This paper presents a secure communication infrastructure for smart meter networks in electric utilities. The study addresses a major limitation in current advanced metering infrastructure research: communication security, monitoring, attack detection, and service continuity are often handled as separate topics. In actual utility operation, smart meter networks function within distributed environments that include field devices, gateways, concentrators, edge nodes, utility control platforms, and cloud-connected services. Such a structure creates exposure to unauthorized access, false data injection, message interception, privacy loss, and communication failure. To address these issues, the paper proposes a multi-layer framework that combines protected data transmission, distributed traffic monitoring, edge-level packet inspection, federated threat detection, and continuity support within one system model. The methodology evaluates the framework through communication, security, and reliability measures, including end-to-end delay, packet trust, detection accuracy, service availability, and recovery time. The discussion shows that the proposed framework maintains stable communication performance while improving attack detection and preserving partial operation during gateway failure, cloud disruption, and denial-of-service conditions. The results indicate that secure smart meter communication must be treated as a combined problem involving transmission protection, monitoring visibility, anomaly detection, and continuity of operation. The paper provides a practical model for future smart grid communication research and utility deployment planning.