What is an M-Bus Gateway? Protocol Translation for Smart Meter Reading and Building Automation

What is an M-Bus Gateway?

An M-Bus gateway is a protocol converter that translates data from devices on an M-Bus (Meter-Bus) network into other industrial protocols, such as Modbus, BACnet, or MQTT.
M-Bus is a European standard (EN 13757) for reading consumption meters, including heat meters, water meters, gas meters, and electricity meters.
M-Bus gateways enable centralized monitoring, management, and integration of this data into building management systems (BMS), SCADA solutions, or IoT platforms.

What Does an M-Bus Gateway Do?

An M-Bus gateway acts as a bridge between the M-Bus network (where meters function as “slaves”) and another system that needs to read or visualize the data. The gateway performs the following tasks:

• Polling of meters on the M-Bus network
• Decoding and structuring of raw measurement data
• Translation into target protocols such as Modbus RTU/TCP, BACnet, JSON, or MQTT
• Data consolidation in the form of registers, objects, or data points
• Management of multiple M-Bus devices via a single interface

Why Use an M-Bus Gateway?

• Unified data collection from consumption meters in one system
• Compatibility with building management systems that do not natively support M-Bus
• Savings on cabling and hardware, since multiple meters can be connected through a single gateway
• Real-time insight into energy consumption and installation status
• Automation of billing or energy reporting

Typical Applications of M-Bus Gateways

• Building automation: integration of heat, water, or electricity meters into a BACnet- or Modbus-based BMS
• Energy monitoring and submetering: collecting data from multiple units per building, floor, or room
• Smart metering in residential or commercial buildings: tracking usage and costs per unit or zone
• Industry and production environments: analyzing consumption of processes, machines, or heating/cooling systems
• Remote monitoring via IoT networks: reading M-Bus data via MQTT or HTTPS to cloud platforms

Benefits of M-Bus Gateways

• Bi-directional communication: not just reading, but also remote configuration or resets
• Support for dozens of meters: one gateway can often manage 60 or more M-Bus slaves
• Flexible protocol support: Modbus RTU/TCP, BACnet/IP, JSON over HTTP(S), MQTT, REST APIs
• Local and remote connectivity: via RS232/RS485, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or LTE depending on the model
• Configuration via web interface or software tools: for easy mapping and diagnostics

More Information

Contact us at  +31 (0)85 0443500 or info@thingsdata.com, or explore our M-Bus solutions in the Thingsdata webshop.