Investigate M2M-related communication standards that exist on the global market today

Masteroppgave i informasjons- og kommunikasjonsteknologi 2006 - Høgskolen i Agder, GrimstadMost M2M applications use well-known communication technologies to interconnect the devices. Even though they use well-known communication technologies there are no widely used and well-defined M2M standards regarding the data exchange (application layer). This thesis investigates and identifies M2M related communication standards that exist on the global market today, and are applicable for M2M standardisation. This thesis is limited to the following segments within M2M: Security, Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) and Utility Control. Today, and in the future, IP will play an important role within M2M. This thesis is therefore mainly focusing on standards that implement how to transfer the application layer using the IP-stack. M2M is defined in this thesis as an application with a central server communicating with end-devices through a gateway, using remote communication from server to gateway. The following standards are investigated and found applicable in one or more of the selected segments: CIP, MODBUS, LonWorks, KNX, DLMS/COSEM, M-BUS, SIA, M2MXML, OPC and ZigBee. Each of the standards is explained within the thesis. All standards are identified and categorised, and area of applications and proposed solutions are described. This thesis discusses the applicability regarding each segment, multiple services behind one gateway, bandwidth consumption, software update and interconnection of networks. In conclusion, it is generally possible to create standardised M2M solutions based upon existing standards within the segments of Security, AMR and Utility Control. Some standards can be used as is, while others need to be used in combination with another standard to fit in to the M2M platform defined for this thesis. Utility Control and AMR has most suitable standards. The security segment needs more standardisation work to support full featured M2M based solutions