Industry Solutions

Modernizing the Electric Grid

The Cisco Field Area Network (FAN) solution brings the first multiservice communications infrastructure to the utility field area network. It delivers applications such as Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI), Distribution Automation, and Protection and Control over a common network platform.

The Cisco FAN solution is derived from the overall Cisco Connected Grid Acceleration or GridBlocks and consists of three components:

• Cisco Connected Grid Endpoint reference design is a new open standard based IPv6 RF Mesh that adds security, management, and quality of service at large scale. Cisco will engage with organizations to establish an industry interoperability baseline for the IPv6 RF Mesh.
• The Cisco Connected Grid Router 1000 Series are ruggedized modular platforms designed to provide the foundation for the multi-service Field Area Network supporting use cases such as AMI, distribution automation, and workforce automation. The CGR 1000 Series are designed for outdoor pole-mount and indoor din-rail mount installations in the distribution grid.
• The Cisco Connected Grid Network Management System is a platform focused at providing network operators end-to-end monitoring and control of the network communications. The CG-NMS provides enterprise-class visibility that can scale to manage up to ten million endpoints. The CG-NMS integrates with application layer platforms by providing network layer intelligence to the Enterprise Service Bus through a web-services API.

With this solution, Cisco and Itron, deliver on their strategic alliance announced in 2010. For more on the integrated solution visit Itron's Openway system, which provides a validated, interoperable solution for utilities.