Master and/or Remote Control

How can UCOS cost-effectively support master station, remote, or hybrid SCADA models in a single system?

• More capable, less costly hardware
• More efficient, less costly communications
• More automated control, less costly labor

More Capable, Less Costly Hardware

If your remote RTUs still work for you and you don't need to replace them, UCOS will work with them.

However, if you need to put the controller close to the process or it's time to replace your RTUs, replace them with a UCOS microFCU. This small, low-powered device executes real-time sequential and regulatory logic on site. An RTU simply passes commands and data between the master station and field devices.

Moreover, the UCOS microFCU typically costs less than or about the same as the least expensive RTUs, but it delivers significantly more processing power.

More Efficient, Less Costly Communications

UCOS distributes data efficiently to eliminate communication bottlenecks even at the most data-intensive sites.

Using report-by-exception technology, UCOS transfers only data that has changed and only if other sites – including the master station – need that data.

That minimizes communications traffic.

And since data and control are both centralized and distributed, UCOS helps ensure against system-wide shutdowns. In fact, many UCOS customers can securely monitor and control the entire system of master and remote sites from any one of those locations.

Using a UCOS microFCU instead of an RTU can help minimize network traffic, too.

For example, an RTU must receive all its instructions from the master station and must transfer all data it collects to the master station for processing.

In contrast, the UCOS microFCU includes a logic processor. So it can generate its own commands and only needs to get infrequent logic updates from the master station.

In addition, the UCOS microFCU only sends data over the network when that data has changed, changed more than a user-configurable deadband, and/or if that data has been requested by the master station or other sites.

More automated control, Less Costly Labor

In a UCOS SCADA system, labor costs are minimized because the UCOS architecture makes a local operator optional at sites with heavy monitoring and control needs.

All development and even maintenance and support can be handled centrally, thus eliminating the need for local developers and for travel to remote sites to perform upgrades and maintenance.

UCOS allows one central team of developers to make logic and graphic changes at the master station and download those changes to one or more remote sites.

Conclusion

As you can see, UCOS is the key to erasing the old boundaries that limit what SCADA can do.

Next, let's look more closely at the UCOS SCADA architecture.

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