AP Systems has demonstrated their M3-C concentrator collecting, thanks to RIPlink, gas meter consumption data over ZigBee? and Electricity meter data over PLC. This concentrator is also able to drive publi lighting over PLC and could be easily extended over ZigBee?, still using RIPlink profile.

Wavecom also demonstrated how with its GPRS-ZigBee gateway is was possible for simple ZigBee? sensors to send data to servers in the IP world, thus easily consulted from any PC connected to the web.

Finally, RIPlink was also used to access, from a standard laptop, simply using a ZigBee? USB Key from Telegesis, to AP Systems concentrator or to Wavecom GPRS-ZigBee gateway to a local administration server. This opens the ability for installer, at no extra hardware cost for the system (no need for Ethernet physical connectivity), and without direct physical access to the equipment, to configure the concentrator and gateway during commissioning or repair phases.

This specification introduces RSP v1.2 protocol changes compared to RSP v1.1. A major evolution is the sleep feature that allows devices with limited battery to remain always reachable from the IP network. The RIPlink Gateway is reponsible for buffering.

RSP1.2 other main improvements leads to a simplified Gateway Adapter implementation with further reduced memory needs while managing a large number of devices. Negotiation of the maximum packet size on the non-IP network has also been added in RSP1.2 to better cope with various networks without need for segmentation.

The updated RIPlink v1.2 evaluation package is already available to RIPlink Adopters and will be officially released on the web site within a month.

Nokia emphases the difficulty to achieve convergence between the various technologies in home automation, and proposes the application level gateway approach, where a box does the translation to the various technologies in home. Nokia has been working together with several companies to develop new home control solutions that can be accessed via mobile phone. It consists in:

• the Nokia Home Control Center, built on top of standard gateway architecture. It is a router box including Ethernet, WiFi? 11n, Z-Wave? and optionally a GSM/GPRS interface.


• the mobile phone and web browser acting as control nodes.


• the back-end server architecture for a secure link between a mobile device and the home gateway, and for software upgrade


• the partner devices with some components provided by Nokia, and an opening to the integration of different third party devices and systems under the control of one user interface.

Thanks to the existing RIPlink porting on Linux, Nokia Home Control Center can easily support RIPlink Gateway feature, thus connect to RIPlink Devices. With RIPlink capability, the porting of new devices and home network interface will become even easier and faster.

Nokia has set up a dedicated website (http://smarthomepartnering.com) providing some very first information on this program.

• RIPlink specification forum, for topics related to the specification (RSP, profiles, implementations questions on non-IP networks, ...)


• RIPlink evaluation package forum, for any question, issue, or idea on the evaluation package usage

Such proposal would typically allow Zigbee Application Profiles, such as Home Automation or Smart Energy profiles to be re-used outside Zigbee networks, thus extending Zigbee Application to IP networks. This is said by Arch Rock to be a way to proceed in the context of the agreement between Zigbee and Homeplug, targetting application convergence between short range wireless and Power Line Communication (PLC) networks. This may be a way for the company to push 6lowPAN, as application layer is one key asset of deploying such systems in an interoperable manner.

Such announcement also demonstrate more and more Zigbee Application Profile specification as having its own interest and value outside pure Zigbee original scope which was networking and security layers.

In the context of RIPlink, it demonstrates again that many companies are working to achieve similar objectives as thoses offered by RIPlink. Combined with RIPlink UDP transport, Arch Rock proposal can be used as a way to transport Zigbee Applications on all type of non-IP networks.

Read the press release on this subject.