WASIONLINK: A MODULAR EMBEDDED COMMUNICATION ARCHITECTURE FOR SMART METERS WITH ADAPTIVE COMPRESSION, NTN CONNECTIVITY, AND INTELLIGENT FALLBACK

Authors

  • Gleison Guardia Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Rondônia - IFRO
  • Kelly Vinente dos Santos Evolução Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia
  • Alberto Alexandre Moura de Albuquerque Evolução Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia
  • Jamilly Cristina de Sousa Evolução Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia
  • Brunna Conceicao de Paulo Evolução Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia
  • Antônio Ébano Rafael Machado de Oliveira Evolução Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia
  • Flávia Vitória Neves de Matos Evolução Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia
  • Rogério Guerra Diógenes Filho Evolução Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia
  • Mateus Souza e Silva Evolução Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.66104/demgdf29

Keywords:

smart meter, NTN, embedded compression, FUOTA, multi-RAT

Abstract

Smart meters deployed in the remote regions of the Brazilian Legal Amazon face a critical connectivity gap: terrestrial NB-IoT and LTE networks cover less than 30% of the territory, while conventional satellite communication costs are prohibitive at the scale of programmes such as Mais Luz para a Amazônia (MLA). This paper presents WasionLink, a modular embedded communication architecture for WASION smart meters and photovoltaic inverters, designed to address this gap through four integrated innovations. First, a two-stage compression pipeline — header pre-processing followed by Protocol Buffers (nanopb) serialisation and LZ4 compression — targeting a minimum 70% reduction in transmitted data volume, extending the 68.08% baseline previously achieved with HEATSHRINK on the same STM32WBA microcontroller platform. Second, a modular hardware portfolio comprising three variants: the NTN aMeter (meter with embedded satellite modem), the USB NIC (module for solar inverters), and the LTE-450 MHz NIC (board for utility private networks). Third, an intelligent fallback engine implemented as a reactive state machine that autonomously selects the optimal radio access technology among Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN), terrestrial NB-IoT, and LTE-450 MHz based on normalised link quality indicators. Fourth, a firmware-over-the-air (FUOTA) mechanism with dynamic window sizing and selective retransmission, adapted for LEO satellite-grade latencies of up to 600 ms. A four-layer hardware-independent firmware architecture ensures that improvements to any component propagate to all three variants through a single FUOTA campaign. A field pilot conducted in December 2025, with 10 WASION meters on a live NB-IoT network, partially validates the architecture: the compression-enabled firmware version (v4.1.6-6) reduced the median transmitted data volume by 20.8% and the median per-session payload size by approximately 47% compared to the baseline version (v4.1.6-3). The practical outcome is a 3.3× reduction in per-meter NTN transmission costs for the MLA programme context.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

1. 3GPP. Solutions for NR to Support Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN): Release 17. [S.l.]: 3rd Generation Partnership Project, 2022. (TR 38.821 v17.0.0). Disponível em: https://www.3gpp.org. Acesso em: 23 abr. 2026.

2. 450 MHz ALLIANCE. The 450 MHz Band for the Smart Grid and Smart Metering: White Paper. [S.l.]: 450 MHz Alliance Technical Report, 2022. Disponível em: https://450alliance.org. Acesso em: 23 abr. 2026.

3. GUARDIA, G.; DIOGENES, R. G.; FRANÇA, I. G.; SANTANA, L. N. dos S.; DE SOUSA, J. C.; DE PAULO, B. C.; DE OLIVEIRA, A. Ébano R. M.; DE ALBUQUERQUE, A. A. M. Smart meter data compression: a solution for reducing and optimising energy meter resources in NbIoT networks. Seven Editora, p. 301–325, 2025. Disponível em: https://sevenpubl.com.br/editora/article/view/6860. DOI: https://doi.org/10.56238/sevened2025.011-017

4. JUNIOR, José Augusto de Oliveira et al. Data compression in LoRa networks: a compromise between performance and energy consumption. Journal of Internet Services and Applications, v. 14, n. 1, p. 1–15, 2023. DOI: 10.5753/jisa.2023.3000. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/jisa.2023.3000

5. KETSHABETSWE, Lesedi K. et al. Data compression algorithms for wireless sensor networks: a review and comparison. IEEE Access, v. 9, p. 136872–136882, 2021. DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3116311. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3116311

6. KIM, Jong-Wook; KIM, Jihoon; LEE, Jaehee. An adaptive network design for advanced metering infrastructure in a smart grid. Sensors, v. 22, n. 22, p. 8625, 2022. DOI: 10.3390/s22228625. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s22228625

7. KIM, Min-Gu; JO, Han-Shin. Performance analysis of NB-IoT uplink in low earth orbit non-terrestrial networks. Sensors, v. 22, n. 18, p. 7097, 2022. DOI: 10.3390/s22187097. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s22187097

8. LEDESMA, Oscar; LAMO, Paula; FRAIRE, Juan A. Trends in LPWAN technologies for LEO satellite constellations in the NewSpace context. Electronics, v. 13, n. 3, p. 579, 2024. DOI: 10.3390/electronics13030579. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13030579

9. LOPES, Gustavo et al. Relatório de Consumo de Dados do aMeter Sandbox — Envio Comprimido: ensaio piloto NB-IoT com medidores WASION, versões de firmware v4.1.6-3 e v4.1.6-6. Porto Velho: Núcleo de Pesquisa em Energia e Novas Tecnologias (NEPEN/ICI), 2025. Relatório Técnico Interno.

10. LEE, Jihoon; YOON, Seungwook; HWANG, Euiseok. Frequency selective auto-encoder for smart meter data compression. Sensors, v. 21, n. 4, p. 1521, 2021. DOI: 10.3390/s21041521. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s21041521

11. LYSOGOR, Ivan et al. Study of data transfer in a heterogeneous LoRa-satellite network for the Internet of Remote Things. Sensors, v. 19, n. 15, p. 3384, 2019. DOI: 10.3390/s19153384. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s19153384

12. MAHFOUDHI, Fedi; SULTANIA, Ashish Kumar; FAMAEY, Jeroen. Over-the-air firmware updates for constrained NB-IoT devices. Sensors, v. 22, n. 19, p. 7572, 2022. DOI: 10.3390/s22197572. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s22197572

13. MALANDRINO, Francesco et al. Tuning DNN model compression to resource and data availability in cooperative training. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, v. 32, n. 2, p. 1600–1615, 2024. DOI: 10.1109/TNET.2023.3323023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TNET.2023.3323023

14. MALUMBRES, Victor et al. Firmware updates over the air via LoRa: unicast and broadcast combination for boosting update speed. Sensors, v. 24, n. 7, p. 2104, 2024. DOI: 10.3390/s24072104. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s24072104

15. MEFFE, A. et al. Solução de baixo custo para leitura e gerenciamento remoto de unidades consumidoras dispersas com tecnologia LoRaWAN. In: SEMINÁRIO NACIONAL DE DISTRIBUIÇÃO DE ENERGIA ELÉTRICA (SENDI), 2023, [S.l.]. Anais... [S.l.]: ABRADEE, 2023.

16. MYOUNG, Nogil et al. Data interworking model and analysis for harmonization of smart metering protocols in IoT-based AMI system. Sensors, v. 23, n. 6, p. 2903, 2023. DOI: 10.3390/s23062903. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s23062903

17. NEVES, Bernardino Pinto; VALENTE, António; SANTOS, Victor D. N. Efficient runtime firmware update mechanism for LoRaWAN Class A devices. IoT, v. 5, n. 4, p. 137, 2024. DOI: 10.3390/iot5040137. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/eng5040137

18. PIATKOWSKI, Damian; PUSLECKI, Tomasz; WALKOWIAK, Krzysztof. Study of the impact of data compression on the energy consumption required for data transmission in a microcontroller-based system. Sensors, v. 24, n. 1, p. 224, 2024. DOI: 10.3390/s24010224. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s24010224

19. PLASTRAS, Stavros et al. Non-terrestrial networks for energy-efficient connectivity of remote IoT devices in the 6G era: a survey. Sensors, v. 24, n. 4, p. 1227, 2024. DOI: 10.3390/s24041227. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/s24041227

20. QIN, Jing; LU, Yi; ZHONG, Yufen. Block-split array coding algorithm for long-stream data compression. Journal of Sensors, v. 2020, p. 1–22, 2020. DOI: 10.1155/2020/5726527. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/5726527

21. SANTOS, W. G. V. dos et al. Medidores inteligentes com tecnologia NB-IoT: análise em ambientes urbanos e regiões rurais com o uso de blindagem. In: SEMINÁRIO NACIONAL DE DISTRIBUIÇÃO DE ENERGIA ELÉTRICA (SENDI), 2023, [S.l.]. Anais... [S.l.]: ABRADEE, 2023.

22. SIERRA WIRELESS. HL7845 module delivers 450 MHz LTE-M connectivity for smart metering and smart grid. [S.l.]: Sierra Wireless, 2021. Disponível em: https://www.sierrawireless.com. Acesso em: 23 abr. 2026.

23. WIECEK, Dariusz et al. Multi-RAT orchestration method for heterogeneous wireless networks. Applied Sciences, v. 11, n. 18, p. 8281, 2021. DOI: 10.3390/app11188281. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/app11188281

24. ZIMMERMANN, Günter et al. Smart grid communications: LTE outdoor field trials at 450 MHz. In: IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SMART GRID COMMUNICATIONS (SMARTGRIDCOMM), 2015, Miami. Proceedings... [S.l.]: IEEE, 2015. p. 1–6. DOI: 10.1109/SmartGridComm.2015.7436282. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/SmartGridComm.2015.7436282

Downloads

Published

2026-05-14

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 09 (2026): REMUNOM - ISSN 2178-6925

Section

Artigos

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Gleison Guardia, Kelly Vinente dos Santos, Alberto Alexandre Moura de Albuquerque, Jamilly Cristina de Sousa, Brunna Conceicao de Paulo, Antônio Ébano Rafael Machado de Oliveira, Flávia Vitória Neves de Matos, Rogério Guerra Diógenes Filho, Mateus Souza e Silva

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits the sharing of the work with proper acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal;

Authors are authorized to enter into separate, additional agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (e.g., posting in an institutional repository or publishing it as a book chapter), provided that authorship and initial publication in this journal are properly acknowledged, and that the work is adapted to the template of the respective repository;

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post and distribute their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their personal websites) at any point before or during the editorial process, as this may lead to productive exchanges and increase the impact and citation of the published work (see The Effect of Open Access);

Authors are responsible for correctly providing their personal information, including name, keywords, abstracts, and other relevant data, thereby defining how they wish to be cited. The journal’s editorial board is not responsible for any errors or inconsistencies in these records.

PRIVACY POLICY

The names and email addresses provided to this journal will be used exclusively for the purposes of this publication and will not be made available for any other purpose or to third parties.

Note: All content of the work is the sole responsibility of the author and the advisor.

How to Cite

WASIONLINK: A MODULAR EMBEDDED COMMUNICATION ARCHITECTURE FOR SMART METERS WITH ADAPTIVE COMPRESSION, NTN CONNECTIVITY, AND INTELLIGENT FALLBACK. (2026). REMUNOM, 13(09), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.66104/demgdf29