The Industry
In China, the charging of utility services is dominated by manual meter reading or prepayment. The shortcoming of the traditional approach lies in the difficulty in meter reading, charging, supervision and payment. With the rapid development of China's housing industry, and the continuous improvement of people’s living standards, the demands for energy measurement and management, as well as building intelligence are rising. By improving management and enabling remote meter reading, IoT-driven smart meters can greatly reduce the waste of human resources, especially in special times – for example, during the COVID-19 outbreak, they can effectively avoid contact infection.
Fibocom Wireless Solutions
Fibocom NB-IoT and LTE Cat 1 cellular wireless communication modules, can complete remote operations such as stable and real-time collection of data on smart meters, instrument status monitoring, and issue control commands after being incorporated into water, gas, heat, and electricity meters. The instrument data and status information collected can then be analyzed and processed in a timely manner, for more targeted and scientific dynamic management. Management efficiency and service levels of smart water services will also be improved.
Low power consumption, long service life
NB-IoT and LTE Cat 1 wireless modules feature low power consumption and long life cycles compared to 2G and LTE Cat 4 modules. They solve the problem of high power consumption for meters with high waterproofing, leak-proofing or reliability requirements. No external power supply is required, which means lower costs. The smart meters built in with Fibocom NB-IoT and LTE Cat 1 wireless cellular modules can be powered by batteries that have a long service life of 6-10 years, reducing maintenance costs and management difficulties caused by frequent replacement.
Wireless connection, optimized costs
The data transmission layer works through wireless cellular technology, which reduces the construction cost of wiring and networking, shortens the construction cycle, and greatly improves efficiency. The reuse of existing cellular networks ensures faster deployment and lower costs.
Safe and reliable communication data, fewer errors
A smart water meter that uses cellular wireless modules for data transmission is free from high interference, unstable data transmission, and hidden security risks caused by using unlicensed spectrum to establish ad hoc networks.
Wide and deep coverage, strong signal
Smart water/ gas meters supported by NB-IoT modules can reach a deep coverage of 20dB+ gain, which can penetrate one more wall compared with 2G. For smart meters with high requirements for speed and delay, Cat 1 modules offer many advantages such as faster transmission, lower delay, low power consumption, and broad coverage. Thus, users can access usage and costs in real time, address abnormalities in a timely manner, reduce hidden dangers, and ensure their safety. Metering management staff can also monitor, analyze and use cloud data in real time via icons and screens.
Global unified communication protocols, smart connectivity
The use of small wireless modules for data transmission makes it difficult to build one single network that integrates a large number of smart water meters. Since the smart water meters produced by different suppliers use different communication methods, water companies using a large number of smart water meters have to spend a lot in terms of human, material and financial resources, on connecting the smart meters. Fibocom NB-IoT and LTE Cat 1 cellular wireless communication modules allow smart meters to comply with global unified wireless communication protocols, so that they can be seamlessly connected to other objects. In this way, the Internet of All Things can truly be realised.
