NB-IoT applied to power meter reading and water meter reading

There are many wireless communication technologies in the Internet of Things, which are mainly divided into two categories: one is short-range communication technologies such as Zigbee, WiFi, Bluetooth, and Z-wave; the other is LPWAN (low-powerWide-AreaNetwork, low-power wide-area network), That is, wide area network communication technology. LPWA can be divided into two categories: one is LoRa, SigFox and other technologies working in unlicensed spectrum; the other is 2/3/4G cellular communication technologies supported by 3GPP, such as EC-GSM, LTE Cat-m, NB-IoT, etc.

NB-IoT refers to NarrowBand-Internet of Things technology. Focusing on the Low Power Wide Coverage (LPWA) Internet of Things (IoT) market, NB-IOT is an emerging technology that can be widely used around the world. NB-IOT uses the license frequency band, and can be deployed in three ways: in-band, guard band, or independent carrier to coexist with the existing network.

NB-IoT is an emerging Internet of Things technology. It has attracted much attention because of its low power consumption, stable connection, low cost, and excellent architecture optimization. Huawei, as a domestic leader in the research and development of NB-IoT technology, has also attracted much attention from the scientific and technological circles.

NB-IoT application scenarios

 Does electricity meter reading support NB-IoT?

The scenarios of power meter reading are divided into user-side communication and distribution network communication systems. The frequency band of the power load monitoring system adopts 230MHz+1.8GHz TD-LTE private network.

The remote meter reading of the user's meter has adopted many technologies, including 4G, LTE, PLC, Zigbee, 433MHz, etc. The target of the meter reading frequency is to collect and upload once every 15 minutes, 96 points per day, so as to realize the online monitoring and control of the power grid.

Centralized meter reading is mainly used in concentrated places such as China, mainly including power optical fiber centralized reading and 4G centralized reading (accounting for more than 50%), and independent meter reading is mainly used in scattered places such as Europe and the United States. Since electricity meter reading and power supply are not a problem, and the amount of data is relatively large, the urgent need for electricity meter reading to utilize NB-IoT has not yet been realized.

Does water meter reading favor NB-IoT?

Most of the incremental market of water meters use M-Bus bus communication. The stock market for water meters is an opportunity for wireless water meters. The construction of wireless water meters is simple. Due to the problems of power consumption, signal coverage and battery life, NB-IoT technology is urgently needed to solve practical problems.

Does gas meter reading favor NB-IoT?

The gas meter has high safety requirements, and the test time is 1-2 years. At this stage, gas meters have begun to use GPRS communication in large quantities, copying them once a week, and the annual tariff is about 6 CNY.

At present, the cost of automatic meter reading is higher than the labor cost, but gas is faced with the problem of tiered pricing. Due to issues of power consumption, signal coverage and battery life, NB-IoT technology is urgently needed to solve real-world problems, but only if the security testing problem is solved.