Program: 2010 Region 2 Meeting

Room: Pearl Ballroom

Room: Crown Ballroom 1

Your utility’s need for wireless communications options has never been greater. Whether for AMI deployments or new control systems, wireless connectivity offers rapid, cost-effective, secure network deployment. Join this session to explore traditional shared licensed spectrum options as well as new commercial wireless offerings and leased spectrum opportunities.

Room: Pearl Ballroom

Room: Crown Ballroom 1

Come hear from a member of UTC’s leadership team what’s going on with UTC. This is a great time for members and non-members alike to find out what UTC is doing and what is being planned. This presentation gives attendees a chance to ask questions and provide suggestions about the direction of UTC.

Room: Crown Ballroom 1

Deploying a Smart Grid Communications is a multi-tier architecture requiring multiple communication elements to be linked to together to form a cohesive and reliable data transport conduit from the field to the core. This topic will focus on the middle mile, or RF backhaul, bridging the Field Area Network to the core backbone. The topic will explore spectrum selection – licensed vs. unlicensed, spectrum sharing, technology selection –  WiMax, WiFi and LTE and deployment considerations. There is no one right answer in any of these questions, but this presentation will surface the issues and shortcomings of the options and provide insights to consider as you formulate middle mile strategies.

Room: Crown Ballroom 1

Effective grounding practices are necessary to keep your utility operating at a safe, high-performance level. Get detailed knowledge about grounding electrode systems, single point grounding, isolated ring and halo grounds, as well as tower grounding. Hear from experts on best practices, plus common pitfalls and how to solve them.

Room: Crown Ballroom 1

With the proliferation of wireless technologies in the utility sector, many people are quick to deploy systems without thinking about potential security threats. See the danger for yourself at this eye‑opening session, where presenters use a mobile wireless lab consisting of industrial WiFi, ZigBee, and 900 MHz spread spectrum technologies.

The attack team shows the weaknesses of using the default security setting in wireless systems, then increases the level of security and shows how an attacker can still crack lower forms of encryption. Finally, see how properly configuring systems can keep the bad guys out. Don’t miss this exciting live demo!

Room: Crown Ballroom 1

Today’s utility communications infrastructure connects substations to control centers with a variety of legacy facilities: leased lines, wireless, and dial-up to name a few. Many devices in substations are connected to communications servers with proprietary interfaces that cannot be easily changed or adapted. The result: high cost and complexity with low flexibility and reliability. But new drivers are forcing modernization:

• NERC/CIP requires better operational management and security


• The market applies pressure to reduce operating expenses


• Management demands efficiency and scalability to optimize grid operations and deploy a Smart Grid

Discover how these drivers will affect you, and learns the pros and cons of deploying optical and data solutions.

Room: Pearl Ballroom

Room: Crown Ballroom 2

THE REGIONAL MEETING WILL BE HELD FROM 8:00 - 9:00 A.M., AND IS CLOSED TO INDIVIDUALS NOT CONSIDERED CORE MEMBERS OF UTC.

Room: Crown Ballroom 1

Room: Crown Ballroom 1

What is the FCC planning for the frequency bands in which you operate? What is the status of the proceedings you’re worried about? What are Congress and Federal agencies doing to help critical infrastructure communications? In this always-popular session, get an overview of what the UTC Legal/Regulatory staff is doing and how we read the landscape for your communications systems, including the status of legislative work and the drive toward a critical infrastructure spectrum allocation.

Room: Crown Ballroom 1

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a key technology for delivery of IP services. Discover the benefits and applications, get answers to basic technical questions on functionality, and learn the depth and breadth of MPLS solutions. You’ll also get an overview of MPLS applications such as virtual private networks (VPNs); traffic engineering; quality of service (QoS); operations administration and maintenance (OAM); and the security aspects of each solution.