Edge-Assisted LoRa–Optical Hybrid Communication Model for Ultra-Low-Power Smart Metering Systems

The deployment of smart meters needs long-life end nodes with ultraslow power and a strong uplink connection to the collection points. This paper presents an edge-assisted hybrid communication model, which integrates LoRa (sub-GHz low-power long-range radio) on the downlink and a shortrange visible/infrared optical uplink on the uplink, triggered opportunistically to offload traffic and decrease the energy per presented bit. The architecture puts lightweight intelligence in edge gateways of micro-scale to coordinate channel access, plan an energy-efficient optical burst schedule, and even aggregate and compress data before sending it to the cloud. We propose the system model, power and latency performance, a medium access scheme which leverages the periods of the smart meter traffic and performance analysis through simulation with the comparison of the hybrid model to LoRa-only reference points. Results show that the hybrid model can reduce average energy consumption per meter transmission by up to 38% and decrease network congestion under high device density while preserving delivery reliability above 99% in typical urban scenarios. We will complete with design recommendation and deployment considerations of utility-scales rollouts.

Hali tarjima qilinmagan