Cellular Integration

Until the 2020s, few utilities considered cellular networks as a practical solution for field-device connectivity. Today, however, cellular carriers are lowering connectivity prices, cellular chips have greater availability and competitive pricing, and LTE provides longevity support and a migration path.

Cellular today provides the utility with the ability to deploy without adding infrastructure, migrate from their current AMI solution over time, and tactical deployments for enabling pre-payment, solar, and electric vehicle charging. The LTE standards also provides a low battery consumption mode that has made cellular a viable solution for long-term battery applications like gas and water meter communications and sensors that don’t have access to AC power.

Fortunately, there’s no need to choose between cellular and private RF networks. Trilliant lets utilities incorporate one or several cellular network providers into backbone WAN/NAN systems, regardless of differences among carriers and their ecosystems.

Trilliant SecureMesh and Trilliant SecureReach solutions offer utilities alternatives to cellular, providing the power of choice to our customers.

  • You can link multiple types of devices from any manufacturer into a Trilliant solution, whereas many cellular carriers still require a confusing and costly array of third-party solutions to achieve similar connectivity.
  • Costs are more predictable and generally much lower than cellular-carriers’ variable per-device and volume-based rates.
  • Recurring operational costs are much higher over the life of cellular, versus the capital investment model that Trilliant’s solutions offer.
  • Carrier networks can be overkill for many utility needs. Cellular networks are built to accommodate the mass retail cellular market that have heavy data users like movie-streaming platforms. Very few utility applications will need this type of bandwidth.

Trilliant Cellular Integration as an Option

By incorporating cellular as an option into the overall solution, Trilliant gives utilities the flexibility to choose the right network.

Trilliant solutions support meters and other devices with integrated Trilliant cellular communications modules but differentiates our solution with the ability to bring your own meter and communications modules. This provides the utility with maximum flexibility and the power of choice.

Trilliant CellReader®

Trilliant was one of the first providers of cellular-enabled meters for Advanced Metering Infrastructure and provides the communications for the largest cellular AMI deployment in the world for electric and gas AMI, and includes in-home-display support.