TCCA’s SCADA, Smartgrid and IoT Working Group has published a new white paper discussing the use of ‘next generation’ communications networks by utilities.
According to TCCA, the paper recommends, amongst other things, the 'top ten' areas to take into account by utilities planning to migrate their machine-to-machine effort to 4G, 5G, LoRa or Sigfox.
Speaking of the document, a spokesperson said: “As next generation networks become more widespread, there is increasing interest from the utilities sector in features that are targeted at IoT telemetry-type applications. For 5G, ultra-reliable and low latency communications (URLLC), network slicing, and support for large densities of connected devices are just some of the attractions.”
Working group chair, Mason Advisory’s Nick Smye, said: “There is a perception that moving to a new technology bearer is a necessary upgrade that will deliver a faster service. However, for M2M communications, mission critical capability isn’t simply about speed.”
He continued: “Risk of obsolescence, network resilience, priority and pre-emption are all critical features for mission critical utility applications. It will be some time before 5G networks provide the required level of resilience, coverage, [and priority/pre-emption]."
The white paper can be read here.
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