98-2 First Birthday
One candle on the cake!
Our statutes are dated 31st of March 1997, so that the DLMS User Association has celebrated its first birthday. Many things have been started, from marketing events to products. The booth at DA/DSM 97' in Amsterdam has been frequently visited, the internet site "dlms.com" also, and the first product has been delivered to all members a few days ago.
The first product ...
A core team recruited from five manufacturers created the COSEM documents. COSEM stands for Companion Specification for Energy Metering. They were passed to the DLMS UA at the end of February. The documents are compiled in book form, one is called "COSEM Interface Objects", the other one "COSEM Communication Profile".
COSEM is based on a strict separation between the specification of the behaviour of the meter (Metering Objects) and the communication channel. The mapping from the behaviour description to the communication protocol is provided by the communication language.
The behaviour is described by means of the Metering Objects - a set of generic building blocks covering the full range of metering functionality from residential to commercial applications. The objects only describe those aspects which are relevant for interoperability purposes; i.e. they specify how the meter is seen from the outside (e.g. from the data collection centre or from the hand held unit). Implementation issues are not covered.
The communication channels are covered by standard OSI/ISO protocols. The role of COSEM is to fill the gaps in the current standards and to define restrictions where several options are possible.
Finally the Communication Language DLMS is used to specify the data structures, the data access mechanisms and the access rights in a way suitable for data communication purposes.
COSEM is like a book where the Communication Channel describes the printing and layout aspects, the Communication Language defines the grammar and the Metering Objects define the contents of the story. The book is available from the DLMS User Association in Geneva.
The two books are giving enough base for developers to create interoperable metering products. Care has been taken to include as many international standards as possible, and to adapt as close as possible to other projects of the same kind. The main aim is to gain field experience as quick as possible (products, not pilots!) and to put the documents on the table of standard bodies as soon as the necessary proof of interoperability is available.
... and more to come:
The presentation at DA/DSM in London on October 27th to 29th will go one step further: the booth of the DLMS UA will be bigger, and hopefully the first practical results can be shown. Much effort will go in this direction. All members of the DLMS UA are called up to contribute!
Two other items are in the queue: The first is the question of conformance testing, the second is the subject of training and DLMS oriented courses. Much effort will flow into these very important subjects, and hopefully I will be able to inform you in the next future about the progress in this field.