03-3 Maintenance Work
Working groups of the DLMS User Association bring an essential contribution to the success of DLMS/COSEM.
With growing membership of the DLMS UA, new implementations and increasing market presence of DLMS/COSEM based systems, the working group "Maintenance" is very active in these days.
Their task is to maintain the specification and the conformance test tool. Questions and issues arising during the implementation of the protocol and during conformance testing are collected, analysed, discussed and answered. The deliverables are interpretations notes, and when necessary, amendments to the coloured books and to the international standards or to the test plans.
The main topic of the recent meeting of the WG Maintenance was the preparation of documents specifying the TCP/IP based communication profile, allowing meter data exchange using the internet. Pending requests and remarks from members of the DLMS UA have been reviewed and discussed – this are regular items on the Agenda.
One of the important tasks is the definition for the maintenance process itself. The website of the DLMS User Association plays an important role in this: it allows to log, publish and debate all items and to track their progress until they are closed.
In the past few months, many requests have been received concerning new standard OBIS codes. These are the unique identifiers of COSEM interface objects, allowing unambiguous identification and interpretation of new data items needed on the liberalized market. These requests clearly show that users have well understood the importance of using standard codes instead of manufacturer specific ones. The flexible structure and mechanisms of the OBIS system allow meeting all these requests, if we use the code space available sparingly.
The Maintenance WG will publish ongoing work on the Internet, allowing all users a fast access to actual data.