An Heterogeneous Network for Energy Metering and Control

We describe a heterogeneous network composed by wireless links and a power line communication (PLC) infrastructure, using the public lighting system. The network allows to measure consumption of gas, energy, water, etc., in an urban scenario with a large number of nodes, and to remotely control the lighting system for efficient energy usage. For the specific scenario where the network topology is known a priori, we describe a tool for network planning based on the simulation of the power line channel. Moreover, to improve PLC link throughput and reliability we analyze the possiblity to use multiple conductors to enable multiple input multiple output (MIMO) techniques. Finally, we describe a successfully implemented testbed for the proposed network.