WaterAMI - Water Automated Metering Infrastructure Based on an Energy Aware Wireless Mesh Network Communication Protocol

Abstract

The WaterAMI is an Integrated Management of Efficiency System (IMES) of Water Distribution Networks (WDN) supported in an Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI). It has a positive impact in energy consumption and in the water management, on one hand decreasing the water losses, on the other, by measuring and controlling water resources as well as water demand, supported in data science by predictive analytics. The communications between devices of WaterAMI are realized through a Low Power Wide Area Network - All for Everyone - Energy Aware (LPWAN-AfE-EA), developed by CWJ Power Electronics. The AfE-EA protocol uses a mesh topology that grants the coverage of all the water infrastructure’s devices, including devices placed in building’s basements, normally not covered by other IoT communications protocols. In order to maximize the operational performance of entire network, AfE-EA uses an efficient math algorithm that computes efficiently the Optimal Hop-Constrained Maximum Capacity Spanning Tree (OH-CMCST), which maximizes the routing path energy capacity and minimizes the number of hops of a battery-operated or energy constrained AMI’s communications network, by taking in account the strengths of radio signal links and the State of Charge (SoC) of all batteries that power the smart sensors. The WaterAMI is already installed and in full operation in several WDNs in Portugal. Where it solved constrains of previously installed similar systems. This publication presents the main features of AfE-EA protocol, compares with other LPWANs and briefly describes AfE-EA implementation in the first application of WaterAMI in Portugal.