Case Study: N.County San Diego Water District

Robust Wide Area Water District Network

A North County San Diego water district stretching from the Pacific coast to inland wanted to enhance its existing communications infrastructure to support user growth and network-based process control devices.

The district asked Metric Systems Corporation to analyze their current communications infrastructure and develop a staged deployment plan.

The network design had to meet the following criteria:

• No single communications fault could affect more than one remote site
• Infrastructure must support Ethernet/IP and legacy proprietary serial interfaces – in this case, ModBus
• Infrastructure must minimally impact existing UHF and VHF licensed SCADA networks
• Existing licensed system traffic must be supported by new infrastructure

Key features of the system include:

• Redundant broadband backbone ring
• Adaptation to various geographical topologies
• Concurrent support for Ethernet/IP and proprietary serial protocols
• Network-based concept allows quick and easy system maintenance and network evolution
• Full support for peer-to-peer, VPN, multicast and broadcast traffic
• Full online network monitoring, status and configuration
• Provides transport for VoIP and video services