Wireless Protocol Stack Enhances Smart-Meter Scalability, Interoperability

To facilitate the development of Wireless M-Bus-based, wirelessly connected smart meters for electricity, gas, water, and heat resources, Silicon Labs designed Wireless M-Bus software. The Wireless M-Bus specification, based on the European standard EN13757-4, specifies seamless sub-gigahertz RF communication between various types of smart utility meters, data concentrators, mobile readout devices, and heat meters. Wireless smart meters require long life for battery-powered meters, which is where Wireless M-Bus steps in, since it requires little overhead for the small amounts of data used by the meter (boosting battery life up to 15-20 years). Silicon Labs’ software solution includes a sub-gigahertz wireless protocol stack (developed by Steinbeis Transfer Center Embedded Design and Networking, STZEDN) that supports the S (868 MHz), T (868 MHz), C (868 MHz), and N (169 MHz) modes from the physical layer to the application layers. The stack incorporates API-based access for application and extended data-link layers. An optional serial command interface enables control of the Wireless M-Bus solution from an external host processor. The software is available in binary/object code format for the company’s Si446x EZRadioPRO RF transceivers and the ARM-based EFM32 Leopard Gecko MCU

SILICON LABORATORIES