Remote Metering: 25.000 GSM modems supplied to Electrabel

Laborelec: verification of immunity to external EM phenomena

The InduBox GSM (IV) is the result of over 20 years expertise in modem communication and hardware development. In the Belgian electricity utility market, the generic EMC immunity standards are not applicable. To test the immunity of GSM and PSTN modems to radiated electromagnetical fields, the official test lab Laborelec creates a test environment which generates 30 V/m field strengths instead of the standard 'normal' field strength of 3 V/m (CISPR24 level = 3 V/m). Bausch InduBox modems (PSTN and GSM) have complied with these severe test conditions since 2002.
Itron (former Actaris) sells devices to accurately measure energy and water consumption at industrial and residential sites. These tools are mainly used for invoicing consumers and must therefore comply with strict contractual, regulatory, and legal EMC requirements.
‘For our EMC tests, we only trust independent laboratories that combine quality with professionalism. For the past several years, we have used Laborelec EMC services to commercialize our new products in Belgium. Recently, they conducted conformity tests on our Class 1 and 0.5 energy measurement units.'
Hugo Hendrickx (Itron)

Customized Open AT * embedded software for specific applications, combined with optional mass deployment services (AirVantage tm) offer multiple AMR solutions and scenarios using GSM / GPRS.
Bausch Datacom implemented f.i. a 'GPRS-ready' Open AT application in the Sierra Wireless (Wavecom) CPU of the InduBox GSM IV, allowing 3 remotely switchable working modes: CSD mode (modem acts as a GSM data modem), GPRS mode (modem can receive APN GPRS parameters by SMS) and Socket Serv mode (the modem is in a constant TCP socket listen mode after receiving a SMS and then acts as a socket server).

* The Sierra Wireless (former Wavecom) CPU supports a powerful software development environment - Open AT -, which allows embedded ANSI C pplications tao be executed directly on the Wireless CPU.
Basically Open AT provides wireless services and TCP / IP connectivity and gives access to hardware resources for which the developer would otherwise need an extra processor.