Semtech Extends Smart Metering Reach
Semtech Corporation, a supplier of analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, has announced the release of a complete Wireless M-Bus (WMBus) and WMBus over its LoRa RF software stack developed by STACKFORCE GmbH.
The solution will simplify smart metering developments and significantly extend the range of metering deployments, which is a major challenge facing the industry today. Wireless M-Bus is a widely adopted European standard for the remote reading of water, gas, electricity and heat meters, and is also utilized in other regions around the world.
The WMBus communications protocol has very little overhead and has been designed to enable very long battery lifetime. Using the WMBus protocol over the long range, low power LoRa technology significantly reduces the infrastructure cost, simplifies installation and increases the reliability of smart metering deployments. Combining the widely accepted WMBus protocol with the significant advantages of the LoRa technology solves the demand for standards-based communication and improved smart meter network performance.
The Wireless M-Bus software is available in binary/object code format for Semtech's SX1276 transceiver and ARM-based STM32 microcontroller. It supports the S, T, C modes (868 MHz) and N mode (169 MHz) from the physical layer to the application layer. Source code and other microcontroller core options are available through a separate license agreement.
"STACKFORCE's WMBus software stack is known for its reliability and ease of use and has become the gold standard for the WMBus protocol," said Hardy Schmidbauer, director of wireless products at Semtech.
STACKFORCE GmhB developed the sub-GHz protocol stack, which conforms to the current Wireless M-Bus specification (EN13757-4), the Wireless M-Bus application layer (EN13757-3) and the application layer of the Open Metering System (OMS) Group. The stack has proven interoperability with other modules from leading manufacturers across different protocol layers and is optimized for microcontroller efficiency and scalability.
"We see this extension as an interesting option to increase the range for Wireless M-Bus installations without changing the well-proven higher layers," said David Rahusen, managing director of STACKFORCE GmbH. "We very much appreciate the cooperation with a semiconductor supplier like Semtech to combine advanced silicon technologies with leading-edge firmware solutions. We are looking forward to many interesting customer projects, adapting the solution to special needs."
