Mueller and Ferguson Waterworks has announced a successful deployment of the LoRaWAN Class B endpoints at the Town of Florence located in Central Pinal County, Arizona, the US. LoRaWAN Class B endpoints provides flexibility to scale network coverage and integrate into remote disconnect meters (RDM), leak detection and pressure monitoring systems – unlocking greater network efficiency and improving data granularity.
Brent Billingsley, town manager of the Town of Florence, said: “The deployment of smart meters is accelerating our journey towards digital transformation, and the foundation required to build out our smart city grid. We are confident that this open-source network will provide new operational efficiencies, enhanced service opportunities, and additional revenue streams.”
Delivered by Mueller Systems, the Mi.Net mode, implemented with LoRaWAN Class B specifications, is a bi-directional endpoint capable of transmitting data to and from a network server within seconds, as opposed to hours with a Class A endpoint. At this speed of communication, on-demand reads can be commanded and delivered, providing data to customer service and operations to identify and resolve outages quicker than before.
Kenji Takeuchi, senior vice-president, technology solutions, Mueller, added: “It is encouraging to see more cities and water utilities like the Town of Florence at the forefront of the Industrial Internet of Things revolution. We understand that municipalities are facing challenges on many fronts. Our technology solutions can help drive a better focus on utility spending and return on investment, while helping them operate more efficiently.”
By deploying Mi.Net LoRaWAN Class B endpoints, the Town of Florence can pair them with Mueller Systems’ model 420 RDM to allow water meters to be turned on or off without the need for truck rolls.
Each LoRa-based endpoint maintains the data in its non-volatile onboard memory and communicates with the Mueller Mi.Net Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system. This helps to ensure water utilities are protected against any single point of failure. Alerts such as leak detection, no flow, low flow, and register tampering are monitored by the Mueller Network Operations Centre to provide an added layer of security.
