Arch Rock claims to have found a way to run ZigBee signals over a wired network.  Traditionally, ZigBee has been used to transmit information efficiently across wireless networks.  Arch Rock’s new method could effectively integrate smart meters with data centres.

Arch Rock says the new technology will make it much easier to manage and control power consumption without having to rely on gateway hardware that connects ZigBee devices to IP-based networks.  “Every [ZigBee] node becomes IP-enabled,” said Malay Thacker, director of customer solutions at Arch Rock.  He spoke February 19 at the Teladata Technology Convergence Conference in Santa Clara, California.

ZigBee is quickly emerging as a standard protocol for smart metering.  Arch Rock’s discovery could boost the company’s stance in the industry by providing ZigBee support to a wider range of networks.

Thacker cautioned that his company’s Compact Application Protocol (CAP) is “still very much in development,” and isn’t featured in any of the pilot projects or deployments that Arch Rock is currently involved in.

CAP allows multiple vendors of ZigBee devices to co-exist on the same network without the need of a gateway.  Arch Rock demonstrated its technology at last year’s Sensors Expo and has submitted the technical specifications of the CAP protocol to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Even though Arch Rock has targeted industrial and commercial customers, half of its deployments have been in data centres, according to Thacker.  Other companies like Cassatt, Power Assure, Sentilla, and SynapSense have specifically targeted the data centre power efficiency market.

Data centres are very power hungry.  As these top-of-the-line computers have become more sophisticated and complex their power needs have also increased.  The amount of power needed by servers and data centres could double to 100 billion kilowatt-hours within 3 years if they do not become more energy efficient, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  Energy costs would top $7.4 billion annually.

Another company called Agilewaves has developed an Internet-based system that links a building’s water, electric, and gas monitoring systems together through an integration panel.  Arch Rock is also testing its own home power monitoring technology with a pilot project involving three homes in San Francisco.

Arch Rock, as a member of the IPSO Alliance, actively promotes the Internet Protocol (IP) as the best way to connect smart technology and share the information that they provide.  “We’ve seen strong cross-industry participation from semiconductor makers, software companies and systems integrators,” said Geoff Mulligan, chairman of the alliance.

“Most significantly, more and more utilities and OEMs are viewing embedded IP as the long-term solution – and proprietary approaches and ad-hoc alliances as merely an interim step.  They are recognizing that only IP can support a wide variety of networking technologies with the needed scalability and interoperability that organizations require.”