Design of an ARM-based power meter having WIFI wireless communication module

AMR (Automatic Meter Reading) and PQ (power quality) management based on kinds of network technologies has become a trend. However, because of the high construction and maintenance costs with the existing meter reading technology, the applicability to different residential buildings and different network infrastructure should be improved, it is greatly significant to research new kind of power meter and the meter reading technology, which can accelerate the evolution of the Next Generation Network and facilitate people's lives. Now wireless broadband network develops rapidly. Generally WiFi is considered the consummate scheme to resolve “the last 100 meters access problem”, and WiMAX is regarded as the perfect scheme to resolve “the last 1000 meters access problem”. At present, many cities in many countries are building or will build Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks by WiFi and WiMAX, it provides the new connection ways to the AMR system. This paper presents an AMR system scheme using WiFi technology and an ARM-Based PMWCM (Power Meter with WiFi Communication Module) scheme. On the bases of the schemes, this paper designs the PMWCM hardware system and software system. The ARM-based hardware system is consisted of processor core board and peripheral board, and the software program is basing on embedded Linux. This paper also proposes the functions of wireless communication module and design detail and discusses the security of the communications.