This article comes from Moxa.
The unpredictability of radio interference has long been a deterring factor for industrial operators wanting to deploy wireless connectivity for mission-critical applications. Many self-healing and dual-band technologies have been developed to mitigate the impact of interference. However, signal recovery and renegotiation can still result in packet loss and is unacceptable for latency-intolerant applications. This article discusses how concurrent dual-radio technology provides zero-packet-loss communication for reliable wireless connectivity in safety-critical applications. Benefits include optimized data throughput, interference immunity, and latency-free transmissions.
Overview
Conventional wireless networks typically provide a best-effort level of service and are susceptible to environmental interference, which can cause excessive packet loss and result in repeated resend requests, rendering them unacceptable for most latency-sensitive applications. Self-healing wireless technologies have been introduced to provide communication recovery through channel or band switch-overs. However, recovery can take many seconds, if not minutes, to complete. Even when routine measures are taken to identify and eliminate environmental interference, wireless interference still remains a possibility and can compromise network reliability and system safety.
Traditional dual-band access points can be misleading in regards to the way they actually operate. Many users expect the access points to transmit data on both bands simultaneously, only to discover that the access points transmit via one band and switches to the other band if transmission quality drops below a certain threshold. This type of redundancy has its limitations:
- Switching over to the other band takes time and packet loss occurs during this transition period.
- When the threshold for band switch-over is set too low, data rate must drop below the threshold before the current link is disconnected. This is unacceptable for applications that require a continuous and high level of performance.
- When the threshold is set to trigger the band switch-over at a higher rate, a “ping-pong” effect—where the wireless connection constantly switches back and forth between the two bands—becomes a potential problem, making the switching mechanism inefficient.
Facts about wireless interference
Interference can be difficult to detect and quantify
When interference distorts a packet sent by the transmitter, an acknowledgement packet will not be sent by the receiving end so the packet will have to be resent. Also, the 802.11 protocol delays transmission when existing interference is detected and will transmit packets only after the interference has cleared. Prolonged interference severely reduces the throughput of the wireless network.
Non-WiFi devices can also cause interference
Cordless telephones, wireless cameras, Bluetooth and ZigBee devices, and microwave ovens are a few examples of products which can severely impact the quality of wireless networks. Even a poorly wired electrical circuit can cause interference. In addition to a reduction in data throughput, interference can trigger data rate renegotiation, or back-off, lowering data transmission rates unnecessarily.
Increasing the density of access points will not reduce interference
A higher density of access points actually generates more interference on the network. Reducing the transmission power of each access point will reduce co-channel interference but effectively negates the initial effort of increasing the access point density.
There are possibly new and hidden sources of interference
The obvious benefits of wireless connectivity has spurred device manufacturers to offer new wireless products, such as surveillance cameras, media players, motion sensors, and other personal electronics. Even defective electrical circuits within the walls can cause interference.
Concurrent dual-radio technology
Many advanced wireless technologies are available to effectively detect interference, provide source location, and automatically switch bands/channels to restore wireless communications. However, interference immunity and prevention is invariably preferable to interference mitigation, and is the only way to ensure uninterrupted communication for safety-critical applications.
Using Concurrent Dual-Radio Technology almost eliminates the possibility of wireless interference. The concept of Concurrent Dual-Radio Technology is simple: for every outbound packet, send a duplicate packet simultaneously by the secondary frequency to ensure that at least one of the packets reaches the receiver. Latency-sensitive applications can be deployed across a concurrent dual-radio wireless network because the chance that an unintentional source of interference can simultaneously disrupt both bands (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) is unlikely.

Latency-sensitive applications can be deployed across a concurrent dual-radio wireless network because the chance that an unintentional source of interference can simultaneously disrupt both bands (2.4 and 5 GHz) is highly unlikely
Safety-critical and real-time wireless applications
Wireless video monitoring systems for safety-critical applications can require megabit speeds. Interference can result in frame skips, screen freeze, and dropouts. For other wireless safety-critical applications with zero latency tolerance, such as control systems at cable car stations and automated guided vehicles (AGV) in factory automation, concurrent dual-radio transmission with interference immunity is what operators need to ensure real-time performance with zero-data-loss communication.
Moxa’s wireless access points provide proven redundant wireless link technology for real-time Ethernet connectivity. The AWK-5200 and AWK-6200 series industrial wireless AP, bridge, and client devices feature two independent RF modules. This means both modules can be transmitting simultaneously, duplicating data transmissions, and eliminating the possibility of packet loss during band switch-overs. Requests to resend packets are significantly reduced because transmitting simultaneously over two distinct bands (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) ensures with high probability that at least one of the identical packets will reach the client or receiver.
Simultaneous dual-radio transmissions also increase the throughput by reducing the number of resend requests. Throughput is the average rate with which actual usable data—application-layer data that the user is actually interested in—are delivered over a path. It is possible to have high data rate yet unsatisfactory throughput if a large portion of the bandwidth is consumed by packet retransmission.
Moxa
www.moxa.com/Event/IW/2013/Zero/index.htm
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