MP170 Firmware updates to Point to Point Alt HAN Devices

Alternative Home Area Network (Alt HAN) is being developed to address situations where one, or both, of the gas meter or In Home Display (IHD) are out of range, using Point to Point (P2P) Alt HAN Devices.
Over-The-Air (OTA) firmware updates are used to deploy updates that either fix faults or provide new functionality to certain Devices. The Smart Energy Code (SEC) and its subsidiary documents facilitate OTA firmware updates to meters and the Gas Proxy Function (GPF) which is part of the Communications Hub. It also supports OTA updates for other Device types such as Prepayment Meter Interface Devices (PPMIDs) and HAN Connected Auxiliary Load Control Switches (HCALCS) but has no provision for P2P Alt HAN Devices.
This means that any new functionality that is developed to deploy security updates or improve the service to consumers can only be deployed by physical onsite exchanges. The result is higher costs, longer timescales, and more inconvenience to the consumer than if an OTA firmware update could have fixed the issue.

The Proposed Solution will re-use the OTA functionality that was developed as part of SECMP0007. To do this, the Alt HAN P2P Devices will join the HAN as if it were a PPMID. The Communications Hub will not be able to differentiate between a genuine PPMID and an Alt HAN P2P Device but the DSP and therefore Service Users will be able to. To facilitate this, DUIS will be updated to include a new “PPMID Variant” field that will be mapped to existing Service Requests used for PPMID firmware updates.
Service Users will use the existing SRVs for updating and reading firmware on PPMIDs and receive the same Alerts in response, but there will be additional data item to differentiate between a genuine PPMID and an Alt HAN P2P Device.

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Appendix AD ‘DCC User Interface Specification’
Schedule 11 ‘TS Applicability Tables’