Scalability analysis of a wireless M-Bus system for smart metering and sensoring

Wireless M-Bus communication protocol has emerged as one way of implementing smart metering for smart grids and cities. To determine possible applications of this technology in these contexts, its scalability and replicability potential must be analysed so that its limitations can be considered. This paper studies the scalability performance of a wireless M-Bus that collects data from sensors deployed at dwellings in a cluster of buildings of the city of Turku, as part of the RESPONSE project. The simulation model developed for this analysis considered building obstacles and the retransmission scheme of wireless M-Bus. To assess performance, three main indicators were used: delivery ratio, message error ratio, and gross delivery ratio. Simulation results show how the position of the data collector, the number of sensors deployed, and the area to be covered, have an impact on the different performance indicators. The wireless M-Bus system is found to be highly scalable in density for a reduced area. For large area deployments, performance declines dramatically, regardless of the position of the data collector. Future research may compare results when considering different propagation models and also when changing environment characteristics such as walls' width.