Dulles,
VA. May 18, 2006 – Responding to a need
among large utility companies to improve
security of control and monitoring functions,
Encore Networks announced today an environmentally
hardened version of its proven BANDIT™
product optimized for utility applications
and protocols. The BANDIT-III™ handles
all variants of the Supervisory Control
and Data Acquisition (SCADA) protocol,
both bit- and byte-oriented, with strong
encryption of all traffic and complete
remote management capabilities after
a simple "plug and play" installation.
Hardened construction allows the BANDIT-III™
to operate over wide temperature ranges
at remote sites without environmental
control.
"We've seen utilities pushed by
regulators and industry initiatives to
improve security and availability of
their internal networks at the same time
that telecommunications carriers are
making traditional analog transmission
services more expensive," said Jack
Stoddard, Encore Vice-President. "Utility
operators face a double dose of change
as they migrate a large installed base
of legacy remote terminal units to more
modern digital transmission services.
The hardened BANDIT III™ is optimized
for this situation.
"In addition, the BANDIT-III™ meets
the emerging ROHS standard which places
strict controls on pollutants including
the elimination of lead in the manufacturing
process. Already mandated by the European
Union, ROHS has been adopted by both
California and New York. Other states
will soon follow.”
The standard Encore ELIOS™ operating
software supports all versions of SCADA
protocols over serial and Ethernet interfaces.
One BANDIT-III™ connects up to six serial
RTUs and multiple IP-capable RTUs at
a site. Built-in control and management
tools enable the BANDIT-III™ to operate
under any SNMP-based network management
system. Also standard in ELIOS™ is a
quick failover from a primary to a backup
connection. Users have complete freedom
to configure any transmission service
as primary and any as backup including
Frame Relay, VSAT, cellular wireless,
cable modem, DSL, dial-up and others.
Hardware acceleration of encryption
ensures minimal latency or delay and
supports up to 30 encrypted sessions
(VPN tunnels). The other end of each
tunnel may go to a different site and
be dedicated to a different application
to support network management, voice,
and email as well as SCADA.
As a fully featured router, the BANDIT-III™
can also:
- Prioritize traffic according
to policy rules of the user's choice.
- Operate as a firewall and apply access
control by IP address.
- Translate private
IP addresses to public addresses (Network
Address Translation).
BANDIT-III™ offers a complete range
of upstream connectivity to the network:
10/100 Ethernet, frame relay, cellular
radio data link, leased line, and an
integral V.90/V.92 modem. There are two
slots for cellular radio modules, either
of which may be GSM or CDMA. The two
wireless connections can be provisioned
on separate cellular networks for higher
availability and wider geographic coverage.
Cellular links may be the primary connection,
the backup, or both.
Other interface options for the primary
link are T-1/E-1 and 56 K with integral
CSUs. A dual channelized T-1/E-1 interface
includes drop and insert capability for
additional flexibility in network design.
Mr. Stoddard continued, “By installing
our rugged industrial grade BANDIT-III™,
utilities can now avoid the costly and
disruptive ‘forklift’ change-out of equipment
usually associated with the migration
of legacy networks to IP VPN’s.”
The BANDIT-III™ is scheduled for general
customer shipments during the late summer
of 2006. |
