In-House Counsel

No Need to Lock Them in a Room, Mr. Secretary?Use IP

A lot has been said and written this month about the need for speedy adoption of interoperability standards for smart grid, but the simple fact is: Agreeing on interoperability standards doesn’t need to be this hard. Incumbent manufacturers of some niche smart grid technologies based on proprietary protocols and those companies that have built siloed systems using them have every incentive to drag out the process of identifying and agreeing on interoperability standards for smart grid. But, the answer is so obvious; it seems hard for some people to grasp: Use Internet Protocol (IP).

At the center of the Internet boom in the 1990s were not only the price declines in computing and telephony, but also the transition from the use of proprietary protocols and standards to the adoption of open protocols and standards – namely IP – that allowed communications devices and systems to interoperate, spurring innovation and promoting competition. IP was an important factor in enabling the market disruption that drove Internet use – all to the benefit of consumers. Without IP, we wouldn’t have YouTube, or Facebook, or Internet banking. Who wants to wait in line at the bank anymore?

Today’s public discussion about interoperability and smart grid reminds me of that time. Smart grid is still relatively new. To me, smart grid is about adding intelligence into the nation’s electricity delivery system, much like how telecom service provider networks went from being voice-only networks to providing all kinds of new value-added services that go along with the voice service into your home or business. With its open architecture, IP networks can scale, manage, interoperate and secure communications in ways that no network built on proprietary technologies can. And we’re not talking about running smart grid over “the open Internet.” Indeed, many IP networks are private networks, with strong security that protects not only the data, voice and video as it move through the network, but also provides the physical security necessary to protect the grid’s critical infrastructure.

Full post as published by Cisco High Tech Policy Blog on March 20, 2009 (boomark / email).