NEW APPROACHES TO AUTOMATIC CONSUMPTION METER READING IN GERMANY

Some aspects of market needs and technology are discussed, which highlight the motivation for efforts to develop products for consumption metering, using long-distance transmission techniques. A system architecture for such products is introduced together with an existing implementation, covering both the aspects of physical as well as logical design, e.g. topology, configuration, power supply, processors, data rates, protocols. The discussion of topics concerning the status of development and market penetration leads to those referring to cost-effectiveness. Finally some statements are made describing what can be anticipated for future approaches in automatic consumption meter reading.