SLS and Silicon Labs Collaborate to drive Wi-SUN adoption in India’s Smart Metering Market
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System Level Solutions (India) Pvt. Ltd.. (SLS) is a leading provider of technology services and solutions to various industries, encompassing both hardware and software solutions. A long-time Silicon Labs customer, SLS has developed a reputation for innovative, technologically advanced, and user-friendly ecosystem solutions. For over a decade, SLS has developed cutting-edge custom RF technologies based on Silicon Labs innovations, particularly in the areas of smart metering and home automation. These projects involved the use of Zigbee devices based on the ultra-low-power Silicon Labs EFR32 wireless MCU platform, home automation gateways, temperature sensors, and door sensors. One of these devices, based on the Silicon Labs EFR32FG12, has been deployed to more than 20,000 smart metering and street lighting applications across India.
When the company wanted to develop a purpose-built RF module for the smart metering market with Wi-SUN FAN 1.1 support, it again turned to the EFR32 platform and the FG28 dual-band SoC. With a large and deployed customer base currently using the FG12 solution, SLS has initiated an internal pilot program of 200 Wi-SUN smart metering nodes utilizing its FG28-based NLN721 Nebulae. This initial, controlled rollout allows SLS to thoroughly check every conceivable scenario, including range, network stability, and other tests before expanding.
Advantages of Wi-SUN for India’s Smart Metering Initiative
India is taking a global leadership role in smart metering, with the government launching the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) program in 2015. This legislation aims to modernize the country’s energy grid by replacing 250 million conventional electricity meters with smart meters. SLS has been providing business ecosystems and sustainable technology solutions for years, and with the sudden expansion of smart city projects in development, the company is well-positioned to support these projects through its broad portfolio of services. Smart metering represents a huge opportunity in India, and SLS is well-positioned to serve this market.
The Challenge
System Level Solutions (India) Pvt. Ltd. (SLS) is set out to develop a Wi-SUN FAN 1.1 solution for scalable and reliable smart metering across India's expanding smart metering infrastructure to provide ultimate network stability and a familiar, COTS-based RF architecture for faster development.
The Solution
The technology provider is drawing on a decade-long relationship with Silicon Labs and deep experience working with the EFR32 platform in order to create robust Wi-SUN smart metering solutions based on the FG28 dual-band SoC for stable, large-scale connectivity.
The Result
The FG28-based solution is now part of a 200-node Wi-SUN smart metering pilot project with existing SLS customers to perform large-scale testing for network stability, range, and other variables.
Future Focus
- After the satisfactory result of the POC test, SLS is going to start the first Wi-SUN Fan 1.1 deployment for 2500 quantities for Smart Metering and 500 quantities for street lighting application.
- SLS is also looking forward to exploring the LFN functionalities of Wi-SUN and developing a product on that by December 2024.
Wi-SUN is a great fit for smart metering applications. It supports city-wide networks with potentially thousands of nodes. It’s also suited for large-scale deployments because, being based on open standards, Wi-SUN is compatible with devices from different manufacturers, its features adhere to certain requirements, and other developers are encouraged to innovate new technologies and services with the number of devices typical of smart city applications and the types of projects typical of SLS deployments, a standards-based protocol offers the benefit of being user-tested and regulatory oversight that proprietary mesh networks can’t offer.
SLS's initial goal for its 200-node Wi-SUN pilot is to connect a single device to every node in the network and achieve stable connectivity. If there are any issues with one of the nodes, it’s important to understand how quickly the network can restore stability. To determine this, the team will perform a comprehensive series of test scenarios that examines if the nodes remain connected as needed, if they retain data after being disconnected, how long it takes to reconnect, its ability to create a self-healing mesh network in the event a parent node goes down, among other tests.
SLS and Silicon Labs synergize on the idea of using advanced technology for optimal simplification of the development process. SLS has been familiar with Silicon Labs Simplicity Studio, our unified development environment for all our technologies, and this familiarity reduced the development time needed to bring the NLN721 Nebulae to life and gave the SLS team the confidence to move fast.
SLS has already got the WPC (Wireless Planning & Coordination) certification, which is the requirement for companies to import, sell, or manufacture wireless products in India. The company also targets an initial deployment of 2,500 nodes for its customers from September.