Assessment of communication methods for smart electricity metering in the U.K.

Communication methods for smart metering pose a number of unique challenges driven from the demand for a unique communication network that can communicate with some 28 million devices in the U.K. with near real-time latency. In this paper an overview of communication methods for Smart Metering is presented, focusing towards ”The Last Mile” of the communication network connected to the metering device. The need for robust low-bandwidth communications is a core requirement due to the possible interference from consumer products operating in unlicensed frequency bands. Investigations towards both wired and wireless technologies are performed and conclusions indicate that Power Line Communication (PLC) is becoming a low cost method to communicate with metering devices. Additionally, it can operate in relatively low bandwidth channels in the sub 100kHz region of the spectrum. An analytical approach towards analysis of coding schemes for OFDM based PLC systems is performed. Through investigation of current state of the art coding techniques we present a series of performance markers for (PLC) at low-bit rates when degraded with various channel effects. Results show that (PLC) has real potential for Smart Metering networks where high-levels of interference are present from existing communication technologies.