TN Note:Â In the beginning of Smart Grid rollout, there was outright denial that it would ever be used to control or monitor a person’s home or business. This writer knew different because monitoring and control was the exact specification of original Technocracy from the 1930s. This article spells out the components that will create a nexus of control: smart meters, smart cities and the Internet of Things.
Trilliant has unveiled the newly enhanced, multi-technology and multi-purpose Smart Communications Platform to help utilities and cities deliver smart grid and smart city benefits.
Having worked with leading utilities and cities globally who collectively serve more than 100 million customers, Trilliant understands that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to infrastructure modernization. Each utility and city has different priorities, opportunities, challenges and regulatory environments. Some may want to start with advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to improve operational efficiency and consumer engagement, while others want to start with distribution automation (DA) to enhance reliability. Still others, especially in developing countries, may want to start by better addressing non-technical losses and achieve revenue protection first. Utilities may also approach deployments differently: some may prefer mass deployments while others want to start with targeted deployments first. No matter what the priorities and approaches are, many understand that it is important to put in the right Smart Communications Platform from the beginning, to immediately address their challenges today, while at the same time putting in the right foundation to enable other applications as needs evolve in the future.
The newly enhanced Trilliant Smart Communications Platform is developed with this in mind. It is a multi-technology, multi-purpose Smart Communications Platform that addresses utilities’ needs today while giving them the options and flexibility for tomorrow. For those utilities who want to focus on distribution automation first, Trilliant offers the high-bandwidth, low-latency, private 5.8GHz WAN/FAN Mesh network suitable for advanced DA applications.
For those utilities who want to deploy mass AMI deployments, Trilliant offers the private 2.4GHz NAN Mesh network. For those utilities operating in a highly-deregulated environments and prefer a public network, Trilliant also offers the public cellular-based AMI network. To further provide utilities with even more options and flexibility, Trilliant recently added RPMA technology to its platform, best suited for targeted deployments or hard-to-reach areas. The breadth and depth of the multi-technology, multi-purpose Trilliant Smart Communications Platform give utilities the most options and flexibility to choose the technology that best fit their priorities today while preparing them for the opportunities of tomorrow.
Truly Open Platform
One of the hallmarks of the Trilliant Smart Communications Platform is its flexibility, enabling utilities and cities to choose any best-of-breed application and device vendors from our strong ecosystem of partners, be it AMI, DA, Smart Cities or Analytics. The powerful Trilliant Smart Communications Platform uses Common Information Model (CIM) on the application and analytics side to enable AMI, DA, Smart Cities and analytics partners to interface seamlessly.
On the device side, the Trilliant Smart Communications Platform uses Common Communications Modules to allow the seamless integration with any network device, be it DA devices, electric meters, water meters, gas meters, smart street lights or other smart devices in the future. Unlike other communications platforms who use proprietary standards, the Trilliant Smart Communications Platform leverages globally-available, open standards to give utilities and cities the most options and flexibility to choose best-of-breed application, analytics and network device that best fit their needs.
By supporting standard protocols and interfaces, the Trilliant Smart Communications Platform is “application-aware” and “device agnostic”, providing utilities and cities the widest variety of applications, analytics and devices to choose from, all on one powerful network.
The company’s 5.8 GHz WAN/FAN offers utilities a 54 MBps backbone network capable of supporting AMI, DA and other demanding smart applications. This high bandwidth comes with very low 7 millisecond latency required for advanced DA applications. The company’s NAN platform operates in the globally-available 2.4 GHz spectrum and delivers superior performance with peak data rates of 800 Kbps and 80 MHz of optimized use of the available bandwidth, maximizing capacity and throughput. Moreover, the Trilliant Platform also offers cellular and RPMA networks for those utilities who look for suitable solutions for targeted deployments or hard-to-reach areas. The integrated, multi-technology, multi-purpose Trilliant Platform gives utilities and cities the ability to manage various “smart” deployments and meet different performance standards/service levels on one powerful platform.
Industrial-Grade, End-to-End Security
The Trilliant Smart Communications Platform offers utilities a high level of security, confidentiality and data privacy for every device on the network and meets the most stringent regulations of leading industry-governing bodies worldwide. It utilizes industry-standard protocols at the link, network and application layers to create an environment that secures individual devices, groups of devices and separate application domains operating on a single network. The Platform uses industry-standard Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Virtual Private Network (VPN) methods to deliver a proven security solution.
Device-Level Intelligence at Scale
The platform is architected to support any Smart Grid (AMI, DA, DSM), Smart City and Internet of Things (IoT) application, today and tomorrow. Every node on the Trilliant network is capable of edge-intelligence with the computing power and memory to support customized applications across the network. Partitioning of application domains allows multiple applications to be supported, each with its own independent security and Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. The Platform’s scalability ensures performance and reliability with millions of devices on the network.
wpDiscuz