Radiocrafts and Smarteq Wireless demonstrate an impressive 1.5 km range for Wireless M-Bus AMR systems

Oslo, Norway, and Täby, Sweden, 2009-10-05 Radiocrafts and Smarteq Wireless have demonstrated over 1.5 km range from a utility meter to a gateway in a Wireless M-Bus system using state-of-the-art antennas and RF modules. The system is compliant to the new Open Metering System (OMS) specification and NTA 8130 / DSMR.

The Wireless M-Bus standard (EN 13757-4:2005) is used for the communication between electricity, gas, water and heat meters and a Multi Utility Communication (MUC) controller (concentrator). Long radio range is important to make a reliable and cost efficient system, reducing the number of MUCs required to cover a large geographical area. By combining the leading RF performance of the recently released RC1180-MBUS3 radio module from Radiocrafts with high performance antennas commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) from Smarteq, a Line-of-Sight range of 1.5 km was achieved for Wireless M-Bus T1 mode. The slightly directive high-efficiency antennas are excellent for wall-mounted utility meters, where the peak radiation (or reception) can be pointed in the most effective direction. The RC1180-MBUS module combined with the Smarteq antennas meets the European radio regulations for license-free use. Hallvard Moholdt, Technical Solutions Manager at Radiocrafts, commented: “The demonstration done with Smarteq antennas show that Wireless M-Bus can achieve an impressive range. We are happy to work together with the experienced Smarteq team to propose a combined solution where the important antenna-parameters are well handled. The Smarteq antennas are also a good choice for the other modules in Radiocrafts’ huge footprint-compatible module portfolio”. Fredrik Uggla, Key Account Manager at Smarteq Wireless, added: “We are proud to see that our antennas give excellent range performance when paired with the Radiocrafts RF modules.” Visit us at Metering Europe in Barcelona, Spain, from 6 to 8 October (Radiocrafts at stand no 201, Smarteq Wireless at stand no 731) to hear more about our wireless AMR solutions and see our wide range of antennas.