Huawei is using NB-IoT and LPWA to improve water metering and improve piping management
Huawei Japan and Japanese firm Aichi Tokei Denki confirmed they will expand their efforts in verifying NB-IoT technologies for smart water metering.
The two companies will utilize NB-IoT and LPWA to realize automatic metering, better end-user services with visible water usages, and improved piping management.
At the Takamatsu Water Supply Expo 2017, held in Takamatsu, Japan, on October 26 and 27 by the Federation of Japan Water Industries, the two companies are showcasing an NB-IoT optical pick-up type water meter with a seismic sensor. They are also demonstrating virtual automatic remote water metering via Huawei’s NB-IoT service development tool and simulator SoftRadio and IoT connection management platform OceanConnect.
The companies are additionally proposing a solution to detect water pipe damage in the case of an earthquake. Moving forward, Huawei and Aichi Tokei Denki will carry out technology verification of automatic metering using NB-IoT until mid-2018, while exploring business opportunities outside the Japanese market.
“Japan has seen only limited application of automatic metering in water meters due to customer dissatisfaction with unreliable transmissions, high costs, and cumbersome maintenance. In contrast, automatic metering using LPWA is already in a growth phase in some other countries,” said Tomohiro Kawakami, manager of corporate planning department at Aichi Tokei Denki.
“As we researched LPWA field tests in these countries, we realized the advantages of Huawei’s NB-IoT technology, with its deep coverage required for water meters installed underground, and have been carrying out joint technical verification in the lab. In the future, we will demonstrate the performance in the actual field and utilize NB-IoT to develop products and services to meet the needs of our customers,” the executive added.
“Through our partnership with Aichi Tokei Denki, we believe we can offer solutions tailored to actual conditions in Japan. Driven by the launch of the NB-IoT Open Lab in Tokyo this September, we will continue to help operators and leading companies in various industries to build NB-IoT solutions and contribute to their sustained business growth,” said William Wang, vice president, marketing & solution sales business group at Huawei Japan, said.
