GPRS Modem – Low communication costs by using the economic GPRS-Network for the telecontrol technology

Due to the widespread of the mobile telephony, currently it is possible to communicate via D1, D2, e-plus or O2 area-wide. The upgrade of these services is GPRS, a pure data service. The charging is not time based anymore but only the actual exchange of data volume in KB will be charged, absolutely independent of the connection time. There is a permanent online connection, similar to a DSL connection. On the one hand, existing plants can be changed over to a more cost-efficient communication, on the other hand, options become available to construct plant extensions and new plants based on different conceptions.

How does the Connection between Substation and Control Station looks like  The telecontrol substation will be equipped with a GPRS modem, preferably from Dr. Neuhaus. Consequently, the substation is able to connect to the nearest available mobile phone mast of the respective provider. At this transfer point, the data will be transferred from the radio network into the TCP/IP network. The next station is the »Switching-Center«, which functions as control centre and safety barrier.It is responsible for ensuring that only legitimised data will reach the receiver and that also only legitimised data will be transferred back to the substation, e.g. as reference value inputs. The Switching-Center is connected to the main control centre via DSL. The SCADA server is located in the main control centre, which provides the data for the computer based tasks via OPC. Since the data is now located in the TCP/IP network, they are also detached from previous hardware conventions. In this way, e.g. the computer is able to manage up to 255 virtual serial interfaces (COM-Ports) with different protocols and also to support the most diverse SPS/telecontrol connections. There is a direct exchange of data between the controller and the computer, i.e. online. All this is especially beneficial for the public utility sector energy, water and waste water. A new perspective for a transparent data management arises. Tariff calculator for the calculation of the monthly costs of a telecontrol system. There is an option to select up to 3 various connection types.