Collection of SANS standards in electronic format (PDF)

1. Copyright

This standard is available to staff members of companies that have subscribed to the
complete collection of SANS standards in accordance with a formal copyright
agreement. This document may reside on a CENTRAL FILE SERVER or INTRANET
SYSTEM only. Unless specific permission has been granted, this document MAY NOT
be sent or given to staff members from other companies or organizations. Doing so
would constitute a VIOLATION of SABS copyright rules.

2. Indemnity

The South African Bureau of Standards accepts no liability for any damage whatsoever
than may result from the use of this material or the information contain therein,
irrespective of the cause and quantum thereof.

I agree with the above

This standard may only be used and printed by approved subscription and freemailing clients of the SABS.

ICS 29.240.99;140.50 NRS 009-6-4:1998

ISBN 0-626-11776-3 First edition

Rationalized User Specification

ELECTRICITY SALES SYSTEMS —

Part 6: Interface standards

Section 4: Data transfer by physical

media — System master station —
Credit dispensing unit

Preferred requirements for applications in

the Electricity Supply Industry

N R S
 This standard may only be used and printed by approved subscription and freemailing clients of the SABS.

This Rationalized User Specification is

issued by the NRS Project
on behalf of the
User Group given in the foreword
and is not a standard as contemplated in the Standards Act, 1993 (Act 29 of 1993).

Rationalized user specifications allow user

organizations to define the performance and quality
requirements of relevant equipment.

Rationalized user specifications may, after a certain

application period, be introduced as national standards.

Amendments issued since publication

Amdt No. Date Text affected

Correspondence to be directed to Printed copies obtainable from

South African Bureau of Standards South African Bureau of Standards

(Electrotechnical Standards) Private Bag X191
Private Bag X191 Pretoria 0001
Pretoria 0001
Telephone: (012) 428-7911
Fax: (012) 344-1568
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.sabs.co.za

COPYRIGHT RESERVED

Printed on behalf of the NRS Project in the Republic of South Africa

by the South African Bureau of Standards
1 Dr Lategan Road, Groenkloof, Pretoria
 This standard may only be used and printed by approved subscription and freemailing clients of the SABS.

1 NRS 009-6-4:1998

Contents
Page

Foreword ............................................................................................................ 2

Key words ........................................................................................................... 5

1 Scope ............................................................................................................ 5

2 Normative references ...................................................................................... 5

3 Definitions and abbreviations ........................................................................... 5

4 Requirements ................................................................................................. 5

4.1 General ................................................................................................ 5

4.2 File formats ........................................................................................... 6
4.3 Disk sequence and control ..................................................................... 6
 This standard may only be used and printed by approved subscription and freemailing clients of the SABS.

NRS 009-6-4:1998 2

Foreword
This section of NRS 009-6 has been prepared on behalf of the Electricity Suppliers Liaison Committee
(ESLC) and has been approved by it for use by supply authorities.

NRS 009 is based on Eskom specification MC114, Requirements specification for a common vending
system for electricity dispensing systems, and consists of the following parts, under the general title
Electricity sales systems:

Part 1: Glossary and system overview (withdrawn; superseded by SABS 1524-0)

Part 2: Functional and performance requirements

Section 1: System master stations
Section 2: Credit dispensing units
Section 3: Security modules
Section 4: Standard token translators
Section 5: Error handling

Part 3: Database format

Part 4: National electricity meter cards and associated numbering standards

Section 1: National electricity meter cards
Section 2: National electricity meter numbers

Part 5: Testing of subsystems

Part 6: Interface standards

Section 1: Credit dispensing unit  Standard token translator interface
Section 2: System master station  Main frame (suspended; see annex A of NRS 009-2-1)
Section 3: System master station  Credit dispensing unit (previously NRS 009-3)
Section 4: Data transfer by physical media  System master station  Credit dispensing
unit
Section 5: Not allocated
Section 6: Standard transfer specification/Credit dispensing unit  Electricity dispenser 
Categories of token and transaction data fields
Section 7: Standard transfer specification/Credit dispensing unit  Electricity dispenser 
Token encoding and data encryption and decryption
Section 8: Standard transfer specification/Disposable magnetic token technology  Token
encoding format and physical token definition
Section 9: Standard transfer specification/Numeric token technology  Token encoding
format and physical token definition

Part 7: Key management (under consideration)

ISBN 0-626-11776-3
 This standard may only be used and printed by approved subscription and freemailing clients of the SABS.

3 NRS 009-6-4:1998

This section of NRS 009-6 was prepared by a Working Group which comprised the following members:

M J van Rensburg (Chairman) City of Cape Town, Electricity Department

L D M de Wet Boksburg City Council, Electricity Department
R L Green Eskom (Measurement and Control)
B G Hampton Cape Provincial Administration
P A Johnson (Project Leader) NRS Project
E Joubert Benoni City Council, Electricity Department
R Kaplan NRS Project
V Patel Durban Electricity
V E Rengecas SABS
A Scott Durban Electricity
R Stead Eskom (ESS)
G Stirling City of Port Elizabeth, Electricity Department
K van den Berg City of Bloemfontein, Electricity Department
D van Reenen Johannesburg Electricity

A Manufacturers’ Interest Group (MIG) was consulted on the contents of this section of NRS 009-6. The
MIG comprised the following members:

R Hill Integrators of System Technology

R Lewis Plessey SA
D Maré GEC Alsthom Measurements
A McDonald Conlog
G Scott UEC Projects
P Soteriou Ash Electronic Industries
D Taylor AEG Energy Control
B Whayman Energy Measurements Limited

The Working Group was appointed by the ESLC, which, at the time of approval, comprised the following
members:

R Wienand (Chairman) Durban Transitional Metropolitan Council, AMEU

B F Berwyn-Taylor City Electrical Engineer, Cape Town, AMEU
A J Claasen Manager, Electrical Engineering Standards, SABS
R W Curtis JCI, for Chamber of Mines of South Africa
J A Ehrich City Electrical Engineer, Pretoria, AMEU
A H L Fortmann City Electrical Engineer, Boksburg, AMEU
R B Gwilt City Electrical Engineer, Port Elizabeth, AMEU
D F Hunt Corporate Technology Standardization Manager, Eskom
I P Kruger Director, Department of Electrical Engineering, SABS
A R Lock Executive Officer, Metropolitan Electricity, Greater Johannesburg TMC,
AMEU
J G Malan City Electrical Engineer, Kempton Park, AMEU
J Maroga Distribution Technology Manager, Eskom
A J van der Merwe City Electrical Engineer, Bloemfontein, AMEU
H R Whitehead Executive Director, Durban Electricity, AMEU

Recommendations for corrections, additions or deletions should be addressed to the NRS Project
Manager, c/o SABS, Private Bag X191, Pretoria, 0001.

Key words
Electricity sales systems; Interface standards; Data transfer; Credit dispensing unit; Stiffy disk.
 This standard may only be used and printed by approved subscription and freemailing clients of the SABS.

NRS 009-6-4:1998 4

This page intentionally left blank

 This standard may only be used and printed by approved subscription and freemailing clients of the SABS.

5 NRS 009-6-4:1998

SPECIFICATION

Electricity sales systems

Part 6: Interface standards

Section 4: Data transfer by physical media — System master station —

Credit dispensing unit

Requirements for applications in the Electricity Supply Industry

1 Scope
This section of NRS 009-6 specifies the interface for the transfer of data from a system master station
(SMS) to a credit dispensing unit (CDU), using stiffy disks.

2 Normative references
The following standard and specifications contain provisions which, through reference in this text,
constitute provisions of this section of NRS 009-6. At the time of publication, the editions indicated were
valid. All standards and specifications are subject to revision, and parties to agreements based on this
section of NRS 009-6 are encouraged to investigate the possibility of applying the most recent editions of
the documents listed below. Information on currently valid national and international standards and
specifications can be obtained from the South African Bureau of Standards.

NRS 009-2-5:1997, Electricity sales systems — Part 2: Functional and performance requirements —
Section 5: Error handling.

NRS 009-6-3:1997, Electricity sales systems — Part 6: Interface standards — Section 3: System
master station — Credit dispensing unit.

SABS 1524-0:1997, Electricity dispensing systems — Part 0: Glossary of terms and system
overview.

3 Definitions and abbreviations

For the purposes of this section of NRS 009-6, the definitions and abbreviations given in SABS 1524-0
apply.

4 Requirements

4.1 General

A common vending system (CVS) might consist of a group of credit dispensing units (CDUs) linked to a
system master station (SMS). Data shall be transferred between the SMS and the CDUs, using either
telephone modems or stiffy disks. This section of NRS 009-6 covers the stiffy disk transfer and provides
details of the format of the data stored on a stiffy disk that shall be used to transfer data between the CDU
and the SMS.
 This standard may only be used and printed by approved subscription and freemailing clients of the SABS.

NRS 009-6-4:1998 6

The disk shall contain customer records and a CDU configuration file for downloading to the CDU. The
CDU will read these files and save its transaction and engineering records to the disk. Data security shall
be managed by the use of a message authentication code (MAC), generated in the same way as in NRS
009-6-3, for each record in each file. The SMS and the CDU will read each record and compute the
MAC. If the MAC is correct, the message will be regarded as authentic, otherwise the record will be
rejected. Confirmation of received transaction and engineering records (advice files) will also be
transferred to the CDU by the SMS. The transaction and engineering records will not be deleted on the
CDU until this confirmation has been received.

4.2 File formats

Each file shall be an ASCII file that contains sequential records. Each record shall have a 64-bit MAC
appended to it, which shall be generated as specified in NRS 009-6-3. The five-digit record number shall
be included in the MAC calculation. The fields in the record shall be in the order as specified in NRS 009-
6-3 for each type of file. The file formats are specified in 4.8 of NRS 009-6-3.

4.3 Disk sequence and control

4.3.1 Header file

Each disk shall have a header file (in the format: Sequence.dat) that contains the following data:

a) the disk sequence number (from 1 to the number of disks);

b) a flag indication of whether or not this is the last disk (0 or 1);

c) the number of files on the disk (0 if no files); and

d) the filename and size of the file (this will be repeated for the number of files on the disk).

For each disk transfer session, the first disk shall be allocated sequence number 1. The sequence
number shall be incremented for subsequent disks. The handling of sequence errors is described in NRS
009-2-5.

4.3.2 SMS disk initialization

The header file shall be written by the SMS on initialization of each disk. The SMS will act as the master,
with the CDU as a slave device. All disks will be formatted and initialized by the SMS. The SMS will create
a header file as described in 4.3.1.

The SMS will generate a customer file and any CDU configuration changes (in tariffs, etc.) for the CDU,
and will write these files to the disk in the format described in NRS 009-6-3.

4.3.3 CDU disk actions

The CDU will read the header file of a disk and will reject the disk if its contents do not correspond to the
information given in the header file.

The CDU will verify that the first disk’s sequence number is 1 and that the disks inserted are in sequence.
For each disk inserted, the CDU will read the header file and copy the files specified in the header file to
its hard disk. Files can span more than one disk and will be rebuilt by the CDU on its hard disk before
being processed. Only when all disks in the transfer session have been copied will the CDU start
processing.

The files downloaded to the CDU will contain a CDU ID. If this CDU ID does not match the CDU’s ID, the
user will be prompted for a confirmation to overwrite the downloaded CDU ID.
 This standard may only be used and printed by approved subscription and freemailing clients of the SABS.

7 NRS 009-6-4:1998

For files written to disk(s) by the CDU (i.e. upload files containing advice files and transaction and
engineering records), the CDU shall rewrite the data in header files (see 4.3.1), as required.

4.3.4 Measures to prevent corruption of data and loss of data

Data cannot be tampered with or lost, for the following reasons:

a) each record in both the download and the upload files contains a MAC field which would detect any
modifications;

b) all transactions and engineering records have unique sequence numbers to prevent duplication of
records; and

c) transactions and engineering records are only deleted from the data stored in the CDU after a receipt
acknowledgement from the SMS.

4.3.5 Transfer disk errors

The handling of transfer disks errors is described in NRS 009-2-5.

sabs pta