Europe’s standards’ body, CEN, and the international electronics standardisation body, IEC, have approved LoRaWAN for smart metering.

CEN has standardized the M-Bus adaptation layer for LPWAN especially M-Bus over LoRaWAN under series EN13757-8. This enables seamless integration of LoRaWAN in the large M-Bus ecosystem primarily used in water, heat and gas metering deployments. 

The IEC has standardized the DLMS profile for LPWAN under new part IEC 62056-8-12. This part of IEC 62056 describes the use of DLMS COSEM for Low-Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) and in particular LoRaWAN. DLMS is used mainly for providing a reliable, secured and interoperable data exchange for smart metering to utilities.

“The LoRaWAN Standard has gained significant traction in the utilities market over the past few years, and 2023 is no exception,” said Donna Moore, CEO and Chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance. “As an Alliance, we have strengthened LoRaWAN’s capabilities for this market with the addition of relay, which was designed to extend LoRaWAN coverage in situations where adding a LoRaWAN gateway is impossible or not justifiable. This is a benefit for utilities that need to connect all endpoints while minimizing the cost of network infrastructure. Additionally, CEN standardized the M-Bus adaptation layer for LPWAN especially M-Bus over LoRaWAN and IEC standardized the DLMS profile for LPWAN, in particular LoRaWAN. These developments validate the standard as a leading technology choice for smart metering for electricity, water, heat and gas.”