1. © gridComm Pte. Ltd. Page 1 of 2
WP07181601
Competitive Edge
GRIDCOMM’S COMPETITIVE EDGE
gridComm, a company headquartered in Singapore,
provides hybrid power line communications (PLC)-radio frequency
(RF) devices and systems that enable the transformation of the
electricity grid into a smart grid. By connecting utilities to their
customers, gridComm's hybrid PLC-RF devices help to transform
meters, streetlights, industrial systems, buildings and other
appliances into energy-aware "smart devices" that react to
conditions on the grid, thus implementing a worldwide
communications network and Internet of Things (IOT) based on
the existing power grid. While there are many smart solution
providers around, gridComm excels and differentiates in
several fronts:
1) Most Robust and Reliable Communication Technology
gridComm’s most distinct strength is the underlying PLC
communication technology that is based on the world’s most
reliable and robust gridComm GC2200, the fundamental
communications enabler and the next generation
OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) multi-
redundant channel PLC transceiver, which enables real-time
adaptive and self-configuring network over noisy power lines.
gridComm GC2200 scans and selects the best frequencies in
noisy environments providing both flexibility and opportunity for full
redundancy with 18 channels. This, as opposed to other solutions
which are largely single channel with fixed frequency, has distinct
advantages in reliability. Without comprising security, gridComm
PLC is encrypted with AES-128 technology.
In order to extend the transmission range or to bridge a gap
where there are no power lines, gridComm invented hybrid PLC-
RF technology (patent pending) where a 19th
channel is added
to the 18-channel of the GC2200. This allows seamless
communications with any gridComm PLC, RF or hybrid PLC-RF
devices allowing parallel communications to happen concurrently.
This hybrid technology also serves to provide redundancy further
boosting communication robustness.
gridComm’s technology superiority makes it well suited for
smart grid applications such as Smart Street Lighting System,
Smart Metering and Advanced Metering Infrastructure, Industrial
Control and Building Automation. Particularly in Smart Street
Lighting System, gridComm PLC technology presents a Plug-and-
Play solution without having the need to send field engineers on-
site for configurations and debugging. This is critical to be able to
scale in large deployments.
2) Smart Street Lighting Works-Out-Of-The-Box- Phase A
gridComm’s robust PLC technology perfectly suits the
power line networked Smart Street Lighting. The fact that it works
Out-Of-The-Box and yet maintains high reliability makes Smart
Street Lighting installation easy. Without a reliable
communication network, there is no smartness and this is
very critical enabling scalable deployments. Imagine field
engineers are always needed for on-site tuning and debugging,
this will not work and will not make economic sense.
Most short-range wireless technologies, such as
Zigbee, WIFI and Bluetooth, cannot reliably enable a scalable
network. This is because these technologies are easily
susceptible to outdoor interferences such as weather, other radio
frequencies and physical obstructions (eg. metal, trees or walls).
Imagine when the communication signals of a particular street
light node are being interfered or obstructed, the communications
for the downstream street light nodes will be impeded and become
out of control. Likewise, a hacker can easily jam a network by
using a jammer device with strong output power. PLC will not have
this problem as physical access to the power cable will be needed.
3) World’s Only Fully Integrated Sensor-Ready Digital Power
Supply
gridComm’s highly integrated, high performance Digital
Power Supply is designed and built with much less discrete
components as compared to the conventional fixed-topology
drivers. This results in much higher reliability and performance.
Power efficiency is at least 95%. The DPS employs a 32-bit
MCU replacing the control feedback loop in the conventional
driver. Besides, due to its programmable nature, the DPS is
adaptive to different types of loads with simpler circuit design and
lower cost. Particularly, it adaptive nature enables it to learn and
compensate for any DC voltage variations in LED luminaire
preventing the lamp from flickering due to aging. Dimming,
ON/OFF and electrical data read-back (such as input and
output current/voltage, power consumption, power factor,
temperature) can be performed with various types of
luminaire- LED, Sodium Vapor, Metal Halide etc resulting in
great improvements in productivity, steep reductions in CO2
emission and huge cost savings due to reduced energy
consumption. Running the Digital Power Supply at dimmed level
also helps extend its lifespan. The ability to read the output
voltage and current (the input of luminaire) accurately predicts its
working conditions. This gives great reliability, cost benefits and
convenience in a single unit over the conventional two-piece
solution- driver/ballast + controller.
Besides, gridComm Digital Power Supply can easily
integrate with motion, proximity and light sensors to cater for

2. © gridComm Pte. Ltd. Page 2 of 2
WP07181601
Competitive Edge
motion-trigger or light-trigger lighting strategies (eg. tunnel or less
frequent streets).
4) Complete End-to-End Turnkey Smart Street Lighting
Solution
gridComm is the only complete end-to-end solution provider
(except the luminaire and lamp post) in the world for smart
street light system.
This includes the Street Light Management Software (server or
cloud-based), the Master Light Controller (concentrator), the
Digital Power Supply/Smart Light Controller and the
fundamental communication enabler, gridComm GC2200 PLC
chip. Having a complete end-to-end system ensures that no
finger pointing happens when there is a problem with the
system.
5) Plug-and-Play Smart Street Light Sensory Network-
Phase B
In addition to Smart Street Lighting, gridComm’s hybrid
PLC+RF solution lays the foundation enabling city-wide
sensory network to be implemented based on street light
power lines infrastructure.
This enables phase-by-phase Smart City implementation. Once
the Smart Street Lighting System has been implemented as
Phase A,
sensory
network based on RF or power lines can be rolled out as Phase
B anytime. This is possible because
gridComm Smart Street Lighting solution is IoT-Sensor-Ready
solving the compatibility problems of communicating with different
types of networks. Phase B is about using the street lighting
power line as the infrastructure network to deploy IoT sensors.
gridComm solution can communicate with street lights and
IoT sensors using the hybrid PLC-RF technology, which can
be “Plug-and-Play” into the network easily without onsite
configurations. gridComm system intelligently networks the
street lightings and the IoT sensors automatically. IoT sensors to
monitor weather, traffic, pollution, light, motion, flood, seismic and
others can be integrated into the network as and when they are
needed. Besides providing network connectivity for RF-based
sensors, gridComm hybrid PLC-RF solution further increases
communication reliability by having a secondary redundant
communication medium.
6) Security and Data Analytics
gridComm network is completely secured and protected right
from the hybrid power line communications/RF network for the
end nodes, which is AES-128 protected, to the cellular TCP
network, which is backed by Intel gateway platform and Intel’s
Wind River McAfee software, which includes OpenSS, IPSEC
VPN, or Cisco’s gateway and security services. For Street Light
Management Software web hosting, gridComm selects IBM
Softlayer. The security measures in place ensure full protection
against hacking.
gridComm’s unique Smart Street Light Sensory Network system
enabled by gridComm’s hybrid PLC+RF technologies presents a
massive data dump for data analytics enabling Smart Cities to
take advantage of the huge city-wide power line networks to
access and analyse data from different types of sensors (weather,
traffic volume, pollution, seismic etc.). Analytics can be done on
street lamps’ voltage and current to more accurately predict
maintenance and the expected lifetime failures. Likewise,
analytics on seismic sensors at residential estates could help to
better predict earthquakes, thus saving lives. gridComm works
with IBM Watson amongst others for data analytics integration.
Contact Information
For more information regarding gridComm solution including
pricing and ordering, please contact gridComm Pte Ltd at:
www.gridComm-plc.com info@gridcomm-plc.com