HyDSMaaS: A Hybrid Communication Infrastructure with LoRaWAN and LoraMesh for the Demand Side Management as a Service

Abstract

Seeking to solve problems in the power electric system (PES) related to exacerbated and uncontrolled energy consumption by final consumers such as residences, condominiums, public buildings and industries, electric power companies (EPC) are increasingly seeking new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to transform traditional electric power distribution networks into smart grids (SG). With this implementation, PES will be able to remotely control electric power consumption as well as monitor data generated by smart meters (SM). However, Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies will enable all this to happen quickly and at low cost, since they are low-cost devices that can be deployed quickly and at scale in these scenarios. With this in mind, this work aimed to study, propose, and implement a hybrid communication infrastructure with LoRaWAN and LoraMesh for the demand-side management as a service (HyDSMaaS) using IoT devices such as long range (LoRa) to provide an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) capable of performing all these applications as a service offered by EPC to end consumers. Additionally, services such as demand-side management (DSMaaS) can be used in this infrastructure. From the preliminary results it was found that the LoRaWAN network achieved a range of up to 2.35 km distance and the LoRaMESH one of 600 m; thus, the latter is more suitable for scenarios where there is little interference and the SMs are at long distances, while the other is used for scenarios with greater agglomeration of nearby SMs. Considering the hybridized scenario between LoraWAN and LoRaMESH, it can be seen that the implementation possibilities increase, since its range was approximately 3 km considering only one hop, and it can reach 1023 devices present in a mesh network. Thus, it was possible to propose the actual implementation of LoRaWAN and LoRaMESH protocols as well as the hybridization of the two protocols for HyDSMaaS. Additionally, the results obtained are exclusively from Radioenge’s LoRa technology, which can be further improved in the case of using more powerful equipment.

Exploring open source and proprietary LoRa mesh technologies

“…The introduction of the LoRaWAN standard established open standards, promoting interoperability [17]. LoRa mesh networks subsequently emerged to extend the range by allowing nodes to relay data [18], enhancing coverage and resilience [19]. This evolution has been accompanied by optimizations in energy consumption [20], which are crucial for battery-powered IoT devices, and specific developments tailored to environments such as forested areas [21], smart cities [22], and industrial IoT.…”