Performance analysis of wireless mesh routing protocols for smart utility networks

Legacy utility meters for electricity, water and gas are rapidly being replaced by highly automated and networked smart meters. The network of smart meters, collector devices and head-end systems constitute an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). The purpose of deploying an AMI is to increase the granularity of utility consumption data for demand-response applications. A data routing protocol is essential for forwarding collected information to an aggregation point. A fully functional protocol suite for networking of such smart metering devices is imperative to the success of the AMI. This paper reviews two such wireless mesh routing protocols designed to work for AMI systems, viz. RPL and Geographical routing. A performance analysis of these protocols using real world topology, deployed on-field, is presented in this paper.