Link Quality of Wireless Household Energy Meter with an Embedded RFID in LOS Indoor Environment

Abstract

The data monitoring system using radio frequency identification (RFID) and automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) technologies3 have become pervasive applications. They have the potential in providing indoor monitoring and location services. The aim of this study is to analyze the radio wave propagation based on the received signal strength indication (RSSI) value versus the various distances compared between the proposed embedded RFID tag with and without the household energy meter for LOS indoor environment. In the proposed RFID communication system, Zigbee4 (IEEE 802.15.4) protocol is applied to monitor and read the data from the remote energy meters in the residences. Embedding a monitoring RFID tag module into the energy meter with a power management (without battery cell) is able to communicate with a reader at a RF signal of 2.45 GHz. The location of RSSI testing is carried out at a narrow area inside a building and compared with a wide area at a library’s hall for testing distances up to 90 m with 10 m increment in each test. The transmitted power is working at the maximum range of 18 dBm to link a wireless communication between the reader and embedded part of end tag. The results indicated that the proposed wireless monitoring RFID tag module with an embedded energy meter proved that a RSS values (received power) are higher in average by 2.503% in wide area, and 3.050% in narrow area than the one without the embedment (standalone active RFID) with no difference of reliability at statistical significant of 95%. This means that the embedment of the proposed RFID system into an energy meter can extend the communication range compared to the standalone RFID since the power management circuitry is able to improve the stability of power supply for RFID transmission directly from the energy meter.