The IEEE has begun work on five standards to create a multi-source, plug-and-play communications environment for the millions of metering devices operated by water, gas and electric utilities.

Two of these standards are IEEE P1701, “LAN/WAN Port Communication Protocol to Complement the Utility Industry End Device Data Tables,” and IEEE P1702, “Telephone Port Communication Protocol to omplement the Utility Industry End Device Data Tables.” These standards provide lower-layer communication protocols for LAN/WAN (local area network and wide-area network) ports and telephone ports used in conjunction with utility metering.

IEEE P1703, “Optical Port Communication Protocol to Complement the Utility Industry End Device Data Tables,” will provide optical port lower layers communication protocol for utility metering. IEEE P1705, “Compliance Testing Standard for Utility Industry Metering Communications Protocol Standards,” will address the building and compliance testing for a range of utility metering communications protocols.

Work has begun on IEEE P1377, “Utility Industry Metering Communication Protocol Application Layer Standard (End Device Data Tables).” This standard will provide the application layer data format for utility data passed between an end device and a computer. It will include the read/write command structure for interfacing this application layer to lower communication layers of various communications technologies, such as optical port, telephone and wide-area network. It will be congruent with MC12.19 and ANSI C12.19 standards.

The above standards are sponsored by SCC31-Automatic Meter Reading and Energy Management.