Moxa recently announced it has introduced a proprietary concurrent dual-radio technology to combat interference in industrial wireless LAN applications. Moxa is claiming the technology “ensures zero wireless packet loss” in these applications, “eliminating problems such as video frame skips, screen freezes and dropouts in safety-critical and real-time wireless applications.”
The company’s AWK-5222 and AWK-6222 series industrial wireless access points include the company’s new “Zero Wireless Packet Loss” solution, which uses two independent RF modules to simultaneously transmit duplicate packets on two different bands (2.4 GHz and/or 5 GHz). This ensures that at least one of the packets reaches the receiver, Moxa explains. Simultaneous dual-radio transmissions also increase the throughput by reducing the number of resend requests, the company adds.
Ariana Drivdahl, product marketing manager for Moxa, commented, “The unpredictability of radio interference has long been a deterring factor for industrial operators wanting to deploy wireless technology. While self-healing and dual-band devices have been developed to somewhat mitigate this impact, signal recovery and renegotiation in band switchover can still result in unacceptable packet loss. Concurrent dual-radio transmission architecture is the first and only technology that completely bypasses all interference.
“Even when routing measures are taken to identify and eliminate environmental interference, wireless interference still remains a possibility and can compromise network reliability and system safety. Moxa’s concurrent dual-radio transmission with interference immunity is what operators need to ensure real-time performance with zero-data-loss communication.”
The access points are 802.11a/b/g compliant, support 100-ms redundant roaming, comply with what Moxa calls “essential sections” of EN 50155, and operate in temperatures ranging from -40 to +75 degrees Celsius. The AWK-6222 includes an IP68-rated metal housing.