April 8, 2015 – Silicon Labs (Country Manager: Woon-Dal Paik), a specialist in wireless connectivity solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT), announced the launch of the industry's first complete wireless M-Bus platform solution designed to simplify the development of wirelessly connected smart meters for electricity, gas, water, and heating in the European market. Silicon Labs' comprehensive smart metering solution includes a wireless M-Bus software stack and a wireless starter kit to accelerate time-to-market. The wireless M-Bus solution can be ported to Silicon Labs' various energy-friendly ARM®-based microcontrollers (MCUs) and sub-GHz wireless IC products, and supports all modes for European smart meters, including the widely used 169 MHz N mode.

The open wireless M-Bus protocol provides a proven and easy-to-deploy wireless access solution for smart metering and smart grid applications. Based on the European standard EN13757-4/3, the wireless M-Bus specifies seamless sub-GHz wireless communication between smart utility meters, data concentrators, mobile meters, and heat meters. Wireless smart meter applications require long lifespans for battery-powered meters such as water meters, gas meters, and heat meters. To meet these requirements, the wireless M-Bus protocol requires very little overhead for the small amount of data used by the meter, which can extend battery life up to 15–20 years. Wireless M-Bus, a technology verified through numerous field tests over the past few years and implemented in many countries, is a widely adopted standard for smart metering in Europe.

Silicon Labs' Wireless M-Bus platform solution is the most complete Wireless M-Bus solution currently available commercially, meeting the specialized requirements of all regions across Europe. The software stack complies with the Wireless M-Bus standard (EN13757-4), the Wireless M-Bus application layer standard (EN13757-3), and the application layer standard of the Open Metering System (OMS) group. This stack supports a wide range of modes at 868 MHz and 169 MHz, spanning from the physical layer to the application layer. Supported modes include T1, T2, S1, S1-M, S2, C1, C2, N1, and N2 (ag), and also provides very fast preamble detection for N modes without degrading RF performance.

Daniel Cooley, Vice President and General Manager of the Microcontroller and Wireless business unit at Silicon Labs, said, “As a leading provider of sub-GHz access solutions for IoT, Silicon Labs has developed field-proven wireless M-Bus expertise targeting the European metering market. We have combined our smart metering application knowledge with the industry’s most comprehensive standards-based wireless M-Bus platform solution, enabling developers to deploy smart meters quickly and simply in Europe.”

The wireless M-Bus platform solution is optimized for modularity and scalability, high RF performance, ultra-low power consumption, and small memory capacity (small as 32KB flash depending on the mode and device type). The software stack provides application programming interfaces (APIs) for both the application layer and the Extended Data Link Layer. This stack also includes an optional serial command interface, enabling the control of wireless M-Bus solutions from external host processors. Unlike competitor solutions, Silicon Labs' wireless M-Bus platform supports the security of metering systems using a hardware AES encryption engine.

The modular architecture of the wireless M-Bus solution features an open hardware abstraction layer (HAL), providing complete flexibility for developers to make the best choices for Silicon Labs' MCUs and sub-GHz RF devices to meet the performance, cost, and size requirements of metering applications. Wireless M-Bus software is provided in binary and object code formats for combinations of Silicon Labs' 32-bit EZR32 sub-GHz wireless MCUs, as well as EZRadioPRO sub-GHz RF transceivers and the entire 32-bit EFM32 Gecko MCU portfolio.

The Wireless M-Bus software package includes a Quick Start Guide, API documentation, precompiled libraries (for ARM Cortex-M0+, M3, and M4 cores), and PC tools to configure meters or collectors along with demo applications. Silicon Labs provides EZR32 starter kits optimized for frequency bands desired by developers, such as 868 MHz (SLWSTK6220A) and 169 MHz (SLWSTK6224A). The Wireless M-Bus Quick Start Guide provides all the essential information developers need to get started with metering applications. Silicon Labs also provides schematics, BOM (bill of material), and layout design files including a +27 dBm design for the Italian market.

Product Price and Supply Information

Metering system developers can download Silicon Labs' Wireless M-Bus software stack for free from the website. The SLWSTK6220A and SLWSTK6224A EZR32 starter kits are currently available and are priced at $299 (USD MSRP). Detailed information on Silicon Labs' Wireless M-Bus platform solutions, downloads for the software stack and quick start guide, and ordering starter kits can be found at www.silabs.com/wirelessmbus.