VALENCIA, Spain -- DS2, a leading technology innovator and global supplier of high-speed, robust, and scalable powerline silicon, today announced the availability for the global utility market of DS2's Wideband PLC Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) silicon and firmware package and its AMI Evaluation Kit. The Solution combines DS2’s UPA wideband powerline communications hardware operating on the 2-12 MHz range with a software package field-tested and optimized for AMI. It includes the DR200 Head End Reference Design package for the service aggregation point, the DE95B embedded module Reference Design for Smart Meters, and specialized Alma AMI Firmware. The package offers full and comprehensive AMI functionality with the ability to reach the most remote parts of the grid. DS2's AMI Evaluation Kit is a fully functioning version of the DS2 AMI package allowing DS2 customers to test the concept and accelerate the development of Smart Grid products for the utility market.

The DS2 Wideband PLC AMI package provides a true plug and play mesh network. When a new meter node is connected to the network, it is automatically recognized, the communication is automatically established, and the network automatically reconfigures to optimize its mesh capabilities adding the node as a network member and extender. The result is that network self-healing is guaranteed. When a node fails, the network impacted components automatically reconfigure themselves re-establishing communication paths. The firmware includes a complete IP-stack and a fully featured SNMP agent. The agent implements both standard (RFC 1213) and extended DS2 MIBs so that standard off-the-self management tools can be used to remotely control each network node. In addition, communication between the nodes is encrypted using advanced industry-accepted algorithms. The embedded RADIUS client ensures that only authorized meter nodes can join the network.

The DS2 AMI package supports current and future Smart Grid needs including real-time network planning and management, outage avoidance, and demand management, while eliminating customer service time spent answering queries over estimated bills.

Design of Systems on Silicon (DS2)