Wireless metering system for cold water meters

During the Summer of 2006, a wireless metering system based on WIRR (Wireless Intelligent Routing Relay) technology from Tai Feng Yuan has been operated successfully on a trial site in China

From the beginning of June till the end of Oct 2006, a wireless metering system based on the WIRR (Wireless Intelligent Routing Relay) technology from Tai Feng Yuan Wireless Metering Co has been operated successfully on a trial operation site located in Guangzhou, PR China.

Each multi-storey building has 18 floors with 7 apartments for each floor.

All installation materials of the building are either stone or armoured concrete.

There is one public room which houses all meters, including water, power and gas for each floor, and the rooms for each floor are located at the same construction position, typically 4 meters distant from each other.

For this trial project, Tai Feng Yuan installed a total of 120 combined cold water meters, on which a battery powered wireless metering node is attached, integral with the body of the meter.

During pre-configuration, Tai Feng Yuan configured one wireless metering node in each floor as a relay node with one master node on the lowest floor.

The meter reader uses a PDA and sends out a 'provide reading' order to all nodes via the lobby of the building and the master node.

When readings start, 7 wireless metering nodes in each floor set up a wireless local network first, then the meter data on that same floor is sent to the relay node.

Different relay nodes in different floors set up a tree to link to the master node, and data from other floors is transferred to master node through relay transmission by relay nodes on the different floors.

For 120 cold water meter data readings, the meter reader will receive all of them within about 8 minutes, without any missed or incorrect readings.

When reading is finished, the meter reader will send an instruction to all nodes to power-down and not power-up until the next reading, to save battery and expand battery life to 3 - 5 years.

All wireless metering nodes are operating at duplex mode and the same frequency (433.302MHz), with a maximum transmitter level of 10 mW and receiving sensitivity of -110dBm.

The operating frequency and low transmitter level make it unnecessary for the system operator to apply for any license or permission from government regulatory bodies.

The technology of relay transmission overcomes the obstacle provided by the stone and armoured concrete in the building, using micro-power wireless reading signals to send the meter reading from point to point outside each home, and from building to building, with fast and effective reading transmission.

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