INFORMATION COLLECTION METHOD AND SYSTEM

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To collect monitoring information within collection time restriction by devising collection targets so that a terminal which satisfies collection time restriction even when communication capacity requirement is not satisfied and from which information should be collected in prior in accordance with an environment in which a power line covered by a communication network is placed is automatically selected to collect information.SOLUTION: An installation management server executes the following method once in each corresponding communication network when adding/changing related information. In the method, collection time required when collecting information from all terminals belonging to the corresponding communication network is calculated while referring to a network configuration table, an environment restriction table sorted in each communication medium and a common environment restriction table, and when the collection time exceeds collection time requirement, application order of terminal selection logic is determined from a power line environment restriction table and a terminal selection logic list table, and collection terminals are selected one by one in the determined terminal selection logic application order. The collection time is calculated by the method and the selected collection terminals are successively added as collection terminals during a period satisfying the collection time requirement.