A Review of Wireless Communication Technologies for Applications in Smart Metering

Abstract: With the advancement in automation and smart systems, many problems that occur due to human error and inefficiency have been reduced prominently in different fields. In the field of power systems, smart metering is a revolution to overcome problems of human inefficiency and to create awareness for consumers about their energy usage. It is possible due to the Internet of Things technology under the industrial revolution 4.0. This paper addresses the various aspects of different wireless communication technologies utilized in the IoT integration of smart meters and analyzes the performance of these technologies on the parameters which are essential for smart metering applications. In a country like India, where most of the population lives in rural areas and network connectivity is still a big challenge, the installation of smart meters in various households is still in progress, and various communication technologies have been used for the integration of smart meters, but we are still facing many issues that are discussed in this paper. Although there are numerous review papers on wireless communication technologies, none of them have specifically addressed how to incorporate these technologies into applications for smart meters. Based on the issues and challenges associated with existing smart meters, a detailed analysis of wireless communication technologies across multiple aspects that are essential for the integration of communication technologies is discussed in this paper, which can be helpful for researchers and companies working in this area. Since not a single technology is perfect in all parameters, we found LoRaWAN to be a viable option for smart metering applications.