Networked wireless meter reading system based on ZigBee technology

A networked wireless AMR (Automatic Meter Reading) system based on wireless sensor networks and ZigBee technology is presented in this paper for solving the problems existed in the existing meter reading system. The hardware structure of system employs distributed structure based on wireless sensor networks, which consists of measure meters, sensor nodes, data collectors, server and wireless communication network. The Mesh network topology structure was adopted in designing system. The useful remote AMR sensors and ZigBee gateway were analyzed and the hardware designing based on embedded system were detailed. For a short distance transmission, the data collector collects data from the meter sensors using the ZigBee communication. For a long distance transmission, from the data collector to the server, system uses TCP/IP protocol. A modified routing protocol based on LEACH is adopted in the system. In the new protocol, the exhausting energy used to transmitting broadcast package was calculated when measuring the best number of cluster head that leaved out by LEACH protocol. Pattern MAC protocol based on cluster is adopted in this system as medium access control protocol. ZigBee technology enhances the flexibility and the practicality of AMR system. The proposed system have abroad application foreground in the real application field.