In this paper, we propose a spectrum sharing based channel capacity improvement technique by utilizing the underused spectrum of the licensed primary users and applying multiple antenna reception technique in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) networks. This proposed technique aims at resolving a spectrum scarcity problem and transmitting the huge amount of power metering related information caused by thousands of smart meters in intelligent AMI networks. With evaluation results, it is shown that the proposed technique improves channel capacity by utilizing a spectrum sharing technique and selecting a proper number of antennas.

spectrum sharing, channel capacity, AMI.