A new highly-synchronized wireless mesh network model in use by the Electric Company to switch to automatic meter reading: Case study

In this paper we introduce the concept of a highly synchronised wireless mesh model, leading to a very reliable and coordination-free network. The reliability improvement is caused by the spatial diversity of the propagation paths - the reception of multiple packetspsila copies over many paths, some of them possibly faded or disrupted. To prove the inherently coordination-free capability, the paper studies the proper operation of the full network immediately after installing the meters by personnel who was not trained for the task and the short (less than a day) deployment time. The architecture of the system and the results of the field test are discussed, as they lead to a high probability that changes in the site are inherently handled by the system without human intervention. The model, evaluations and results reported concern a commercial pilot of 100 nodes, conducted by the Israel Electric Company in a dense urban area.