On real-time smart meter reading using OFDMA-based random access

Real-time transmission of smart meter measurement data is investigated. A contention based approach exploiting the unused cellular spectrum, e.g. of 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE), is proposed. The proposed approach uses subsets of LTE resource blocks (RBs) as allocation units. It is based on channel aware reservation slotted Aloha over orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) using time/frequency slots, which leads to a reduction of collision probability, prevents collisions in the transmission phase, and allows detecting these collisions at the reservation phase. Simulation results show that a large number of smart meters can be successfully accommodated within a limited coverage area with the proposed approach, while transmitting their measurement data in real-time.