Freescale demoed the radio at ESC Boston last week. The MC12311 can connect smart meters to remote displays that show consumption data and thermostats that help control energy use.

Pike Research predicts 535 million smart meters will be deployed worldwide by 2015, of which approximately 50 percent of them will use wireless mesh technology. The MC12311 can also be tied to ultra-low-power medical sensors worn on the body, wireless building sensors that detect temperature and humidity, garage door openers and general cable/wire replacement.

The radio's very low power is suitable for battery operated devices, according to Freescale: the M12311 has low-power features such as 100nA with radio configuration retention, 16 mA Rx current, 20 mA Tx current at 0 dBm and 33 mA Tx current at +10 dBm. The MC12311 platform supports multiple sub-1 GHz standards including Wireless M-Bus, 802.15.4g and other proprietary offerings.

Freescale will be demonstrating an In-Home Energy Display during Metering Europe this week at in the RAI Convention Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, this week. In this demo, the IHED receives data from a smart meter through wireless M-Bus communication running on the MC12311 smart radio.