Concept note about connecting remote Hydromet Stations of Afghanistan through affordable solution.

1. Hydromet Stations Data Transmission
Category: Innovations - Remote Data Collection and Management (Concept Note)
Version: 1.0
Date: 4 February 2020
By Hameedullah Pardess

2. Table of Contents
1. Introduction 3
2. Data Transmission Approach 4
2.1. Iridium’s Short Burst Data Transmission 4
2.2. GSM-GPRS Solution 5
2.2.1. SMS-GPRS Data Transmission Cost 7
2.2.2. Proposed Solution Strengths and Limitations 7
2.2.3. Pilot in Kabul 8
3. Comparison 9
4. Conclusion 9
pg. 2/17

3. 1. Introduction
Afghanistan has the experience of systematic hydrology and meteorology data collection
from hydromet stations from all over afghanistan using telemetry solution. Under the World
Bank project in 2013 - 2014, more than 56 hydromet stations were established in different
locations of the country and all stations were connected through satellite-based technology
to transmit the data remotely. This practice has successfully continued for many years and
The stations were automatically transmitting data till the end of 2016. The data
transmission plan with third-party service providers was available till the end of 2016, and
since the beginning of 2017, the Ministry of Energy and Water (Project Owner) had been
unable to continue with the payment for yearly data transmission to the service providers.
Hence, the hydromet stations are unable to transmit the data from remote sites.
Initially the telemetry project design had different components including:
1. Station Equipments ( Sensors, Sutron DataLogger, battery and other accessories
and hardware that are required to setup telemetry station)
2. Data Transmission Equipment (Sutron’s Iridium Modem with active data plan)
3. Web Application (http://www.sutronwin.com/sutronwin/)
The stations equipment were purchased based on a one-time cost and is already installed
in the field. The data transmission and web application were active based on transmission
plans and are no longer active. The solution was implemented by a US based company,
Sutron (https://www.sutron.com/).
The image below shows one of the stations installed in Takhar province.
Illustration 1: Bagthi Zakera - Takhar Station
pg. 3/17

4. 2. Data Transmission Approach
The telemetry solution for weather and hydrology data can leverage different technology
solutions including transmission of remote sensor data using satellite-based technologies.
The telemetry solution of the Ministry of Energy and Water (MEW) used Iridium’s Short
Burst Data (SBD) transmission technology. SBD is a satellite-based technology that
transmits short data messages using a data transmitter installed on the remote premises.
The establishment of a telemetry solution for Afghanistan was completed in 2015 and all
the stations used SBD approach to transmit the data to the main server till the end of
December 2016. The contract for the data transmission ended in December 2016 and
since then, the stations are unable to automatically transmit the collected data from
hydromet stations to the main server.
The telemetry stations are already established and accurately collect the data through
different sensors, the issue is that data could not be transferred automatically. Currently
the data is manually copied from dataLogger using usb-storage and the data is sent by
post to Kabul which takes weeks or months to reach to the main office. To get timely data
from the stations there is a need to re-activate the automatic data transfer mechanisms
from the stations.
Considering the urgent requirement of re-activating the data transmission of the currently
installed stations, NSIA analyzed the following two solutions:
1. Iridium’s Short Burst Data Transmission
2. GSM-GPRS Solution (In-house Solution)
NSIA started working on both of the aforementioned solutions. NSIA’s technical team
approached SBD service providers and requested quotation for the re-activation of the
stations using satellite data communication. In the meantime, NSIA’s technical team
started working on building an in-house solution to leverage Internet of Things (IoT)
technologies using Short Message Service (SMS) based data transmission approach.
2.1. Iridium’s Short Burst Data Transmission
The hydromet stations were installed in 2015 using Sutron’s Iridium Modem to transmit the
data from stations to the remote server. NSIA approached Iridium and its regional partners
for re-activation of the stations using existing setup. After multiple attempts via email
communication, NSIA was able to identify two partners for service re-activation, i.e.,
IECTelecom and USTronics. NSIA received quotation for reactivation of the modems and
purchase of monthly packages that are highlighted as follow:
Table 1: IEC Telecom - Annual SBD Data Plan
Line Item Units Unit Price (USD) Total Price (USD)
SBD Modem Reactivation (one-time) Fee 56 47.00 2,632.00
pg. 4/17

5. Iridium Annual Prepaid Short Burst Data Plan with
30Kbytes package
Unit Price Calculation:
● $41/Month x 12 = $440/year
56 492.00 27,552.00
Short Burst Annual Plan
Monthly Data Consumption (470Kbytes)
Unit Price Calculation:
● $1.16/Kbyte x 470Kbyte = $545.2/month
● 545.2/month x 12 months = $6,542.4
56 6,542.40 366,374.40
Table 2: USTronics - Annual SBD Data Plan
Line Item Units Unit Price (USD) Total Price (USD)
SBD Modem Reactivation (one-time) Fee 56 47.00 2,632.00
Iridium Annual Prepaid Short Burst Data Plan with
30Kbytes package
Unit Price Calculation:
● $37/Month x 12 = $440/year
56 440.00 24,640.00
Short Burst Annual Plan
Monthly Data Consumption (470Kbytes)
Unit Price Calculation:
● $0.97/Kbyte x 470Kbyte = $455.9/month
● 455.9/month x 12 months = $5,470.8
56 5,470.80 306,320.00
SBD data transmission is a reliable mechanism and can work anywhere in the country
however, there are data transmission limitations, the modem can only transmit 500
Kilobytes of data in a month which limits the frequency of data transmission. With the 30
Kilobytes data package plan, remote hydromet stations can transmit data three times in
the time period of 24 hours, since each data package is 330 bytes and 30 Kilobytes data
will be sufficient for this purpose. However, if the frequency and the amount of data
changes then additional data plan will be required.
pg. 5/17

6. 2.2. GSM-GPRS Solution
Data transfer through SMS is a very cost effective and inexpensive solution all over the
world. Considering the current wider coverage and better access of telecommunication
services in Afghanistan, SMS could be a better solution compared to SBD. SMS is a cost
effective and efficient approach for frequent and small data collection from remote areas.
The SMS solution can be divided into two parts based on cost:
1. Hardware Equipments
2. SMS Package
● The hardware equipment is a one-time cost and the SMS package cost is a small
amount that should be paid monthly to the mobile network carrier.
Table 3: One-time cost for SMS-GPRS Solution
No. Line Item Units Unit Price
(USD)
Total Price
(USD)
1 Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 4Gb Ram Micro
Controller Board for IOT Electronic Hobby Kit
56 85.00 4,760.00
2 Raspberry Pi Official Case for Pi 4 Model B
(1GB/2GB/4GB Model)
56 10.00 560.00
3 Samsung EVO Plus Grade 3, Class 10 64GB
MicroSDXC 100 MB/S Memory Card with SD
Adapter (MB-MC64GA/IN)
56 15.00 840.00
4 USB Charging Cable 56 2.00 112.00
5 Huawei USB Dongle 56 20.00 1120.00
6 SIM Card (Etisalat/AWCC/Roshan/MTN) 56 1.50 84.00
Total 133.50 7,476.00
pg. 6/17

7. 2.2.1. SMS-GPRS Data Transmission Cost
Depending on the requirement for hydrological and meteorological data transmission, the
SMS-GPRS solution is customizable and it can be adjusted to even minutes whenever the
data is ready for transmission. However, based on the current requirement each station
transmits 24 sensor readings in 24 hours with one-hour reading interval and transmission
frequency. With the current settings, each station will be transmitting 7.9 Kilobytes of data
in 24 hours and each station’s cost estimation for SMS-based data transmission is:
● SMS Frequency: 1 SMS/hour
● Total SMSs per day: 24 SMS/day
● Total SMSs per month: 720 SMS/month
● Total SMSs per year: 8760 SMS/year
Table 4: SMS Data Transmission Options
Standard SMS Costing (Off-Network) Monthly SMS Package (On-net)
Standard SMS cost from one mobile network to
another (Off-Network):
● 1 SMS price: 2.5 AFN/SMS
● 24 Hours SMS Cost: 60 AFN/day
● 30 Days SMS Cost: 1800 AFN/month
● 365 Days SMS Cost: 21600 AFN/year
- 23USD/Month per SIM cost 720 SMSs per
month.
- This option depends on the coverage of one
mobile network that can provide access in all
hydromet stations.
Monthly SMS bundles for more than 10,000 SMSs
within the same network (On-Network):
● Etisalat Monthly SMS Bundle: 0.83USD/Month
● AWCC Monthly SMS Bundle: 0.64USD/Month
● Roshan Monthly SMS Bundle: 0.89USD/Month
● MTN Monthly SMS Bundle: 0.64USD/Month
- Average per bundle cost = 0.83USD/Month for
10,000 minimum SMS valid for one month.
- This option will require an SMS gateway supporting
all SIM cards.
- Higher chances of multiple network coverage.
- Cost depends on the mobile network monthly
packages
Table 5: SMS-based Data Transmission Annual Cost
Line Item Units Unit Price (USD) Total Price (USD)
Off-net SMS Data Transmission
720 SMSs per month per hydromet station
Unit Price Calculation:
● $23/Month x 12months = $276/year
56 276.00 15,456.00
On-net SMS Data Transmission
Minimum 10,000 SMSs per month per station
Unit Price Calculation:
● $0.83/Month x 12months = $9.96/year
56 9.96 557.76
pg. 7/17

8. 2.2.2. Proposed Solution Strengths and Limitations
Considering the cost factors, for the stations where telecommunication services are
available, NSIA proposes the GSM-GPRS solution. The proposed SMS-based solution is
an in-house developed solution using Single Board Computer (SBC) reading data from the
sensors’ data processing unit (data logger) and transmitting the data using USB dongle
connected to the SBC.
This solution has the following strengths and limitations:
Table 6: Strengths vs. Limitations
Strengths Limitations
● Low cost and innovative solution.
● No additional power source is
required since SBC is connected to a
data logger.
● The solution is customizable and
reusable to transmit the data in
different ways like SMS or internet.
● Automatic data transmission intervals
are configurable.
● Dependent on the availability of mobile
network near hydromet station
● No other pilots of this solution are
implemented anywhere else and it has not
been tested fully.
● Requires technical expertise in the Ministry
of Energy and Water (MEW) for long-term
maintenance.
● Requires availability of technical human
resources in MEW.
2.2.3. Pilot in Kabul
In-house SMS-GPRS based telemetry solution has been developed by NSIA and installed
in one of the hydromet stations in Kabul and it has been successfully transmitting data
from site since 25 January 2020. The data is transmitted through SMSs and the device is
transmitting one SMS every 15 minutes. Currently the team is working on expanding the
network to at least another two sites in next week for further testing.
In the meantime, data management and reporting information system is developed and
hosted in the cloud. Currently, the remote data is synchronized and reported to the system.
Following is a snapshot of the information system:
pg. 8/17

9. pg. 9/17

10. 3. Comparison
The following table compares the two data transmission approaches for the hydromet
stations.
Table 7: Comparison of SBD and SMS-GPRS based data transmission solutions
No Characteristics SBD Option SMS-GPRS Option
1 Reactivation fee for 56 stations
(One-time fee)
$2,632.00 $0.0 - does not require
reactivation
2 Hardware Cost for 56 stations
(one-time)
$0 (All ready setup) $7,476.00
3 Annual Cost - in case of 30 Kilobytes
data requirement (SBD) and monthly
SMS bundle (on-net)
$27,272.00 $557.76
4 Data sharing mediums Only through satellite
(iridium modem) using
SBD
SMS and Internet
5 External power source Yes No, it gets the power from
Data Logger through USB
port
6 Power voltage DC 12 volts DC 5 volts
6 Payment Frequency Monthly/Annual SMS based/Monthly
7 Cost factor The cost is calculated
based on data transmitted
through satellite
The cost is calculated based
on monthly SMS package.
Standard SMS size is 160
characters.
8 Data transmission limitation Maximum 500 Kilobytes
monthly
In case of SMSs, it depends
on the SMS bundle
9 Previous experience The solution is widely
used in other countries.
First implementation case in
Afghanistan
10 Coverage Global coverage and can
work anywhere in
Afghanistan
Dependent on the coverage
of the telecom network and
location of the hydromet site
4. Conclusion
Both data transmission approaches have their strengths and limitations. We propose a
mixed modality of both solutions. Implementation of SMS-GPRS based solution is
proposed where hydromet sites are covered under the telecom network so that the
network can transmit data using SMS. Satellite-based data transmission is proposed
where there telecom network coverage is not available.
pg. 10/17

11. The End
pg. 11/17

12. Equipments required for Implementation (Testing)
The required equipments are available in Amazon.in(India) to be purchased.
Each Station required Equipments
No Item Qty Price/Unit
1 Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 4Gb Ram Micro Controller Board for IOT
Electronic Hobby Kit
40 5,948 INR
2 Raspberry Pi Official Case for Pi 4 Model B (1GB/2GB/4GB Model) 40 500 INR
5 Samsung EVO Plus Grade 3, Class 10 64GB MicroSDXC 100 MB/S
Memory Card with SD Adapter (MB-MC64GA/IN)
40 1100 INR
6 Raspberry Pi 4B Aluminium Heat Sink 129 INR
7 DC 5.5-30V 12v to DC 0.5-30V 5v 24v Adjustable Constant Current
Voltage Step UP Down Voltage Regulator 3A 35W Power Supply Module
40 899 INR
Total 8576 x 40 =
343,040 INR
Equipments for Testing
No Item Qty Price/Unit
1 USB Tester 3~30V DC 1 890 INR
2 7-inch LCD Display Module HDMI 800x480 for Raspberry Pi 6,900 INR
3 BlueRigger High Speed Micro HDMI to HDMI Cable (NOT Micro-USB)
with Ethernet (3 feet / 0.9 Meter)
1 450 INR
4 Raspberry Pi 15.3W USB-C Power Supply for Raspberry Pi 4 Mobel B
(1GB/2GB/4GB Model)
1 950 INR
5 Raspberry Pi Keyboard and Mouse Kit 1 2,260 INR
Total 11,450 INR
pg. 12/17

13. Pilot Phase - Progress Photos
pg. 13/17

14. pg. 14/17

15. pg. 15/17

16. pg. 16/17

17. pg. 17/17