Qualcomm announced that it will be showcasing innovations
in cellular communications for Smart Grid deployments at GridWeek 2011,
September 12-15, in Washington D.C.
The exhibit will feature multiple vendor solutions with
embedded Qualcomm cellular chipsets, covering a wide variety of Smart Energy
devices including Distribution Automation Gateways, cellular-enabled Smart
Meters, Home Energy Management Systems and Smart Electric Vehicle Chargers.
Technology on display at the Qualcomm booth during GridWeek will include
solutions from Ambient Corporation, Consert , SmartSync and Digi International.
A key innovation showcased by Qualcomm at GridWeek is the
use of multimode technology for Smart Grid communications, which enables grid
devices to connect with many commercial wireless networks regardless of the
underlying cellular technology.
Access to multiple carrier networks helps electric
utilities effectively increase the coverage, reliability and lifetime of the
Smart Grid communications system.
The freedom to work with multiple network operators
without changing equipment or requiring truck rolls allows utilities
flexibility in terms of cellular data plans and services. Today,
utilities and their equipment suppliers can get access to the benefits of
multimode using products and cellular modules enabled by Qualcomm’s Gobiâ„¢
technology.
“Qualcomm will continue to support the Smart
Energy ecosystem by providing advanced chipset solutions that utilize the
scale, innovation and cost effectiveness of network connectivity provided by
existing commercial cellular networks,” said Andy Wood, director of
business development at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.
“Our chipsets will enable a new generation of Smart
Energy devices, ranging from substation routers to communication nodes, smart
meters and electric vehicle charging stations, to securely and reliably connect
with utility systems in near real-time,” Wood added.
Smart Grid devices using Gobi technology will be
available for demonstration at Qualcomm’s booth. These devices were developed
by various Qualcomm customers, including:
Ambient is a provider of smart grid
communications platform. Ambient offers communications nodes equipped with 3G
cellular capabilities to leading U.S. utility companies choosing to use 3G
cellular communications as one of the primary telecommunications systems for
their smart grid networks. Ambient counts tens of thousands of such
3G-enabled communication nodes already deployed in Ohio for Duke Energy.
Consert is an intelligent load management technology company. Consert’s Virtual
Peak Plant(SM) load management system provides reliable, real-time,
fully-integrated load management through the pairing of utility and consumer offerings.
They plan to utilize Qualcomm’s technology in the rollout of 140,000 home
energy management systems in Texas for CPS Energy.
SmartSynch, a provider of smart grid solutions
with hundreds of thousands of cellular devices deployed, will develop next
generation 3G cellular-enabled smart meters to be deployed for TNMP and over
150 other utilities across North America and Canada.
Digi International is a developer of wireless
machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions. Its products are used to connect and
securely manage local or remote electronic devices over the network or via the
Web. Digi delivers energy efficiency services to consumers and business
owners by providing an open platform for device connectivity via its Digi
X-Grid Solutions, including the Connect WAN 3G cellular gateway, and iDigi
Device Cloud.
Recently, Integrated Device Technology and Qualcomm
announced their agreement
to transfer the design team of IDT’s Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) and Frame
Rate Conversion (FRC) Video Processing product lines and certain related assets
to Qualcomm.
Both companies will also explore opportunities to include
IDT’s broad portfolio of mixed-signal products into Qualcomm reference
designs. The all-cash transaction has received appropriate corporate
approvals and is anticipated to close in the coming weeks, subject to the
completion of certain closing conditions.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
