In order to streamline costs and improve performance, more state and local governments are looking at smart grid technology. In order to meet that demand, companies are adapting enterprise technology to provide real-time monitoring for infrastructure systems. Real-Time Innovations (RTI) has launched RTI Connextâ„¢ a real-time Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform that can be used to support these systems. CivSource spoke with David Barnett, vice president of products and markets, RTI about how cities can use the platform.
“Power systems are using our technology to provide real-time messaging about the state of the system,” Barnett explains. “The product can be inserted directly into censors spread throughout critical infrastructure or used as a connectionless API.”
The city of Tokyo currently uses RTI to provide travelers along its highway system with real-time traffic information via kiosks at rest stops. RTI provides a publish-subscribe middleware that is largely agnostic. Developers simply provide the RTI product with the required messaging information and it can work with wireless, copper and optical cable, power lines, or telephone wiring without using a lot of bandwidth.
“Essentially, what this allows you to do is close the loop on all of the disparate information points and exploit that information more effectively,” Barnett said.
RTI Connext connects operational systems with the data center, allowing administrators to understand the full scope of what is happening in their systems at a given point in time. For municipalities and infrastructure administrators this will improve the alignment between operational technology and IT, making systems more efficient.
The company is also working with Siemens Energy to provide support for its critical infrastructure products and projects.