Telecommunication needs encountered in the oil and gas industry differ to a great extent from carrier or enterprise requirements. Oil and gas companies indeed have a different challenge as they need to make sure that their production is up and running, while optimising their capital and operational expenditures. A reliable telecommunication network is an important building block to achieve this.
Reliability providing ease of mind
Refineries and pipelines need to be up and running round-the-clock. An hour of downtime can cost millions of dollars. As mission-critical applications are transported by the telecommunication network, its availability is key. Hence, Belden Solutions NV develops communication networks which are ‘rock solid’ and use multiple levels of redundancy to guarantee an extreme level of availability 24/7. Cable breaks or power failures have no impact on the services. Users can opt to have control cards, interface modules, individual circuits or power supplies duplicated. Special efforts have been put into the design to cope with extreme environmental conditions. The XTran productline can be installed in outdoor cabinets or underground shelters. Most models have a fanless design and will withstand harsh environments while power consumption is kept to an absolute minimum.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”
Most oil and gas personnel are engineers with multidisciplinary skills and know how. Hence, they should be relieved from having to handle a highly complex telecommunication network. Therefore, the network must be easy to manage – making sure that users get supported with their mission critical applications. At all times!
Simple, yet so versatile
Oil and gas operations need a solid communication network. Multiple applications require guaranteed throughput while having very specific requirements. CCTV video traffic assumes a very short delay between camera and control room, a radio network might need synchronous links while legacy terminals may still use analogue interfaces. Belden Solutions NV network users do not need to worry about these challenges as XTran overcomes complexities by providing a mature multi-service solution powered by MPLS-TP. Predictability is key for operational telecom networks. With XTran, in conjunction with TXCare, the operator can configure the delay, wander and jitter of each individual connection. All data traffic is combined on a single network ensuring 100% separation between the applications without jeopardising performance or data security.
Initial experience in the oil and gas market was gained with the OTN product line. The first system was installed back in 1992 and is still in operation. In the meantime, more than 15 leading oil and gas companies around the world selected XTran.
