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Analysis: The Virtual Data Center: Page 7 of 8

Allegheny Power is using the Augusta boxes to build what it calls a self-healing electric grid. The SensorPorts process measurements from voltage sensors on power lines, temperature sensors in transformers, and moisture sensors in areas prone to flooding, rerouting power in case of an outage. "It's a way to transfer loads back and forth without having to rebuild our entire utility system," says Harley Mayfield, a planning engineer at Allegheny.

Sending meter readings all the way to a data center is not an option because the network is often out along with the power. The project is still just a pilot using a single SensorPort, but Allegheny plans to install 12 SensorPorts at substations, linked wirelessly to about 1,000 sensors throughout the grid. It also hopes to use the same infrastructure for automated meter readings for 1.5 million customers in Maryland and surrounding states.

Mayfield likes the way the appliance supports almost every type of sensor. "It's like tying a thermostat to a game console to a VCR," he says. "Being an old Star Trek fan, I look at the SensorPort as a universal translator." But as with the 3Com box, actually programming it isn't easy. He's had to bring in an outside company to provide custom software.

Still, that's an improvement over how sensor networks used to work. Developers working on sensor networks are used to debugging with an oscilloscope, says Joe Polastre, CTO of sensor software startup Sentilla. The company has ported a Java runtime to the 8-bit processors used in wireless motes, the dime-size nodes that make up wireless sensor networks, and sells an Eclipse-based SDK that lets developers cut and paste code directly from the Java apps used in most SOAs. Sentilla has signed up customers in the agricultural and border-security sectors. The business case is the same as with appliances and WAN optimizers writ small: to save bandwidth.

"The more processing you do on the sensor, the less you need a network at all," Polastre says. And with a tiny battery-powered device that consumes energy every time it transmits, avoiding the network means big savings in maintenance.