Oil & Gas Solutions

Communications Solutions for the Oil & Gas Industry

KEPServerEX is a flexible, scalable, and affordable solution for connecting, managing, monitoring, and controlling diverse automation devices and software applications across multiple telemetry options—including all radio and modem types, Ethernet TCP/IP, serial multi-drop, and satellite. Communications are managed through a robust software platform that supports an array of client interfaces including OPC, proprietary communication protocols, and APIs. KEPServerEX enables improved operations and decision making by providing real-time data to SCADA and IoT/Big Data systems, as well as Electronic Flow Measurement (EFM) output to validation and accounting systems.

Building In Redundancy

RedundancyMaster and the Media Level Redundancy advanced plug-in for KEPServerEX establish a reliable and uninterruptable network for monitoring and controlling automation processes. RedundancyMaster increases reliability by marshaling redundant pairs of communication servers; Media Level Redundancy establishes a redundant connection of a single device or a pairing of two devices. The redundant methodologies can be used together to eliminate a single point of failure within a system.

Collecting Accurate Electronic Flow Measurement (EFM) Data

Many flow devices and flow computers have the ability to store and perform computations on raw historical flow measurement data. Kepware’s EFM-capable drivers retrieve this data on a configurable interval basis. The EFM Exporter for KEPServerEX creates appropriately-formatted output files for upload into flow analysis and accounting software (such as FLOWCAL and PGAS) for custody transfer purposes. It also includes the ability to export EFM data to user-configurable CSV files or into databases for use in custom flow-analysis solutions. The EFM Suite includes EFM drivers and the EFM Exporter.

Connectivity

The vast library of communications protocols and interfaces available with KEPServerEX allow information to flow seamlessly between automation and enterprise systems. With a library of more than 150 device drivers, client drivers, and advanced plug-in options, KEPServerEX provides connectivity for open standards and industry-leading automation equipment.

Linking Information among Components and Servers

Advanced Tags for KEPServerEX enables users to link information among components in an OPC server project; LinkMaster expands upon this ability, enabling information to be linked among separate OPC servers. Advanced Tags can also perform logic and math functions on tags at the server level. Users can measure the duration of operations, totalize events, perform averages, set trigger conditions for data acquisition, and combine machine conditions to generate an overall machine state—all in a convenient, cost-effective, and straightforward way. These features are valuable for high-level archiving and subsequent analysis.

Logging Data to Databases

DataLogger can collect any data gathered by KEPServerEX and log it to an ODBC-compliant database like SQL, Oracle, and Microsoft (MS) Access. It provides rapid selection of data tags, advanced triggering, and store and forward capabilities.

Scheduling Tags in Real-Time

The Scheduler for KEPServerEX moves the scheduling of data requests from the client to the server to optimize client communications across networks with limited bandwidth. It can define polling schedules for specific tags from multiple devices by the time of day or frequency. It can also define exceptions for periods of time when polling is undesirable. Each schedule can be configured with its own priority to determine which schedule is serviced first when a conflict arises; the server will update clients with data once it is available.

Sharing Communications Hardware

The Oil & Gas, Water & Wastewater, and Power & Utilities industries often require the ability to share communications hardware like radio modems and dial-up modems. These telemetry networks typically have bandwidth limitations, but need a reliable way to collect data from a range of remote devices. Multiple communication channels need to take turns communicating over telemetry networks. To meet this telemetry need, communication serialization enables drivers to share the same serial COM port or serialize communications over a network.

Transferring Data Securely

The OPC UA Client driver for KEPServerEX uses client/server architecture to transfer data over the Internet, WAN, or LAN. It creates a secure connection through firewalls and complements existing internal OPC DA connectivity. The OPC UA tunnel is secure, easy to use, and maintainable.

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