Remote Monitoring & Networking 2007, held November 6-7, in Scottsdale, Arizona, focuses on SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition). SCADA systems are typically used to perform data collection and control for city water pumps and distribution, oil & gas pipelines, and electrical power transmission.
The sixth annual conferences and expo will bring together users from utilities, power, oil & gas, telecom, industrial, water & public utilities, agriculture and facilities management and focus on the leading advancements for the monitoring and management.
FreeWave Technologies, uses spread spectrum and licensed radio products but many SCADA systems use the unlicensed 900 MHz band.
The U.S. is making securing SCADA systems a priority. Because SCADA and other types of control systems regulate real world activity, such as the amount of water flowing though a dam or the electricity flowing through a transformer, their lack of security has worried experts for some time. Sandia runs the Center for SCADA Security.
Automated meter reading (AMR) is often cited as one application for municipal wireless networks. Utilimetrics is their trade association and has industry news.
The City of Corpus Christi, Texas, is automatically reading the utility meters throughout the 147 square miles of the city. Gas, water and electricity meters will be read several times a day, instead of once a month with manual reading.
A typical AMR system consists of low cost Meter Transmission Units (MTUs) that transmit data using low frequency wireless to Data Collector Units. These devices can be co-located on lampposts with routers like Tropos’ popular MetroMesh access points. In addition, Wi-Fi enabled parking meters, that take credit cards, are becoming available as replacements for standard mechanical meters, and can save money by reducing maintenance while increasing revenue.
