A SCADA communication apparatus is made up of a set of modules, a first one of
which is adapted for communication with a remote terminal unit (RTU), a second
one of which is adapted for communication with a communications transceiver, and
a third one of which is adapted for routing messages between and to physically
house the first and second ones of the modules. Optionally, encryption and/or data
compression can be provided by the operating system associated with the communication
apparatus; or, these features may be provided in the form of application programs.