Key benefits of smart metering standardization with OMS® over LoRaWAN®

The adoption of OMS over LoRaWAN is entering into commercial availability.

Several smart metering solutions are being now commercially available with BIRDZ, ELVACO, KAMSTRUP, ZENNER and others that are the first paving the way for utilities to rely on M-Bus standard in OMS-based applications and end-devices featuring the LoRaWAN connectivity.

Here below are statements from Semtech customers and partners and information on available or new solutions for OMS over LoRaWAN:

BIRDZ statement:

“Birdz is proud to have been able to actively participate in and lead the "TF OMS over LoRaWAN" task force, giving birth to the OMS over LoRaWAN mode. After a demonstration with its partner Diehl Metering at ENLIT 2023, this new communication mode is now embedded in the new range of water meter products featuring Birdz's "B-Inside SM4" technology.

This new-generation water meter solution enables communication using Birdz's proprietary protocol, LoRaWAN, Wireless M-Bus and, of course, OMS over LoRaWAN. It will be available from summer 2024 from our partners Diehl and Itron. The same solution will be duplicated on Birdz's remote range from Q2 2025.”

ELVACO statement:

“Elvaco has been part of the joint task force between LoRa Alliance and OMS group which has resulted in a M-Bus Adaptation Layer. We are proud of enabling OMS support with our LoRaWAN end devices for heat metering. Thanks to the M-Bus Adaption Layer specified by the joint taskforce, we will be able to support customers demanding for interoperability and reliability of the OMS standard.”

List of devices from ELVACO that would be ready for OMS over LoRaWAN:

CMi4110 - Integrerad MCM för Landis + Gyr UH50/UC50, LoRaWAN | Elvaco
CMi4111 - Integrated MCM for Landis+Gyr T230/T330, LoRaWAN | Elvaco
CMi4130 - Integrated MCM for Itron CF ECHO II/51/55, LoRaWAN | Elvaco
CMi4140 - Integrerad MCM för Kamstrup Multical 403/603/803, LoRaWAN | Elvaco
CMi4160 | Elvaco
CMi4170 LoRaWAN Modul Int Ant | Elvaco

KAMPSTRUP Statement:

''KAMSTRUP is excited to announce the residential water meter KWM2231 series has been LoRaWAN and OMS certified,  enabling seamless integration with third-party systems according to OMS and allowing efficient fallback with Wireless M-Bus.''

List of Kamstrup end device available for OMS over LoRaWAN:

Smart Water Meter FlowIQ® KWM2231 for OMS over LoRaWAN

STACKFORCE statement:

“STACKFORCE is very proud to have launched another powerful software product in early 2024 with the Dual Stack OMS^® v4.5.1 + OMS^® over LoRaWAN (TR06)^®. This addition to our portfolio significantly contributes to the ongoing standardization in the metering sector. Thanks to the M-Bus adaptation layer specified by the joint working group of the OMS^® Group and the LoRa Alliance our product can support customers who are looking for the interoperability and reliability of the OMS^® standard while benefiting from LoRaWAN^® technology.”

Software stack can be fully available by STACKFORCE:

LoRaWAN product, the “Dual Stack OMS v4.5.1 + OMS over LoRaWAN (TR06)”

For reference: Dual Stack: OMS v4.5.1 & OMS over LoRaWAN | Embedded IoT software (stackforce.com)

ZENNER Statement:

“ZENNER is really proud to be one of the first mover of enabling OMS support with our LoRaWAN end devices. Moreover ZENNER provided its Element platform as development and testing platform for several stakeholders.

Thanks to the M-Bus adaption layer specified by the joint taskforce of OMS group and LoRa Alliance, our company will be able to support customers demanding for interoperability and reliability of OMS standard.”

THE ZENNER-TEAM

List of available devices and platform solution by Zenner supporting OMS over LoRaWAN:

• Apartment water meters
• Domestic water meters
• Bulk water meters
• Ultrasonic Bulk water meters
• Ultrasonic domestic water meters
• Heat Meter/Cooling Meters
• Sensors for building services
• Platform “elementiot” -Eine IoT-Plattform für alle Aufgaben und alle Branchen” (zenner-iot.com)
• Zenner DataHub , IoT-Plattformen und Softwarelösungen -ZENNER Connect (zenner-connect.com)

Benefits of OMS over LoRaWAN:

To understand the real advantages of having new solution using OMS over LoRaWAN, it is key to acknowledge how the OMS using M-Bus and LoRaWAN complements well each other:

• M-Bus applications are suitable and well established in smart metering but the radio used in Wireless M-Bus does not have long range radio.

• The LoRa modulation used in LoRaWAN provides long range communication but is “Application Agnostic”.

  
  

Source: the LoRa Alliance webinar (Nov 18th, 2020 “How do M-Bus and LoRaWAN® strengthen each other? A Close-up on Heat Metering”)

OMS and LoRaWAN complement each other because:

• LoRaWAN benefit from standardization of OMS and M-bus Application layer.
• OMS benefit from LoRaWAN networks’ deployments and rich ecosystem supported by the LoRa Alliance.
• Utilities can keep their legacy OMS data platform and respect compliance with regulation while deploying new end devices transporting same OMS message over LoRaWAN network.
• For utilities, the mutualization of LoRaWAN network with different tenants can help sharing cost and risk (example of Smart Cities adopting LoRaWAN and reusing for Smart Water metering or vice-versa).
• The infrastructure of radio network for LoRaWAN can be operated by a third-party company capable to secure the reliability and quality of service for a long term with specific Service Level Agreements (SLA).
• Flexibility of end devices using “Dual Radio Link” aka W-Mbus and OMS over LoRaWAN, allow to ensure meter reading collection with embedded switching / fallback strategies.
• Interoperability and ease of integration of OMS end devices on same LoRaWAN network.
• Coherent requirements for end devices to pass both LoRaWAN Certification and OMS Certification, ensuring standard compliance with the CEN European standard series for M-bus (EN13757).
• Benefit of value from specific features delivered  through the vendor fields in the OMS format specification without compromising the overall compliancy.
• With OMS security, enhance the security of OMS messages transported over LoRaWAN network.

The history of OMS over LoRaWAN

In the LoRa Alliance Live Event conference in Munich, of 2024 June 20^th, the OMS-Group e.V gave an important session to highlight the achievements of the liaison, that began in 2019 between the LoRa Alliance and OMS, and explain the stack architecture of OMS over LoRaWAN using the M-bus Adaptation Layer (MBAL) for LoRaWAN that was published in technical report TR06 on OMS Group website. Following a comprehensive review and voting process in 2023, the European Normalization Committee (CEN) has officially standardized and extended the M-bus Adaptation Layer (MBAL) for third-party networks, referencing it as EN 13757-8:2023. Among all LPWAN technologies, LoRaWAN stands as the pioneering connectivity use case.

The LoRa Alliance represented how the OMS Application layer fits within the LoRaWAN architecture using the MBAL link layer:

Source:https://lora-alliance.org/lora-alliance-press-release/lora-alliance-and-oms-group-optimize-smart-utilities-transmissions-with-oms-over-lorawan/

For more context and details on the importance of standardization for smart metering, please consider our previous blogs:

• https://blog.semtech.fr/interoperability-of-smart-metering-data-with-use-of-standards-is-the-new-rule-in-european-union (July 2023)
• https://blog.semtech.fr/lorawan-protocol-bolsters-water-metering-standardization (Nov 2020)

Next to come is certification

Now, OMS and LoRa Alliance are continuing their joint efforts to create the certification of smart meters and utilities end devices that will allow utilities enable OMS over LoRaWAN using this M-bus Adaptation layer. It’s important to remember the CEN makes only standard but not certification.

Therefore, the utilities requiring certification of smart meters and other end devices for best reliability and interoperability will rely on the two certification together:

• the OMS certification for the application including the M-Bus Adaptation Layer (MBAL), and

• the LoRaWAN end device certification by the LoRa Alliance.

By incorporating OMS over LoRaWAN properly, the smart meter and end device manufacturers can ensure compliance with OMS and with CEN standard to ensure reliable interoperability, easier and seamless integration, and future-proof solutions.

How to take action with Semtech to create future OMS compliant end device

Customers can use all Semtech LoRa products and rely on our software partners to get the adaptation layer software MBAL (EN 13757-8:2023) :

• ELVACO : solution built for LoRa Basic Modem compliant with OMS over LoRaWAN (TR06)

• Stackforce : solution built on top of LoRaMAC node. Stackforce provides a Dual stack, that supports seamless switching between legacy Wireless M-Bus (OMS v4.5.1, modes S/T/C) and OMS-over-LoRaWAN (TR06) at runtime.)