Silicon Labs' complete wireless M-Bus platform solution

     Silicon Labs has announced the industry's first complete wireless M-Bus platform solution for the European market, designed to simplify the development of wirelessly connected smart meters for electricity, gas, water and heat resources. Silicon Labs' complete smart metering solution includes the wireless M-Bus software protocol stack and wireless starter development kit to accelerate time to market. This wireless M-Bus solution combines Silicon Labs' broad product line, including energy-efficient ARM® kern-based microcontrollers (MCUS) and sub-GHz wireless ics, and supports all modes of the European Smart metering standard, including the universal 169MHz N mode.

     The open wireless M-Bus protocol provides a proven and easy-to-deploy wireless connectivity solution for smart metering and smart grid applications. Based on the EN13757-4/3 European standard, Wireless M-Bus specifies a seamless sub-GHz RF communication protocol between intelligent universal meters, data concentrators, mobile meter reading devices and heat distribution meters. Wireless smart meter applications such as water, gas and heat meters require long battery life, and to meet this demand, the wireless M-Bus protocol stipulates that only a small amount of inter-meter communication data is required, resulting in a battery life of up to 15-20 years. Through extensive field testing and deployment in many countries over the past few years, wireless M-Bus has become a widely accepted standard for smart metering communications in Europe.

     As the most complete wireless M-Bus solution on the market today, Silicon Labs' Wireless M-Bus platform solutions cover the specific needs of all regions in Europe. Its software protocol stack is compatible with the wireless M-Bus specification (EN13757-4), the wireless M-Bus application layer (EN13757-3) and the application layer of the Open Metrology System (OMS) working group. In addition, the stack supports 868MHz and 169MHz modes from the physical layer to the application layer. Supported modes include T1, T2, S1, S1-M, S2, C1, C2, N1, and N2 (a-g) with ultra-fast prefix detection for N mode without compromising RF performance.

     Daniel Cooley, corporate vice president and general manager of Microcontrollers and Wireless products at Silicon Labs, said: "As a leader in sub-GHz connectivity solutions for the Internet of Things, Silicon Labs has developed field-proven wireless M-Bus expertise for the European metering market. "We combine our expertise in smart metering applications with the industry's most complete, standards-based wireless M-Bus platform solution, which enables developers to simplify and accelerate their smart meter designs for rapid deployment across Europe."

     The wireless M-Bus platform solution is optimized for modularity and scalability, high RF performance, ultra-low power consumption and small storage space, with some applications having Flash space as small as 32KB depending on the mode and device type used. The software protocol stack provides a convenient application programming interface (API) -based access method for applications and extended data link layers. The stack also includes an optional serial communication interface, which enables wireless M-Bus software control via an external host processor. Unlike competing solutions, Silicon Labs' wireless M-Bus platform uses a hardware AES encryption engine to provide security for metering systems.

     The modular architecture of the wireless M-Bus solution features a fully open hardware abstraction layer (HAL), which gives developers the flexibility to select the best Silicon Labs MCUS and sub-GHz RF devices to meet the performance, cost and size requirements of customer metrology applications. For Silicon Labs' 32-bit EZR32 sub-GHz wireless MCUS, as well as the EZRadioPRO sub-GHz RF transceiver and the entire 32-bit EFM32 Gecko MCU product line, there is the corresponding wireless M-Bus software, given in bin or obj format.

     The Wireless M-Bus package includes a quick start guide, complete API documentation, precompiled libraries (for ARMCortex-M0+, M3, and M4 kernels), and PC tools for configuring meters or concentrators in demo applications. Silicon Labs offers the EZR32 Starter Development Kit, optimized specifically for the 868MHz (SLWSTK6220A) and 169MHz (SLWSTK6224A) bands that developers desire. The Wireless M-Bus Quick Start Guide provides developers with all the basic information they need to start metering application designs. Silicon Labs has also provided additional wireless M-Bus design documents, including schematics, bill of materials (BOM), and layout wiring diagrams, including the +27dBm output power design for the Italian market.