Itron, an American technology company that offers solutions on energy and water resource management, has announced a collaboration to integrate its Cyble 5 communications module into digimondo’s Internet of Things (IoT) software, giving utilities a flexible, independent way to connect, monitor and manage their water distribution network via LoRaWAN.

The combination of Itron’s expertise in smart metering and digimondo’s IoT software niota supports utilities to create and operate their own LoRaWAN-based network for remote reading of water meters. By leveraging on Itron’s Cyble 5 out-of-the-box connectivity and digimondo’s interoperable IoT software capabilities, utilities are able to transform their mechanical meters into smart devices, and transport the data generated in the field such as meter readings, alarms and diagnosis information, through existing LoRaWAN communication networks.
Justin Patrick, senior vice-president of devices at Itron, said: “With more than 200 million endpoints delivered, we recognised that devices are the beginning of every customer journey, and we are committed to bringing our expertise to utilities operating under industry-wide network. By collaborating with digimondo, we are able to offer our German customers a flexible way to manage and monitor their distribution network based on secure, industry-established IoT open-standards.”
Beyond smart metering, the combined solution harnesses the power of LoRaWAN networks to build the foundation for smart water operations, and smart cities and communities. With digimondo’s latest version of niota, released in February this year, utilities can leverage the power of the embedded Digital Twin technology to virtually manage, add or remove communicating endpoints, such as Cyble 5 modules, with minimal data loss or operational downtimes.
Christopher Rath, CEO at digimondo, concluded: “By providing Cyble 5 access to existing LoRaWAN networks, we can now offer a ready-to-use solution for remote reading of water and gas meters in cooperation with Itron. The combination of Itron’s hardware expertise and our independent IoT software enables our customers in Germany to support their smart metering projects as an IoT use case.”