ADTRAN Powers Innovative Utility Application to Drive Smart Grid Network

ADTRAN, Inc., a provider of next-generation open networking and subscriber experience solutions, has announced that its Total Access 5000 (TA 5000) platform has been deployed to improve the reliability and resiliency of a leading regional utility’s high-density Smart Grid power grid distribution network.

A first deployment of its kind, the utility is leveraging the TA 5000 fiber access platform in targeted service areas as the enhanced communications system to its automated switching devices.

“The opportunities delivered by the Gigabit Society in terms of how business processes can become more efficient and reliable are unmatched and we’re excited to be a part of this groundbreaking application,” ADTRAN VP of American Sales & Head of Global Business Development Craig Stein said. “The PON network fits the power distribution network like a glove, eliminating the need for heavy use of homerun fiber and affording the use of more reliable passive equipment in the network.”

The ADTRAN network that has been deployed is a secure, high-speed, low-latency communication system that operates between power line reclosers without having to take the traffic through any equipment upstream of the OLT.

It allows all automated line switching devices to employ ultra-fast and effective peer-to-peer coordination between other switching devices via GOOSE messaging utilizing the 61850 communication protocol, as well as enhanced high-speed wired SCADA communications. This allows for a larger and more complex centralized self-healing network.

“PON and 10G PON are creating opportunities to develop market-specific applications where communication between machines and devices is time sensitive. The utility market is just the tip of the iceberg,” Ovum Principal Analyst Julie Kunstler said. “10G PON’s fiber-based architecture with latency, capacity and security advantages, supports high-performance applications, such as the Smart Utility model.”

ADTRAN fiber access solutions afforded this power distribution application the benefits of ultra-low latency not available using traditional communications methods. This low latency capability uniquely supports the accurate targeting of power faults providing over 80 percent reduction in the customers affected and the time to restore power, also known as Customer Minutes Interrupted (CMI).

Utilities will also leverage a dual-parented, PON redundancy configuration using ADTRAN MOSAIC to manage redundancy orchestration implemented in a clustered architecture to provide management plane redundancy.