Open Access

Axel Sikora, Pancraç Villalonga, Klaus Landwehr

• Smart metering and smart grid applications are rapidly finding their place in the market in order to improve the provisioning process efficiency of electricity, gas, water and heat. The usage of communication technologies is a major stepping stone for these applications. These applications are commonly structured along a hierarchical four-layer architecture. However, the current technologies,Smart metering and smart grid applications are rapidly finding their place in the market in order to improve the provisioning process efficiency of electricity, gas, water and heat. The usage of communication technologies is a major stepping stone for these applications. These applications are commonly structured along a hierarchical four-layer architecture. However, the current technologies, initially developed for the local (primary) communication, leave significant room for improvement in terms of energy efficiency, range and cost. This contribution discusses the state-of-the-art of the wireless metering protocols, identifies the restrictions, and discusses possible solutions to overcome these limitations. This paper further discusses the problems faced when integrating the results from scientific research projects into real-life protocols and products. It is based on research work in progress in two large European research projects in this field, i.e. ME3GAS (Smart Gas Meters & Middleware for Energy Efficient Embedded Services) and WiMBex (Remote wireless water meter reading solution based on the EN 13757 standard, providing high autonomy, interoperability and range).…