CellReader® Digital Cellular Solutions

The CellReader digital cellular products provide two-way communication to commercial and industrial (C&I) meters. There are two types of CellReader products:

• CellReader Meter Modules – the CellReader Meter Module is a network interface card (NIC) that gets installed under-the-glass of solid-state C&I electric meters.
• CellReader Gateway – the CellReader Gateway is a communications module that gets installed external to the meter and connects to electric, gas, and water C&I meters.

Since 2003, Trilliant has been a leading provider of digital cellular communication products for AMI and Smart Grid remote data applications.  These cellular communications products are a system-wide complement to Trilliant’s earlier history of telephone-based AMR products and Trilliant’s current industry-leading wireless SecureMesh products for Smart Grid applications.

Trilliant’s family of CellReader and CellReader Gateway cellular products provide secure, on-demand two-way communications to C&I energy devices over public cellular data services.  Using CellReader or CellReader Gateway products, a utility’s solid-state meters and field instruments can be configured, programmed, and read over cellular networks that can provide nationwide coverage without requiring any additional modems or serial communications boards.

CellReader/CellReader Gateway products are certified and in operation on most North American CDMA/1xRTT and GSM/GPRS/HSPA digital cellular networks as well as on many international GSM/GPRS/HSPA networks.  Supported carriers include:

• CDMA/1xRTT – Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Bell Mobility, Telus, and others
• GSM/GPRS/HSPA – AT&T, Bell Mobility, Telus, Rogers, and various international carriers

Static IP, dynamic IP, and circuit-switched modes of data transfer operation are all supported, offering a variety of ways to establish wireless connectivity.

Security is a primary concern, and the CellReader products allow VPN connections to be established to support IP connectivity over secured subnets.  The user can also configure each CellReader unit with a WAN Access Control List, thereby explicitly limiting the IP addresses that are allowed access to the unit.