Reliability of Wireless Communication

The general perception that wireless communication is easily disconnected seems to be attributed to our daily experience with mobile phones and wireless LANs. The rapid progress of mobile phone technology meant that the latest digital wireless communication technology could be used to solve the very tough challenge of ensuring that high-speed data transmission rates and reliability are maintained while users are walking or moving at high speed in cars and trains.
However, the facts that a user moves at a certain speed and that the location of use is not fixed impose difficult conditions on wireless communication for which the radio wave environment changes dynamically, resulting in the instability typical of wireless communication.
Meanwhile, in many industrial measurement applications, the measurement location is considered and then fixed at the point of installation, and even if the user moves, the movement speed is very moderate and the movement range is also limited, and the required data transfer rate is also relatively low, so the environment is such that reliability can be easily maintained for wireless communication. In other words, it is possible to set conditions to ensure sufficient stability for wireless communication beforehand.
By introducing the latest digital wireless technology in such a relatively privileged environment, reliability comparable with wired communication can be ensured.

Choose Reliable Wireless System Suitable for Your Small or Large Applications

Reliable wireless solution is always one of the top concerns for industrial users. This video demonstrates Yokogawa newly released wireless system solution. It combines the best of ISA100.11a wireless technology with Yokogawa system design expertise. The Yokogawa new wireless system further enhanced the “Reliable Radio” in field device, deployed Duocast communication method in Access Point (YFGW510), and enabled two redundant management station (YFGW410) that able to work simultaneously to achieve overall wireless system reliability. Because of this unique design, one single Yokogawa wireless system can be very flexible for your need to support as much as 500 field devices reliably. Enjoy this demonstration.

Yokogawa Field Wireless Devices Survived Lightning Impulse Test -- Trust Your Eyes

Can you believe your eyes? Yokogawa field wireless devices survived by indirect lightning stroke over 1.2 million volts. Trust your eyes. Yokogawa is proud of our quality.

Yokogawa Wireless brings "Reliable Radio Evolution"

Yokogawa Wireless Solution has a very reliable radio-link feature based on a world-class receiver sensitivity. We found this feature brings dramatically new benefits to customers.

  • Long Range Communication: (600 m with 10 mW)
  • Stable in Pipe Jungle
  • Robust in Wi-Fi Co-Existence

Yokogawa Field Wireless: Long Range Communication Test (600 m)

Yokogawa's engineers tested "Long Range Communication" feature of Yokogawa Wireless Solution. 600 m communication with very low Packet Error Rate (PER) is shown in this video.

We named this dramatic change "Reliable Radio Evolution" and would like to propagate this concept for customers' benefits. This video is a conceptual video of "Reliable Radio Evolution".

Security by digital communication technology

Even for fixed wireless communication, there are some concerns, such as interference and cross-talk from other wireless communication and jamming using the same frequency for malicious purposes.
Furthermore, wireless communication signals travel through the air and reach the surrounding areas, so there are concerns such as interception and eavesdropping by a third party, or penetration into the wireless network from the outside.
One answer to these concerns is the evolution from analog to digital technology for wireless communication.
Wireless communication in the analog era was vulnerable in terms of security as it could be intercepted by anyone using a receiver with the same frequency, and intentional interruption and interference were easy.
However, the introduction of digital technology to wireless communication reduced these concerns significantly. The following provides an overview of digital technology.

Security by digital communication technology

Environmental Conditions and Wireless Communication

There are some misunderstandings regarding the concerns about the environmental impact of wireless communication.
For example, it is not true that field wireless communication is vulnerable to strong magnetic fields, or communication is interrupted by rainfall. In some cases, wireless communication is more advantageous than wired communication. The following summarizes the relations between the environmental conditions and wireless communication.

  • Damage by lightning surge
    Lightning surge is a phenomenon that a surge current generated by lightning flows through the power supply cable　and communication cables and damages the connected electronic devices. Therefore, the lightning surge risk for wireless transmitters is rather small because they are not connected by cables. However, an on-site lightning protection measure is required to prevent a direct lightning strike.
  • Communication interference by lightning
    The frequency of electromagnetic waves generated by an electric discharge produced by lightning is said to have a wide range between a couple of hertz and 1 gigahertz. However, the higher the frequency, the lower the power becomes, and the problem only occurs when electric discharge and intermittent communication happen to occur at the same time. Even if that happens, the problem can be covered by retransmission control.
  • Impact of rain, snow, and fog
    The 2.4 GHz range used for field wireless communication suffers little impact from rain and snow. This has been proven by experiments.
    Generally it is said that communication begins to be impacted from 10 GHz and higher.
  • Disconnection risk
    Wireless communication is free from the cable disconnection problem typical of wired communication, which occurs when a cable is broken as a result of a disaster or deterioration in a bad environment, when a cable is damaged by wild animals, or when a cable is cut intentionally by a malicious person.
  • Impact of strong magnetic field
    A magnetic field that causes a problem is generally not one in the high frequency range of wireless communication but one in the low frequency range. Wireless communication is advantageous in this respect as an induction current generated by a magnetic field is produced with regards to the conductor (wire).
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