Smart metering saves so much time over manually reporting utility usage. But how do you scale this without clogging your building with routers or additional wiring? Wirepas mesh networking!
In ipXchange’s first post from Wirepas OPEN 2024 – a by-invitation-only event showcasing many of Wirepas’ partners and its superior mesh networking technology – Eamon chats with Amine and Gwendal from Wirepas about the smart metering demo that they had on show.
Wirepas technology is particularly powerful for ensuring reliable automatic reporting of metering data throughout a large building, such as a block of flats. By using Wirepas’ mesh networks, only a single gateway is required for connection to the cloud as every node in the network acts as its own hub that other nodes can connect to.
The demonstration behind Amine features four different electricity meter designs that are each retrofitted with a card that runs an identical mesh networking application to connect them together. As Gwendal explains, these devices can even be connected to the cloud backend using different frequency bands – sub-GHz, non-cellular 5G, or 2.4 GHz – making for a robust connectivity solution that can fit many use cases.
Gwendal then shows us the online tool that allows you to monitor your full Wirepas ecosystem and the devices within your mesh network. This is a mesh performance analysis tool, rather than the cloud backend for the data. It also allows you to perform firmware updates over the air and locate every node on a map, making for easy troubleshooting.
Wirepas has proven the use of this technology with over 3 million smart electricity meters deployed in India, where other connectivity protocols are not so reliable.
Though Wirepas is essentially a stack rather than a hardware solution, for this application, Wirepas can provide the hardware reference designs to get you started with implementing its superior mesh networking technology.
Learn more about Wirepas technology by following the link to the board page below, where you can apply for consultation and evaluation, and make your IoT scale to a new level.
Keep designing!
Enjoyed this demonstration? Check out our previous discussions with Wirepas as we write up all the interviews from Wirepas OPEN 2024:
Wirepas’ non-cellular 5G mesh network in action!
Ask an ipXpert: Taking mesh networking to the next level with Wirepas
An embedded solution for super-scalable, reliable mesh networking without external infrastructure!