Aprisa SR

Product Roadmap [COMPANY INTERNAL]

May 2012

2 © 2012 4RF Limited | COMPANY INTERNAL

Aprisa SR: summary of recent updates (1 of 2)

Feature What is it? Benefits and KSPReleased / scheduled

Access request/ access grant channel access mode

A new method to control the traffic and how the network shares a common access channel

Enhanced performance in SCADA systems;Contention free access;Improved throughput

DELIVEREDQ4, 2011

Network status overview

Enhancements to SuperVisor that provides a single page network health status, with the ability to drill down to investigate problems

A single page snapshot of network status;Displays vital information without the expense of a higher order SNMP NMS;Ability to ‘drill down’ into issues reduces fault resolution time

DELIVEREDQ4, 2011

Terminal serverProvides the ability to transport IP over serial, or serial over IP

Enables the customer to terminate serial data on the LAN at the base station – ease of integration with head end systems;Removes the need for additional third party equipment

DELIVEREDQ4, 2011

Over-the-air software upgrades

Remotely update firmware on the entire network, managed from the base station

No longer require ‘truck rolls’ to update the firmware;‘Non-intrusive’ distribution mechanism minimises disruption to customer traffic while distributing new firmware

DELIVEREDQ4, 2011

3 © 2012 4RF Limited | COMPANY INTERNAL

Aprisa SR: summary of recent updates (2 of 2)

Feature What is it? Benefits and KSPReleased / scheduled

Multiple repeater support

Supports multiple one-hop repeaters when using the Access request / access grant channel access mode

Improved repeater performance to extend coverage or overcome path obstructions;Multiple one hop repeaters are supported throughout the network;Repeaters can support an RTU

DELIVEREDQ2, 2012

New Protected Station

Updated protected station hardware improves operation

New design provides a more robust switching mechanism;Improved protection of the protection switch itself

DELIVEREDApril 2012

4 © 2012 4RF Limited | COMPANY INTERNAL

Aprisa SR: summary of new features

Feature What is it? Benefits and KSPReleased / scheduled

Over-the-air re-keying

Change the encryption key over-the-air for the entire network

Continually changing the security key increases security;Over-the-air re-keying eliminates ‘truck rolls’, enables frequent key changes;Easily managed via SuperVisor

Q3, 2012

Repeater/remote protected station

Repeater and remote stations can be configured as a protected station

Provides a redundancy option for key outstation and repeater sites

Q3, 2012

Enhanced over-the-air compression

Applying compression techniques to the over-the-air traffic reduces the overhead of Ethernet packets

Increases throughput by significantly reducing the Ethernet overhead, enabling more Ethernet RTUs to be connected to a network

Q3, 2012

Single management of protected station

Provides a mechanism to mange the protected station as a single entity, rather than logging into the radios separately

Simplifies management of the protected station

Q3, 2012

5 © 2012 4RF Limited | COMPANY INTERNAL

Aprisa SR: summary of new features (2)

Feature What is it? Benefits and KSPReleased / scheduled

Layer 3 filtering Filter IP traffic at layer 3Improves network efficiency, reduces the traffic across the air

Q1, 2013

SNMPv3

Supports the v3 SNMP standard with security to network management functions

Security functionality included in SNMPv3 provides an extra layer of security for network management systems

Q1, 2013

SNMPv3 encryption

Extends SNMPv3 support by adding encryption

Takes SNMP to the next level by adding encryption to the SNMP communications

Q3, 2013

6 © 2012 4RF Limited | COMPANY INTERNAL

Aprisa SR roadmap: OTA re-keying

Provides the ability to change security

keys remotely throughout the network

Managed through new ‘security’ menu

item in SuperVisor

• ‘Manager’ page for key management

• ‘Distribution’ page for key distribution

Follows the same process as OTA

software upgrades

7 © 2012 4RF Limited | COMPANY INTERNAL

OTA re-keying: what this means to the customer

• Continually changing security keys increases security

• OTA re-keying makes this process simpler

• Eliminates the need for ‘truck rolls’

• Customers are more likely to regularly change their security keys

8 © 2012 4RF Limited | COMPANY INTERNAL

Aprisa SR roadmap: simple management of the protected station

Manage both radios through one

SuperVisor session, simple user interface

Log into either radio IP address

Configuration details of both radios shown

in single view

Changes common to both radios are

shown as a single box and changed on

both radios, automatically

For radio specific parameters, Primary

radio is shown on the left and Secondary

radio on the right

Benefit: Managing the protected station is

much simpler

9 © 2012 4RF Limited | COMPANY INTERNAL

Aprisa SR: compression background

With the move to IP based RTUs, the traffic over the air is significantly

increasing, reducing the number of Ethernet RTUs that can be supported

in a single network,

This is turn means more base station sites, which translates to increased

costs for customers to add new points of presence,

It is not the Ethernet based SCADA protocols causing the increased

traffic, but the Ethernet headers wrapped around the protocol and

standard Ethernet operation (TCP and UDP),

Compression techniques can significantly reduce the Ethernet header

overhead by removing information before transmitting and recreating it at

the other end, a learning process,

In examples with Iberdrola, the number of remotes jumped from 14

remotes without compression to 22 with compression.

10 © 2012 4RF Limited | COMPANY INTERNAL

Aprisa SR: compression details

Compression provides significant improvements

Over the air (OTA) packet length for serial data is typically 28 bytes for a ‘poll’ message:

• 6 bytes of Data

• 22 bytes of Radio

For a 6 byte IEC 104 ‘test frame’ carried as IP the OTA packet length is 86 bytes.

Compression reduces this to 26 bytes

Compression techniques:

• Radio Network and Ethernet – Proprietary

• TCP/IP ROHC v2 (Robust Header Compression v2. RFC4995, RFC5225, RFC4996)

11 © 2012 4RF Limited | COMPANY INTERNAL

Looking to the future

Customers are seeking to monitor more points

in their network.

Additional services are being investigated to

be added to the telemetry network.

Small set of specific combinations of IEC

60870-5-104 protocol settings and topologies

can stretch existing capabilities.

The meet these demands, building on the

excellent base of the Aprisa SR, the Aprisa

SR+ is being developed, with increased

capacity and functions to further strengthen

the 4RF point-to-multipoint offering.

12 © 2012 4RF Limited | COMPANY INTERNAL

The next generation

Highest capacity in the market, delivering over 120 kbps of gross data, using QAM

modulation techniques for speed and robustness

Adaptive modulation and automatic transmit power control ensures the maximum

bandwidth is provided in the ever changing RF environment

High power – 10W PA design ensures optimal coverage through all modulation types

Thank you