Electricity meters commonly implement Device Language Message Specification and Companion Specification for Energy Metering (DLMS/COSEM) standardized in the IEC 62056 series. Between meters in the field and a Head-End System (HES), metering systems often employ an intermediate device (sometimes called a collector or take-out point) that we are calling an access point. This device is often attached to two different network interfaces. One interface communicates with the meters, over a radio frequency (RF) or powerline carrier communications system. This first network, which we refer to a a Field Area Network (FAN) is typically relatively low bandwidth and sometimes high latency if the FAN is built as a mesh system. The second network, which we call here the backhaul network is often a higher speed, higher bandwidth and lower latency network. Examples of such networks commonly employed include cellular modem, fiber or point-to-point radio system, but it is also possible for this link to be the same kind of communications as is used for the FAN.
This project is intended to be a reference implementation and experimental platform for an access point and associated network and devices. It is intended to be run via software containers (such as Docker or Podman) and has various options controllable via a web interface that also exists in a container.
The simplest way to use the software is to build it directly from the github repository. Download just the build.sh file and docker-compose.yml file and execute these two commands:
./build.sh
docker-compose up --scale meter=3
This will create a simulated network with three meters, an access point, HES and dashboard, and a docserver.