a plurality of physically or logically distinct monitored locations, each monitored location having a plurality of monitored devices and an edge remote telemetry unit (ERTU) coupled thereto;

each ERTU being disposed to receive sensor information asynchronously from selected monitored devices at its associated monitored location, the selected monitored devices being associated with local addresses of the monitored devices in a first address space associated with the monitored location and isolated from each other monitored location;

each ERTU being disposed to provide one or more messages from its associated monitored location synchronously to a centralized computer using a reliable and secure remote communication protocol, the remote communication protocol being associated with addresses of the ERTUs in a second address space isolated from each of the first address spaces;

each ERTU being disposed, when sending information to the centralized computer, to re-associate each address of a monitored device with a standardized address expected by the centralized computer for that monitored device, each standardized address being unique to that monitored device across all monitored locations, wherein the centralized computer can specify communication with a selected monitored device without knowing a local address for that selected monitored device.