background image

 

RLXIB-IHA ♦ 802.11a 

User Manual 

RadioLinx® 802.11a Industrial Hotspot 

 

 

Page 66 of 123 

ProSoft Technology, Inc. 

 

July 25, 2013 

 

 

Summary of Contents for RLXIB-IHA RadioLinx

Page 1: ...RLXIB IHA 802 11a RadioLinx 802 11a Industrial Hotspot July 24 2013 USER MANUAL...

Page 2: ...BE NON HAZARDOUS THIS DEVICE CONTAINS A TRANSMITTER MODULE FCC ID PLEASE SEE FCC ID LABEL ON BACK OF DEVICE THIS DEVICE USES AN INTERNAL COMPACT FLASH RADIO MODULE AS THE PRIMARY RADIO COMPONENT THE...

Page 3: ...n hazardous locations only WARNING EXPLOSION HAZARD Do not disconnect equipment unless power has been removed or the area is known to be non hazardous WARNING EXPLOSION HAZARD Substitution of any comp...

Page 4: ...talled and used in accordance with the instruction manual may cause harmful interference to radio communications Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause harmful interferen...

Page 5: ...are not covered by these certifications Any non certified items added to the radio including any means of supplying power must be located in an area known to be non hazardous All wiring to and from t...

Page 6: ......

Page 7: ...1 3 System Requirements 13 1 4 Install the IH Browser Configuration Tool 13 1 5 Install ProSoft Wireless Designer 14 1 6 Planning the Network 14 1 6 1 Installation Questions 15 1 6 2 ProSoft Wireless...

Page 8: ...ion type 60 4 3 2 WPA phrase 60 4 3 3 WEP key 61 4 3 4 MAC filter 61 4 3 5 Hide Network SSID 62 4 4 Radio access settings 62 4 4 1 SNMP Agent settings 63 4 4 2 Change password 64 4 5 Apply Changes 65...

Page 9: ...Antenna Gain 93 6 3 3 Antenna Polarity 93 6 3 4 Whip antennas 94 6 3 5 Collinear array antennas 94 6 3 6 Yagi Array Antenna 95 6 3 7 Parabolic reflector antennas 95 6 3 8 Antenna location spacing and...

Page 10: ...Contents RLXIB IHA 802 11a User Manual RadioLinx 802 11a Industrial Hotspot Page 10 of 123 ProSoft Technology Inc July 25 2013 8 Glossary of Terms 107 Index 121...

Page 11: ...ndustrial Hotspot The RadioLinx 802 11a High Power Industrial Hotspot RLXIB IHA is a high speed wireless Ethernet radio with PoE and Serial Encapsulation The RLXIB IHA operates at speeds up to 54 Mbps...

Page 12: ...ed RJ45 IEEE 802 3 802 3u 802 3x Antenna Port 1 RP SMA connector Weight 1 1 lbs 499g Environmental Operating Temperature 40 C to 75 C Humidity Up to 100 RH with no condensation External Power PoE Inje...

Page 13: ...ndows XP Professional with Service Pack 1 or 2 o Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional with Service Pack 1 2 or 3 o Microsoft Windows Server 2003 o Microsoft Windows Vista 128 Mbytes of RAM minimum 256...

Page 14: ...in any applications that are running close the applications and allow the computer to restart 1 6 Planning the Network Before you configure and install the network you should create a plan for it The...

Page 15: ...rvey you can do it yourself or you can hire a surveyor Protect radios from direct exposure to weather and provide an adequate stable power source Make sure that your plan complies with the radio s pow...

Page 16: ...cal Installation A network s performance is affected by attributes specific to the installation site Consider the following cautions where possible to optimize your network installation Design the net...

Page 17: ...dios are preceded by an M in the utility window list Note The text shown in yellow at the bottom of the window indicates the status of changes you have made to the configuration If the text shows Chan...

Page 18: ...igate to PROGRAMS PROSOFT TECHNOLOGY 2 Click to start RADIOLINX IH BROWSER The window lists all the radios your computer can access The MAC ID number is essentially the serial number of the radio this...

Page 19: ...plug in the power cable and Ethernet cable the radio performs a startup procedure that includes a self test loading the main program and initializing the radio The front panel LEDs will illuminate aft...

Page 20: ...o listing refer to Diagnostics and Troubleshooting in the RLXIB IHA User Manual 1 7 4 Assign a Temporary IP Address You need the IP address to log into the Radio Configuration Diagnostic Utility and c...

Page 21: ...ings page 62 1 7 5 Set Up the Master Radio To configure the radio double click on the radio Radio1 in the IH Browser window This action opens a web browser for example Microsoft Internet Explorer or F...

Page 22: ...e same SSID Channel Select a channel and frequency range for the network or accept the default value Network channels allow radios to avoid sharing a frequency with other networks in the same location...

Page 23: ...k SSID and WPA phrase are both case sensitive Network SSID _________________ WPA phrase __________________ Radio Access Settings If a DHCP Dynamic Host Control Protocol server is configured on your lo...

Page 24: ...k SSID Enter the SSID you configured for the Master radio All radios in a network must have the same SSID Security Settings Encryption Type Encryption scrambles data so that only intended viewers can...

Page 25: ...should always use them as repeaters and masters To connect a device to a radio in client mode click the Client button for the radio and try programming the radio s client mode using the Auto setting...

Page 26: ...RLXIB IHA 802 11a User Manual RadioLinx 802 11a Industrial Hotspot Page 26 of 123 ProSoft Technology Inc July 25 2013...

Page 27: ...ce may be degraded Disconnect antennas from radios during bench testing or move the radios further apart from each other Tip To make it easier to physically identify the radios you are configuring app...

Page 28: ...t be mounted separately and connected to the radio using a coaxial antenna cable Because the antenna cable attenuates the RF signal use an antenna cable length that is no longer than necessary to ensu...

Page 29: ...roSoft Technology Inc Page 29 of 123 July 25 2013 determine and resolve sources of electrical noise which may be interfering with the radio transmission add a repeater between the radios that are not...

Page 30: ...RLXIB IHA 802 11a User Manual RadioLinx 802 11a Industrial Hotspot Page 30 of 123 ProSoft Technology Inc July 25 2013...

Page 31: ...g the graph will show the words Not connected Update readings every If you want to update the diagnostic readings according to a particular interval specify the interval in seconds in this field Read...

Page 32: ...in the IH Browser page 34 For more troubleshooting information visit the ProSoft web site at www prosoft technology com 3 2 Check the Ethernet cable If you connect a radio and the Ethernet LED does no...

Page 33: ...ve LEDs should blink All three LEDs will blink just after the radio links to the Master s signal but before it has been fully authenticated Normally you will see this last only a few seconds If it las...

Page 34: ...rol Panel Confirm that the network connection has a valid IP address Your network connection might need to have a static IP address assigned to it Check the IP address of your network connection to de...

Page 35: ...adio s signal quality try the following steps Adjust the direction of the high gain antennas Increase the height of the antenna s placement Use higher gain antennas or external preamplifiers Select a...

Page 36: ...RLXIB IHA 802 11a User Manual RadioLinx 802 11a Industrial Hotspot Page 36 of 123 ProSoft Technology Inc July 25 2013...

Page 37: ...esktop computer laptop or Personal Data Assistant PDA to monitor and change the settings within the RadioLinx Industrial Hotspot radio To open the Radio Configuration Diagnostic Utility 1 In the Radio...

Page 38: ...ified Notice also that depending on the way the radio is configured some fields and buttons may be unavailable because they do not affect the configuration you have selected Review the topics in this...

Page 39: ...Diagnostic Utility RadioLinx 802 11a Industrial Hotspot User Manual ProSoft Technology Inc Page 39 of 123 July 25 2013 To view more help about the selected field click the field name This action open...

Page 40: ...l Hotspot Page 40 of 123 ProSoft Technology Inc July 25 2013 To view the complete online documentation for your RLXIB IHA Radio click the button This action opens the online documentation in a new bro...

Page 41: ...s controls how often the web configuration form automatically refreshes To change the value temporarily enter the new value and press the Tab key To change the value permanently enter the new value an...

Page 42: ...e scan the network and update the devices in the list Mac ID A unique hexadecimal number that identifies any Ethernet device SSID Network Name Service Set Identifier Channel The radio channel on which...

Page 43: ...address is connected along with the age in seconds since the radio last saw a packet from this MAC address Field Description Radio MAC The MAC address of the selected radio The MAC ID is also printed...

Page 44: ...3 Port status This configuration page opens when you click the Port Status button on the Radio Configuration form When you click the Port Status button you can see information about all the active po...

Page 45: ...ernet a parent radio or a child radio State The current Spanning Tree state of the port Possible states are Blocking Learning Listening and Forwarding Forwarding packets can be transferred Designation...

Page 46: ...e redundancy on a per radio basis select the single parent button and then click on the radio to view its available redundancies 4 2 Radio Network settings The following fields appear in the Radio Net...

Page 47: ...special setting to establish the network channel and define the root of the network tree Repeater radios help extend the range of a network and help create the signal bridges that allow networked rad...

Page 48: ...lculation to create a cost for each possible parent radio that it detects In the calculation the radio includes RSSI Stronger signals receive a better cost Hop Count Fewer hops from the Master radio i...

Page 49: ...e link any further For signals that are above that threshold only fewer hops from the Master give preference You can adjust that threshold here Rate to Parent The default setting is auto which allows...

Page 50: ...sed not only on the strongest signal but on several other factors to provide optimum network communication Prioritized Parent Selection If you need more control than the automatic algorithm allows you...

Page 51: ...s that you specify You can list up to eight radios to choose from Best in List The IH will select its parent using the Automatic Parent Selection algorithm described above but it will limit the select...

Page 52: ...ery Interval Number of seconds between queries if not pre emptied by another devices queries Multicast State Count Number of queries generated before a device is removed from the multicast group on th...

Page 53: ...t out the port at a rate called the Hello Time The accepted standard value for this is 2 seconds If a radio or any other RSTP device does not get a BPDU for 2 Hello Times it assumes the RSTP device th...

Page 54: ...spanning tree is enabled Additionally spanning tree is used to flush the Ethernet switch table when the network topology changes as described in the section on Automatic Parent Selection Firmware vers...

Page 55: ...he switch The timeout value for this timer is the maximum age parameter of the switches Forward Delay Monitors the time spent by a port in the learning and listening states The timeout value is the fo...

Page 56: ...ze this radio s use on an industrial network Field Description Max Data Rate The maximum data transmission rate in megabits per second for this radio Available settings range from 1 to 54 Max Basic Ra...

Page 57: ...work Field Description Serial Encapsulation Mode None No serial data encapsulation UDP In UDP mode programs on networked computers can be used to send short messages or Datagrams Once enabled the seri...

Page 58: ...delineator to use from the dropdown list Available delineation types are Type Decimal Hex Description Use Text Any string of characters CR 13 0D Carriage Return ESC 27 1B Escape LF 10 0A Line Feed New...

Page 59: ...u may see more or fewer options on this page depending on the version of the radio you purchased You can assign the following security settings Field Description Encryption type page 60 WPA AES is the...

Page 60: ...onnect unless you use a WEP key other than number 1 due to limitations in these clients In such cases you should set a WEP key other than key 1 and set this same key in all clients that are using WEP...

Page 61: ...med but packets are always transmitted with the default WEP key number If you set a transmit key number on the RLXIB IHA make sure all other radios and clients have this key programmed To set keys oth...

Page 62: ...SSID check box in each radio you want hidden With the SSID hidden your network does not show up when other clients scan for an access point You can still connect clients to the hidden network by typin...

Page 63: ...ally a router or a firewall on a local area network Devices on a network that supports DHCP can request and receive an IP address from the DHCP server RLXIB IHA radios support DHCP by default they att...

Page 64: ...guration The RLXIB IHA SNMP agent supports SNMP protocol version 1 4 and 2 MIBs RFC12133 MIB partial internet mgmt MIB 2 system interfaces snmp ROMAP MIB included on the CD internet private enterprise...

Page 65: ...Cancel Changes Click Cancel Changes to discard any settings you made during this session Note This button only applies to changes made in the Radio Configuration Diagnostic window Changes made to ind...

Page 66: ...RLXIB IHA 802 11a User Manual RadioLinx 802 11a Industrial Hotspot Page 66 of 123 ProSoft Technology Inc July 25 2013...

Page 67: ...information see Primary radio functions page 68 When you run the program the List view shown in the illustration appears with a list of any radios on the same network as the computer running the RLX...

Page 68: ...emporary IP address to a radio Update Firmware page 73 Update the version of firmware the radio uses Start Ping Session page 74 Wireless Clients page 75 View a list of client radios Ethernet Nodes pag...

Page 69: ...page 70 Clear page 70 Import page 70 Export page 70 Freeze page 71 Print page 71 Print Preview page 71 Print Setup page 71 Exit page 71 5 2 1 Scan Setup The Scan Setup command allows you to change som...

Page 70: ...addresses can be added to the scan list At each interval determined by the scan rate each IP address is individually queried 5 2 2 Scan The RLX IH Browser automatically scans for all active radios on...

Page 71: ...print the contents of the RadioLinx IH Browser window Depending on the view you selected you can print either a list of the radios properties or a topology view 5 2 8 Print Preview Displays a preview...

Page 72: ...5 3 1 Connect To connect to the Radio Configuration Diagnostic Utility and change radio settings double click the radio listing in the RLX IH Browser after it has been assigned an IP address either m...

Page 73: ...exchange data between devices using the radio as a network connection Different versions of the firmware communicate with other radios in different ways and provide different levels of functionality...

Page 74: ...rt the ping session enable Show Ping Stations on the View menu and then highlight one of the other computers visible in the IH Browser The session then starts automatically and the Ping Results dialog...

Page 75: ...Menu The Dialogs menu contains the following commands Wireless Clients page 75 Ethernet Nodes page 76 Scan List page 77 Port Table page 78 Event Log page 78 Properties page 79 5 4 1 Wireless Clients T...

Page 76: ...open the AP Dialogs menu and choose Ethernet Nodes Use this dialog box to see information about Ethernet devices attached to the radios The following illustration shows a list of Ethernet devices by I...

Page 77: ...is an alternate path which can also be seen if the parents button is selected in the menu bar blue lines will link the radio to its alternate parents 802 11 Access Point Detector The RLXIB IHA Radio...

Page 78: ...able is a list of all the active ports on the radio This list shows the same information as the Port status page 44 list in the Radio Configuration Diagnostic Utility Each radio can have up to 34 acti...

Page 79: ...er Manual ProSoft Technology Inc Page 79 of 123 July 25 2013 Event Filter The Event Filter dialog box allows you to include or exclude specific event types from the event log 5 4 6 Properties This dia...

Page 80: ...dicates whether you designated the radio as a master repeater or client Connection The status of the wireless connection Signal The signal strength which in this field is a number from 0 to 15 Hops Th...

Page 81: ...hat supports the frequency range set in the configuration for the radio Security Indicates the encryption setting on the radio See Security settings page 59 for information 5 5 View Menu The View menu...

Page 82: ...id arranged similarly to data in a spreadsheet Resize the window or scroll across to see all of the available columns Click between column headers and drag to the left or right to resize columns Click...

Page 83: ...click on a radio representation in the topology view and then select Properties from the resulting menu Refer to Topology View key page 83 for an explanation of the symbols that appear in this view T...

Page 84: ...y Inc July 25 2013 Wireless clients PCMCIA cards are linked to this radio the number of clients linked is indicated by the number of boxes Signal strength the width of the line is not calibrated Alter...

Page 85: ...nc Page 85 of 123 July 25 2013 5 5 6 Zoom Out Use the ZOOM OUT command in Topology View to to reduce the size of the items in the RadioLinx IH Browser window 5 5 7 Zoom to Fit Use the ZOOM TO FIT comm...

Page 86: ...graphically in the topology view The link from the repeater to its current parent will be shown in red If the repeater can hear other radios in the network links to those radios will be shown in blue...

Page 87: ...command to show the border around the area of the IH Browser window that you can print using the Print command on the File menu 5 5 11 Reset Columns Use the Reset Columns command to restore the column...

Page 88: ...pages have links that lead you to more information if you need it Links are always underlined Use your mouse to click the underlined text to follow a link and open a help page with more information Yo...

Page 89: ...ng or control Repeater radios can connect to any master at any time if one master goes down the repeater connects to another Likewise if a repeater goes down any repeater that was connected to it can...

Page 90: ...ology view in the RLX IH Browser shows how the wireless network is linked together at any point in time You can update firmware at any time from anywhere on the network even over the wireless link or...

Page 91: ...ver network access is available The power supply can be centrally located where it can be attached to an uninterruptible power supply The user has the ability to easily power on reset the attached equ...

Page 92: ...rn Information between two wireless devices is transferred via electromagnetic energy radiated by one antenna and received by another The radiated power of most antennas is not uniform in all directio...

Page 93: ...n is 1 or equivalently 0 dB The higher the antenna gain is the narrower the beamwidth and vice versa The amount of power received by the receiving antenna is proportional to the transmitter power mult...

Page 94: ...articulating antennas work in the same way An articulating antenna bends at the connection 6 3 5 Collinear array antennas A collinear array antenna is typically composed of several linear antennas sta...

Page 95: ...m toward the end with the shorter elements The beamwidth varies with antenna geometry but generally is proportional to the length where longer length produces a narrower beam The antenna gain page 93...

Page 96: ...signals bounce off metal walls for example which can compromise a clear signal Mount antennas to minimize the amount of nearby metal structures in the antenna pattern Mount the antennas and install ra...

Page 97: ...ting this process 1 Product Version Number 2 System architecture 3 Network details If the issue is hardware related we will also need information regarding 1 Module configuration and associated ladder...

Page 98: ...52 222 3 99 6565 E mail soporte prosoft technology com Languages spoken include Spanish Brasil location in Sao Paulo Tel 55 11 5083 3776 E mail brasil prosoft technology com Languages spoken include...

Page 99: ...d repair location If upon evaluating the product it is deemed to be non repairable due to manufacturing defect a replacement will be sent Should this be the case a purchase order will be required prio...

Page 100: ...s Limited Warranty Warranty governs all sales of hardware software and other products collectively Product manufactured and or offered for sale by ProSoft Technology Incorporated ProSoft and all relat...

Page 101: ...the right and at its sole discretion may replace unrepairable units with new or remanufactured equipment All replacement units will be covered under warranty for the 3 year period commencing from the...

Page 102: ...repair and remanufacturing processes certain recyclable materials e g fasteners plastics and the like or remanufactured parts equivalent to new in performance or parts which may have been subject to...

Page 103: ...for use in hazardous environments requiring fail safe performance including and without limitation the operation of nuclear facilities aircraft navigation of communication systems air traffic control...

Page 104: ...f i iii are not commercially practical refunds to Buyer the purchase price of the affected Products in exchange for their return ProSoft will have no obligation to defend or for any other liability wi...

Page 105: ...ITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR USE OR PERFORMANCE OR APPLICATION WARRANTIES TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW Rights under the above warranties subject to noted limitations extend to...

Page 106: ...ty is authorized to make any warranty in addition to those made in this Warranty The Customer is warned therefore to check this Warranty carefully to see that it correctly reflects those terms that ar...

Page 107: ...11g Similar to 802 11b but supports signaling rates of up to 54 Mbit sec Operates in the heavily used 2 4 GHz ISM band but uses a different radio technology to boost throughput 802 11i Sometimes Wi Fi...

Page 108: ...e ASCII character code ASCII characters or hexadecimal characters are sometimes used as a key to encrypt data and ensure its secure transmission Association Process whereby two 802 11 radios establish...

Page 109: ...er on a serial network Configuration PC A Computer that contains the configuration tools for the RLXIB IHA D dBi Decibels referenced to an ideal isotropic radiator in free space frequently used to exp...

Page 110: ...ultiple antennas to reduce interference and maximize reception and transmission quality DTE Data Terminal Equipment for example a computer or terminal Dual Band A device that is capable of operating i...

Page 111: ...cal area on either side of the straight line of sight that must also be clear for a long range wireless network to work Full Duplex A communications circuit or system designed to simultaneously transm...

Page 112: ...0 to 255 separated by periods dots Networks using the TCP IP Protocol route messages based on the IP address of the destination Each number can be 0 to 255 For example 192 168 0 100 could be an IP add...

Page 113: ...ssage Integrity Check One of the elements added to the TKIP standard A signature is added by each radio on each packet it transmits The signature is based on the data in the packet a 64 bit value key...

Page 114: ...An antenna type that radiates a very narrow beam in a specific direction Parabolic antennas offer the highest gain for long range point to point situations Peer to Peer Network Each radio in a Peer t...

Page 115: ...etween nodes on a network Q QoS Quality of Service Required to support wireless multimedia applications and advanced traffic management QoS enables Wi Fi access points to prioritize traffic and optimi...

Page 116: ...its greater character density allows better data throughput than ASCII mode for the same baud rate each message is transmitted in a continuous stream See also ASCII above S Sector Antenna An antenna...

Page 117: ...etic frequencies Spread Spectrum A form of wireless communication in which a signal s frequency is deliberately varied This increases bandwidth and lessens the chances of interruption or interception...

Page 118: ...y increases the strength and complexity of wireless encryption making it far more difficult if not impossible for a would be intruder to break into a Wi Fi network U UART Universal Asynchronous Receiv...

Page 119: ...nd a more capable device that can share an internet connection serve DHCP and bridge between wired and wireless networks Wireless Network Devices connected to a network using a centralized wireless ac...

Page 120: ...RLXIB IHA 802 11a Glossary of Terms RadioLinx 802 11a Industrial Hotspot User Manual ProSoft Technology Inc Page 120 of 123 July 25 2013...

Page 121: ...password 17 64 Channel 109 Check the Ethernet cable 31 32 Clear 69 70 Client 109 Collinear array antennas 94 Configuration PC 109 Configuring the Radios 16 47 Connect 68 71 72 Connecting antennas 28 9...

Page 122: ...k Settings 48 Peer to Peer Network 114 Ping Options dialog box 74 Pinouts 13 19 91 92 Planning the Network 14 Planning the Physical Installation 16 Plug In the Cables 17 19 Point Multipoint Broadcast...

Page 123: ...1 Start IH Browser 17 18 Start Ping Session 68 71 74 Status Bar 81 82 Subnet Mask 117 Support Service Warranty 97 System Requirements 13 T Testing the Network Installation Plan 16 28 The RadioLinx IH...

Reviews: