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I'm experienced electronics designer, and must say, I have not seen thing, could be named standard communications module in your meaning. Yes, I seen GSM modul

by simne 3y ago

I'm experienced electronics designer, and must say, I have not seen thing, could be named standard communications module in your meaning. Yes, I seen GSM modules, I even seen modules which sold with one naming, when first batches was GSM 2.5 (GPRS) and late batches was 3G. But I have not seen any 4G or 5G modules which could just replace 3G modules - every time need totally redesign all scheme and replace antenna.

daveoc64 3y ago
The Smart Meters were designed with this concept from the beginning. https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/our-smart-network/network-products-services/communications-hub/ https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/our-smart-network/network-product... As noted in the article and by other comments, a short wave radio network is used in the northern parts of the UK instead of cellular networks. This already gives a need for different modules to be used for communication.
- simne 3y ago
  Ah, life is more complicated than I thought. First, thank you, for information about such thing! I've worked on create Lora network for large City in 2017, and at that time this all look like Babylon tower, where everybody talk on his own language and even existing standards was not widely adopted. Second, as I said before, as I see, regulators just now (about cup years) noticed problem of Smart Meters standards missing, and work still in progress. From what I see, situation is very similar to automobiles with self-driving - some countries are more involved and for some reasons have more ready for self-driving environment (like tiny Singapore). In others things on different stages. Somewhere pilot projects appear and running some temporary regulations. Somewhere autopilot is just unnoticed for regulators, they doing things like 20 years ago, when these technologies just does not existed. And as engineer, I could say, I just understand, why Smart Home devices manufacturers made communications hub, but I also must say, I have few Smart Home devices and I not planned to buy communication hub - I just made my own firmware (to be honest, what I have are all clones of ESP32 and I customized firmware from some opensource) and connect them to my own server. And you may already guess, in my country regulators are just ignore Smart Meters. BTW, greetings from Ukraine, country at war! I don't know exactly why this happen, but looks like exist some Smart countries, which are much more successful than others in use new technologies for good.

by simne 3y ago

daveoc64 3y ago

The Smart Meters were designed with this concept from the beginning. https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/our-smart-network/network-products-services/communications-hub/ https://www.smartdcc.co.uk/our-smart-network/network-product... As noted in the article and by other comments, a short wave radio network is used in the northern parts of the UK instead of cellular networks. This already gives a need for different modules to be used for communication.

simne 3y ago
Ah, life is more complicated than I thought. First, thank you, for information about such thing! I've worked on create Lora network for large City in 2017, and at that time this all look like Babylon tower, where everybody talk on his own language and even existing standards was not widely adopted. Second, as I said before, as I see, regulators just now (about cup years) noticed problem of Smart Meters standards missing, and work still in progress. From what I see, situation is very similar to automobiles with self-driving - some countries are more involved and for some reasons have more ready for self-driving environment (like tiny Singapore). In others things on different stages. Somewhere pilot projects appear and running some temporary regulations. Somewhere autopilot is just unnoticed for regulators, they doing things like 20 years ago, when these technologies just does not existed. And as engineer, I could say, I just understand, why Smart Home devices manufacturers made communications hub, but I also must say, I have few Smart Home devices and I not planned to buy communication hub - I just made my own firmware (to be honest, what I have are all clones of ESP32 and I customized firmware from some opensource) and connect them to my own server. And you may already guess, in my country regulators are just ignore Smart Meters. BTW, greetings from Ukraine, country at war! I don't know exactly why this happen, but looks like exist some Smart countries, which are much more successful than others in use new technologies for good.