A system for automatic collection and transport of readings from water, gas and
electricity meters wherein at least one receiver element and one element to transmit
(1) define an ad-hoc wireless network, self organizing in an area (A), where
the readings are transmitted to the next element using multihop techniques according
to a routing algorithm. A value t is assigned to the receiver elements (1),
with maximum value T. If the direct neighbours of a given network node have as
a maximum an assigned value t, a value t-k is assigned to this node. Every node
will transmit a message to a node with t value larger than its own. If there is
more than one with the same maximum value, it will transmit to one of them. The
system allows the meter reading to be transported automatically to the billing center.