predefined portion of the received meter security certificate; and

permission refusal instructions

for permitting the another end to receive data from a sender of the received security certificate only if the matching record is identified, and

for closing the secure channel otherwise.

15. A measuring system defined in claim 14 ,

further comprising a meter serial number stored in the meter memory,

wherein the meter networking instruction set is for providing the central office with a first copy of the meter serial number,

wherein the meter management component is for providing the first copy of the meter serial number to the meter record;

and wherein the meter identification instruction set is for identifying the matching record so that the first copy of the meter serial number matches to a second copy of the serial number received from the sender of the received security certificate.

16. A measuring system defined in claim 14 , wherein

the meter management component is for issuing the meter security certificate;

the secure channel instructions include instructions for providing the meter security certificate and a meter private key to the portable meter;

and wherein

the meter instructions include instructions for receiving the meter security certificate from the another end.

17. A measuring system defined in claim 14 , wherein the portable meter is one of a plurality of meters known to the another end, and each meter is associated with a record in the meter management table.

18. A measuring system defined in claim 14 , wherein the meter management component is for deleting a record from the meter management table.

19. A measuring system defined in claim 14 , wherein the portable meter is a CATV meter.