A Remote Meter Reading System Based On Spread Spectrum Communication Technology

With the development of modern electronic technology, communications technology and computer network technology have made rapid development. And the combination of them will promote each other to more applications. The traditional communication network is gradually developing into a new one, with communications technology as the underlying support and computer network technology as the application of the upper. Such changes in trends affect other communications networks and also supplies conditions for the realization of the automatic meter reading system(AMRS). Therefore, the automatic meter reading is an inevitable trend in recent years, which is also a hot spot of home automation and the Intelligent Community study.After comparative analysis of various communications schemes, the paper raises on a remote meter reading system with power line communication (bottom) and wireless data GPRS (upper) combining with China's actual situation. The author focuses on the design of bottom communication module.First, the paper analyses the characters of low-voltage power line communication channel and compares the advantages and disadvantages of power line carrier communication technology in 3 ways. At last Spread Spectrum is chosen as the bottom communication. Based on it, we choose the MCU-ATMEGA16L and a spread spectrum chip-SC1128, design both hardware and software of Collector, Concentrator and communication channel. Further more, the paper analyzes the problems on the safety in communication of AMRS.Research shows that remote meter reading system based on spread spectrum communication technology is feasible and effective, and it will represent the development trend of meter reading system.