DATAKORUM deploys its PIPE gateways with NB-IoT communications in a Smart Water project in Dubai.

For water utilities, having an infrastructure that transmits flow meter readings and system pressure remotely and securely is of vital importance. Current flow meters require data to be collected manually by technical staff, which is time consuming and costly. Coupled with the fact that the city of Dubai is located in the desert, the control of such a scarce commodity as water is strategic, it is necessary to have daily flow and pressure information to rationalise its use and get early warning of any possible faults or leaks, all without replacing the existing network of flowmeters or suspending supply during deployment, as well as transmitting the measurements directly to the company’s management platform.

After analysing the scenario we saw that our PIPE20P Gateway was perfectly suited to the needs of the project, an IP68 device suitable for obtaining data from existing flowmeters via the M-BUS protocol, capable of measuring the pressure in the pipe using the built-in pressure sensor, and with the ability to transmit them remotely via NB-IoT wireless communication to the customer’s platform with a configurable periodicity, also, thanks to our optimised hardware design we achieve minimum energy consumption, offering more than 10 years of operation with the standard built-in battery even in extreme weather conditions.

Thanks to NB-IoT technology we achieve excellent coverage indoors, basements and manholes, enabling efficient and secure communications and high battery life, ideal for devices that generate low data traffic and need a long life cycle.

 Installation is simple, within the manhole the device is placed where there is the most NB-IoT coverage, then connected to the existing water meter via the M-BUS interface without the need to stop the supply. If the pipe is already equipped with the valve for pressure reading, it is connected to the built-in sensor of the gateway with the supplied hose, finally it is checked that communication with the NB-IoT network is established and the readings are correctly transmitted directly to the customer’s data platform.

This project has been carried out for DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) and has collaborated with ETISALAT (UAE’s main telecommunications operator) to validate the deployment and correct NB-IoT coverage at the locations of the flowmeters.