Open Standard LON® Communications Protocol to Run Over Wireless Mesh for the First Time

SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Internet of Things pioneer Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON) today announced that the company's new Neuron 6050 multi-protocol system on a chip is being used by who Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH to create a new transceiver that leverages Wirepas Connectivity RF-mesh wireless technology for the first time. The Neuron 6050 IP Processor incorporates communication and control functions on a single chip, in both hardware and firmware, to facilitate the design of LonTalk^®, LonTalk/IP or BACnet/IP devices. The new LON-over-Wirepas solution enables system integrators to build large scale, truly interoperable wireless systems based on protocols that have been tested over millions of endpoints worldwide. In a first application, Vossloh-Schwabe will incorporate the new device into a large scale outdoor lighting controls (OLC) system. 

Working with who mbH, Vossloh-Schwabe (VS), a division of Panasonic, has designed the system using Wirepas for large scale wireless Internet of Things (IoT) applications, including smart city street lighting with thousands of nodes. VS and who mbH are currently testing the new solution using Wirepas and expect to complete a project in a large city in Germany early next year that will empower approximately 1000 streetlights with the new technology over a 10 kilometer span. The companies have begun the process of submitting this new LON-over-Wirepas specification to the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and to LonMark International for standardization, with adoption of the new LonMark channel expected early next year.  

"The Wirepas and LonWorks protocols are organized in similar fashion so creating the interface between them was simplified," said who mbH managing partner, Henning Woock. "And using the Echelon Neuron 6050 chip was the most natural choice to ensure full multi-vendor interoperability. We are excited to be the first to bring to market new transceivers that incorporate all of these excellent technologies. There is pent-up demand in big cities and campuses that have been waiting for a solution that can efficiently address large and complex networks of devices from multiple suppliers." 

Wirepas technology has been widely deployed in various large scale applications including smart electricity and water meters, asset tracking applications and street lighting. The largest deployment, which is ongoing, comprises 1.6 million smart electricity meters in Norway.

"This advancement in controls communication demonstrates the ongoing benefit of LON standardization and leverages our investment in the new Neuron 6050 system on a chip," said Ron Sege, Chairman and CEO of Echelon. "This is a groundbreaking development. For the first time LON protocol can be used to communicate wirelessly over large scale networks spanning thousands of nodes over vast distances."

"We are delighted to see these exciting new products that will be joining the LonMark family of fully interoperable solutions," said Henny Wieland, Europe Manager, LonMark International. "Working with our members, we anticipate bringing the new LonMark RF, Powerline, and IP channels to the various international standards bodies as extensions to the ISO/IEC 14908 suite of LON standards."

About Echelon

For 25 years Echelon (NASDAQ:ELON) has pioneered the development of open-standard networking platforms for connecting, monitoring and controlling devices in commercial and industrial applications. With more than 110 million devices installed worldwide, Echelon's proven, scalable solutions host a range of applications enabling customers to reduce energy and operational costs, improve safety and comfort, and create efficiencies through optimizing physical systems. Echelon is focusing today on two IoT (Internet of Things) market areas: Creating smart cities and smart enterprises through connected outdoor lighting systems, and enabling device makers to bring connected products to market faster via a range of IoT-optimized embedded systems. More information about Echelon can be found at Echelon.com. 

About Vossloh-Schwabe

Whenever a light goes on around the world, Vossloh-Schwabe is likely to have made a decisive contribution to ensuring everything works at the flick of a switch. Headquartered in Germany, Vossloh-Schwabe has been a member of the global Panasonic Group since 2002 and counts as a technology leader within the lighting sector. This success is based on the quality and efficiency of our products. The product range covers the entire spectrum of lighting technology components of LED systems with optimally matching control gear and highly efficient optical systems, modern control systems (LiCS) as well as electronic and magnetic ballasts and lampholders. The future of the company is geared towards smart lighting. https://www.vossloh-schwabe.com/en/home.html

About who Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH

who mbH is an owner-managed enterprise from Lübeck which was founded in 1995. As a development partner for customized hardware, software, and firmware who mbH operates on a Europe-wide scale for customers in the industry, building, and medical automation sectors. who mbH started up with LonWorks^®-based developments for the building automation sector. Today who mbH develops customized system solutions using a wide range of bus systems and the most modern tools as well as the most innovative technologies. who mbH is a system developer and covers the full product lifecycle, from the initial consultation to the delivery of the product ready for use. In addition, who mbH is disposed to provide support for the product maintenance and supply product updates and product enhancements.  http://who-ing.de/home/

About Wirepas

Wirepas is a privately owned company with headquarters in Tampere, Finland and offices in France, Germany, South Korea, Australia and the United States. Wirepas was established 2010 and has its roots at Tampere University of Technology where a ten-year research project was conducted around the radio frequency mesh technology.  Today, Wirepas focuses on large-scale industrial IoT applications such as smart metering, sensoring, beaconing, logistics, asset tracking and lighting. http://www.wirepas.com

About LonMark International

LonMark International is a global membership organization created to promote and advance the business of efficient and effective integration of open, multi-vendor control systems utilizing ISO/IEC 14908-1 and related standards.  http://www.lonmark.org/

Echelon, the Echelon logo, Neuron 6050, LON, and LonTalk are trademarks of Echelon Corporation that may be registered in the United States and other countries. Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

This press release may contain statements relating to future plans, events or performance. Such statements may involve risks and uncertainties, the risk that Echelon's offerings by themselves or combined with other applications or offerings do not perform as designed or do not offer the expected benefits and savings; and other risks identified in Echelon's SEC filings. Actual results, events and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Echelon undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

CONTACT:
Thomas Cook
Echelon Corp.
[email protected]

SOURCE Echelon Corporation

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