System for Measurement of Electric Energy Using Beacons with Optical Sensors and LoRaWAN Transmission

TL;DR

This study compared several low power wide area network (LPWAN) protocols and discovered that LoRaWAN-based transmission was highly energy-efficient and offered decent coverage, even in a difficult, dense urban environment.

Abstract

In this article, we present the results of experiments with finding an efficient radio transmission method for an electric energy measurement system called OneMeter 2.0. This system offers a way of collecting energy usage data from beacons attached to regular, non-smart meters. In our study, we compared several low power wide area network (LPWAN) protocols, out of which we chose the LoRaWAN protocol. We verified the energy consumption of a LoRa-based transmission unit, as well as the transmission range between network nodes in urban conditions. We discovered that LoRaWAN-based transmission was highly energy-efficient and offered decent coverage, even in a difficult, dense urban environment.

Figures (8)

• Figure 1: OneMeter beacon attached to IEC 62056-21 interface of electricity meter.
• Figure 2: Schematic diagram of the OneMeter 2.0 system. Potential areas of employing LPWAN protocols are marked in red.
• Figure 3: Terminal unit, based on SX1261MB2BAS radio component, used for experiments with LoRaWAN transmission.
• Figure 4: Location of the LoRaWAN gateway and the test points inside the building for experiments with indoor transmission. The values on the left indicate the thickness of the concrete elements [in centimeters]. The values on the right indicate the height relative to the ground [in meters].
• Figure 5: Time and energy required to transmit various amounts of data via LoRaWAN communication system, for low spreading factor. $P=13~dBm,~SF=7$.