Applications in Utilities:
Automated Meter Reading with Modems

  
field devices
 1,000 to 80,000+ electricity/gas/water meters at commercial sites
Located in multiple countries/regions
device access
 48 to 800+ digital modems across multiple modem servers
2+ servers online, 2+ servers backup site, plus development/test labs
modem servers
 Cisco access servers/gateways with modem feature cards
TacServe on Windows-based servers with T1/E1 modem boards
applications
 Meter data collection/reporting software, including:
Itron MV-90
Landis+Gyr MDW Converge Center
Elster Metering Application Server
 

Using DialOut/EZ

  • The automated meter reading (AMR) application is reconfigured to use the virtual COM ports provided by the DialOut/EZ Redirector.
  • When the AMR application opens a virtual COM port, DialOut/EZ initiates a network connection to a modem server and gains access to the next available modem.
  • The AMR application uses the modem in the same way as it would use a local modem.

Key Results

  • The existing application is unchanged.
  • Modems and their telephones lines are physically separated from the servers running the AMR application software.
  • Multiple modem servers can be configured for failover to increase reliability of modem resources.
  • The AMR application software and modem servers are separately scalable to handle large populations of meters.
  
     
AMR Application
|   |   |   |   |
   DialOut/EZ Virtual COM Ports  
Local Area Network
          
Modem Servers
||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||   ||
Modems on Electricity/Gas Meters

Applications

Guidelines

Examples

 Industrial Automation
 Utilities
 Networks / IT Services