Demonstrability of Narrowband Internet of Things technology in advanced metering infrastructure

The deployment cost of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), one of the key elements for smart grid, often arises from three sub-systems, respectively referred to as data management system, communication network, and smart devices. Among them, the costs of communication network account for a considerable proportion. In smart grid, smart devices are generally fixed in a certain position and schedule reading of interval meter data. They do not only cover smart meters, but also extend gas, water meters, and other sensors measuring light, humidity, and temperature. Many of them are often with battery supply, and this will bring utilization constraints especially in communication network. The deployment needs of reducing cost and the energy-constrained network for an extremely large-scale AMI infrastructure both require optimum communication technologies that consider energy consumption, minimize energy use, simplify network topology, and prolong network lifetime. As an emerging 3GPP radio interface technology specifically designed for low power wide area networks (LPWANs), Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) inherits from the existing LTE but does many simplifications. Its most prominent features, enhanced coverage and low power consumption, are being pursued for a large-scale AMI communication network. In this paper, we provide a survey of AMI communication, emphasize on the key technologies of NB-IoT, analyze the performance of NB-IoT network over a real-world, and demonstrate the potential of NB-IoT to support and boost AMI in smart grid.