User's Manual

Understanding Silver Spring Networks Access Points 1 About Access Points
Understanding Silver Spring Networks Access Points 4 March 2013 Silver Spring Networks 4
1 About Access Points
Overview
TheSilverSpringAccessPoint(AP)providesthecentrallinkbetweenendpointdevicesand
networkcontrolandmonitoring.Itistheconnectivitybetweenintelligentendpointsandthe
utility’sbackoffice.Itsflexiblecommunicationfeaturesextendthereachandcoverageofthe
networktothousandsofcustomerpremises,throughscalabilitythatlowers
ownershipcosts.
Sinceithasabackupbattery,theAPcanreliablyroutescheduledreadandmanagement
tasks,evenduringanoutage.Figure1il lustrateshowAPsconnectendpointstotheutility
backoffice(UtilityIQdatacenters).
TheAccessPointcanbemountedonpowerpolesorstreetlamps.Alloutbound

communications(requestsfordata)passthroughtheAP.Allinbounddatapackets(data,
alarms)passthroughtheAP.
TheAPcanserveasthetake‐outpointfornetworkmanagementtrafficinastand‐alone
communicationnetwork(oralsoforAdvancedMeteringInfrastructure—AMI,Distribution
Automation—DA,orHANCommunicationsManager(HCM)—HCMtraffic
inajoint
AMI/DA/HCMinstallation).Incertaincases,theAPcanbethetake‐outpointfortraffic.
ItisworthnotingthattheSilverSpringarchitecturediffersfrommostothersinthattheAPis
notwhatutilitycompaniestypicallycallacollectororconcentrator—itisarouter.This
meansthatmemorylimitsanddatavulnerabilityissuestypicalof“collector”architectureare
eliminatedresultinginamorerobust,scalable,simplerandhigherperformancenetwork.
TheAccessPointcomeswitha902‐928MHz‐basedradioNeighborhoodAreaNetwork(or
NAN)interfacewhichcanbeconfiguredwithanycellulartechnology(for
example,Code
Figure 1. The AP in the network