The EnOcean Alliance has more than 300 members in 34 countries worldwide and over 1,000 interoperable products and solutions. The common technological base is the EnOcean energy harvesting wireless technology. Energy harvesting is the use of motion, light, or temperature differences as an energy source for maintenance-free wireless modules.
The foundation of the products’ interoperability is the standardized application protocols (EnOcean Equipment Profiles or EEPs), developed by the Alliance’s Technical Working Group (TWG) and based on the international wireless radio standard ISO/IEC 14543-3-10.
The new Version 2.5 of the EEP specification has grouped applications with similar attributes together into profile families for the first time. This concept is a guideline for new product and profile development. New applications, or new “family members,” can thus be easier to create, classify into specifications, and released into the TWG. A new area of variable length data (VLD) profiles — profiles with variable data content — has been created, especially for new product development and application. Using these profiles, OEMs can realize products with a flexible and extensive application spectrum, carried out with the small energy budget provided by energy harvesting. An example would be an energy-autonomous thermostatic radiator valve, which only uses heat as an energy source, and communicates with another solar-powered control device.
In addition, standardized learn-in methods for unidirectional and bidirectional wireless applications and profiles for encrypted data communication supplement the new specification. The latter is important for critical applications like access and control systems or for the secure networking of consumption data over cloud services.
EEP Version 2.5 can be downloaded at www.enocean-alliance.org.
Publication date: 3/25/2013
