本文根據澳洲水務集團Rian Sullings先生發表在領英上的文章節選翻譯而成，原文題目：Top 5 Smart Water Metering Predictions for 2018。

 

作者簡介

Rian Sullings先生是澳大利亞智能計量專家。在智能水表領域，他幫助用戶了解公用事業水資源的使用情況以提高他們用水效率，主要關注使用最新的物聯網技術確保智能水表項目達標，提高用水效率和持續供水，降低成本。

 

在2017年6月無錫的中國國際表計行業年度大會上，Rian Sullings先生作了精彩的演講，給參會人員打開了一扇了解澳洲市場的窗戶。

 

今年4月，在珠海2018中國國際表計行業年度大會上，我們依然邀請到Rian Sullings先生就澳洲水務市場布局做精彩的演講。

2017年6月，Rian Sullings先生在中國國際表計行業年度大會做演講

 

這篇文章是我對2018年智能水表市場的五條預言。在2017年的基礎上，今年智能水表將繼續快速發展，邁上新臺階，并且將會出現新的解決方案。雖然這些預測主要關注的是澳大利亞和亞太地區，但是放在全球市場也同樣適用。以下內容是我對2018年的預測，排名不分先后。

 

LPWAN的部署將增加不止10倍

如果2018年智能水表計量技術方面只有一種技術值得書寫，那就是低功耗廣域網（LPWAN）。 LPWAN是具有遠距離、低功耗和低成本的無線網絡。2017年，這些低功耗廣域網（LPWAN）的覆蓋范圍呈指數增長，并將在2018年進一步增長。

 

全球受捧的LPWAN技術已經進入智能水表計量領域，作為現有的單一供應商網絡的替代方案，其中的無線網絡、設備以及通常的頭端系統由具有專有技術的單個供應商提供。這會造成供應商鎖定的問題。作為智能水表計量項目的一部分，單一供應商網絡通常要求運營商部署專用無線網絡。全球性的LPWAN擁有一個強大的生態系統，包含了設備、軟件供應商以及多個網絡運營商等，并將推出更多的物聯網應用案例和項目，比如智能路燈、停車傳感器以及其他幾乎所有“智能”或“連接”的其他物理設備。

 

Sigfox

Sigfox自2009年以來一直在構建自己的網絡，并且一直是LPWAN領域的先行者。 Sigfox正在努力達成自己到2018年年底的目標 - 在60個國家開展業務。截至2018年1月，該公司已經在36個國家為7.27億人提供了Sigfox網絡服務。

 

2018年1月9日，在中國國家主席習近平和法國總統Emmanuel Macron的見證下，Sigfox與中國一家老年護理技術提供商簽署了合作協議，為該公司提供技術支持。這個消息是一個重要的里程碑，標志著Sigfox技術在世界最大的物聯網（IoT）市場之一的中國進入了擴張期。

 

在澳大利亞，聯邦政府承諾為當地的Sigfox運營商Thinxtra公司提供1000萬美元的資金支持，這將有助于完成到2018年年底覆蓋95％人口的目標（目前約為75％）。

 

NB-IoT

窄帶物聯網（NB-IoT）是由像Telstra，Vodafone和Optus公司等蜂窩通信運營商運營的低功耗無線網絡，可以將其視為與3G網絡類似，只是傳輸范圍更廣，滲透率更強，功耗也更低。

 

自2016年以來，沃達豐（英國電信企業）一直為維多利亞州包括智能水表計量等項目的部署和測試提供技術支持。2017年，沃達豐的業務范圍擴大到了墨爾本中央商務區和悉尼市，預計今年沃達豐將在澳大利亞全國部署。

 

隨著澳洲電訊Telstra宣布NB-IoT已覆蓋了澳大利亞所有的主要城市，很顯然NB-IoT技術將成為物聯網技術的領導者，包括在智能水表領域。通過這一舉措， Telstra迅速趕上了那些先行者，盡管目前覆蓋范圍的具體細節尚未透露，但預計Telstra的NB-IoT網絡將成為澳大利亞最大的專用低功耗網絡。

 

Optus公司也一直在悄然發展他們的網絡，并致力于更智能的水表項目。2018年可能會看到Optus就NB-IoT計劃發布更多公告。

 

2017年年底，WaterGroup發布了第一臺澳大利亞標準的數字水表，該水表集成了NB-IoT通信技術（Sigfox和LoRaWAN技術的水表也計劃于今年發布）。2018年，澳大利亞的公用事業部門將努力部署這種新一代的水表。

 

LoRaWAN

LoRaWAN是LPWAN其中的一種標準，為所有感興趣的玩家提供了一個框架，玩家可通過全球電信運營商來構建和定制他們自己的網絡。

 

包括NNNCo，Meshed和GeoWAN在內的澳大利亞LoRaWAN網絡提供商正在全國范圍內拓展其網絡，并將水務公司視為關鍵市場。2018年將看到在澳大利亞智能水表計量市場使用LoRaWAN技術的首批高端項目公告。

 

新西蘭領先的電信服務提供商Spark宣布了2017年LoRaWAN網絡在全國的部署，到2018年中期，LoRaWAN網絡將覆蓋70％的人口。這將促進遠程監控應用的發展，并將推動2018年智能水表計量的部署。

 

區塊鏈技術進入智能水表計量

區塊鏈是這樣一種技術，其中諸如金融交易之類的信息被輸入并在分布式賬本中維護。這意味著，不只有一方驗證事件并將記錄存儲在中央單元，而是這些事件由多方共同確認和記錄。區塊鏈使用密碼來確保記錄不被惡意更改，保證了這是一個高度安全的信息存儲和傳輸系統。

 

區塊鏈和加密數字貨幣是獨立的技術，這一點很重要。并不是所有的區塊鏈應用都是加密數字貨幣，并不是所有的加密數字貨幣都建立在區塊鏈技術上。

 

隨著加密電子貨幣市場在2017年的大規模爆發，比特幣價格攀升至1.96萬美元，區塊鏈科技受益于市場關注，其價值被大眾迅速熟悉和認可。

 

澳大利亞能源公司Power Ledger運用區塊鏈及加密電子貨幣使P2P貿易成為可能，并得力于2017年政府所支持的弗里曼特爾800萬美元的項目。另一個組織IOTA（盡管沒有直接使用區塊鏈技術）提供了去中心化交易網，為物聯網應用提供了加密電子貨幣解決方案。IOTA在1月18日持有市場資本約100億美元，足以顯示其對這個市場的興趣。這些新技術為物聯網系統提供了一種安全有效的方式使系統能夠自動完成交易。設想一個氣象站自動向感興趣的第三方出售數據，并且將受益返回至所有者。

 

智能水表提供的數據吸引多方投資者例如公共事業單位、保險業、設備維護商、基礎設施運營者以及政府機構等。這使得他們成為區塊鏈技術應用的潛在平臺，特別是那些瞄準物聯網應用的行業。

如下是Rian Sullings先生的英文原文，英語好的小伙伴請自行食用~

Top5 Smart Water Metering Predictions for 2018

This article is my top 5predictions for smart water metering in 2018. This year smart water meteringwill continue to build on the achievements of 2017 and take them to new levels,and new solutions will start to emerge. While these predictions are presentedwith a particular focus on Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, they will allapply globally. Listed below in no particular order are my predictions for2018.

Deployments using globalLPWANs will increase >10x

2018 will be, if only onething for smart water metering in terms of technology, the year of the LowPower Wide Area Networks (LPWAN). LPWANs are wireless networks with long range,low power requirements, and low costs. The coverage of these networks has grownexponentially throughout 2017 and will ramp up further in 2018.

 

Globally adopted LPWANtechnologies have entered the smart water metering space as an alternative tothe incumbent single vendor networks where the wireless network, devices, andoften the head-end systems are offered by a single vendor with proprietarytechnology and limited or no interoperability. This creates vendor lock-in andscaling issues. Single-vendor networks typically require the operator to deploya dedicated wireless network as part of a smart water metering project.Globally adopted LPWANs have large ecosystems of device and software vendors,multiple network operators, and are rolled out to address far more IoT usecases and projects than smart water metering such as smart streetlights,parking sensors, and practically any other physical device that you can prefacewith the words ‘smart’ or ‘connected’.

Sigfox

Sigfox has been building outits network since 2009 and has been an early mover into the LPWAN space. Sigfoxis tracking towards a target of operating in 60 countries by the end of 2018.As of January 2018, this stands at 36 countries with 727 million people livingwithin a Sigfox coverage area.

 

On the 9th of January ’18Sigfox signed an agreement to provide their technology in China under apartnership with a local aged care technology provider in the presence ofChinese and French Presidents Xi Jinping and Emmanuel Macron. This newsrepresents a major milestone in the expansion of the Sigfox technology into oneof the largest markets in the world for the Internet of Things (IoT).

 

In Australia, the local SigfoxOperator; Thinxtra has been backed by the federal government through the CEFCwith a $10 million commitment. This will contribute to the target of covering95% of the population by the end of 2018 (currently around 75%).

NB-IoT

Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT) is alow power wireless network operated by cellular telecommunication providerssuch as Telstra, Vodafone, and Optus. You can think of it as similar to the 3Gnetwork, only trading the transfer speeds for improved range, penetration, andlower power consumption.

 

Vodafone have been providingcoverage for pilots and tests in Victoria, including smart water meteringprojects, since 2016. Through 2017 coverage was expanded across the MelbourneCBD and Sydney. It is expected that Vodafone announce a nationwide deploymentin Australia this year. Vodafone New Zealand

With Telstra’s announcement ofNB-IoT coverage going live in all major cities in Australia, it is clear thatNB-IoT is going to be a leader in IoT connectivity including smart watermetering. With this move, Telstra has rapidly caught up to the earlier moversand while specific details of the current coverage have not yet been shared, itis expected that the Telstra’s NB-IoT network will be the largest dedicated lowpower network in the country by area of coverage.

 

Optus has also been quietlydeveloping their network and working towards more smart water meter projects.2018 will likely see Optus making more public announcements about its plans forNB-IoT.

 

In late 2017 WaterGroupreleased the first Australian Standard Digital Water Meter with integratedNB-IoT communications (Sigfox and LoRaWAN are also scheduled for release thisyear). Utilities nationwide are working to deploy this next-generation meterinto their networks in 2018.

LoRaWAN

LoRaWAN is a standard forLPWAN, providing a framework for anyone from hobbyists and home-gamers throughto global telecommunication providers to build and customise their own network.

Australian LoRaWAN networkproviders including NNNCo, Meshed, and GeoWAN are all expanding theirnetworks across the country and consider water utilities to be a key marketvertical. 2018 will see the announcement of the first high profile pilots usingLoRaWAN for smart water metering in Australia.

New Zealand’s leadingtelecommunication provider Spark announced thedeployment of a national LoRaWAN network in 2017 and that bymid-2018, 70% of the populationwill be covered. This is gaining traction for remote monitoring applications and willenable pilots of smart water metering in 2018.

Blockchain Technologiesto Enter Smart Water Metering

Blockchain is a technologywhere information, such as a financial transaction, are entered into andmaintained within a distributed ledger. This means that rather than only oneparty validating events and storing the records in a central location, these eventsare validated and recorded by multiple parties working together. Theseblockchains use cryptography to ensure that records aren’t maliciously altered.The result is a highly secure system for storing and transferring information.

If you haven’t heard ofblockchain or don’t understand its applications, watch this 2 minute video fora high-level overview. It is important to note that blockchain andcryptocurrencies are separate technologies. Not all use cases of blockchain arecryptocurrencies, and not all cryptocurrencies are built on blockchains.

Withthe cryptocurrency market gaining more headlines in 2017 through events such asthe Bitcoin price reaching over US$19,600, the underlying blockchaintechnologies are benefiting from the attention and rapidly gaining a widerunderstanding of their potential.

 

Australianenergy technology company Power Ledger is using blockchainand cryptocurrency to enable peer-to-peer energy trading and benefitted fromgovernment support towards an $8M project with the City ofFremantle in 2017. Anotherorganisation;IOTA (although nottechnically using blockchain) offers a decentralised transaction network,dubbed the tangle, and a cryptocurrencysolution for IoT applications. IOTA had a market capitalisation of over US$10billion in early January ’18 which gives some indication of the level ofinterest in the market. These new technologies offer a secure and efficient wayfor IoT systems to autonomously execute transactions. Think of a weather stationautomatically selling its data to interested 3rd parties with revenue feedingback to the owner.

 

Smartwater meters provide data that is of interest for multiple parties; utilities,home owners, insurance companies, maintenance providers, facility managers,government organisations, research foundations, etc., and are also used forbilling purposes. This makes them an interesting platform on which to applyblockchain technologies, especially those aimed at IoT applications.

 

Low Power Satellite Communications Will Debut in Pilots

Similarlyto LPWANs, low power satellite communications offer a way for smart watermeters and other IoT devices to transmit small packets of data with minimalpower consumption. They promise to be incredibly useful in remote areas whereother coverage options don’t exist, or aren’t economically or technicallyachievable. With vast farming land, mining operations, and communities livingin remote areas, many of which operating on limited water supplies, Australiaand other countries around the world have significant assets beyond the reachof the cellular networks.

 

Myriota and Fleetspace are working to bring satellitecommunications to IoT, both of which are launching new nano-satellites thisyear. These nano-satellites are roughly the size of a basketball and actas wireless network gateways providing connectivity from low Earth orbit. IoTdevices will be able to send small packets of data from anywhere in the worldto a network of tiny satellites. 

 

A critical performancecriteria for remote monitoring systems is long range wireless communications.Satellite communications offer absolute maximum range, limited only by theconfines of the planet and unlock the potential of IoT for practically anywhereon Earth with a view of the sky.

While they may not be asefficient in densely populated areas as terrestrial LPWAN networks, they willbe the only viable option for huge areas of land. For example, while Telstra’swireless networks cover 99% of the Australian population, they only coveraround 1/3 of the geographic area of the country. Most LPWAN gateways rely onEthernet or 3G/4G for backhauling data so while you can add your own LPWANgateways anywhere you like, they must be connected to the internet in one wayor another which presents challenges in some remote areas. Direct device tosatellite systems do not have this issue.

Expect to see pilots for lowpower satellite smart water metering to begin during 2018.

Interoperability andStandardisation Continue to Improve 

One of the biggest challengesin solution design and executing of IoT projects is interoperability. Smartwater metering solutions use a wide range of communication methods, protocols,data formats, file formats, etc. This means many devices and systems are notcompatible, at least not without development work to translate and convertmessages into the required formats.

While there are many detailedstandards for water meters in terms of metrology, physical properties, andmaterials, there is currently very little in the way of standardisation of thedata they send and how it is sent. This is in part due to the history ofsingle-vendor solutions where each meter or wireless network vendor has definedthe data type and delivery methods as they prefer (often to suit their ownsoftware), and not necessarily what is best for interoperability with othersystems.

The current norm is toundertake custom once-off development work on either the source of the data, orthe receiving systems to achieve interoperability. This is work often solvesthe issue for one project, but is not carried over to the next.

Softwareplatforms such as Reekoh help to streamline integration and make once-offinterfacing components reusable for multiple projects and systems. This isachieved through an ever increasing library of plug-ins, gateways, andconverter tools.

 

Utilitiesin Australia are responding to the challenge by collaborating with each otherand with vendors to standardise on globally adopted LPWAN networks supportingmultiple vendors and common application protocols. Utilities will adopt morestandardised LPWAN networks and begin to announce convergence on application protocolsin 2018.

 

Digital Utilities, IoT, and Smart Cities Initiatives DriveIncreased Adoption

Thebusiness cases for smart water metering are constantly maturing towards wideradoption and more projects are moving beyond the pilot stage to scaledroll-outs. This is being accelerated in part by a strong focus on a key themepromoted by the current Australian government; innovation. We are seeing anincrease in specialised individuals and working groups tasked with acceleratingthe successful adoption of new technologies to solve real problems withingovernment and utilities.

 

Thesegroups are focused on developing strategies and roadmaps to foster DigitalUtilities, IoT, and Smart Cities through to proof of concepts and trials andhave helped many organisations to start exploring the potential of smart watermetering and to reach the point of deploying these technologies in the field.

 

During2017 the Australian Government’s Smart Cities and SuburbsProgram was opened to release$50M in grant funding aimed at government organisations such as councils. Round1 has been awarded and enabled IoT and digital utilities projects. The initialprogram indicated that future rounds are a possibility. In addition to federalinitiatives such as this, the majority of the largest water utilities inAustralia have dedicated budgets for innovation and a need to act. Smart watermetering is one of the top priorities, especially now that LPWAN and othertechnologies are removing barriers to entry.

 

Governmentorganisations and utilities will continue to fund and drive new pilots andprojects throughout 2018. This will lead to an increase in all types of smartwater metering projects where a real ROI and benefit to the community can beachieved.

 

Althoughthis article is kept to list of my top 5 predictions for 2018 and thereforwon’t cover every development for the coming year, some others deserve amention. One example is artificial intelligence and machine learning. Thesetechnologies will continue to improve and more projects will commencethroughout this year. AI and ML will ramp up even further once largerquantities of projects and next generation meters are deployed and may start toshow their true potential and reach the top of the list in 2019.

 

What are your predictions for smart watermetering in 2018? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Originalarticle by Rian Sullings