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A Higher Standard: Wi-SUN Offers ECHONET-Lite Version 2.0 Smart Home Spec
Green Technology Featured Articles
August 28, 2013

A Higher Standard: Wi-SUN Offers ECHONET-Lite Version 2.0 Smart Home Spec

By Cheryl Kaften
TMCnet Contributor

The Wi-SUN Alliance—a Tokyo-based group that advocates for smart utility networks worldwide, as well as related interoperability and compliance certification programs—has announced the availability of the ECHONET-Lite version 2.0 specification for product development.


The ECHONET-Lite version 2.0 standard will support home and building automation—creating smarter structures that enhance comfort, convenience, security and energy efficiency for residents and users. The new specification and test plan support advanced functionality in devices such as door locks, smoke sensors, window blinds, air-conditioners, and refrigerators; and provides connectivity for additional devices, including smart appliances and electrical measurement devices. The specification provides for fully interoperable, multiple vendor implementations.


Above, smart home rendering, courtesy of ECHONET.

The standard incorporates new features resulting from a collaboration between the Wi-SUN Alliance and the ECHONET (Energy Conservation and HOmecare NETwork) initiative, a Japanese consortium of more than 100 companies—among them, Toshiba Consumer Electronics, Panasonic Corporation, Hitachi Appliances, Inc., and Mitsubishi Electric (News - Alert) Corporation— that promotes the development of basic software and hardware for home networks.  The ECHONET Lite standard is endorsed as the Japanese Smart House Standard by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

Last January, the alliance published Wi-SUN profiles for ECHONET Lite version 1.0, a standard communication interface for ECHONET Lite, and the interface was selected as a TTC (Telecommunication Technology Committee) standard, TTC JJ300.10.

Wi-SUN ECHONET Lite, version 2.0, adds important new features that ensure:

  • Seamless interoperability,
  • Easy network deployment,
  • Standardized pairing of devices, and
  • Simplified installation and maintenance.

Specifically, the new specification includes an encryption and an authentication process both between smart meter and home energy management systems (HEMSs); and between HEMS and home electrical appliances. These features have a significant impact on operational and device costs.

"The Wi-SUN Specification for ECHONET Lite 2.0 is a major step forward in creating an open and fully interoperable wireless home energy management platform," said Phil Beecher, chairman of the Wi-SUN Alliance. "For service operators and consumer electronics companies, Wi-SUN ECHONET Lite will provide a technology standard that removes much of the complexity from planning and deploying advanced home services and reduces the amount of energy they consume."

"The Wi-SUN Specification for ECHONET Lite 2.0 is the most robust, reliable and scalable low- power wireless standard for home energy management systems, and the technology of choice for world-leading service providers, installers and retailers," said Hiroshi Harada, director of Smart Wireless Laboratory, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan and Wi-SUN Alliance board co-chair.

"We are very happy to contribute as Technical Editor to the ECHONET WG," said Tamiya Ochiai, chief specialist at Toshiba (News - Alert) Corporation, Tokyo. "We believe the Wi-SUN Specification for ECHONET Lite 2.0 delivers a standard that can make every home a smarter, safer and more energy efficient environment for consumers and families."




Edited by Alisen Downey


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