Tropos Networks is a

wireless mesh networking A wireless mesh network (WMN) is a communications network made up of radio nodes organized in a mesh topology. It can also be a form of wireless ad hoc network.Chai Keong Toh Ad Hoc Mobile Wireless Networks, Prentice Hall Publishers, 2002. A ...

company that provides hardware, embedded software and network management application software for building large scale wireless networks. These networks are used by utilities, municipalities, public safety agencies, mines and others that need to communicate with fixed and mobile assets, as well as mobile workers, in the field. The company was founded in 2000 by Narasimha Chari, Devabhaktuni "Sri" Srikrishna, Christian Dubiel and Jonathan Goldenstein. It is headquartered in

Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real (California), El Camino Real and U.S. Route 101 in California, Highway 1 ...

. In June 2012, it was acquired by ABB Power Grids Group, now Hitachi Energy.

Customers

Tropos has more than 850 customers in more than 50 countries around the world. The company's customer base is concentrated in the

smart grid The smart grid is an enhancement of the 20th century electrical grid, using two-way communications and distributed so-called intelligent devices. Two-way flows of electricity and information could improve the delivery network. Research is main ...

municipal government A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

public safety Public security or public safety is the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety and security of the public from significant danger, injury, or property damage. It is often conducted by a state government to ensu ...

and

open pit mining Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially useful ore or ro ...

vertical markets. Notable customers include Avista, Glendale Water & Power, Duncan, Oklahoma, and Lafayette Utilities System.

Investors and corporate governance

Tropos Networks is a privately held company. Venture investors include

Benchmark Capital Benchmark is a venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Bob Kagle, Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff, Kevin Harvey, and Val Vaden. The firm is known for its equal partnership structure and focus on early-stage investing, typically leading the firs ...

, Boston Millennia Partners, Cipio Partners, Duff Ackerman & Goodrich, Hanna Ventures, Integral Capital Partners and Voyager Capital. The Chairman of the Board of Directors is David Hanna of Hanna Ventures; board members include Curtis Feeny of

Voyager Capital Voyager may refer to: Computing and communications * LG Voyager, a mobile phone model manufactured by LG Electronics * NCR Voyager, a computer platform produced by NCR Corporation * Voyager (computer worm), a computer worm affecting Oracle ...

, Bill Gurley of

and Tom Ayers, president and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Tropos Networks. Tropos Network has been acquired by ABB Power Grids group in June 2012 now part of the Hitachi Energy portfolio.

Technology

Utilities deploying a smart grid use Tropos for building a regional-scale distribution area

communications networks A telecommunications network is a group of nodes interconnected by telecommunications links that are used to exchange messages between the nodes. The links may use a variety of technologies based on the methodologies of circuit switching, messag ...

covering hundreds to thousands of square miles. Tropos provides high performance, highly reliable private IP broadband wireless networks that create a secure and scalable foundation upon which multiple smart grid applications including distribution automation, substation security, and

advanced metering infrastructure A smart meter is an Electronics, electronic device that records information—such as consumption of electric energy, voltage levels, current, and power factor—and Telemetering, communicates the information to the consumer and Public utility, ...

(AMI) can be deployed. Additionally, Tropos technology is employed by municipalities to improve efficiencies of a broad range of city services including

Intelligent Transportation Systems An intelligent transportation system (ITS) is an advanced application that aims to provide services relating to different modes of transport and traffic management and enable users to be better informed and make safer, more coordinated, and 's ...

automated meter reading Automatic meter reading (AMR) is the technology of automatically collecting consumption, diagnostic, and status data from water meter or energy metering devices (gas, electric) and transferring that data to a central database for billing, troubles ...

(AMR), public safety, and video surveillance. Tropos has been awarded 40 patents.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.tropos.com Telecommunications companies of the United States