Wireless Automatic Meter Reading System Based On ZigBee Technology

ZigBee is a new global standard for wireless connectivity, focusing on standardizing and enabling interoperability of products within home control, building automation and industrial control and monitoring. ZigBee is built on the robust radio (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) communication layers defined by the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. Above this ZigBee defines mesh, star and cluster tree network topologies with data security features and interoperable application profiles.It is now widely recognized that standards such as Bluetooth and WLAN are not suited for low power applications, which is due to these standards'high node costs as well as complex and power hungry RF-ICs and protocols. However, due to the peculiarity of utility meters, such challenging problems as power supply, the coordination of energy-saving mechanism at all levels and the automatic network formation need to be solved in order to establish a wireless automatic reading system by means of ZigBee. This article attempts to have a further study on the basis of the agreements proposed in the available materials. With an introduction to the basic fundamentals of ZigBee accessories, this article provides a framework of wireless automatic meter reading system, the main types of hardware and analyzes the automatic network formation skills in the system as well as the route proposal in terms of power. Since the power of the meters in the wireless automatic meter reading system are supplied with batteries installed inside, which shall last for long in that it is not convenient to be replaced, it is vital that the batteries are adopted properly. By means of a detailed introduction to Lithium Cell and its relevant techniques, this article has a deep analysis of "Voltage Delay"caused by Li-SOC12, which hassles the designers for long. A conclusion is drawn with a comparison between several solutions that "Voltage Delay"can be solved by the impingement of weak currents of periodicity and meanwhile some parameters are suggested. Various levels are involved in order to reduce the energy consumed and prolong the life span of batteries in the meters. The energy-saving problems are discussed effectively as far as physics, media access and network are concerned. At the same time, the feasibility of applying some energy-saving skills to the system draws some attention. The conclusion is that in the wireless automatic meter reading system, the total power consumption on the route as well as the surplus power of a single joint should be taken into consideration in the energy-saving mechanism of network level to prevent some joints from being "bottle neck"of the whole system. The paper is summed up in the end and the future efforts are directed.