The LoRa Alliance and OMS Group have joined forces to standardise smart metering IoT applications through the combined use of their standards.

In a joint task force, the organisations have specified a standard use of the Open Metering System (OMS) metering language over LoRaWan. The specification should reduce the complexity and cost of integration for utilities, which in turn increases their return on investment. A joint demo of OMS over LoRaWan will be shown at Enlit, taking place from November 29 to December 2 in Milan.

“Standardisation is absolutely essential to achieving massive scale for the IoT,” said Donna Moore, CEO of the LoRa Alliance. “Given the large scale of their deployments, gas, water and electric utilities will achieve improved business value from implementing standards-backed technologies like LoRaWan and OMS due to the interoperability and ease of deployment provided. LoRaWan is already proven for networking smart utility applications, from metering to leak detection, automated shut-off and more. Using LoRaWan with OMS is a game-changer for the European utility market that makes deployments simpler and more cost-effective, while ensuring the interoperability of legacy meters, to maximise RoI.”

The joint specification enables a standard M-Bus transport over LoRaWan, and a joint proof of concept (PoC) has validated the interoperability on all levels, from data platform down to different OMS end devices connected via the same or different LoRaWans. At Enlit, a joint demo of the OMS over LoRaWan PoC will be featured on the LoRa Alliance and OMS Group stands. The specification and PoC were developed jointly by members of both organisations, including representation from Birdz, Diehl Metering, Elvaco, Kamstrup, Mainlink, Minol-Zenner and Semtech.

Birdz, the IoT subsidiary of Veolia Environment, has been a sponsor and primary contributor to the liaison’s effort. Its CEO Xavier Mathieu said: “This liaison and the OMS over LoRaWan technical solution are a major achievement to bring highly efficient, standard and interoperable smart metering to utilities and municipalities.”

Using OMS over LoRaWan for standard OMS applications allows utility companies that already use OMS to benefit from LoRaWan’s advantages, including low power consumption, long range and deep indoor penetration – suitable for meters that are often underground, or in concrete or other hard-to-reach areas – and firmware updates over the air. The specification also ensures interoperability with legacy OMS-based systems, freeing utilities from the costly burden of deploying and maintaining radio network infrastructure by using existing LoRaWan third-party networks. Together, this extends the systems’ useful life to achieve significant cost savings.”

“Utilities have long relied on the Open Metering System specification to integrate all media – gas, heat and water, including submetering – into one system,” said Andreas Bolder, speaker of the board of OMS Group. “Combining the benefits of the OMS language with those of LoRaWan networking offers further standardisation of smart metering applications, increasing utilities’ readiness for IoT.”

The LoRa Alliance is an open, non-profit association that was established in 2015. The LoRaWan standard has been deployed by more than 155 major mobile network operators globally, and connectivity is available in more than 170 countries.

The OMS Group is a 68-member interest group of companies from eighteen countries worldwide. The founding organisations are Figawa and KNX Association. With the OMS specification, the industry group has developed an open, multi-vendor, interoperable communication standard for electricity, gas, thermal energy and water meters, as well as submetering. OMS is based on the EN 13757-x standard, has been included into the EU mandate M/441 for the standardisation of smart metering, and is compatible with the widely-used KNX standard ISO/IEC 14543-3, equivalent to EN 50090.

Because of its focus on low energy consumption, OMS specifications suit battery powered devices such as smart gas, water and thermal energy-meters as well as sensors. In addition, it is usable for powered systems and electricity metering.