VHF and UHF radio solutions for the UK utilities market
SCADA is an overarching system for control and monitoring of field based equipment from a central office location. The question that then arises is how to get the critical data from the remote RTU to the control room. Front of mind for the operator will be latency and capacity and in many cases Narrowband radio using VHF or UHF will be a good choice. Contemporary VHF/ UHF radio systems can be configured both as point to point and also point to multi point. In the case of the latter, adaptive modulation can be deployed to each path in order to always select the best modulation scheme for the individual link as well as various protocols to allocate bandwidth as and when it is needed by the endpoints.
One of the strengths of Narrowband radio is the distance and 100km plus is possible using 10 element Yagi antenna. MMX has deployed these types of systems both in rural settings as well as in densely populated urban areas with excellent results. Security is likely to be a key concern for the operator and so strong encryption over the air as well as various mechanisms to prevent so called “replay” attack are available nowadays. Another advantage is the ability to convert legacy serial data to packet based at the network edge using a terminal server within the radio system itself so that traffic is packet based at the earliest possible opportunity.
In speaking with operators and equipment vendors, MMX has noted that the industry is facing a skills shortage in that engineers with the right skills are becoming scarce and the rate at which experienced professionals are retiring is not being replaced with new talent at a sufficient rate. That’s where MMX comes in. We can design and commission into service narrowband radio systems from a range of manufactures best suited to the needs of the DNO ( Distribution Network Operator) or water company. Our field based team are all members of the IRATA scheme which means that we can perform not just tower climbing techniques but also rope access. This means that antenna and feeder installation at the operators towers is all part of the service.
To find out more please contact utilities specialist Jonathan Sheils here get in touch