Dulles,
VA January 29, 2009 – Encore Networks today
announced that the North Carolina Municipal
Power Agency Number 1 (NCMPA1) has selected
the Encore Networks solution for the migration
of their Frame Relay transmission and communications
network to a Multi-Protocol Layer Switching
(MPLS) network. The MPLS network, run over
an AT&T backbone, utilizes Encore’s
rugged BANDIT™ routers at over 65 remote
substations. Encore’s high-performance
Virtual Private Network (VPN) router, the
VSR-1200™, will be used for their host
site solution.
NCMPA1 provides wholesale power to 19
cities and towns in Piedmont and Western
North Carolina. NCMPA1 owns a portion
of the Catawba Nuclear Station, operated
by Duke Energy. Management services to
NCMPA1 are provided by ElectriCities,
the service organization that provides
customer service and safety training,
emergency and technical assistance, and
communications and legal services to
public power communities in North Carolina,
South Carolina, and Virginia. Many of
ElectriCities member’s have been providing
reliable electric service for over 100
years and serve more than one million
customers.
The BANDIT™ supports all variants of
the SCADA protocol, both bit- and byte-oriented,
with encryption of all traffic and complete
remote management capabilities. The hardened
construction of the BANDIT™ allows for
operation over the wide temperature ranges
found at remote utility sites. The customized
Auto-Configuration feature of the BANDIT™
simplifies installation at all remote
locations by providing a true plug-and-play
solution.
“This is a challenging time for utilities
that need to deploy secure network solutions
that meet NERC and CIP requirements,
especially at remote locations in harsh
environments,” said Ron Brady, Energy
Management Systems Manager of ElectriCities.
“In Encore we found a technology partner
capable of delivering a complete, easy-to-deploy
communications infrastructure that gave
us a secure, cost-effective IP upgrade.”
The BANDIT™ router contains an integrated
firewall, terminal server, serial-to-IP
conversion, legacy-protocol conversion,
and VPN functionality. The BANDIT™ ensures
secure system data and SCADA network
connections directly to the Internet,
secure Wide Area Network (WAN) and/or
Local Area Network (LAN), or commercial
cellular data IP services. Customers
have complete freedom to configure the
BANDIT™ to any transmission service as
either primary or backup including Frame
Relay, VSAT, cellular wireless, cable
modem, DSL, fiber, microwave and dial-up.
With its seamless host site diversification
failover feature, the BANDIT™ is ideal
for disaster recovery and application
load sharing to multiple host sites.
Bruce Russell, Encore’s Vice-President
of Business Development stated, “As utility
companies continue to demand higher performing
networks with more security, Encore is
cementing a leadership position in hardened
network solutions, including legacy SCADA.”
For more information about Encore Networks
and its complete line of industrially
hardened and commercial grade routers,
visit www.encorenetworks.com or e-mail
sales@encorenetworks.com. |
