Comparison of Wireless Data Transmission Protocols for Residential Water Meter Applications

—This article provides a comparison of various wireless data transmission protocols, such as Wireless M-Bus, Lo-RaWAN, Sigfox, NB-IoT and a newly developed proprietary protocol, studying their performance in the application of battery-powered residential water meters. Key aspects of the comparison include energy consumption, which is analyzed through comparing unitary amount of charge required to conduct a single, bi-directional data transaction between the meter and base station, and maximum coupling loss which effectively defines the range and coverage in the system. For completeness, the study includes also a brief cost analysis and ends with a conclusion, stating when each of the particular standards should be favored.