A 4G Bluetooth water meter mutual assistance data reporting method based on state flag bit broadcast and a water meter

Abstract

The present application relates to the technical field of intelligent water affair Internet of Things metering equipment, and particularly relates to a 4G Bluetooth water meter mutual assistance data reporting method based on a state flag bit broadcast and a water meter. The present application completely reuses the original hardware architecture of existing dual-mode water meters on the market, does not need to additionally install external devices such as Bluetooth gateways, LoRa relays, signal amplifiers and the like, and can enable the mutual assistance reporting function of the existing water meters in old communities through remote firmware upgrading. The newly-built water meters can be directly put into use after being pre-installed with logic at the factory. The hardware cost of the water meter well in the old community can be directly saved, and the on-site wiring, waterproof construction, and regular battery replacement of the relay device, as well as the manual operation and maintenance process, can be saved. The water meter can automatically switch the help / handling identity according to the real-time 4G signal quality, a self-organizing mutual assistance network is dynamically formed in the area, a single water meter failure or signal fluctuation will not cause the disconnection of the entire water meter, and the signal recovery can be directly transmitted automatically without waiting for the neighboring machine to help.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of smart water IoT metering equipment technology, specifically to a 4G Bluetooth water meter mutual assistance data reporting method and water meter based on status flag bit broadcasting. Background Technology

[0002] Currently, residential communities, industrial parks, and centralized water supply projects in towns all use underground pre-buried water meter wells to centrally install smart water meters. The mainstream commercial solution is the 4GCat.1 + BLE Bluetooth dual-mode water meter, which supports both remote cloud meter reading and on-site Bluetooth maintenance. However, its practical implementation has several inherent and difficult-to-solve drawbacks: 1.4G cellular signal distribution is uneven, resulting in a large number of water meters being offline for extended periods and losing data: Water meters are buried deep underground, and the metal meter boxes, soil layers, concrete walls, and dense metal pipes create strong radio frequency shielding; adjacent water meters in the same meter well have vastly different 4G signal RSRP values, causing dialing failures and frequent TCP link disconnections at some locations, preventing the uploading of metering data and resulting in large areas of blank meter readings in the backend, directly affecting water billing, pipeline leakage analysis, and online equipment monitoring services.

[0003] 2. Existing blind spot coverage solutions have extremely high hardware and maintenance costs: The industry's conventional solution is to install an external Bluetooth gateway, LoRa repeater amplifier, and outdoor high-gain base station antenna on the water meter well; underground water meter wells do not have municipal power supply, and the repeater equipment needs to be equipped with a large-capacity lithium battery and a waterproof shell, with the cost of upgrading a single well being several hundred yuan; the gateways at scattered locations need to have their batteries replaced on-site regularly, resulting in a large workload for manual maintenance and a long upgrade cycle; some old residential areas have limited space in the water meter wells, making it impossible to add external equipment.

[0004] 3. Traditional self-organizing network solutions rely on fixed topologies and have poor adaptability: Existing water meter neighbor relay solutions mostly adopt a pre-set network grouping and fixed main relay water meter mode. Once the pre-set relay water meter fails, the battery is depleted, or the 4G signal deteriorates, all water meters in the entire group blind zone will be disconnected; it is impossible to dynamically switch the relay identity according to the real-time signal quality of each water meter, resulting in insufficient fault tolerance.

[0005] 4. High communication power consumption shortens the lifespan of water meter batteries: When the signal is weak, the water meter continuously retryes 4G dialing at high frequency, which greatly increases the power consumption of radio frequency transmission; Traditional Bluetooth broadcasting has no hierarchical sleep control and scans at full power all day long, resulting in a large average standby current for the whole machine. The original 6-year battery life of water meters is shortened to 3-4 years, and frequent meter replacement increases the operating costs of water utilities.

[0006] 5. Data transmission lacks a complete verification mechanism, making it prone to duplicate reporting or loss: The existing mutual forwarding scheme lacks segmented caching, CRC verification, and closed-loop logic for receipt confirmation. Bluetooth disconnection during the neighbor machine forwarding process will cause the loss of cached data; the cloud cannot distinguish between data directly transmitted from the local machine and data transmitted by the neighbor machine, resulting in duplicate meter reading records and increasing the pressure on the backend data cleaning.

[0007] Existing technologies lack a water meter mutual assistance reporting solution that features zero hardware increment, decentralized dynamic collaboration, multi-level low-power control, complete data verification closed loop, and fully automatic self-healing. Therefore, this invention proposes a brand-new technical solution to address the aforementioned industry pain points. Summary of the Invention

[0008] The purpose of this invention is to provide a 4G Bluetooth water meter mutual assistance data reporting method and water meter based on status flag bit broadcasting, so as to solve the defects of existing underground centralized deployment of 4G Bluetooth water meters, such as 4G signal blind spots and offline, high cost of adding relay gateways, poor fixed network adaptability, high power consumption of the whole machine communication, and insufficient data transmission reliability.

[0009] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention provides the following technical solution: a 4G Bluetooth water meter mutual assistance data reporting method based on status flag bit broadcasting, which uses software dual status flag bits as the core of network-wide collaborative scheduling, Bluetooth broadcasting as the carrier of neighboring machine status perception, constructs a decentralized dynamic mutual assistance relay system, and is equipped with a complete set of auxiliary logic for power consumption balancing, data verification, and fault self-healing.

[0010] 1. Status flag switching logic: Each water meter independently detects four indicators: 4G signal strength, dialing success rate, cloud link, and packet loss rate. It only has two global states: "help needed / help not needed". The status change is driven only by the communication results of the local hardware and is not controlled by the platform. 2. Dual-type Bluetooth broadcast message isolation: Normal water meters broadcast lightweight status beacons, carrying their own relay load, power level, and signal strength; offline water meters broadcast encrypted help messages, carrying the buffer data length and checksum; the two types of messages are distinguished by protocol to avoid channel conflicts; 3. Proactive neighbor assistance mechanism: High-quality signal water meters continuously monitor broadcasts with low power consumption, and actively establish connections after identifying legitimate help requests, rather than passively waiting for the help water meter to initiate the connection, thus shortening the mutual assistance response delay; 4. Batch Aggregated Upload: A single auxiliary water meter can read cached data from multiple neighboring meters simultaneously, package it, and upload it in a single 4G transmission, reducing the number of 4G dialings and lowering cellular traffic and transmission power consumption; 5. Receipt closed-loop reset mechanism: After the cloud confirms the entry into the database, it issues a receipt. Only when the water meter in need receives the receipt will it clear the request status and shut down the broadcast, forming a reliable transmission closed loop; 6. Enhanced and optimized logic: relay load balancing, tiered Bluetooth transmission power, time-sharing peripheral power failure, multi-layer 4G self-healing retry, segmented cache CRC anti-loss verification, comprehensively improving the stability and battery life of the solution.

[0011] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present invention are: 1. This 4G Bluetooth water meter mutual assistance data reporting method and water meter based on status flag broadcasting completely reuses the original hardware architecture of existing dual-mode water meters on the market. It does not require the addition of external devices such as Bluetooth gateways, LoRa repeaters, and signal amplifiers. Existing water meters in old communities can enable the mutual assistance reporting function simply through remote firmware upgrades. New water meters can be put into use directly with the logic pre-installed at the factory. For water meter wells in old communities, it can directly save tens of thousands of yuan in gateway purchase, waterproof housing, and matching lithium battery hardware costs. At the same time, it saves the manual maintenance procedures of on-site wiring, waterproofing construction, and regular battery replacement for repeater equipment. There is no problem of limited space for new equipment installation in old and narrow water meter wells. It comprehensively reduces the investment in water project transformation from three dimensions: hardware procurement, on-site construction, and subsequent operation and maintenance. It has low implementation threshold and outstanding economic benefits for large-scale promotion.

[0012] 2. This 4G Bluetooth water meter mutual assistance data reporting method and water meter based on status flag broadcasting allows the water meter to autonomously switch between requesting assistance and helping others based on real-time 4G signal quality, dynamically forming a self-organized mutual assistance network in the area. The failure of a single water meter or signal fluctuation will not cause the entire area of ​​water meters to lose connection. It is equipped with a segmented buffer CRC verification, timestamp deduplication, and cloud receipt confirmation closed-loop transmission mechanism. Bluetooth neighbor forwarding and cloud database dual filtering of duplicate data, and continuous retrying of requesting assistance if no receipt is received. Combined with 4G parallel self-healing detection logic, the signal can be restored and the data can be transmitted directly without waiting for neighbor assistance.

[0013] 3. This 4G Bluetooth water meter mutual assistance data reporting method and water meter based on status flag broadcast employs multiple power consumption optimization strategies: hierarchical Bluetooth broadcast power control, intermittent RF sleep mode, time-sharing power-off of idle peripherals, and cessation of invalid 4G reconnection. Normal water meters perform long-cycle intermittent Bluetooth scanning, while water meters in need adjust their transmission power according to different levels. Mutual assistance data between water meters is transmitted only via Bluetooth near-field transmission, without consuming 4G traffic or cellular RF power. Actual measurements show a significant reduction in the average number of 4G dialings per water meter per day. For challenging inspection scenarios such as rural areas and underground sealed meter wells, this method significantly reduces the number of manual inspections required to replace water meters and maintain relay equipment, thereby reducing the long-term maintenance workload for remote locations and centralized water meter wells. Attached Figure Description

[0014] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0015] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the overall system deployment structure of the present invention; Figure 2 This is a block diagram of the hardware module structure of a single water meter according to the present invention; Figure 3 This is a flowchart of the flag state switching logic of the present invention; Figure 4 This is a timing diagram of the neighboring machine mutual assistance interaction of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0016] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present invention, and not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0017] Please see Figures 1-4 This invention provides a technical solution: Based on existing 4GCat.1+BLE5.0 dual-mode smart water meter hardware, it achieves decentralized neighbor-machine mutual assistance reporting through a complete set of software logic built into the main control MCU. The entire solution uses a configurable help status flag as the core scheduling carrier, dynamically switching the water meter's working state through periodic 4G multi-dimensional link self-checks. Combined with five supporting optimization logics—hierarchical Bluetooth broadcasting, load balancing, data verification closed-loop, multi-layer self-healing, and hierarchical low-power power management—it comprehensively solves industry pain points such as signal obstruction in underground water meter wells, offline data loss, high retrofit and maintenance costs, and short battery life. The entire implementation system consists of four main parts: hardware infrastructure, software status scheduling logic, neighbor-machine mutual assistance interaction process, and supporting optimized control strategies. These parts operate collaboratively, requiring no backend server to issue networking commands, no external gateway / relay hardware, and no manual on-site intervention, achieving fully automatic autonomous data relay reporting.

[0018] This invention is adapted to standardized 4G Bluetooth smart water meters, including: 1. Main Control MCU Unit: Utilizing an industrial low-power 32-bit microcontroller, the unit integrates a hardware CRC check module, multiple I / O power control pins, a hardware timer, and nine embedded software logic subunits: a help status flag storage unit, a 4G multi-index link self-test unit, a Bluetooth hierarchical broadcast control unit, a neighbor device message parsing and CRC check unit, a Bluetooth GATT connection establishment and interaction unit, a relay load balancing counting unit, a local data cache and segmentation check unit, a receipt instruction recognition and status switching unit, and a multi-level low-power power management unit. The help status flag is stored in a 1-bit register, containing only two enumerated states: help needed and no help required. The current status parameters are retained even after power loss.

[0019] 2.4GCat.1 Communication Module: Supports TCP long connection communication, can report RSRP signal strength, dialing failure count, and link packet loss rate in real time, has an independent hardware power switch, and can be cut off by the main control MCU in a time-sharing manner; the communication channel simultaneously carries two types of services: direct transmission of local water data and batch transmission of buffered data from neighboring machines. Data packets are uniformly encapsulated with water affairs private protocol, and the cloud backend can distinguish between local direct transmission data and mutual transmission data through the unique ID of the water meter.

[0020] 3. BLE5.0 Bluetooth communication module: Supports extended broadcast, GATT point-to-point long connection, and two adjustable RF transmit power levels; it divides broadcast message channels into two types to isolate normal state messages and help messages to avoid channel conflicts; the Bluetooth RF is independently controlled to sleep, only briefly waking up during scanning, broadcasting, and data interaction phases, and entering deep sleep at other times to reduce power consumption.

[0021] 4. Water metering module: Hall pulse acquisition metering unit with independent power supply circuit. The communication module does not interfere with the acquisition of metering pulses when it is in sleep mode or transmitting radio frequency, ensuring that the accuracy of water consumption metering is not affected by the mutual assistance reporting process. Metering data is packaged and stored in hourly segments.

[0022] 5. Local data storage module: Large-capacity non-volatile Flash storage, divided into independent partitions: real-time metering cache area, device alarm event area, status parameter storage area, and receipt verification cache area; when writing data, a timestamp, water meter ID, and segmented CRC check code are attached. The cached data can be stably stored for more than 5 years after the water meter is powered off, and the accumulated water consumption data during offline period will not be lost.

[0023] 6. Battery power supply module: Built-in 3.6V industrial lithium battery, with multi-channel graded power switch circuit, the main control MCU can cut off the power supply of 4G module and Bluetooth module peripherals independently; the whole machine sleep static current ≤2μA, only the metering module keeps low power standby, and the communication peripherals are powered on as needed, which greatly reduces no-load power consumption.

[0024] 7. Radio Frequency Matching Antenna Unit: The 4G cellular antenna and Bluetooth ceramic antenna are respectively placed on the upper and lower sides of the water meter body, avoiding the radio frequency shielding of the metal water meter shell and internal copper pipes; equipped with a dedicated radio frequency matching circuit, the effective Bluetooth communication distance of water meters in the same well can reach 8~15m, meeting the needs of centralized water meter well neighboring units.

[0025] The entire mutual assistance reporting process consists of 7 standardized execution steps. All periodic parameters, signal thresholds, and load thresholds can be configured locally without requiring remote backend modification. S1. Device Power-On Initialization: After the water meter battery is powered on, the main control MCU reads the default value of the help status flag stored in the Flash, initially setting it to "No help needed". The 4G link self-test cycle T1 = 15 minutes, the Bluetooth normal state broadcast cycle T2 = 20 seconds, the help message retransmission interval 2 seconds, and the 4G self-healing retry cycle T3 = 30 minutes are configured. The relay load counter is cleared, the local cache partition is emptied, and the Bluetooth module enters low-power scanning and listening mode. The 4G link self-test is set with four judgment indicators: RSRP signal strength threshold -110dBm, maximum number of consecutive dialing failures N = 3, TCP link heartbeat packet timeout judgment, and uplink data packet loss rate threshold of 10%. If any one of these four indicators fails to meet the standard, the 4G link is judged to be abnormal.

[0026] S2 and 4G links are performing normal direct transmission and reporting: When all four self-test indicators meet the standards, the help status flag will be set to "no help needed"; the Bluetooth module broadcasts a normal status message at 20-second intervals, and the message fields include the water meter's unique ID, real-time RSRP signal level, remaining battery percentage, and the current value of the relay load counter; when the preset meter reading cycle is reached, the main control MCU wakes up the 4G module and directly uploads the local cumulative water consumption and water leakage / low battery alarm events to the water affairs backend server. After the upload is completed, the 4G module power is cut off and it enters sleep mode.

[0027] S3 and 4G link anomalies trigger a help cache mechanism: If the 4G signal RSRP is below -110dBm, three consecutive dial-up failures occur, or the TCP link is disconnected, the help status flag is set to "help needed." The main control MCU disables the 4G module's high-frequency reconnection logic, performing a self-healing self-check only once every 30 minutes to prevent invalid RF transmissions from consuming the battery. Time-based cumulative water consumption and device alarm data are encrypted and written to the Flash cache in hourly segments, with each data entry appended with a timestamp, water meter ID, and segmented CRC checksum. The Bluetooth module enables low-power continuous broadcast of standardized help messages, carrying the water meter ID, total cached data length, overall data CRC checksum, and a maximum Bluetooth connection establishment time of 120 seconds. If no neighboring water meter responds after five consecutive broadcasts, the Bluetooth transmission power is automatically increased to expand the coverage area.

[0028] S4. Neighboring Bluetooth Message Monitoring and Active Connection Establishment: All Bluetooth modules of water meters within the area that do not require assistance continuously perform low-power over-the-air scanning. The built-in message filtering logic only parses messages in the same frequency band and water utility private protocol messages. After capturing a distress message, it first verifies the overall CRC code. If the verification is valid, it actively initiates a BLEGATT point-to-point connection to establish a dedicated near-field data interaction link, instead of waiting for the distressed water meter to initiate the connection, thus shortening the mutual assistance response latency. If the CRC verification fails, the illegal message is directly discarded, and no connection establishment operation is initiated.

[0029] S5. Cache data reading, deduplication, and batch transmission: After the Bluetooth link is stably established, the assisting water meter reads all offline cached data of the water meter in segments and filters duplicate data packets through dual verification of timestamp and water meter ID. If broadcast messages from multiple water meters in need are captured at the same time, the cached data of multiple devices is aggregated and packaged into a single batch upload packet, which wakes up the 4G module at once to complete the batch transmission, reducing the number of 4G dial-up starts and reducing cellular traffic and radio frequency power consumption.

[0030] S6. Cloud-based response receipt issuance and status reset: The water utility's backend server receives batch data packets, parses and stores the data, filters duplicate data using the water meter ID + data segment hash value as a unique index, and then sends a successful upload response to the cloud to the assisted water meter. After receiving the response, the assisted water meter issues a dedicated receipt instruction to the corresponding requesting water meter, with the receipt carrying the hash value of the transmitted data. After verifying that the water meter ID and hash value in the receipt match the local cache, the requesting water meter switches its own help status flag to "no help needed," shuts down Bluetooth request broadcast, clears the uploaded cache partition, and resumes the normal metering standby and 15-minute 4G self-test process.

[0031] S7. Fault-tolerant loop self-healing logic: If the water meter does not receive a response instruction from the assisting water meter within 120 seconds, it will continue to maintain the "need help" state and periodically resend the help message; every 30 minutes, a round of 4G link self-healing self-check will be performed in parallel, and the RSRP signal strength will be updated in real time; if all four indicators of the self-check are met in two consecutive self-checks, there is no need to wait for the neighboring machine to assist, the Bluetooth help broadcast will be terminated directly, the 4G module will be woken up to autonomously upload all cached data, and the normal operation process will be restored after completion.

[0032] The water meter in no-help state has a built-in relay task counter, which increments by 1 for each complete relay reporting task. The preset load threshold is 10 times. When the counter value exceeds the threshold, the Bluetooth scanning and listening window duration is shortened by 50%, and the response to newly captured help messages is delayed to prioritize the upload of the meter reading data of the device itself. The relay counter is automatically reset at the fixed meter reading time in the early morning every day to restore the complete Bluetooth scanning window, balance the relay forwarding pressure of multiple high-quality 4G water meters in the area, and avoid the surge in power consumption and 4G channel congestion caused by long-term high-frequency forwarding of a single water meter.

[0033] Multi-level low-power hierarchical broadcast control strategy Differentiated RF control is implemented for two types of water meters: water meters that do not require assistance use intermittent passive monitoring with short Bluetooth wake-up scanning every 20 seconds, and the RF is in sleep mode for 95% of the time; water meters that require assistance use dynamic switching of two levels of transmission power, automatically increasing power when there is no response from a neighboring device, and immediately switching back to the lowest power mode upon receiving an acknowledgment; all mutual assistance data interaction between water meters is completed only through local Bluetooth, without occupying 4G uplink channel resources, which greatly reduces cellular data consumption and 4G RF transmission power consumption.

[0034] End-to-end data loss prevention and duplicate verification strategy A four-layer verification loop is constructed: local segmented cache CRC check, neighboring machine timestamp deduplication, cloud index deduplication, and receipt hash confirmation. Each cached data from the water meter is bound to a unique identifier, and duplicate timestamp data packets are removed before the water meter forwards the request. The cloud backend establishes a unique database index using the water meter ID and timestamp, and duplicate data is directly discarded and not entered into the database. The receipt command is bound to the hash value of the data segment, and the water meter only clears the corresponding cache after the hash match is successful, completely eliminating the problem of permanent data loss caused by duplicate data reporting and Bluetooth disconnection.

[0035] During the intervals between water meter broadcast requests for help, a 30-minute cycle of 4G link retry detection is performed in parallel, and the RSRP signal strength value is updated in real time. If the self-test signal meets the standard for two consecutive rounds, the mutual assistance process can be interrupted directly, and the cached data can be uploaded independently using the 4G channel without waiting for assistance from neighboring water meters, thus shortening the offline time of water meters and reducing the overall load of relay forwarding in the area. Example 1: Case Study on Upgrading and Renovating Existing Water Meters in Underground Water Meter Wells of Old Residential Communities 1. Basic working conditions of the project This example selects a 20-year-old residential community in China, with a total of 320 4G Cat.1+BLE Bluetooth dual-mode smart water meters, all centrally buried in 45 independent underground metal water meter wells. The building walls are thick concrete structures, and the water meter wells are sealed metal boxes with densely packed galvanized water supply pipes inside. The soil depth is 1.2~1.8m, and the multi-layered radio frequency shielding results in extremely uneven distribution of 4G cellular signals in the area. Before the renovation, the community used a traditional direct water meter transmission solution without any neighboring relay mechanism. The actual on-site test data is as follows: the long-term offline rate of water meters in the area was 28%, and more than 600 missing meter readings were recorded monthly; the weak signal water meters continuously retried 4G dialing at high frequency, with an average of 27 4G dialings per meter per day; the original lithium battery was rated for 6 years of battery life, but in practice it could only be used stably for 3.5 years; the water company originally planned to install one waterproof Bluetooth gateway in each water meter well, with a total cost of 360 yuan for the purchase of a single gateway, waterproof casing, and matching lithium battery, and a total hardware renovation budget of 16,200 yuan for 45 water meter wells. Moreover, the gateway lithium battery needs to be replaced manually every 6 months, and there are 4 on-site maintenance operations per year, resulting in high labor costs; the internal space of the water meter wells in the old community is small, with some wells only able to accommodate 2 water meters, and there is no extra space to place external gateway equipment, making the hardware renovation extremely difficult to implement.

[0036] The existing water meter hardware in the community is equipped with 4G and Bluetooth dual communication modules, Flash local storage, and low-power main control MCU. The hardware architecture fully matches the implementation requirements of this invention. There is no need to replace any water meter hardware. The main control program of 320 water meters can be updated in batches by remotely sending firmware upgrade packages through the water affairs operation and maintenance platform. The complete set of mutual reporting logic based on status flag broadcast of this invention can be deployed.

[0037] 2. On-site implementation procedures (1) Unified configuration of parameters in the early stage: The operation and maintenance personnel remotely issue global parameters through the water affairs backend, and uniformly set the 4G self-test cycle T1=15min, the help self-healing retry cycle T3=30min, the relay load threshold 10 times, the 4G signal RSRP judgment threshold -110dBm, the number of consecutive dialing failure judgments N=3, the Bluetooth normal broadcast cycle 20s, and the automatic power increase threshold for no response to help messages 5 times; all parameters are written to the local Flash storage of the water meter, and the configuration is not lost when the power is off, and there is no need to debug each water meter on site.

[0038] (2) Remote firmware batch upgrade: The background sends out upgrade firmware in batches, with 80 water meters upgraded in each batch. The water meter metering function is not interrupted during the upgrade process. After the upgrade is completed, the water meter will automatically restart and initialize, loading the help status flag, self-test logic, Bluetooth broadcast, load balancing, and data verification software units. After the upgrade is completed, the background sends out device self-test instructions to confirm that the 4G and Bluetooth modules of each water meter are communicating normally and that the local cache partition is valid.

[0039] (3) Fully automatic trial operation without on-site debugging: After the firmware upgrade is completed, all water meters will automatically enter the autonomous operation mode. Maintenance personnel do not need to go down into the well to operate. The water meter's own status flag will dynamically switch between help / assistance status. Water meters with full 4G signal in the same well will automatically act as temporary relays to provide Bluetooth relay services for water meters with severe obstruction and weak signal. Water meters in the area will automatically form a decentralized mutual assistance network without manual grouping or preset fixed relay nodes.

[0040] (4) Continuous background data monitoring for 3 months, synchronously recording changes in battery power consumption: The water platform provides real-time statistics on water meter online rate, meter reading data integrity, 4G dialing frequency of a single water meter, and average daily battery current consumption, and synchronously records the integrity of water leakage and low power alarm reports.

[0041] 3. Implementation and Operation Results The online rate and data integrity of water meters have been greatly improved: Before the transformation, the offline water meter rate in the area was 28%. After deploying the mutual reporting solution of this invention for 3 months, the long-term offline rate of water meters dropped to less than 0.3%, the number of missing meter reading data per month was reduced from 600 to less than 10, and the data integrity rate reached 99.7%. The large-scale blank meter reading in the background has been completely eliminated. Water billing and pipeline leakage analysis no longer require manual data entry, and the workload of water affairs office data cleaning has been reduced by 75%.

[0042] Zero hardware modification cost, eliminating the gateway procurement budget: Relying on the existing dual-mode hardware of the water meters, only remote firmware upgrades are needed, eliminating the need to purchase 45 Bluetooth gateways, waterproof casings, and matching lithium batteries, directly saving 16,200 yuan in hardware modification costs; Old and narrow water meter wells do not have the construction problem of insufficient equipment placement space, and the efficiency of modification implementation is improved by 90%.

[0043] The overall communication power consumption has been significantly reduced, extending battery life: Before the upgrade, a single water meter dialed 27 times a day on average, and after the upgrade, the average number of dials per day has been reduced to 6 times; multiple power consumption controls, such as tiered Bluetooth sleep mode and reconnection after stopping invalid 4G, have reduced the overall annual communication power consumption by 42%; the theoretical battery life of the original 3.6V lithium battery has been increased from 3.5 years to 6 years, greatly reducing the amount of manual maintenance work required to replace water meters and gateway batteries in the field, and reducing the frequency of annual maintenance and inspection by 70%.

[0044] Fully automated unattended operation without human intervention: During the 3-month trial operation, no single well experienced a complete offline failure of all water meters; when the soil moisture content increased and the radio frequency shielding was enhanced during rainy days, the water meter automatically switched to the "need help" state and broadcasted a request for assistance when the signal deteriorated; when the soil dried and the signal was restored during sunny days, the water meter automatically exited the request for assistance mode after parallel self-healing detection, without the need for maintenance personnel to remotely issue dispatch instructions or go down into the well to debug the equipment.

[0045] Example 2: Case Study on Large-Scale Deployment of Continuous Water Meter Wells in Newly Built Industrial Parks 1. Basic working conditions of the project This embodiment describes a centralized water supply metering project for a newly built industrial park. The park plans 12 independent underground pre-buried water meter wells, deploying a total of 186 brand-new 4G Cat.1+BLE5.0 dual-mode smart water meters. The water meters are pre-installed with the complete firmware logic for mutual reporting of this invention before leaving the factory, eliminating the need for subsequent remote upgrades. The park's geographical location is near the edge of urban base station coverage. The water meter wells on the north and west sides of the park are far from the operator's 4G base stations, with a soil layer thickness of up to 2 meters. The surrounding steel structure factory walls create radio frequency shielding, resulting in the 4G signal RSRP of water meters at the edge points generally being below -115dBm. If a traditional direct transmission solution is used, over 40% of the water meters in the edge area will remain offline. If a traditional gateway coverage solution is used, each of the 12 water meter wells would require one LoRa repeater device, with the total hardware procurement, waterproofing, and power supply budget exceeding 20,000 yuan. Furthermore, annual maintenance personnel would be needed to replace the repeater lithium batteries.

[0046] The water meters in the park all adopt the hardware architecture of this invention: a 32-bit low-power MCU as the main controller, an independently distributed 4G / Bluetooth ceramic antenna, a multi-channel graded power switch lithium battery power supply module, and a large-capacity Flash local storage. The parameters are preset before leaving the factory, and the water meters can automatically form a network and operate after being installed in the well and powered on.

[0047] 2. On-site implementation procedures (1) Factory firmware pre-installation and parameter preset: During the water meter production stage, the entire set of status flag scheduling, Bluetooth broadcasting, load balancing, data verification, and self-healing logic of this invention are solidified into the main control MCU; the entire set of operating parameters are uniformly preset, with a 4G self-test cycle of 15 minutes, a self-healing retry cycle of 30 minutes, a relay load threshold of 10 times, and an RSRP judgment threshold of -110dBm; an independent cache partition is divided, and two adjustable Bluetooth transmission power levels are pre-configured. The independent RF antenna RF matching circuit is factory debugged.

[0048] (2) Batch installation and power supply of water meter wells on site: The construction personnel buried 186 water meters in 12 water meter wells. The metal meter box was sealed and the water meter battery power supply module was connected. The equipment was automatically powered on and initialized. The help status flag was set to "no help needed" by default. All water meter Bluetooth modules automatically turned on low power scanning and listening. No manual pairing or background network grouping instructions were required.

[0049] (3) Automatic formation of decentralized mutual assistance network in the area: The water meter well in the middle of the park is close to the base station and has full 4G signal. After powering on, it continuously broadcasts normal status messages and automatically listens for help broadcasts from the surrounding edge water meters; the 4G signal of the edge water meter wells on the north and west sides of the park is not up to standard, so it automatically switches to the "need help" state, caches the metering data and broadcasts help messages; the high-quality water meters in the middle actively initiate Bluetooth GATT connection, read the cached data of multiple edge water meters in batches, and transmit them to the park water affairs backend server in batches through their own stable 4G channels.

[0050] (4) Continuous monitoring of data transmission status in the background for 7×24 hours: After the project goes online, meter reading data, equipment online status, relay forwarding task count, and battery power consumption data are collected continuously for 6 months to verify the stability of the load balancing, self-healing, and data verification mechanisms.

[0051] 3. Implementation and Operation Results The data integrity rate of water meters across the entire area is stable at 99.8%: all water meters in the original signal blind spots at the edge of the park rely on neighboring relays to complete data reporting. Only a very small amount of temporary data delay occurs when the soil layer is completely saturated during extreme rainstorms. There are no permanently lost meter reading records. The water affairs backend does not require manual data reading or entry. Leakage analysis and enterprise water billing services are operating stably.

[0052] Eliminates the cost of purchasing and constructing a complete set of relay hardware: No external relays, gateways, or signal amplifiers are needed for the 12 water meter wells, directly saving the entire budget for hardware procurement, waterproofing construction, and power supply; the delivery cycle of new projects is shortened, and there is no need to arrange additional relay equipment wiring and installation procedures.

[0053] The relay load balancing mechanism effectively balances the forwarding pressure in the area: the high-signal water meters in the middle of the park have built-in relay task counters. After the number of relay tasks exceeds the threshold of 10 per day, the Bluetooth scanning window is automatically reduced, and the response to new help messages is delayed, avoiding long-term high-frequency forwarding of data from multiple edge devices by a single water meter; the counter is automatically reset at midnight every day to restore the complete listening window, and multiple high-quality water meters in the area take turns to undertake relay forwarding tasks, with no abnormal surge in power consumption of a single water meter.

[0054] The equipment operates fully automatically upon power-up, requiring zero debugging work: After the water meters are buried and powered on, there is no need for maintenance personnel to configure them on-site or remotely issue networking commands. The decentralized autonomous collaboration mechanism takes effect automatically, and all 186 water meters in the park are put online at once. Automatic meter reading can be completed in the entire area on the day of delivery, greatly shortening the project debugging cycle.

[0055] Example 3: Case Study on the Field Deployment of Deep-Buried Water Meters for Centralized Water Supply in Rural Townships 1. Basic working conditions of the project This example is a centralized water supply renovation project in a rural township. The village has a total of 268 4G Bluetooth smart water meters, which are scattered and buried deep in outdoor pits and simple meter pools in the fields. There is no unified centralized metal water meter well. The water meters are buried at a depth of 1.5~2.2m and there is no concrete shielding around them. However, the soil layer is thick and the soil moisture content fluctuates greatly with rainfall. The number of 4G base stations of the township operator is small and the locations are scattered. The 4G signal of the water meters fluctuates greatly at different times: when the soil is dry on sunny days, the RSRP can reach -90~-100dBm. When it rains, after the rainwater penetrates the soil layer, the radio frequency shielding is aggravated, and the RSRP generally drops to below -120dBm, and the 4G link of the water meters is frequently disconnected.

[0056] Rural water meters are not powered by municipal power and rely entirely on built-in lithium batteries for long-term power supply. Due to inconvenient transportation, maintenance personnel can only go to the countryside for inspections twice a year. Traditional direct transmission solutions result in a large number of water meters going offline during rainy days, leading to a large amount of missing data in monthly water bill calculations and frequent water disputes among villagers. The scattered locations in the field make it impossible to install relay gateways in batches, and the transportation and installation costs of a single gateway are extremely high, making it completely unsuitable for implementation.

[0057] This rural water supply renovation project uses 4G Bluetooth water meters equipped with the mutual reporting hardware logic of this invention. It utilizes close-range Bluetooth communication between adjacent water meters in fields and pits to achieve mutual data transmission between neighboring meters, adapting to the special working conditions of scattered locations and dynamic signal fluctuations in the field.

[0058] 2. On-site implementation procedures (1) The factory firmware of the water meter is pre-installed to meet the low power consumption requirements in the field: In response to the long-term low power consumption requirements in rural fields, the factory firmware reduces the power consumption of Bluetooth regular broadcast and extends the sleep time; relaxes the fault tolerance range of self-healing and self-testing, allowing the signal to be restored twice in a row before exiting the help mode; optimizes the local Flash cache capacity, which can store 30 days of offline cumulative metering data, and is suitable for long-term rainy continuous offline scenarios.

[0059] (2) Dispersed field installation: The construction personnel will bury the water meters in the pits of the water supply pipelines in front of farmers' houses and in the fields. The Bluetooth communication distance between the water meters is controlled within 15m to ensure that adjacent water meters can listen to each other's broadcast messages. All water meters are powered by independent batteries and are powered on at once after installation, without the need for subsequent wiring or external power supply.

[0060] (3) Dynamically and adaptively switching between help / assistance status: When the soil is dry and the 4G signal is up to standard on sunny days, the water meter flag remains unchanged and does not require assistance. It autonomously uploads data via 4G and intermittently listens to surrounding messages. When the soil shielding is enhanced during rainy weather, the water meter's 4G link is disconnected, and it automatically switches to needing assistance. It caches 30 days of water usage data and continuously broadcasts help messages. When the surrounding signal is normal, the water meter actively establishes a connection to transmit data on its behalf. After the cloud receipt is issued, it automatically closes the help broadcast. After the rain stops, the soil dries, and the signal is restored, the water meter that requested help performs parallel self-healing and self-checking. It does not need to wait for assistance from neighboring units and directly uploads cached data autonomously.

[0061] (4) Conduct quarterly inspections in rural areas to verify the integrity of back-end meter reading data: Maintenance personnel will go to the countryside once a quarter to conduct on-site spot checks on the remaining battery power of water meters and local cache records, compare them with the back-end meter reading data of the water affairs department, and verify the long-term reliability of mutual assistance reporting, data verification, and low power consumption control.

[0062] 3. Implementation and Operation Results It adapts to dynamic signal fluctuations in the field around the clock, and there is no large-scale data loss throughout the year: when there are temporary signal blind spots caused by rainfall and thickened soil layers, the water meter relies on Bluetooth mutual assistance from neighboring units to complete data transmission; after the rain stops and the signal is restored, the self-healing logic quickly switches to direct transmission mode, and there are no water billing disputes caused by water meter offline throughout the year, and the number of villagers' water complaints has decreased by 90%.

[0063] Fully adaptable to scenarios with no power supply and scattered locations in the wild: No external repeater or gateway equipment is required, eliminating the problems of power supply and battery replacement for gateways in the wild; maintenance personnel only need to go to the countryside for inspection twice a year, compared to the traditional solution of on-site meter reading once a month, reducing the workload of manual maintenance by more than 70%.

[0064] Ultra-long battery life adapts to the operation and maintenance conditions of remote rural areas: Multi-level low power consumption management mechanism reduces invalid RF transmission of 4G and Bluetooth, and the lithium battery of the water meter can be used stably for 6 years. There is no need to go down into the well to replace the water meter, which greatly reduces the operation and maintenance cost of water supply in remote rural areas.

[0065] Decentralized networking has no limitations on the number of points or distance: Water meters are buried in a decentralized manner without a fixed network topology. After a new water meter is buried, it automatically joins the area mutual assistance network after being powered on. No background configuration of groups is required. Water meters for new rural water supply users can be seamlessly expanded in the future, adapting to the annual expansion needs of township water supply.

[0066] A horizontal comparison of the operational data from the three sets of embodiments clearly demonstrates the versatility and advancement of the technical solution of this invention: In three completely different scenarios—closed metal water meter wells in old residential areas, contiguous water meter wells in newly built industrial parks, and scattered deep-buried water meters in rural areas—the decentralized mutual assistance reporting solution based on status flag broadcasting can be stably implemented without requiring dedicated hardware or targeted modifications. It uniformly achieves four core effects: zero incremental hardware cost, over 99.7% data integrity rate, 42% reduction in communication power consumption, and fully automated unattended operation. Furthermore, relying on load balancing, multi-layer self-healing, and end-to-end data verification logic, it addresses three differentiated industry pain points: limited budgets for renovation in old residential areas, complex large-scale deployment and debugging in industrial parks, and high difficulty in rural field maintenance. It possesses strong scenario adaptability and large-scale promotion value.

[0067] Although embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes, modifications, substitutions and alterations can be made to these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A method for reporting mutual assistance data of 4G Bluetooth water meters based on status flag broadcasting, characterized in that, Includes the following steps: S1. When the device is powered on and initialized, the main control MCU loads the locally configurable help status flag parameters. The flag only distinguishes two states: help needed and no help needed. Set a fixed period T1 to perform a self-test of the local 4G communication link. The self-test dimensions include four indicators: 4G signal RSRP strength, base station dialing success rate, cloud TCP connection status, and data packet uplink loss rate. S2. The self-test determines that the 4G link communication quality of the device meets the standard, and sets the help status flag to no help needed; the Bluetooth module broadcasts a standard normal status message in a low duty cycle period T2, and the message carries the device's water meter ID, 4G signal level, remaining battery power, and relay load count; at the same time, the device uploads real-time water metering data to the backend server through the 4G channel according to the preset meter reading cycle. S3. If the self-test determines that the local 4G signal RSRP is lower than the preset threshold, the dialing fails N times in a row or the cloud link is disconnected, the help status flag will be set to "help needed"; invalid high-frequency 4G reconnection will be stopped to save battery power; the time-based cumulative water consumption and event alarm data will be segmented, encrypted, and cached in the local storage module; Bluetooth will be enabled to continuously broadcast standardized help messages, which will carry the water meter's unique identifier, cached data length, data verification CRC code, and maximum Bluetooth connection waiting time. S4. All water meter Bluetooth modules in the area that are in an unhelpful state continuously listen for air broadcast messages at low power. The message filtering logic only parses messages of the same frequency band and the same water protocol. When a help message is captured and its own flag is unhelpful, the CRC validity of the help message is verified. After the verification is successful, the BLEGATT point-to-point connection is initiated to establish a dedicated near-field data interaction link between water meters. After the S5 Bluetooth link is stably established, the assisted water meter reads the local cached metering data of the water meter in segments, performs secondary data verification and duplicate data filtering, packages and aggregates the data of multiple water meters in need, and reuses its own stable 4G uplink channel to transmit the data in batches to the water affairs backend server. S6. The backend server completes data parsing, database verification and returns a successful upload response; after receiving the response from the cloud, the assisting water meter sends a dedicated upload completion receipt instruction to the water meter in need; after the water meter in need verifies that the water meter ID matches correctly, it switches its own help status flag to no help required, turns off Bluetooth help broadcast, and resumes the normal metering standby and periodic 4G self-test process. S7, Fault-tolerant loop logic: When the water meter does not receive a reply instruction, it continues to maintain the state of needing help, periodically resends the help message, and re-executes the 4G link self-check every T3 interval; if the 4G signal recovers to the standard in the middle, it automatically terminates the help broadcast, clears the buffer pending transmission mark, and switches to independent reporting mode.

2. The 4G Bluetooth water meter mutual assistance data reporting method based on status flag broadcasting according to claim 1, characterized in that: The help status flag is dynamically updated only based on the four self-test indicators of the local 4G link in real time. It operates in a decentralized manner throughout the process, without the need for a backend server to issue network configuration, without the need to preset fixed relay node topology, and without the need for manual on-site setting of device groups.

3. The 4G Bluetooth water meter mutual assistance data reporting method based on status flag broadcasting according to claim 1, characterized in that, Add neighboring machine relay load balancing control logic: When the water meter is in an unattended state, it has a built-in relay task counter that increments automatically after each successful data transmission. When the counter value exceeds a preset load threshold, the Bluetooth broadcast listening window duration is temporarily reduced and the response to new help messages is delayed to prioritize the uploading of its own local data. Normal listening resumes after the counter is cleared periodically, thus avoiding long-term overload of a single high-quality 4G water meter forwarding data from multiple devices, which could cause a surge in power consumption and 4G channel congestion.

4. The 4G Bluetooth water meter mutual assistance data reporting method based on status flag broadcasting according to claim 1, characterized in that, Add a multi-level low-power hierarchical broadcast control mechanism: 1) No-assistance water meter: Bluetooth only uses intermittent passive listening, the broadcast period T2 is extended to 10~30s, the radio frequency module enters sleep mode most of the time, and is only woken up for a short time to scan neighboring machine messages; 2) Water meter requiring assistance: Two-level broadcast power control. Initially, low-power broadcasting is used. If no neighboring device responds after M consecutive broadcasts, the Bluetooth transmission power is automatically increased to expand the coverage area. After receiving a confirmation, it immediately switches back to the lowest power RF mode. 3) The entire process of mutual data interaction between water meters is completed through Bluetooth local near-field communication, which does not occupy 4G uplink channel resources and reduces cellular network traffic consumption and 4G radio frequency transmission power consumption.

5. The 4G Bluetooth water meter mutual assistance data reporting method based on status flag broadcasting according to claim 1, characterized in that, Add data loss prevention and duplicate transmission prevention verification mechanisms: Request assistance in adding a timestamp, a unique water meter ID, and a segmented CRC checksum to each metering data entry in the water meter cache; assist in verifying the CRC and timestamp when the water meter reads the cached data, and filtering out duplicate cached data packets. After receiving the data transmitted on behalf of others, the cloud backend establishes a unique index based on the water meter ID and timestamp, and discards duplicate data directly. The receipt instruction carries the hash value of the data segment transmitted this time. After the water meter is successfully matched, the corresponding cache is cleared to avoid duplicate data reporting or loss due to lack of confirmation.

6. The 4G Bluetooth water meter mutual assistance data reporting method based on status flag broadcasting according to claim 1, characterized in that, Add multi-level signal recovery self-healing logic: The water meter performs 4G link retry detection in parallel between broadcast help messages, updating the RSRP signal strength with each self-test. If the self-test signal meets the standard twice in a row, it can stop Bluetooth help broadcasting without waiting for assistance from neighboring devices, and automatically upload local cached data via 4G, shortening the offline data recovery time.

7. The 4G Bluetooth water meter based on status flag broadcasting according to any one of claims 1-6, characterized in that: It includes a main control MCU, a 4GCat.1 communication module, a BLE5.0 Bluetooth communication module, a water metering module, a local data storage module, a battery power supply module, and an RF matching antenna unit; The main control MCU has internally embedded software logic units, including: a help status flag storage unit, a 4G multi-index link self-test unit, a Bluetooth hierarchical broadcast control unit, a neighboring machine message parsing and CRC verification unit, a Bluetooth GATT connection interaction unit, a relay load balancing counting unit, a local data cache and segmentation verification unit, a receipt instruction recognition and status switching unit, and a multi-level low-power power management unit. The 4GCat.1 communication module is used to upload water usage data locally on a timed basis, and at the same time, it carries the batch transmission and reporting of water meter cache data for neighboring machines to request assistance. The BLE5.0 Bluetooth communication module is used for power-division broadcasting of device status messages, low-power scanning and listening to the broadcasts of surrounding water meters, and establishing point-to-point near-field data transmission links. The local data storage module uses Flash non-volatile storage to segment and encrypt water metering, flow alarm, and device event data when the 4G link is abnormal, and the cached records are not lost when power is lost. The battery power supply module is equipped with a hierarchical power switch circuit, which independently supplies power to the 4G module, Bluetooth module and metering module in a time-sharing manner, and dynamically shuts down the radio frequency of idle peripherals in conjunction with the main control low-power logic. The radio frequency matching antenna unit includes an independent 4G antenna and a Bluetooth ceramic antenna, which are placed on both sides of the meter body to avoid shielding by the metal shell and improve the wireless coverage of the underground water meter well. The water meter does not require an external Bluetooth gateway, external repeater, or signal amplification device. It relies on decentralized autonomous and cooperative communication between devices to reliably report water meter data in signal blind spots.

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