Institute of Urban Water Management and Landscape Water Engineering, Graz University of Technology, Stremayrgasse 10/I, 8010 Graz, Austria.
Sensors (Basel). 2021 Jan 4;21(1):293. doi: 10.3390/s21010293.
While low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) technologies have been studied extensively for a broad spectrum of smart city applications, their potential for water distribution system monitoring in high temporal resolution has not been studied in detail. However, due to their low power demand, these technologies offer new possibilities for operating pressure-monitoring devices for near real-time leak detection in water distribution systems (WDS). By combining long-distance wireless communication with low power consumption, LPWAN technologies promise long periods of maintenance-free device operation without having to rely on an external power source. This is of particular importance for pressure-based leak detection where optimal sensor positions are often located in the periphery of WDS without a suitable power source. To assess the potential of these technologies for replacing widely-used wireless communication technologies for leak detection, GPRS is compared with the LPWAN standards Narrowband IoT, long-range wide area network (LoRaWAN) and Sigfox. Based on sampling and transmission rates commonly applied in leak detection, the ability of these three technologies to replace GPRS is analyzed based on a self-developed low-power pressure-monitoring device and a simplified, linear energy-consumption model. The results indicate that even though some of the analyzed LPWAN technologies may suffer from contractual and technical limitations, all of them offer viable alternatives, meeting the requirements of leak detection in WDS. In accordance with existing research on data transmission with these technologies, the findings of this work show that even while retaining a compact design, which entails a limited battery capacity, pressure-monitoring devices can exceed runtimes of 5 years, as required for installation at water meters in Austria. Thus, LPWAN technologies have the potential to advance the wide application of near real-time, pressure-based leak detection in WDS, while simultaneously reducing the cost of device operation significantly.
虽然低功耗广域网 (LPWAN) 技术已经在广泛的智慧城市应用中进行了深入研究，但它们在高时间分辨率下水分配系统监测的潜力尚未得到详细研究。然而，由于其低功耗需求，这些技术为操作压力监测设备提供了新的可能性，可用于水分配系统 (WDS) 的近实时泄漏检测。通过将长距离无线通信与低功耗相结合，LPWAN 技术承诺在无需依赖外部电源的情况下，实现无需维护的长时间设备运行。这对于基于压力的泄漏检测尤为重要，因为最佳传感器位置通常位于 WDS 的外围，而没有合适的电源。为了评估这些技术在替代广泛使用的泄漏检测无线通信技术方面的潜力，将 GPRS 与 LPWAN 标准 Narrowband IoT、远距离广域网 (LoRaWAN) 和 Sigfox 进行了比较。基于泄漏检测中常用的采样和传输速率，根据自主开发的低功耗压力监测设备和简化的线性能耗模型，分析了这三种技术替代 GPRS 的能力。结果表明，尽管一些分析的 LPWAN 技术可能受到合同和技术限制，但它们都提供了可行的替代方案，满足了 WDS 泄漏检测的要求。根据现有关于这些技术的数据传输研究，本工作的结果表明，即使保留了具有有限电池容量的紧凑设计，压力监测设备也可以超过 5 年的运行时间，这是在奥地利安装水表所必需的。因此，LPWAN 技术有可能推动 WDS 中近实时、基于压力的泄漏检测的广泛应用，同时大大降低设备运行成本。
