Remote - Spring 2016 - (Page 10)

Feature Article One Network to Rule Them All Fai Lam, Enterprise & Public Sector Product Director, IP Routing & Transport Alcatel-Lucent A hot topic in recent years in the information and communications technology (ICT) world is the concept of the Internet of Things, or IoT, where virtually every device we interact with in our daily lives is connected to a communications network. This connection provides ways to manage those devices remotely and allows them to share and exchange information, interact with other devices and applications and perform certain tasks autonomously. This idea has taken hold in the consumer world, exemplified by the development of a connected refrigerator capable of sending text messages to remind you that you are low on milk, or a home thermostat that can be instructed to switch on the heater when you head home from the office. These kinds of services are already becoming mainstream using connections typically established over broadband networks, fixed or wireless, supported by commercial service providers. And for such 'low impact' services, this approach makes perfect sense. The consequence of someone failing to receive a text to pick up milk is not earth-shattering, after all. However, in many facets of our lives, these kinds of commercial connections will not be sufficient to meet the demanding requirements of smarter, more 'mission-critical' services. Think of all the fundamental services national, state and local authorities and public service organizations rely on to keep our communities safe, transport people and goods from place to place and keep the lights on and ensure that our houses and apartments are warm in winter and cool in summer. These services demand networks that are truly reliable, resilient and more or less bullet-proof. Increasingly, the kinds of services described above depend on remote sites with components and sensors, which are essential to the delivery of mission-critical services. From new Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) deployed in utility distribution grids to enhance performance and safety to closed circuit TV (CCTV) cameras in metro stations to high-bandwidth connections between first responders and command and control centers, the demands on networks in terms of the number and variety of connections and applications they need to support are growing exponentially. Historically, service providers (i.e. phone companies) were able to meet these organizations' communications requirements with dedicated circuit-switched networks deployed to support any given applications' traffic. As applications and associated requirements have evolved, however, these traditional networks will no longer be able to meet these needs. Why? First, the bandwidth requirements of some of these emerging services are far more demanding than anything seen before. Imagine thousands of CCTV streams coming from metro stations, street corners or virtually anywhere else that city planners feel necessary. Some municipalities are deploying hundreds of thousands or even millions of cameras to support public safety efforts and traffic management. The result is a flood of video traffic flowing through communication networks that can't be accommodated by legacy infrastructure. Second, there are many new, highly specialized types of services that organizations are looking to introduce - such as positive train control (PTC) for railways, which can automatically stop a train if it is traveling too fast. Railways deploying this service would naturally prefer not to deploy a new dedicated network exclusively to support this service and would be particularly unlikely to do so using legacy technologies. Similar dynamics exist in other industries as well. The reality is the traditional Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) circuits running over copper wires that have supported critical functions for decades are no longer cost-effective to manage, and in many cases, simply no longer available. As important, they cannot meet the growing demand for more bandwidth intensive services, such as video, that represent perhaps the fastest-growing source of data traffic on mission-critical networks. So what is the alternative? Keeping the Lights On Virtually every public service and business is utterly dependent on a steady flow of electricity and both public and private utilities work hard to ensure a reliable, consistent flow of power. Their ability to accomplish this, however, is being endangered by a process known as the TDM, Analog and Frame Relay 'sunset,' which involves the decommissioning by commercial service providers of their traditional phone lines and digital services. 10 www.RemoteMagazine.com http://www.RemoteMagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Remote - Spring 2016

Editor's Choice
Driving Real-Time Insight in the Oil and Gas Industry
One Network to Rule Them All
Rolls-Royce Power Systems Protection Underground Data Center
Going Beyond Compliance: Using NERC CIP v5 as a Catalyst for a Greater Security Strategy
Different Hardware Platforms, Same HMI Software
Satellite Communications: Extending the Reach of Your Monitoring and Control Footprint
Key Elements to Designing an IoT Network for Remote Monitoring
4G LTE Versus Wi-Fi Versus Bluetooth: What Every Aspiring IoT Entrepreneur Needs to Know
SCADA
Networking
Security
Onsite Power
Industry News

Remote - Spring 2016