HAN Gateway Architectures

HAN Gateway Architectures

Recent reports predict that 100 million smart meters will be deployed in the next five years and that half of these will have a built-in Home Area Network (HAN) gateway for in-home energy management programs and services. ON World’s survey of 77 utilities in the United States also found that 21% are planning to integrate a HAN gateway into every smart meter deployed.

The HAN enables energy efficiency, demand response, and direct load control in a Smart Grid deployment. Behavioral energy efficiency utilizing real-time meter data, technology-enabled dynamic pricing, and deterministic direct load control are examples of demand-side management applications that are enabled by high bandwidth, two-way, end-to-end communications in the Smart Grid. A Smart Grid that incorporates energy efficiency and demand response increases its value as a long-term infrastructure investment and reduces the time required to achieve a satisfactory return on investment in the short-term.

The main architectural question, though, is whether to integrate the HAN gateway function into the smart meter. The rapid evolution of the underlying HAN radio communications protocols, as well as the HAN applications they support, introduces a need for a system architecture that can evolve with HAN technology. The two viable HAN gateway architectures (integration into the smart meter and the dedicated in-home gateway device) are evaluated in our new white paper, The Home Area Network: Architectural Considerations for Rapid Innovation.