Cloud Integrated with LoRa Watermeter Network: A Water Expense Repository

: Water management system towards the country is the biggest challenge to distribute the water to each corner of the country and keeps track of all the information to store it centrally which helps the government in analyzing and predicting the water situation of the country. For implementing the above things the crucial barriers are electrification and network spread all over the country which is a difficult task. The main purpose of this suggested work is to design a wide area network using low power consumption called the LoRa network. Using this network the resultant value of the water meter can transmit to the cloud to make a secure centralized repository system which helps the government as well as different business organizations a lot. The proposed work explains the whole architecture of the end-to-end communication system from water meter to cloud as well as defines all the components for managing end-user and applications. Due to low power consumption the whole communication system, and water meter, can be powered through solar energy through which electrification supply is not required. Hence using the explained technique we can efficiently monitor and collect information from every corner of a country efficiently to manage the consumption of drinking water which helps society a lot. The abstract interconnection diagram of the network is explained using Figure 1. The main objective of the proposed work is to set up a LoRa network to connect all the water meters with the cloud. The interconnection levels are, in the first stage, the water meter connected with the LoRa network to connect with the LoRa gateway. The LoRa gateways are interconnected with the LoRa Server. LoRa server interconnected with the cloud infrastructure using the IoT gateway and Edge server from making a centralized repository for the water expense by the different homes.


INTRODUCTION
Water is a very essential element for the survival of life as well as society. Due to the different types of the reason the quality of the groundwater decreased day by day, and it is reported that 80 percent of diseases in the world are due to the poor quality of the drinking water (Adimalla et al. 2018). Hence it indicates that there is a lot of scarcity of drinking water. Hence proper utilization of drinking water should be managed. The utilization of water should be tracked by the government which helps to improve the quality of the water distribution system and can find out the drinking water problems of different areas. The government is also awaked of the nearest drinking water problem which can hamper humanity. To find out the used water, a water meter will be installed in each home. Using a water meter we can find out the amount of water used by each home. For generating knowledge patterns for the prediction data should be stored into the central server which is a tedious task. For storing the data from the device in the first case each device should be IoT enabled and every device will be connected with the internet for transmitting the information from the device to cloud infrastructure. But in that concept, there is the biggest problem that makes an obstacle to fulfilling the solution. The problems are the electricity problem and the internet problem. Still some villages have no electricity supply and no internet connection.
To make a solution to the above-discussed problem in our proposed work we design a blueprint for the water meter network using LoRa technology-powered using solar energy for collecting information from the water meter and stored centrally using cloud infrastructure for prediction of future drinking water problems. LoRa used a low power wide area network (LPWAN) standard. The main difference between normal devices and IoT devices is that IoT devices are connected to the network. Think there are millions of water meters connected to solve that problem and the devices and network are also set up by different companies. Hence the network should be based on the international standard, which is accepted by all the companies to design the device as well as the network. And the good news is that the LoRa has an international standard that is LPWAN. When we use solar energy and batteries for data transmission that means we have limited power for transmission. And the water meter is set up in different villages. The data should be transmitted in a long distance. Here we see the dilemma, that we want a long distance to reach but have no power to spend. In that scenario, LoRa can help us because LoRa communication devices communicate a long distance with less power. But the limitation of LoRa is that it has low bandwidth which may not create any problem for our proposed network. In our network, one meter sends information once a day. Hence low bandwidth can not make any wrong impact. The specification of the LoRa network and some other networks are bellowed in Table 1. The abstract interconnection diagram of the network is explained using Figure 1. The main objective of the proposed work is to set up a LoRa network to connect all the water meters with the cloud. The interconnection levels are, in the first stage, the water meter connected with the LoRa network to connect with the LoRa gateway. The LoRa gateways are interconnected with the LoRa Server. LoRa server interconnected with the cloud infrastructure using the IoT gateway and Edge server from making a centralized repository for the water expense by the different homes.
This article is further described in the following order. Section 2 discusses the literature survey and related works, section 3 explains the proposed architecture, section 4eavluating the results and analysis, section 5 contains the conclusion.

PROPOSED ARCHITECTURE
In the past , lots of technology was developed to manage the information of different meters like energy meter, water meter, gas meter, etc. Before the nineties, one person was recruited by the government or specified by the organization to collect the meter information and submit it to the office, but that is a tedious task and the expenses are high. Also, quality service will not be provided to the customer due to some natural problems involved in human beings like diseases, disturbances, etc. To solve such a type of problem IoT is present as amnesia of solutions. Through IoT, the automation process is spread out like an automated bill generation system, as well as sending the bill information to the user through SMS or E-Mail. Payment is also accepted through the online transaction. The main problem of IoT is that its communication medium is the internet. The communication load of the internet is increasing day by day as well as still the present day in many areas having no internet. Hence the meters are not properly managed. To minimize the above problem, the proposed concept may be a solution for that and we try to implement it in the water meter network. Figure   2 explains the interconnection architecture of the water meter network and the components associated with it.  2. It manages a content delivery network to support end-user applications and minimizes latency.

It manages a firewall for a secured and trusted communication system
4. It manages a load balancer for maximizing the throughput and minimize the response time hence the reliability of the application is increased.

Cloud Provider
Cloud provider is the core part of the IoT application. It contains a centralized storage device for storing data, analytics methods for analyzing the data and predicting the knowledge, managing all the processes for interacts with the end repository through the user interface shortly called UI. The UI is divided into three subcomponents called End User UI, Amin UI, and Dashboard. Through the end-user UI the normal user, like consumers can interact with the system, and through the admin UI administrator user interact with the system. The dashboard is the integration of both components and provides the platform for system settings. Analytic is the searching and presenting of the meaning full pattern of information getting from water metered data. It will help to describe and predict the water problem for the future and can analyze the requirements of water in the present scenario. The basic function of analytics is the analysis of data repository, converting the cloud as an intelligent system by learning the reason and purpose of the information for predicting the future situation, computing the data streaming, and providing a business environment using water.

Enterprise Network
Here enterprise networks are government departments from panchayat level to central government levels form awarded them self regarding the expenditure amount of water per day, Water problematic area, and can prepare themselves to take precautions to face the water problems in the summer season, or at the time of scarcity of water, This layer contained enterprise user directory, enterprise data, and enterprise applications.

EVALUATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
The main idea behind this work is to extend the IoT network to a large network which helps to collect information remotely and at less cost. The LoRa technology is the advanced technology for transmitting the signal in a long distance with low power consumption. But one of the biggest disadvantages is the low bandwidth link. In low power consumption, the bandwidth will not be increased as per the rule of the physics bandwidth α power. Hence in every scenario, LoRa technology can be used. But for our scenario bandwidth is less important than long-distance communication. Because the reading of the water meter is required once a day. Due to the water meter installed into the villages, and some of the villages having no electricity and internet connection hence this work helps a lot to connect water meters and household devices.

Long-distance evaluation
We also evaluate long-distance communication using Link Budget. A link budget is a calculation of all of the power gain and losses that a communication signal experiences in the telecommunication system. From a transmitter, through a communication medium such as radio waves, cable, waveguide, or optical fiber to the receiver. The link budget is filled up by the transmission power and sensitivity in the receiver and calculated in Decibel(dB). The use of the Link Budget is shown in Figure 4.

Analysis for data collision in communication
LoRa is an advanced technology for data communication using low power consumption.
It also used symmetric-key cryptography for secure data connection. But it will not provide any collision detection technique created in communication. It believes that the channel is free for transmitting the data. To solve these types of problems Token rings can be implemented to solve that type of problem. The time transition diagram is bellowed in Figure   5.
As per Figure 5 water meter the gateway waits T1 amount of time and realizes that the water meter is not getting the data hence it sends the token again to the water meter for getting the data. After that, the water meter sends the data to the gateway and waits for ACK. After getting the ACK the whole communication process is stopped. In Figure 5(c) it is pointed out that after getting the token from the gateway water meter sends the data. But the data has not been received by the gateway as per Figure 5(b) again the water meter sends the token by thinking that the token is not getting by the water meter. But if the token is not reached to the water meter, the water meter sends the data again and realizes that the data is not received by the gateway.
According to Figure 5(d), the token is sent to the water meter by the gateway, and the water meter receives the token and sends the data to the gateway. Gateway received the data and has sent the ACK. But ACK is not received by the water meter the after T time again it sends the data to the gateway in thought that the gateway has not received the data.

An approximation Mathematics Model
Using the bellow model we can calculate that in an idle situation how many water meters are communicated within a day, as well as how many gateways are required to transmit the data from a particular area.

Use of Solar energy to give power to the water meter and LoRa Gateway
The gateways and water meters will have provision to get energy from solar energy.
Because there are some areas where electricity is not available. Hence to make success our vision solar energy should include our communicating device as well as the device. The abstract interconnection between the device to a solar cell is bellowed in Figure 6.

Comparison of simulation and analytical results
In our experiment, we take four LoRa clients and one LoRa server to communicate with each outer. The output is bellowed in Figure 7. For the below experiments we take five LoRa shields and five arduino uno devices. Each arduino uno device integrated with one LoRa shield. From five devices one device contained the server program which is pointed out using black cable and another four devices are programmed as the client pointed out using blue data cable. All the client devices communicated to the server and server device response which is displayed in the serial monitor. This demonstration shows the multiple client communication to the server using the defined technology in Section 4.2.

CONCLUSION
In the last few decades, the water department sector has faced lots of remarkable changes, in particular, the development of water meters and installed into a wide range. The efficient utilization of drinking is badly necessary to overcome the near shortage of drinking water problem and to make the government regarding the future water problem. But the biggest challenge to implement this work is the unavailability of the electrification system in rural areas and the internet connection. Using the proposed technique we can spread a wide area network throughout the rural area as well as the urban area in low power consumption. By adopting this technology, an electrification system is not required to run the water meter and the network. Both can be operated through solar energy.
Finally, due to the good performance of the LoRa network in the long-distance, it can help to connect all the water networks into one network infrastructure, hence it is possible to store all the expenses drinking water information in a central repository. This information helps a lot to find out drinking water-related information. Through that information, we also predict the future water problem. It is necessary because water both in abundance and in scarcity pose a threat to the existence of life on earth.
Author Contributions: All authors contributed equally to this work.
Funding: This work was supported by the TDTU research fund.
Data Availability: The authors confrm that the data supporting the fndings of this study are available within the article or could be requested from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request. All data are publicly accessible at the sources cited in the text.