New hybrid IoT LoRaWAN/IRC sensors: SMART water metering system

Abstract

The massive development of internet of things (IoT) technologies is gaining momentum across all areas of their possible deployment-spanning from Industry 4.0 to eHealth, smart city, agriculture or waste management. This ongoing development is further pushed forward by the gradual deployment of 5G networks. With 5G capable smart devices, it will be possible to transfer more data with shorter latency thereby resulting in exciting new use cases such as Massive IoT. Massive-IoT (low-power wide area network-LPWAN) enables improved network coverage, long device operational lifetime and a high density of connections. Despite all the advantages of massive-IoT technology, there are certain cases where the original concept cannot be used. Among them are dangerous explosive environments or issues caused by subsurface deployment (operation during winter months or dense greenery). This article presents the concept of a hybrid solution of IoT LoRaWAN (long range wide area network)/IRC-VLC (infrared communication, visible light communication) technology, which combines advantages of both technologies according to the deployment scenario.