LonMark - Standards

ISO/IEC Standarisation Update — 2008-11-09

The EN 14908 -series of standards was submitted for international standardisation by ISO and IEC's Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC1) by the US InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS). Voting by the national bodies concluded on 2008-05-21. The resulting, initial tally was not in favour of standardisation.

However, LonMark staff and member companies worked through the formal ISO/IEC process to resolve comments via a Ballot-Resolution Meeting (BRM) that was held on 09 October 2008 near München (Garching, Germany), which was intended to allow national bodies’ concerns to be addressed and to give the opportunity to national bodies to reconsider their inital votes through 2008-11-08. Only those preapproved by their national voting bodies were allowed to attend.

30-Day Period for the Opportunity to Change Votes:

The original voting national bodies had the right to change their votes in the 30 days following the BRM, though 2008-11-08. Any desired changes to an already submitted vote had to be sent to ISO/IEC in accordance with the rules of the BRM (given with the dissemination of the results) before the expiration of the 30-day review.

Participation at the BRM included 14 represented countries:
AT, BE, CA, CH, CZ, DE, FR, GR, IT, NL, NO, SE, UK, & US.

We want to say ‘thanks’ to all those who wrote letters of support to your national voting bodies. We now await the result of the final tally. We will post the results as soon as they are known to us. Formal information about the effort is available at the links below:

ISO/IEC DIS 14908-1 (Protocol):
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=50344

ISO/IEC DIS 14908-2 (Twisted-Pair media):
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=50358

ISO/IEC DIS 14908-3 (Powerline media):
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=50359

ISO/IEC DIS 14908-4 (IP Tunneling of the protocol):
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=50360

LonWorks® networks are based on a single, common protocol. The original implementation of this protocol on dedicated microprocessors (called "Neuron® Chips") is known as LonTalk®.

Toward the end of the 1990s, the protocol was standardized by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) in the CEA R7.1 committee. The standard has gone through a few revisions to improve it over time, and each revision was favorably voted-upon within the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Through the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), the protocol was standardized through the British Standards Institution as a European Norm by the CEN TC 247 committee.

Subsequently, the Standardization Administration of China ( "SAC") standardized the protocol through the SAC TC 124 committee.

Control-Network Protocol Specification

ANSI/CEA-709.1-B-2000 (IHS, Inc.) – LonWorks networking-protocol specification.
BS EN 14908-1:2005 (IHS Inc.) – LonWorks networking-protocol specification.
GB/Z 20177.1-2006 (no link available) (SAC) – LonWorks networking-protocol specification.

Transport Media (Transceiver Channels)

ANSI/CEA-709.2 – LonMark PL-20 power-line channel specification.
BS EN 14908-3 – LonMark PL-20 power-line channel specification.
GB/Z 20177.2 (no link available) – LonMark PL-20 power-line channel specification.
ANSI/CEA-709.3 – LonMark TP/FT-10 free-topology and bus twisted-pair channel specification.
BS EN 14908-2 – LonMark TP/FT-10 free-topology and bus twisted-pair channel specification.
GB/Z 20177.3 (no link available) – LonMark TP/FT-10 free-topology and bus twisted-pair channel specification.
ANSI/CEA-709.4 – LonMark FO-20S and FO-20L fiber-optic (lightwave) channel specification.
ANSI/CEA-852 – LonMark IP-852 Internet-tunneling channel specification.
BS EN 14908-4 – LonMark IP-852 Internet-tunneling channel specification.
GB/Z 20177.4 (no link available) – LonMark IP-852 Internet-tunneling channel specification.

NOTE: Echelon Corporation (the creators of the protocol) offer a free-of-charge reference implementation for the previous ANSI/EIA/CEA-709.1-A-1999 specification (opens into a new window) .

Several other organizations reference one of the above protocol standards within their own standards and/or within their own guidelines/recommendations. Those include but are not limited to AAR (opens into a new window) , CECED, IEEE, IFSF, SEMI, and others.

Interested in submitting a transfer-media channel for consideration?
Technical Resources > Guides & Specifications > Additional Guidelines -
“Guidelines for adoption of new LonMark communication channels”

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