SecureMesh™ Home Area Networks

Trilliant offers maximum flexibility to address in-home applications.  With the rapid evolution of consumer products and standards, Trilliant believes it is critical to choose an architecture that allows for continued evolution of both the physical and protocol connections to in-home consumer devices.  For that reason, Trilliant offers two approaches to in-home products: native SecureMesh devices and bridges to other in-home communications protocols.

SecureMesh In-Home Devices

Trilliant provides in-home devices, including programmable communicating thermostats, in-home energy displays, and load controllers, to provide complete end-to-end demand response, energy efficiency,and load control programs.  These devices communicate natively on the SecureMesh network, and can be deployed with or without SecureMesh electricity meters.  These devices are managed through Trilliant’s unified network management platform, are secured on the network with proven security architectures, and use Trilliant’s proven SecureMesh RF-mesh technology.  A number of devices are available on the market today, and Trilliant continues to work with additional vendors to introduce new in-home products.

In-Home Communications Technologies

There are a variety of in-home communications technologies, including ZigBee, Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, and HomePlug, that can provide connectivity inside the home. These technologies will evolve over time to take their place within Smart Grid HAN networks – as, for example, ZigBee is expected to evolve from the Smart Energy Profile 1.0 to 2.0 over the upcoming years.  The sheer variety of in-home networking technologies makes it challenging to pick a single technology for a long-term roll-out since all are viable and the industry may not converge on a single dominant standard for in-home products.

Trilliant believes the most cost-effective and flexible long-term solution is to deploy HAN technologies on a home-by-home basis with a bridge to the AMI network. This bridge would typically be integrated into an in-home energy display or thermostat.  This deployment strategy reduces the up-front cost of the AMI system deployment, selectively adds the cost of HAN for those consumers who sign up for the appropriate programs, and allows the most up-to-date HAN technologies to consumers as they become available. This creates a true future-proof solution for in-home devices:  secure reliable communications now, support for evolving standards in the future on house-specific basis, all without having to revisit the electric meter or the home.

To learn more about this HAN gateway architecture, read Trilliant’s white paper on The Home Area Network: Architectural
Considerations for Rapid Innovation.