Matthew Boyle
Eight million cellular-connected bright meters that are connected via the nation’s three mobile network operators will now have visibility and control thanks to an initiative between European gas and water distributor Italgas and Infovista. In order to manage smart meters across Italy in a single dashboard, comply with service level agreements ( SLAs ) imposed by the local regulator, lower operational costs, and improve service reliability, Infovista said it has provided the Italian utility with its Ativa assurance solution.
The Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks, and Environment ( ARERA ) mandates that Italgas provide daily meter readings. If it does n’t meet the SLA, there are consequences. By reducing field visits and increasing awareness of the “network quality” Italgas receives from operators TIM, Vodafone, and Wind, the company hopes to achieve “more than 90 % cost reduction.” According to Infovista, the Ativa platform offers “automated assurance” of the eight million IoT devices owned by the European company.
Italgas ‘ own cloud-based business intelligence systems are connected to Ativa, which is referred to as a” cloud- native and open platform by design.” Regardless of the operators providing the IoT connectivity, it keeps track of traffic from Italgas ‘” Internet of Things” devices. It is connectivity-agnostic, according to the company. It can be expanded to additional global markets where Italgas operates thanks to its multi-tenancy capabilities. The solution can also be expanded to offer network operators monitoring.
According to a spokesperson, Infovista’s role in this situation is to help Italgas keep track of all connectivity and determine the best solution to use. For instance, if there is an issue with one of the cellular operators or is it with their meters, which needs an engineer to be sent to fix it.
The challenge of managing a network of more than eight million IoT devices is significant, but it becomes even more so when you consider that each of these devices must be connected and provide daily meter readings, according to Diego Vola, Italgas ‘ telecoms project manager. Both the customer experience we provide and the SLAs to which we are responsible depend on our ability to immediately identify and fix the root of a problem.
” Increasing deployment of IoT devices in business and enterprise environments is creating assurance challenges such as monitoring and troubleshooting which are new for businesses for which connectivity is not their primary focus,” said Franco Messori, key strategic officer at Infovista. A network of millions of wise meters connected to a key system via open open wireless networks is the ideal example, as is Italgas. To ensure the effective operation of their extensive IoT network, the assurance of maximum performance can only be attained by having the proper observability and control.
