No Need to Lock Them in a Room, Mr. Secretary—Use IP
A lot has been said and written this month about the need for speedy adoption of interoperability standards for smart grid, but the simple fact is: Agreeing on interoperability standards doesn’t need to be this hard. Incumbent manufacturers of some niche smart grid technologies based on proprietary protocols and those companies that have built siloed systems using them have every incentive to drag out the process of identifying and agreeing on interoperability standards for smart grid. But, the answer is so obvious; it seems hard for some people to grasp: Use Internet Protocol (IP).
At the center of the Internet boom in the 1990s were not only the price declines in computing and telephony, but also the transition from the use of proprietary protocols and standards to the adoption of open protocols and standards – namely IP – that allowed communications devices and systems to interoperate, spurring innovation and promoting competition. IP was an important factor in enabling the market disruption that drove Internet use – all to the benefit of consumers. Without IP, we wouldn’t have YouTube, or Facebook, or Internet banking.
Who wants to wait in line at the bank anymore?...
Today’s public discussion about interoperability and smart grid reminds me of that time. Smart grid is still relatively new. To me, smart grid is about adding intelligence into the nation’s electricity delivery system, much like how telecom service provider networks went from being voice-only networks to providing all kinds of new value-added services that go along with the voice service into your home or business. With its open architecture, IP networks can scale, manage, interoperate and secure communications in ways that no network built on proprietary technologies can. And we’re not talking about running smart grid over “the open Internet.” Indeed, many IP networks are private networks, with strong security that protects not only the data, voice and video as it move through the network, but also provides the physical security necessary to protect the grid’s critical infrastructure.
Section 1305 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA, P.L. 110-140) designates the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as having, “…primary responsibility to coordinate the development of a framework that includes protocols and model standards for information management to achieve interoperability of smart grid devices and systems. Such protocols and standards shall further align policy, business, and technology approaches in a manner that would enable all electric resources, including demand-side resources, to contribute to an efficient, reliable electricity network.” Sound familiar? NIST began its smart grid interoperability coordination work soon after EISA was passed in December 2007. While progress has been slow, it’s been steady, and we expect it will accelerate given recent comments by Secretary Chu, which have been reported widely in the press.
Tempting as it may be to lock everyone in a room until they come to agreement on smart grid interoperability standards, it really doesn’t need to come to that. Cisco can help make this process short and sweet: Use IP.
Posted by Jennifer Sanford at 01:33PM PST
Akiba Mar 22, 2009
Hmmm…your writing is good, but the post is a bit underinformed. IP only specifies a communications protocol and doesn’t specify how devices interact with each other. The reason you can communicate via TCP/IP from a server from your PC is because standards exist for HTTP, HTML, CSS, and others and both the servers and the browsers agree to conform to them.
In order to have device interoperability with TCP/IP, you would need to establish common behavior for all the devices such as what the frame formats would be above the TCP layers, how the devices respond to requests, what types of requests the devices can accept, etc. On top of that, you would need a way to test and enforce interoperability between all the device manufacturers which involve drawing up testing guidelines and certifying 3rd party test houses.
There is currently a movement to use TCP/IP over wireless sensor networks using 802.15.4 and an IPv6 header compression scheme. It’s called 6LoWPAN and it’s currently and IETF draft. However they are struggling with these issues as well as how to accomplish routing, device discovery, and service discovery.
In my blog, I argue that the Zigbee Alliance and the 6LoWPAN camp should work together and combine the benefits of TCP/IP ubiquity with Zigbee’s work at device interoperability including creating a Smart Energy Device Profile and lining up manufacturer support.
If Cisco wants to take a leading role in this, why don’t you mediate between the two camps and work with them to implement your vision of using IP for the smart grid.
Otherwise, your comments don’t really help the situation and just repeat what’s already known in the industry.