DLMS/COSEM Driver

dc3-driver-dlms connects DLMS/COSEM metering devices (electricity, water, gas, and heat meters) to IoT DC3: it targets OBIS codes, acts as a DLMS client to the meter, and periodically reads COSEM object attribute values. By the end of this page you will understand how DLMS/COSEM addresses data, how to fill the protocol attributes on a device and its points correctly, and exactly where this driver's implementation currently stops.

You are here: the "meter" onboarding side of field devices. To understand why metering protocols form their own world and where OBIS codes sit in the network layer, start with Industrial Buses & Protocols.

Protocol Background

DLMS/COSEM (Device Language Message Specification / Companion Specification for Energy Metering) is the international standard protocol for utility metering of electricity, water, gas, and heat, corresponding to the IEC 62056 / EN 13757-1 standard series and maintained by the DLMS User Association. It is the de facto common language between meter-reading systems, energy-management platforms, and smart meters: a large share of smart meters, concentrators, and data terminals in Europe and China speak it.

The biggest difference between DLMS/COSEM and protocols like Modbus or CIP is its object-oriented addressing model:

• Modbus addresses by register — you must know which holding register a value lives in (e.g. 40001); the address is a raw number.
• DLMS/COSEM addresses by object + OBIS code — each readable quantity in the meter (active energy, voltage, clock, …) is modeled as a COSEM object, uniquely identified by a 6-field OBIS code (such as 1.0.1.8.0.255); each object in turn has several numbered attributes, where attribute 2 is usually the "present value." Reading a quantity means "locate the object by OBIS code, fetch the value by attribute number."

This "object + code" model makes metering semantics highly standardized — 1.0.1.8.0.255 means "total active energy" in any compliant electricity meter, portable across vendors; the price is that before onboarding you must look up the OBIS code and object type of each quantity.

In the four-layer IoT architecture, DLMS/COSEM belongs to the metering side of the network layer: it solves "how a meter sends metering data out with standard semantics," sitting above the sensing layer (metering chips/transducers) and below the platform layer (IoT DC3 aggregation). The diagram below places OBIS code-based addressing within a single collection:

The driver uses the Gurux DLMS library (GXDLMSClient) to build and decode DLMS frames, acting as a client over TCP or serial to connect to the meter, reading the matching attribute value by the OBIS code configured on each point and unifying it as a PointValue sent upstream.

Attribute Configuration

DLMS/COSEM onboarding parameters come in two layers: driver attributes (driver-attribute) describe "which meter, which transport and authentication" and are filled on the device; point attributes (point-attribute) describe "which object, which attribute" and are filled on each Point. The defaults of all of these come from the driver's application.yml; for the three-layer origin see Attributes and Config. DLMS/COSEM is read-only metering semantics, so this driver provides no write commands and there are no command attributes (command-attribute is empty).

Driver Attributes (device-level driver-attribute)

When onboarding a meter, first state its transport and network/serial location on the device, then fill the client/server addresses and authentication of the DLMS session. transportType decides TCP versus serial and selects one of two mutually exclusive connection groups; clientAddress / serverAddress identify the two ends of the DLMS session; authentication / password decide the privilege at which the association is established.

Attribute	code	Type	Default	Description
Transport Type	transportType	STRING	TCP	Transport type (TCP, SERIAL)
Host	host	STRING	localhost	Remote device address (TCP mode)
Port	port	INT	4059	Remote device port (TCP mode, DLMS standard 4059)
Serial Port	serialPort	STRING	/dev/ttyUSB0	Serial port path (SERIAL mode)
Baud Rate	baudRate	INT	9600	Baud rate (SERIAL mode)
Client Address	clientAddress	INT	16	DLMS client address (public client=16)
Server Address	serverAddress	INT	1	DLMS server address
Authentication	authentication	STRING	NONE	Authentication method (NONE, LOW, HIGH)
Password	password	STRING	(empty)	Authentication password (used with LOW/HIGH)

TCP or SERIAL, pick one

With transportType=TCP, only host / port are used; with transportType=SERIAL, only serialPort / baudRate are used. The other group is ignored under the current transport and need not be removed. clientAddress / serverAddress / authentication / password apply to both modes.

clientAddress=16 is the public client

clientAddress=16 is the DLMS "public client," which most meters allow to read basic metering quantities with NONE authentication. To read protected objects (such as load profiles or parameter configuration), switch to a higher-privilege client address and raise authentication to LOW / HIGH with a password.

validate() checks only five required fields

The driver's validate() lists transportType / host / port / clientAddress / serverAddress as required; serialPort / baudRate / authentication / password are not in the required check (fill as needed). Validation only checks "whether a value is present," not whether the transport type and the filled parameters are consistent — see Troubleshooting below.

Point Attributes (point-attribute)

Each collected point must state which COSEM object to read and which attribute of that object to fetch. The OBIS code locates "which quantity to read," and the attribute number locates "which facet of that quantity to take."

Attribute	code	Type	Default	Description
Object Type	objectType	STRING	REGISTER	DLMS object type (REGISTER, CLOCK, DATA, etc.)
Logical Name	logicalName	STRING	(empty)	Object logical name / OBIS code (e.g. 1.0.1.8.0.255)
Attribute ID	attributeId	INT	2	Attribute ID (2=Present Value)

The OBIS code locates "which quantity to read"

logicalName is a 6-part OBIS code uniquely identifying one metering quantity in the meter — for example 1.0.1.8.0.255 is "total active energy" and 1.0.32.7.0.255 is "phase A voltage." objectType tells the driver which COSEM interface class the object is (REGISTER metering register, CLOCK clock, DATA generic data, etc.), and attributes mean different things across interface classes. attributeId=2 reads the object's "present value" attribute. The Point's own data type (Point pointTypeFlag) must match the actual type of the object attribute.

validatePoint() checks only objectType

Point validation lists only objectType as required; logicalName defaults to empty, but leaving it empty means no object can be located. Be sure to fill the actual OBIS code on every collected point.

Collection and Health

• Collection cycle: default read cron 0/30 * * * * ? (reads once every 30 seconds).
• Custom schedule: schedule.custom is enabled in the yml (cron 0/5 * * * * ?), but the current schedule() method body is empty and performs no custom logic.
• Health / online: device health check default cron 0/15 * * * * ?, lease timeout 45 seconds — see Device for the online-state mechanism.

Troubleshooting

DLMS/COSEM onboarding failures mostly fall into two buckets: "transport not matched" and "object not located." Work through them from the outside in.

Transport type and connection parameters do not match

host / port only take effect under transportType=TCP, and serialPort / baudRate only under SERIAL. validate() does not catch a "transport vs parameters" mismatch — if you set transportType to SERIAL but only filled in host, the driver follows the serial branch and looks for serialPort, failing to reach the meter. When changing the transport type, remember to fill the corresponding group of attributes.

TCP port or firewall: 4059 unreachable

The standard port for DLMS over TCP is 4059 — different from Modbus's 502 and IEC 104's 2404, so do not carry those over. First confirm host:4059 is reachable from the driver host (telnet <host> 4059 or nc -vz <host> 4059). Common causes: the meter/concentrator does not expose the DLMS port, the network is not routed, or a firewall blocks

Serial path or baud rate mismatch

In serial mode, serialPort (e.g. /dev/ttyUSB0) must be a device node that really exists on the driver host, and the current user must have read/write permission (on Linux you often need to add the user to the dialout group). baudRate must match the meter's setting (common metering rates are 300 / 9600 / 19200); a mismatch means frames cannot be parsed correctly.

OBIS code or object type mismatch, quantity not located

logicalName must match an object that actually exists in the meter verbatim, and objectType must match that object's real COSEM interface class. Configuring a CLOCK (clock) object as REGISTER, or entering an OBIS code that the meter does not have, both fail the read. Before onboarding, check each quantity's code and object type against the vendor's object list (OBIS table).

Insufficient authentication, protected objects refused

The public client at clientAddress=16 can usually read only basic metering quantities. When reading protected objects such as load profiles, event logs, or parameters, still using the public client or authentication=NONE makes the meter refuse the association or the read. Switch to a higher-privilege client address and raise authentication to LOW / HIGH with the correct password.

Online state is not evidence that data was collected

health() only checks whether the driver has cached a GXDLMSClient object for the device — it does no real connectivity probe — and in the current implementation the connection cache is never populated (the transport layer is pending, see below). To judge whether data is really being collected, rely on whether the PointValue updates, not on the device online state.

How It Lands in IoT DC3

• dc3.driver.code: DlmsDriver (a stable routing identifier — registration and message routing both rely on it, do not change it casually). Driver name DLMS/COSEM Driver, type DRIVER_CLIENT (the driver actively connects to the meter).
• Read: metering semantics — it is meant to read COSEM attributes by OBIS code on the collection cycle — but the current read() throws ReadPointException directly; the collection trunk is not yet wired (see the skeleton note below).
• Write: not provided. DLMS/COSEM is read-only metering in this driver; command-attribute is empty and write() throws WritePointException directly.
• Subscribe / push: not supported. This driver actively polls on the collection cycle and does not listen for meter-initiated pushes.

Aligned with the Driver Capability Matrix: in the matrix DLMS is marked — for read/write/subscribe, with the note "smart meter, transport pending."

Work in progress (skeleton)

This driver is a protocol skeleton, earlier-stage than drivers whose "upper flow is wired and only framing is missing": the Gurux client (GXDLMSClient) can generate DLMS frames, but the transport send/receive and HDLC handshake are not yet implemented, so neither the read nor the write trunk is wired:

• read() / write() throw "not implemented" exceptions (ReadPointException / WritePointException) to fail fast, so the SDK records the failure and applies connection backoff rather than returning a cached or fabricated value;
• health() only checks whether the internal connection cache clientMap contains the device, not a real protocol probe; and since that cache is never populated in the current implementation, devices will not actually show online;
• the schedule() method body is empty, so the custom scheduled task enabled in the yml runs no logic for now.

Treat it as a starting template for onboarding a new meter, not a production-ready driver. The attribute tables and schedules below are taken verbatim from the real application.yml and are safe to fill in; but for the actual read behavior, consult the read() / write() / initial() source in DlmsDriverCustomServiceImpl.

The minimal path to onboard a DLMS/COSEM electricity meter (to validate the configuration flow, not for production collection):

1. Create a device with DLMS/COSEM Driver, and set the driver attributes transportType=TCP, host=192.168.1.20, port=4059, clientAddress=16, serverAddress=1, authentication=NONE.
2. Add an energy Point (pointTypeFlag=DOUBLE, READ_ONLY) to the Profile bound to the device, and set the point attributes objectType=REGISTER, logicalName=1.0.1.8.0.255, attributeId=2.
3. Start the driver and watch the logs; the current read() throws ReadPointException directly, so the SDK records a read failure and backs off, and no value appears in PointValue for now — a real value is only collected once the transport layer is completed.

For the complete onboarding procedure, see Device Onboarding.

Further Reading

• Drivers Overview — entry point for driver categories and selection
• Driver Capability Matrix — read/write/subscribe capabilities and implementation status at a glance
• Device Onboarding — a complete device onboarding flow
• Industrial Buses & Protocols — the metering side of the network layer; OBIS object addressing and how it compares to other protocols