Water
Communication technologies
linkIQ
M-bus
NB-IoT
LoRaWAN

Communication technologies

There are a number of communication technologies available for remote reading including well-known M-bus based protocols and new IoT technologies. Different technologies work well for different purposes, and your choice of communication technology should match your needs. Common to all communication technologies on the shelf today – next-generation, traditional or a combination – is that they each represent a means to an end rather than a goal in themselves.  

Therefore, before choosing one, you should define the business needs it must support.

Consider your requirements for battery lifetime, data frequency, network range and whether you only need data for billing or also for analytics and optimising your operations. And how do you want to spend your resources: do you want full control over your network? Or would you prefer leaving the infrastructure responsibilities to an industry expert and instead dedicate yourself to your core business?

The technologies at a glance

Different technologies work well for different purposes, and your choice of communication technology should match your needs. Below you can find a comparison of the most popular technologies and how they match different smart metering needs in a network comprised of meters with an expected battery lifetime of 16 years.

Lets’ break it down

How we work with IoT

Water meter with Sigfox communication A smart water meter designed for Sigfox

With a new version of the MULTICAL® 21, Kamstrup presents the first smart meter available in Europe to combine the pin-point accuracy of ultrasonic metering technology with state of the art Sigfox-based communication.

The new meter will be of interest to the many utilities who are looking to base their smart metering strategy on an IoT infrastructure – either because of their business needs or as a part of an overall Smart City strategy.

Developed for a large project for Antwerp water utility, Water Link, the new MULTICAL® 21 represents a new and innovative but tried and tested solution that takes IoT within smart water metering from theory to concrete reality.

Water-link in Antwerp Sigfox was the perfect fit for Antwerp, Belgium

With their new meters, water-link goes from getting data as rarely as once every two years to every day – something they expect to boost their revenue with 2%. They have also improved their leak detection and 4000 leaks have already been found.

“We are exploring further automation by building more intelligence into our system. Our goal is to be able to classify the alarms so we can focus on the most critical ones and handle them more efficiently.” Bert Fabri, water-link Project Engineer.

“Kamstrup is a frontrunner in IoT solutions for intelligent water metering,“ says Bert Fabri, Project Leader at water-link, “and they provided us with the flexibility and interoperability we need.”

NB-IoT trials in Spain NB-IoT trials in Spain

Together with Vodafone, we are conducting a NB-IoT field test for Spanish water utility Global Omnium, Aguas de Valencia Group, in Valencia.

The meters used in this trial are MULTICAL® 21 and flowIQ® 2103 water meters featuring a NB-IoT bridge. The meters are read automatically through the NB-IoT network powered by Vodafone and the data handled by Kamstrup’s Meter Data Management system, READy Manager.

NB-IoT trial in Chile NB-IoT trial in Chile

In collaboration with Huawei and Telefónica, we are conducting the first NB-IoT trial in Latin America for the Chilean utility Essbio. 

The goal of the trial is to allow clients to know their day-to-day use, facilitate actual invoicing, avoiding consumption estimations and to detect leaks and other irregularities.

Water-link boost revenue with smart metering

Water-link, Belgium

With their new meters, water-link goes from getting data as rarely as once every two years to every day – something they expect to boost their revenue with 2%. They have also improved their leak detection and 4000 leaks have already been found.

70% fewer antenna sites

DIN Forsyning, Denmark

Using the new meter reading method linkIQ®, DIN Forsyning was able to significantly reduce the number of required antenna sites in the city of Esbjerg. The field test met the utility’s high expectations and has paved the way for simpler work routines, better customer service and a more efficient utility.

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