Q&A Selex

How can oil and gas companies maximize new technology to meet their communication needs? Feel free to pick up on the following points.

• What are the particular communication challenges in the oil and gas field? How do the hostile environments, and inherently risky operating procedures affect the communication solutions a company chooses?

Oil and gas operators require fully integrated information and communications solutions that are both reliable and robust, and that can operate in extreme and hazardous environments and during emergencies.

There are technical, financial and human – i.e. lack of awareness of the real importance of interoperability - challenges with traditional mission critical communication methods. For the Oil & Gas industry, a key issue hindering emergency response communications is using technology that was not designed to satisfy the communication requirements of professional users.
Although public safety personnel regularly use commercial wireless devices and services such as their GSM phones, these devices are not suited for public safety mission-critical communications. During critical incidents, commercial systems can be overloaded and unavailable as public demand overwhelms the systems.

TETRA is the communication standard of choice for those organizations or groups that need immediate, reliable and secure communications. TETRA is probably the most important European initiative taken to encourage the development of interoperable, flexible and open architectures. TETRA does not identify any specific product but represents - like GSM – a European telecommunications standard for Professional Mobile Radio voice and data communications.

TETRA is an open standard developed by the European Telecommunication Standardisation Institute (ETSI). The main purpose of the TETRA standard was to define a series of open interfaces, as well as services and facilities, in sufficient detail to enable independent manufacturers to develop infrastructure and terminal products that would fully interoperate and is a European response to the communications demands of organizations that need immediate, reliable, and secure mobile communications.

TETRA is several times more efficient than traditional analogue and digital radio systems because it maximizes network capacity by efficiently re-utilizing shared radio resources, optimally distributes available radio resources according to demand, allows multiple user channels to be carried on a single radio bearer, making efficient use of the frequency spectrum, allows for the efficient transmission of images and video at speeds up to 400% faster than in analogue or digital proprietary systems, and offers advanced Virtual Private Network (VPN) capabilities.

TETRA also allows for group and broadcast communications where a user (or the dispatcher) can communicate not only with another user, but with a group of users. In a GSM network group communications are not implemented; only conference calls are possible but with complex usage procedures and with performances not satisfying the emergency organizations and police forces needs.

The need for terminals that are safe to operate in potentially explosive environments is one that is intrinsic to the industry. SELEX Communications’ PUMA-T3Ex handheld terminal has been designed to be "Intrinsically Safe" according to ATEX standards for operations in potentially explosive environments.

PUMA-T3Ex, as part of Puma-T3 family, can also operate as a conventional FM radio and allows users unique-in-the-market feature to communicate with both analogue and TETRA equipment. Engineered for professional users, PUMA-T3Ex is extremely sturdy, has a large keyboard that is easy to use even when wearing gloves, and is visible in critical light conditions. Thanks to its large loudspeaker and potent amplifier, Puma-T3Ex allows for communications even in particularly noisy environments, while its well-placed separate small speaker allow it to be used as a regular cell phone. A feature of particular relevance is the “man-down” safety feature. Puma-T3Ex is the only TETRA terminal that signals the dispatcher that a person using the terminal might be in danger.

• Why is effective communications technology so important – how does it improve oil and gas production activities?

At SELEX Communications we leverage on our know-how, experience and product-portfolio to supply the Oil and Gas industry with turnkey communication solutions that integrate a number of communication technologies including Tetra, Simulcast, and next generation wireless broadband radio to realize multi-technology network solutions. Our solutions address both the “traditional” operational requirement for instant and crystal-clear voice communications and the need for a communication solution that is integrated with a company’s control and monitoring systems.

PERSEUS is SELEX Communications’ complete, interoperable, modular and scalable communication solution. PERSEUS is comprised of a number of communication technologies, each one of which was developed as a response to the needs of professional users. PERSEUS’ backbone is comprised of a wide array of information and communication solutions (Fiber Optics, Radio Links, WiMAX, and Satellite). PERSEUS’ backbone can be easily integrated with existing civil and private systems to ensure interconnection and interoperability.

Intrinsic to each solution is the fact that each one was engineered to provide reliable, secure and immediate communications, and to form Alerting Systems for emergencies that automatically send and receive emergency information for immediate response.

One may think of networks for Oil and Gas, as national geographical networks that are able to provide service under any type of emergency conditions, able to acquire and disseminate information in a capillary fashion, and able to assign priority to critical information and communications.

Each network that comprises PERSEUS can be interfaced with a wide range of sensors, and be integrated with existing communication networks to form early-threat detection networks, as well as remotely monitor and manage equipment and vehicles.

• What new opportunities for efficiency in production operations does new technology facilitate?

In the energy sector a recent development of particular importance are SCADA (acronym for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) applications for the remote monitoring and management of equipment. SELEX Communications offers solutions engineered to allow for the connectivity of external devices to related peers for monitoring and control applications. Designed for fixed installation, they connect to SCADA sensors and collect data from the field, and remotely manage and control equipment and video surveillance systems for multiple geographical voice and data networks.

WiNN - SCADA (acronym for Wireless Network Node) is SELEX Communications' solution that allows for the connectivity of external devices to related peers via TETRA.

Main features:

• Controls External Devices (e.g. sensors and actuators)
• Interfaces with WiMAX, Wi-Fi, GPRS and Bluetooth
• Routes IP data between local WLAN/Bluetooth and geographical networks (TETRA and others) > Stores
  data and videos
• Management of local digital video cameras
• Video traffic to/from the TETRA network and remote control messages
• Wireless LAN or Bluetooth connectivity for local management via PDA/notebook
• Remote configuration and software downloading via web or SNMP

• What kind of technologies are available, what are the advantages of technologies like TETRA and wireless routers?

SELEX Communications’ approach is to deploy a TETRA system in a new segment of pipeline, realizing a “TETRA Region” that can operate independently, but interoperable with the analogue systems. Main advantages of interoperable voice and data networks include the ability set-up individual calls, group calls, and to send SDS messages across different networks utilizing a unified numbering scheme.

Easy and efficient interoperability relies on state-of-the-art platforms based on IP protocol suite. Convergence of TETRA with legacy radio systems, such as MPT1327, or fixed telephone and data networks is achieved through VoIP (Voice over IP) and Mobile IP protocols whereas the interconnection network is implemented utilizing the Softswitch concept.

Thanks to this flexible and advanced approach, users are surprised to communicate transparently through many radio and fixed systems as it was one, where fast voice communications is granted along with multi-service professional features, supervised by integrated control rooms and administered by unified network management centers.

SELEX Communications is working on solutions that will allow work groups and organizations to establish outdoor mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET) using integrated wireless technology. These mobile and nomadic networks can be interfaced with other existing analogue and digital networks in the area.

Wireless ad hoc sensor networks consist of a number of nodes spread across a delimited monitored area. Each node has wireless communication capabilities and some level of intelligence for data processing and networking of the data. Every node is a wireless router with relaying capabilities. Nodes connect with each other to form self-organized, auto-configuring and non-hierarchical wireless networks. Collected data and information may be analyzed locally or transmitted to other networks/platforms through a gateway.