Recently, nine departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the State Administration for Market Regulation, jointly issued the "Action Plan for Promoting the Innovative Development of the Internet of Things Industry (2026-2028)". 

The plan clearly proposes to promote the innovative development of the Internet of Things industry, further accelerate the comprehensive integration of Internet of Things technology into all areas of production, consumption, and social governance, promote the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy, and help develop new quality productivity.

By 2028, it aims to cultivate and create 10 application areas with hundreds of millions of connections and 15 application areas with tens of millions of connections, strive to reach a scale of tens of billions of Internet of Things terminal connections, and achieve a core Internet of Things industry scale exceeding 3.5 trillion yuan.

Among them, Sub-GHz radio frequency chips serve as the core hardware carrier for wireless signal transmission in various IoT terminals such as meters, sensors, asset tracking, industrial automation, security alarms, and automotive electronics, and are the underlying communication "cornerstone" for building a world of "Internet of Everything".

In addition, with its core advantages such as low power consumption, strong diffraction, strong penetration, and anti-interference, Sub-GHz radio frequency chips also precisely meet the core needs of the Internet of Things industry for large-scale connectivity, wide coverage, and long battery life, and are the underlying basic unit for realizing smart cities, smart agriculture, and industrial IoT.

How can Sub-GHz radio frequency chips be used to build an efficient wireless data collection solution for meters?

In the field of smart metering, traditional manual meter reading solutions not only suffer from industry pain points such as high labor costs, large data errors , and difficulties in accessing homes , but also fail to meet the upgrade needs of public utility operators such as water, gas, electricity, and heating for real-time data and intelligent operation and maintenance .

Currently , by integrating Sub-GHz radio frequency chips into various smart meters , a wireless communication solution from the terminal to the cloud can be quickly built for automatic meter reading (AMR/AMI) systems, thereby efficiently completing the statistical and settlement processes for various energy consumption data.

Schematic diagram of wireless data collection scheme for various meters

As shown in the figure above, the Sub-GHz RF chip can be flexibly adapted to various networking protocols for building LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) , such as WM-Bus, LoRaWAN, and Sidewalk , and supports other private custom protocols, which can effectively meet the wireless data collection needs of different scales and scenarios .

For example, in scenarios such as private residential communities and small industrial parks , a star topology can be used, where all metering terminals directly upload data to the gateway.

This architecture is simple, easy to maintain, and compatible with protocols such as LoRaWAN and WM-Bus. In scenarios such as urban villages and large factory areas where signal obstruction is severe and terminals are scattered , a Mesh self-organizing network topology can be used, allowing terminals to relay data to each other, achieving seamless network coverage and ensuring that data from each meter can be stably transmitted back.

Furthermore, the automatic meter reading system built with Sub-GHz radio frequency chips can efficiently realize the intelligent operation and maintenance process from metering data collection to cloud management .

The meter terminal will upload the usage data to the gateway in real time /high frequency through the Sub-GHz radio frequency chip . After the gateway aggregates the data, it will be synchronized to the cloud server.

Finally, the application platform will complete the entire process of data storage, billing calculation, abnormal alarm, and remote valve control , forming a complete communication closed loop from data collection, transmission, analysis and control .

CMT2310A, an ultra-low power Sub-GHz RF transceiver

Currently, relying on mature RF link optimization capabilities and baseband processing technology, a number of dedicated RF transceiver devices for low-power IoT scenarios have emerged in the industry.

These devices can further enhance the communication stability of wireless meter reading and general IoT terminals from the dimensions of link budget, anti-interference capability, and power consumption control.

For example, the CMT2310A is a digital-analog transceiver that supports the SPI interface, has a variety of unique transceiver functions, and can effectively improve the wireless communication quality of IoT devices.

It uses a 32MHz crystal to provide the PLL reference frequency and digital clock, supports both Direct and Packet data processing modes, and has a transmit power of up to +20dBm and a sensitivity of -122dBm, which can greatly optimize the link performance of wireless data collection for smart meters.

CMT2310A System Functional Block Diagram

As shown in the functional block diagram above, the CMT2310A uses a low-IF structure of LNA+MIXER+IFFILTER+LIMITTER+PLL to achieve wireless reception at frequencies below 1GHz; and a PLL+PA structure to achieve wireless transmission at frequencies below 1GHz. The CMT2310A can achieve excellent transmission and reception RF performance without the need for additional RF switching devices.

It is worth mentioning that the CMT2310A also supports a variety of features such as fast and stable automatic frequency correction (AFC), three different clock recovery systems (CDR), fast and accurate effective signal detection (PJD, RSSI), ultra-low power consumption (SLP) and duty cycle reception, fast transmit or receive frequency hopping, carrier sense multiple access (CSMA), automatic ACK and retransmission, and antenna diversity.

In terms of Automatic Frequency Control (AFC), the CMT2310A boasts industry-leading performance. Compared to other similar products, it can eliminate the frequency difference between TX and RX in a shorter time (8-10 symbols) to achieve higher sensitivity. Moreover, the CMT2310A can identify larger frequency differences within the same bandwidth.

In terms of data rate clock recovery (CDR), the CMT2310A supports three clock recovery systems: COUNTING, TRACING, and MANCHESTER. These systems can recover a clock signal synchronized with the data rate while receiving data. Among them, the TRACING system can withstand a data rate deviation of up to 15.6%, which is something that other similar products in the industry cannot do.

In terms of phase transition detection (PJD), the CMT2310A can identify whether the received signal is noise or a useful signal by observing the transition characteristics of the received signal, so as to achieve more reliable communication quality. Moreover, under the same receiving window, the CMT2310A can also support more flexible transition detection threshold configuration, balancing detection speed and judgment reliability.

Note: For more detailed and specific features, please visit the HOPERF official website.

https://www.hoperf.cn/service/apply/

If you are interested in HOPERF' CMT2310A Sub-GHz RF transceiver chip or other Sub-GHz SoC chips, please scan the QR code above or copy and open the link at the end of the article to apply for samples. We will be happy to serve you!