UHF network for water utility

Northern Ireland Water has selected the Aprisa SR point-to-multipoint SCADA radio from 4RF Communications for its province-wide water and waste water monitoring and control network.

Nearly 2000 radios will be installed over the next 12 months by EMR Integration Solutions, 4RF’s local systems integration and distribution partner.

The infrastructure includes 20 major water treatment works and over a thousand waste water treatment works. The radio network consists of 28 protected base stations and 1847 remote stations, connected to RTUs and sensors that monitor information such as pressure and flow levels.

Each existing analog telemetry radio will be decommissioned and replaced with a radio operating in the same 450 – 470 MHz UHF frequency band.

The radios were chosen because they combine future-proof open standards management with good RF performance and good cyber security measures. EMR will also be installing the network management software to manage the telemetry scanning radio network.

The RF performance, enables reliable communication even over very short and very long distances, such as the nearly 40 km links needed in some locations.

Security protects the network from both malicious and accidental cyber attacks. A ‘defence in depth’ design means that all traffic and interfaces are protected through a suite of features including AES256 encryption, authentication, and secure USB software upgrades.

The project will take 12 months to complete.