Short-Range Radio Receiver High-Speed Drive-by Meter Reading
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing communication methods between stationary consumption meters and mobile data collectors via short-range radio receivers are limited by the need for low drive-by speeds to ensure successful data transmission, due to the time required to establish communication.
Innovation Solution
The short-range radio receiver determines the reception time and metadata of messages from consumption meters, allowing it to schedule command transmissions to ensure receipt within the meter's reception window, thereby enabling communication at higher drive-by speeds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a bidirectional communication structure is established in accordance with EN13757-4, then communication between the data collector and meter can be achieved, but the data collector can only drive past at very low speed due to the time required to establish communication
Solution Approach 1:
The receiver determines the reception time of the first message from the terminal device and uses this information to calculate when the terminal device's next reception window will occur. This preliminary calculation allows the receiver to proactively schedule command transmissions to arrive precisely within reception windows, eliminating the need for slow trial-and-error communication establishment and enabling high-speed drive-by reading.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses the reception time information from the initial message as feedback to adjust and optimize subsequent command transmissions. By monitoring when messages are successfully received and using this timing information to schedule future transmissions, the system continuously optimizes communication timing to maintain reliable communication even at high vehicle speeds.
2Productivity
If the data collector drives past the meter at higher speed, then reading efficiency improves, but the probability that a message reaches the first reception window decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The receiver calculates the reception window timing in advance based on the reception time of the first message. This preliminary scheduling allows the system to prepare and transmit commands at precisely the right moment, ensuring high delivery probability even when the data collector is moving at high speed, thus maintaining both productivity and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts command transmission timing based on the calculated reception window. Rather than using fixed timing, the transmission schedule is adapted in real-time according to the terminal device's reception pattern, allowing successful communication to be maintained across varying vehicle speeds and conditions.
Data Source
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AI summary
Method for communication between a stationary terminal device (1-1, 1-n), in particular a consumption meter, and a mobile data collector (20) using the Wireless M-Bus via a short-range radio receiver (10), preferably a WPAN receiver, which establishes a bidirectional interface to the terminal device (1-1, 1-n) located within the reception range of the receiver (10) and transmits the data received from the terminal device (1-1, 1-n) to the data collector (20) via a bidirectional WPAN interface, wherein the terminal device (1-1, 1-n) periodically and unsolicitedly sends a message (3) to establish communication and subsequently opens a reception window (2) after a time interval (ΔT), wherein a command or command sequence (CS) is transmitted from the mobile data collector (20) to the receiver (10) in response.by the receiver (10) first receiving the command or command sequence (CS) from the data collector (20) and transmitting it to the terminal (1-1, 1-n) in one or more receive window(s) (2), wherein the receiver (10) determines the receive time (RT) at which the message (3) arrives at the receiver (10), and the receiver (10), after receiving the command or command sequence (CS) from the data collector (2), determines the time of onward transmission of the command or command sequence (CS) to the terminal (1-1, 1-n) taking into account the receive time (RT) such that the reception of the command or command sequence (CS) by the terminal (1-1, 1-n) takes place within one receive window (2) or several receive windows.