ZigBee Gateway for smart metering

Electricity, Gas and Water meters are increasingly being designed with specialised interfaces to facilitate remote metering. If these metersare further connected to an IP network like the Internet, many new billing and energy usage measurement options are opened up to customers and energy suppliers.

Cost transparency is also increased thanks to real-time metering and evaluation. To take advantage of these opportunities SSV Embedded Systems of Hannover has developed a compact Gateway for Automatic Meter Reading applications. The MGW/920 allows secured connections for decentralised local home networks over a virtual private network (OpenVPN) with a DSL or GPRS link to a central Internet server. The unit integrates classical wired M-Bus to include gas, water and electricity meters, and also features a ZigBee interface provided by the Telegesis ETRX-2 module to communicate with other devices such as feedback displays or other home network services.

Depending on the application, various software modules can be installed on the MGW/920. On request, an integrated firewall and a VPN communication module, to protect data transmission on the Internet from unauthorised access, can be included. The configuration of all software components is carried out via a web-based interface over an Ethernet. This low power ARM 9 based gateway enables an easy solution to real-time billing systems for properties, AMR and M2M solutions for consumption data monitoring and smart metering application in line with the EU Guideline 2006/32/EC on "Energy End-Use Efficiency and Energy Saving".

SSV MGW/920 Feature Set

Fanless low power design 32-bit ARM9-MCU @180 MHz Real Time Clock (RTC) with battery backup 1x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet interface (RJ45) 6x status LED Modem socket for GSM/GPRS modem

Telegesis ETRX2HR mounted on an SSV plug-in module for the MGW/920

Customer Profile

SSV Industrial Communication of Hannover is a division of SSV Software SystemsGmbH. Formed in 1982 the company has a range of innovative solutions. SSV designs and manufactures IT solutions for specialised tasksin industrial and commercial applications where standard equipment doesn't fit Products within their "Industrial Communication" range use Linux as their preferred OS. The wide use of Linux based servers on the Internet and the GPL (General Public License) make Linux an OS with excellent communication abilities.

Technology Solution

The Telegesis ETRX2 module used by SSV in this Gateway is a low power, 2.4GHz ISM band transceiver based on the Ember EM250 single chip ZigBee / IEEE 802.15.4 solution. The module's unique AT-style command line interface allows a user to quickly integrate ZigBee wireless technology into a design without complex software engineering making it ideal for organisations which need to add ZigBee functionality quickly and easily.

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