04-1 New Books approaching
The Coloured Books
and other useful documentation
Since quite a few years, the DLMS User Association publishes meter data exchange standards in form of coloured books. The colours have a distinct meaning: green for protocol, blue for objects, yellow for conformance and, new this time, white for glossary.
The DLMS UA started to revise these books and will publish their new editions in the near future. The main driver of this work is the introduction of a new communication profile, based on TCP-UDP/IP, to enable data exchange with metering equipment via the Internet.
Growing experience with actual implementations, conformance testing and field use is also reflected in these new versions, with the necessary clarifications and amendments made, while maintaining compatibility.
Due to the fact, that the DLMS User Association is liased to IEC TC13 WG14 and, that it is commissioned as maintenance agent, most of these modifications will enter into International Standards.
In the Green Book, the main changes are the following:
The part Data link layer using HDLC protocol requires a minor amendment only, to allow using longer frames for better communication efficiency. An Amendment of IEC 62056-46 will be published by IEC TC13.
A new part, TCP/UDP-IP based COSEM transport layer for IP networks specifies a transport layer based on the Internet TCP and UDP protocols, including the mapping of the ISO style COSEM Application layer services to TCP and UDP function calls. This part will be published also as IEC 62056-47.
The part COSEM Application layer is enhanced with a new part specifying the use of the application layer on supported by the TCP-UDP/IP based COSEM transport layer. The protocol for application association establishment and release has been adapted to the internet environment. To facilitate use, a new integral text will be published as IEC 62056-53 Ed.2.
In the Blue book, the main changes are the following:
The part Object Identification System (OBIS) incorporates many new codes covering new functionality, like power quality monitoring and loss measurement, proposed by DLMS UA members Some code space is opened up for standard use to be able to accommodate future requests. This part will be published also as IEC 62056-61 Ed.2
The part COSEM Interface classes contains the new TCP/UDP-IP related interface classes for setting up the communication channels. For better interoperability, the data types for some attributes are more strictly defined now. This part will be published also as IEC 62056-62 Ed.2.
The relevant parts of EN 13757-1, covering non-electricity metering equipment, is also incorporated, so that the Blue book will cover now all type of energy metering equipment, in line with the growing market need for the metering of gas and other media.
The Yellow book, containing the specification of the Conformance Test Tool is also being updated, to allow testing the new features as well.
The White book is new. It explains DLMS/COSEM specific terms, which are used in all the other books, and it is a great help for new and experienced users of DLMS/COSEM. It has been recently published by the IEC as IEC/TR 62051-1 (2004-01).
These important contributions to the standardization of meter data exchange are recognized: There is a growing membership to the DLMS User Association with more then 60 members worldwide, supporting and contributing to the work as described above.