After water and gas meters, LoRaWAN® is now available for smart electricity meters.
This is made possible thanks to SCHC compression and fragmentation (IETF RFC 8724). This new standard technology initiated by the co-founders of Acklio is central to their software offering. SCHC allows the communication of devices using IP-based protocols over LPWAN networks. It thus enables high value-added use cases on constrained IoT networks. Among them is DLMS/COSEM (IEC 62056, EN13757-1), the global standard for smart energy metering which new profile for LoRaWAN leverages SCHC as an adaptation layer.
As an outcome of its collaboration with Acklio, Kaifa introduces the first electricity meters running over the LoRaWAN protocol available on the market. By doing so, it completes the bundle of connectivities already available to the range of meters 1500m (M-BUS, PLC, NB-IoT, PSTN/GSM, GPRS, 3G, 4G…). Low-power, low-cost, and easy to deploy, LoRaWAN is emerging as an excellent connectivity option for the advanced metering infrastructures (AMI) to provide utility companies with real-time data about power consumption. A global market representing millions of smart meters with LoRaWAN deployed by 2025, and with enormous growth potential in emerging markets in the short term.
LeTao He, Vice President of Kaifa:
“Utilities are beginning to look at LoRaWAN, primarily to fill in gaps in coverage of existing deployments, and later to provide the primary connectivity to an entire network of meters. We chose Acklio to ensure full compliance with the new standard communication profile. It guarantees our meters with full interoperability with the global ecosystem of DLMS/COSEM solutions. Moreover, by completing the integration in just few weeks, working with Acklio allowed us to bring the product to market in record time!”
Acklio’s SCHC stack allows the conversion of existing DLMS meters in just a few days. This gives meter manufacturers the unique opportunity to migrate their product lines to LoRaWAN in record time. In addition, the SCHC implementation by Acklio also benefits network management. It allows to increase the density of meters on a network, while using the security mechanisms of DLMS at scale – reducing the total cost of ownership while ensuring reliability.
Alexander Pelov, CEO of Acklio:
“Acklio SCHC-based solutions are already operational with a dozen customers worldwide. Since the announcement of the new DLMS over LoRaWAN profile for meter manufacturers, the demand for our SCHC stack is accelerating. In parallel, we offer LoRaWAN operators a solution that simplifies deployments and improve the radio technology scalability for the metering industry.”
Remi Demerlé, Marketing Director smart utilities at Semtech:
“Semtech welcomes this first integration of the new official profile of DLMS over LoRaWAN. It is a landmark demonstrating that LoRaWAN now represents a key technology to connect the smart electricity metering industry”.
