Public versus Private for Control Networks

Narasimha Chari
Chief Technology Officer

2011 Tropos Networks, Inc.

About Tropos
Outdoor routers and network management software 800+ customers in 30 countries Founded in 2000, HQ in Sunnyvale, CA One network to support multiple applications

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GridCom: Distribution Area Network

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Why Utilities Favor Private Networks

Utility-owned network utility managed or third-party managed Utility buys access from public network carrier A third-party builds, owns, and maintains private network Other single mentions

Source: IDC

(% of respondents)

Reliability Coverage Performance QoS Security Control Life cycle Total Cost of Ownership

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Comparison of Public & Private Networks

Public Availability Survivability Moderate-high availability OK for non-critical data transport, inadequate for mission-critical apps Limited coverage in rural/lightly-populated areas 100-1000 ms Adequate Largely outside utility control Primarily OPEX Private Can be designed to be very high availability (five nines) Highly survivable architectures and technology options Can be engineered to very high levels, but requires mix of technologies 10-100 ms Highly secure options exist Controlled by utility Primarily CAPEX

Coverage

Latency Security Life cycle Cost

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Public or Private Networks - Summary

Utilities will continue to use public networks for:

Non-mission-critical applications (AMI backhaul, ) Point applications Fill-in for coverage where it may not be economical to build private networks

Utilities prefer private networks, especially where:

Mission-critical apps have stringent performance and reliability requirements Network is viewed as a common foundation for multiple Smart Grid applications

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Thank you!

2011 Tropos Networks, Inc.