Mobile Open Systems Technology for the Utilities Industries

Abstract

This chapter considers the provision of mobile computing support for field engineers in the electricity industry. Section 11.2 describes field engineers current working practices and from these derives a set of general requirements for a mobile computing environment to support utilities workers. A key requirement which is identified is the need for field engineers to access real-time multimedia information in the field and it is on this requirement that the remainder of the chapter focuses. Sections 11.3 and 11.4 present a survey of enabling technologies to support distributed systems operating in both local and wide area wireless environments. The impact of these technologies on the provision of mobile computing support is assessed in section 11.5. Section 11.6 describes a software architecture which attempts to address the requirements highlighted in section 11.2 and in particular is designed to support real-time access to data in the field. Finally, section 11.7 considers the degree to which utilities workers requirements can be met by the surveyed technologies and considers the likely impact of remote data access on field engineers working practices.