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Using ZigBee to control devices in conjunction with smart meters

Robert Kwasny
Prodigy 40 points

My understanding is that the ZigBee line is often used with Smart Electrical Meters.


Since it only has a range of 3-400 meters... can the transceivers relay information from the fringes of a Mesh Network, to a central point...

Say, 100 nodes, with 70% of them placed outside the central point...

Say the Smart Meter was the central point...

Can the ZigBee inter-operate with the Smart Meter?

Can the ZigBee transceiver, easily communicate with Wireless Standards: 802.11a, 802.11b/g/n and 802.11ac  based modems to report to a central server?

Is it capable of doing this kind of relaying?

Thanks in advance!

Robert

  • 0
    Guru 735635 points
    If your Smart meter runs the same Zigbee profile protocol to those 100 Zigbee nodes, its no problem to communicate each other. As for relaying messages to Internet, you would need a bridge router to bridge Zigbee messages to Internet. There's no direct way to communicate between 802.11 standard and Zigbee 802.15.4 standard.
  • 0 in reply to YiKai Chen
    Prodigy 40 points

    Thank you YiKai,


    So if I was providing a product for the Utility Company, I'd be able to grant them access through the Smart Meter and they could control the ZigBee?

    And, the products I'm building will be "strung along a distance" for example, there may be 3 within 200m of the Smart meter, then 4 more placed about 400m from the Smart Meter, (with the first three in between) then there could be another group of 4 another 200m distant in that line from the Smart Meter, and another 4 even further away... with the furthest now 800m away from the Smart Meter.


    Without using the Internet, will the furthest set of four, be able to use the center set of eight, to reach the three... back to the Smart Meter with two way communication between all 15 units... the data rate is ridiculously slow - on the order of a packet of 256 bytes per minute (or less)?

    Your insights are all ready much appreciated!

    It'll be great if these ZigBee's will do this!

    Best,

    Robert

  • 0 in reply to Robert Kwasny
    Guru 735635 points
    1. I am not sure what you mean "I'd be able to grant access through the Smart Meter and they could control the Zigbee. Can you elaborate.
    2. It sounds you need Zigbee to transmit up to about 200-300 meters in single hop. Is this 200-300 line-of-sight meters or there is something in between?
  • 0 in reply to YiKai Chen
    Prodigy 40 points
    1) Yep, can the Utility Company "reach" the Zigbee through their own Smart Meter... they clearly can read the Smart Meter, send upgrades to the Smart Meter, and the ZigBee connects to the Smart Meter... it's a Transceiver so I'm assuming two way communication is possible... That's the goal... to hang products on the Smart Meter (for the Utility Company to control) read a sensor or two, turn stuff on and off... that kind of thing.

    2) In reality, the distances would be closer and mostly line of sight or it wouldn't be the end of our world to pop a few more in between if the signal became marginal... but the big question is ... can each ZigBee relay each others packets back and forth to the Smart Meter?

    Again, these prompt replies are much appreciated!
    R
  • 0 in reply to Robert Kwasny
    Guru 735635 points
    1. If Zigbee nodes of Utility company run the same Zigbee profile with your Zigbee nodes, there's no problem to do what you described.
    2. If Zigbee node in your application is Zigbee router, each node can relay other packages back and forth.
  • 0 in reply to YiKai Chen
    Prodigy 40 points
    Thanks YiKai,
    Sounds good... time to get some product and start building...
    Really appreciate your help... it's no wonder you have over 1/4 million points!
    Best,
    R
  • 0 in reply to Robert Kwasny
    Guru 735635 points
    You are welcome.