RTU Application

Asentria has a variety of products that have traditionally been referred to as Remote Terminal Units (RTU). An RTU traditionally has been a device that was a part of a communication network that would monitor contact closures, analog measurements, or perhaps do some parsing and evaluation of a legacy protocol. In most cases today, this data is converted into the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), which is a commonly desired alarm format that many devices within a communication network can report on their status.

EQUIPMENT CABINET
When replacing legacy RTU’s, many times the alarm variables will be contact closures or analog measurement points. This is easily handled by the Asentria SiteBoss units. When a new application is being considered, SiteBoss flexibility comes into play. The Asentria unit may be put in place to work with “active” communication equipment such as RAN gear, microwave, and servers and routers, as well as to monitor “passive” items like power, security, and environment. Asentria provides a broad line of flexible products that allow you to create your own solution based on your needs.

SITEBOSS TO EQUIPMENT CONNECTIVITY
Many different connection types are available in the SiteBoss line of products to interface to active or passive elements you may wish to monitor, access, or control. Contact closures are extremely common, but it is also possible to put analog measurement points or output relays directly onto the SiteBoss units. More complex solutions are possible by connecting a SiteBoss unit directly to some piece of equipment via a serial, Ethernet, or even USB connection (use of USB requires integration work).

PROTOCOLS
SiteBoss units support direct monitoring of certain more complex protocols. Within the standard functionality of the unit, it is possible to parse ASCII data and look for alarm conditions. SiteBoss units have been used to support legacy protocols like TBOS and TL1. SiteBoss S550 devices support MODBUS via our LUA scripting language, which enables the S550 to query more complex sensing devices, such as power analyzers. SiteBoss S550 support of LUA also allows for more complex solutions, such as querying more complex pieces of equipment, or running normal routines on a schedule.

POWER
SiteBoss units have a variety of advanced power, monitoring and control capabilities. SiteBoss units can be combined with power analysis equipment to provide reporting on power usage. Some SiteBoss units are capable of providing direct power cycling of DC powered equipment. This enables the Network Operation Center to have direct control over re-booting remote equipment to reduce truck rolls. The ability to power cycle equipment also leads to more complex load shedding applications, where equipment is turned on or off in a certain order to help prevent harm to equipment, or to support cost-savings on energy bills.

ACTIVE
SiteBoss units can directly monitor active service providing equipment at a remote location. Contact closures are one common and simple way this is done. SiteBoss units can also do more evolved monitoring of active equipment, such as the scheduled pinging of devices on a local network, being set to receive SNMP traps from other devices, or by the use of scripting to do active sets and gets on SNMP based equipment.

SITEBOSS TO NOC/NMS CONNECTIVITY
Ethernet is by far the most common means of connectivity used. All SiteBoss units support the use of an Ethernet port. In some cases, a traditional phone (POTS/PSTN) modem can be used as a back up or out-of-band access method. Wireless modems are rapidly replacing dial-up for this purpose, and more SiteBoss units are being deployed with wireless as their only connectivity method.

NOTIFICATION METHODS
SiteBoss units have a wide variety of ways that they can notify personnel of problems they’ve detected in the field. Most common, by far, is some version of SNMP notification to the Network Operation Center (NOC). SiteBoss units support v1, v2c, and v3 traps and informs. It is also possible to send pager, sms, or email messages. In deployments with large numbers of SiteBoss units outfitted with only wireless modems, we are using our new Asentria Wireless Protocol to reliably and securely communicate data from the SiteBoss to the Asentria Site Management software at the NOC.

Asentria provides a broad range of flexible, scalable, and easy-to-use products for management of remote telecommunications sites. Remote Terminal common use cases include:

LEGACY RTU REPLACEMENT
Many traditional RTU units have been deployed over many year’s time. A common application for a SiteBoss unit is direct replacement of a legacy device, such as a Badger RTU. These cases can often be quite straightforward, as often the legacy RTU may simply be monitoring a large number of contact closures. One reason that a legacy RTU may be replaced is because some older RTU’s may not have the ability to report alarm notifications back in SNMP format. SiteBoss units support a wide-range of SNMP abilities.

NEW RTU APPLICATION
SiteBoss devices might also be put into place in a new application. In this case, it may be necessary to add sensors at the same time as adding the SiteBoss unit, in order to deliver the desired data.

COMMONLY USED PRODUCTS
SiteBoss S410, S420, S530, and S550 devices, Expansion Cards, Event Sensors, and 3rd party sensors. Most often the SiteBoss unit is integrated directly in the Network Management Software via SNMP.