Standards
Standards are essential to meeting the needs of the Utility industry and energy consumers. Cisco strongly supports standards in all aspects of the Smart Grid. Some of the standards relevant to the Smart Grid end-point devices are shown below in a hierarchy.
In the area of Smart Grid end points and devices, Cisco currently participates in and contributes to the following standardization efforts among others.
IEEE 802.15.4e
The IEEE 802.15 Task Group 4e is chartered to define a MAC amendment to the existing standard 802.15.4-2006. The intent of this amendment is to enhance and add functionality to the 802.15.4-2006 MAC to a) better support the industrial markets and b) permit compatibility with modifications being proposed within the Chinese WPAN.
The work of this standards group is especially applicable to the Smart Meters and Grid end-points that utilize wireless mesh communications.
IEEE 802.15.4g
The role of IEEE 802.15 Smart Utility Networks (SUN) Task Group 4g is to create a PHY amendment to 802.15.4 to provide a global standard that facilitates very large scale process control applications such as the utility smart-grid network capable of supporting large, geographically diverse networks with minimal infrastructure, with potentially millions of fixed endpoints.
IETF RPL
RPL (pronounced "Ripple") is an IETF draft standard for IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low power and Lossy Networks.
The work of this standards group is especially applicable to the Smart Meters and Grid end-points that utilize wireless mesh communications.
IPSO
Internet Protocol for Smart Objects (IPSO) Alliance promotes the use of IP standards for smart objects of all types. Cisco is a founding member of this organization.
Smart Energy 2.0
Smart Energy Profile 2.0 is an IP-based application protocol defining how consumer premise network devices such as energy controllers, thermostats, meters and applinaces communicate to enable advanced energy services. SEP 2.0 is intended to run over a variety of PHY/MAC technologies (e.g. PLC, 802.15.4, WiFi). SEP 2.0 has been recommended by US NIST, the SGIP, and a number of other organizations.
