Smart Metering in Infrastructure-Less Communication Environments and Applicability of LoRa Technology

Advanced-Metering-Infrastructure (AMI) is an integral part of Smart-Grids (SGs). It enables accurate consumer billing in presence of dynamic pricing, and improves efficiency and reliability of electricity distribution in presence of distributed generation. Value-added features of AMI such as diagnostics and maintenance service can identify the anomalous power consumption patterns of appliances at the end of their life cycle. Water and gas utility distribution networks in smart cities will incorporate AMI as an application of Internet-of-Things (IoT). The communication infrastructure plays a crucial role in enabling two-way communication between Smart-Meters (SMs) and the utility. AMI’s bi-directional communication facility supports precise modeling of load information and data management system facilitating demand-response applications to reduce energy wastage. Researchers have investigated the role of wireless technologies in Home-Area-Networks (HANs), Neighborhood-Area-Networks (NANs) and Wide-Area-Networks (WANs) in AMI. The arrival of new Low-Power-Wide-Area-Networks (LPWANs) technologies has opened up new technology integration possibilities in AMI. However, it is essential to understand the AMI architecture, envisioned application types, network requirements, features and limitations of existing technologies to determine a technology’s integration suitability in an application for smart metering technology. This chapter discusses LoRa for smart metering in infrastructure-less environments and the possible use of our multi-hop routing scheme.