LoRaWAN Gateways & Cellular Connectivity for Metering

Metering projects stall on network access more often than on hardware. These devices remove the cable run and the IT ticket: a gateway on the roof or in the riser, a router in the panel, and the meter data leaves the building.

Choosing the backhaul

• LoRaWAN suits many low-rate points spread over a campus or a tall building — one gateway such as the Milesight UG65 indoor gateway serves dozens of nodes, with outdoor and industrial variants for yards and plants.
• Cellular suits standalone sites and cabinets: the Robustel R1511 industrial 4G router adds serial ports so an RS-485 meter chain can reach the cloud with no local network.
• Combined building gateways such as the Milesight EG71 building IoT gateway put LoRaWAN, Ethernet and cellular in one device.
• Check coverage before you order. Confirm carrier signal at the cabinet, or gateway range at the furthest node, rather than assuming.

Design notes and mistakes

Mount gateways high and away from metal enclosures; plan one gateway per building rather than per floor; keep RS-485 chains terminated and correctly polarised before blaming the radio; and budget SIM data per site if you go cellular. Wireless nodes still need something to speak to the meter — the converters and counters in integration components — and remote points with no power at all are served by the solar powered remote metering panel. Background: connecting energy data over Modbus TCP and BACnet.