smart metering wireless networks at 169 mhz

Intelligent metering systems are being rolled-out on a large-scale worldwide, enabling consumer to make informed choices about consumption patterns and energy saving, while supporting the development of new retail services and products. Unfortunately, the lack of established and shared international standards represents a serious hindrance to be overcome for a complete development of a profitable market. The identification of suitable communication protocols and cost-effective network architectures represent a challenging aspect. In this framework, different network design solutions for wireless smart metering systems at 169 MHz are considered and investigated in this paper, aiming at cost efficient deployment based on extensive re-use of existing infrastructures in urban scenarios, namely, macro-cellular and lighting networks. Coverage assessment and frequency planning issues are addressed, together with an ad hoc measurement campaign carried out to fill the gap in the knowledge of urban propagation in the 169 MHz band. Results show that cost-effective deployment of the intelligent metering network is achievable. Notably, a spatial reuse factor larger than the overall number of available frequency channels might be necessary, thus meaning that the spectral resources shall be also allocated according to a time division scheme, where the hubs are switched off at turn. Anyway, this requirement should not affect the overall reading rate in practical applications. 2017 IEEE

Composite Fading Models based on Inverse Gamma Shadowing: Theory and Validation

We introduce a general approach to characterize composite fading models based on inverse gamma (IG) shadowing. We first determine to what extent the IG distribution is an adequate choice for modeling shadow fading, by means of a comprehensive test with field measurements and other distributions conventionally used for this purpose. Then, we prove that the probability density function and cumulative distribution function of any IG-based composite fading model are directly expressed in terms of a Laplace-domain statistic of the underlying fast fading model and, in some relevant cases, as a mixture of wellknown state-of-the-art distributions. Also, exact and asymptotic expressions for the outage probability are provided, which are valid for any choice of baseline fading distribution. Finally, we exemplify our approach by presenting several application examples for IG-based composite fading models, for which their statistical characterization is directly obtained in a simple form.Comment: This work has been submitted to the IEEE for publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessibl

An Online Calibration System for Digital Input Electricity Meters Based on Improved Nuttall Window

OAPA This paper proposes an improved online calibration technique for digital input electricity meters. The technique employs a double spectral line interpolation fast Fourier transform algorithm with four-item, three-order Nuttall window to reduce the measurement error caused by spectrum leakage, frequency fluctuation, noise pollution and harmonic interference. A calibration system of friendly human-computer interaction is designed using LabVIEW. Simulation and practical results show that the proposed calibration system with improved Nuttall window algorithm is of high accuracy and reliability when compared with the traditional calibration algorithm currently used by industry practice

Sub-Gigahertz Path Loss Measurement Campaign in Marine Environment: A Case Study

: This paper focuses on the characterization of radio propagation, and data communication in a marine environment. More specifically, we consider signal propagation when three different sub-gigahertz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands, i.e., 169 MHz, 434 MHz, and 868 MHz, are used. The main focus of the paper is to evaluate the path loss (PL), i.e., the power loss that a propagation radio wave would experience when communication occurs between a sail boat and a buoy. We describe the measurement results obtained performing three different radio power measurement campaigns, at the three different aforementioned ISM sub-gigahertz bands. We also want to correlate the radio propagation quality with the weather conditions present in the measurement areas. The obtained results show that higher distances are achieved by transmitting at lower frequencies, i.e., 169 MHz, and, on average, the propagation is directly dependent from the dew point index