Founded 1990

Located in Lancaster NY (near Buffalo)

Systems integration and wireless technology
development history.
Acquired assets and exclusive rights to Aria Wireless
and GLB Electronics product line 2001
Product history is SCADA and high reliability
telemetry for government and military applications as
well as vehicle location.
Entered traffic market in 2004 with products based on
proven core wireless technology.
Traffic Control – Card cage, wide band radios, GPS timing
and other traffic related functions.

Lottery/Banking – Integrated radio/antenna,

patented CEMA protocol.

SCADA – Contact closure radio, VHF/UHF,

hazardous environments.

AVL/GPS – AVL Controller, bandwidth efficient protocol

Military/Govt – Semi-custom variants of standard products.

Interconnect controllers at street Intersections

Bridging Wire-line Interconnects

Traffic light status, alarm status

Time synchronization (GPS or radio)

New schedule download.

Contact closures, pre-emption

Control of programmable signboards

Custom logic/algorithm capability (eg. Crosswalk)

 !

Eagle, Econolite, Naztec, Peek, Siemens etc.

170, NEMA, 2070, ATC
Any controller with multi-drop protocol and
Asynchronous interface
Any controller with Ethernet interface
Second by second control
 " # $ !
DataMover DataMover
DataMover I/O ODU (RS232)
SS Traffic WB (Ethernet)

DataMover
170 T(M)

DataMover
ATC/2070 DataMover
DR(M)
 % & ! '
(" # ' )
 % & ! '
(" # ' )

Fire House based solution

DM SS 900 or 2400 MHz
Galvanic isolation from intersection
Preempt 1 to 5 Routes
1 to 5 intersections per route
In fire hall or outdoor antenna supported
" *++ ,- ! '
! "
• RF power control in 1 dB steps (not 10 dB steps!)
• Can lock out up to half of frequencies.
• Co-located or closely located Masters with no cross
interference.
• Repeater with fail safe (self healing network)
• Over the air diagnostics with system running
• Logging spectrum analyzer
" # &
Ethernet 1.5 - 100 Mbps
900 / 2400 / 4900 / 5800 MHz
12.5, 20 or 23 dBi integral antennas
Integral and External Antenna versions
Dual radio capability
5, 10, 20 or 40 MHz Channels
Split antenna capability
POE , power supply and mast clamp included
Router or bridge capability.
Multiple video stream mode.
' ()
Once per day GPS accurate time synchronization
Controller specific time/date message
Once per day contact closure
Vandal resistant
Quick installation
Electromechanical controller mode
Serial messages for Siemens (epac), Econolite and AB3418
compatible Controllers
L version is GPS antenna only (NMEA GPRMC message)


 
The Link Budget and Fade Margin
Fresnel zone clearance
Frequency, 900 MHz vs 2400 or 5800 MHz
RF Interference
Antennas
Spectrum analyzer
 ! ! !& !% !

For best range and interference rejection

Use the narrowest bandwidth possible

Use the lowest speed possible.
 .& ! ! !
• Link Budget
– Like a balance sheet where you have parameters that add to or
detract from your to have a viable link.
– The units of measure are dB, and dBm
– GOOD: RF power, antenna gain, more receiver sensitivity.
– BAD: cable losses, distance, higher frequency.
 .& ! ! !
• Fade Margin (a.k.a System Operating Margin)
– The bottom line of the Link budget.
– The number of dB that the link exceeds or fall short of providing a
viable link. + is good - is bad.

• The MATH
Free Space Loss = 20Log10(Frequency in MHz) + 20Log10 (Distance in Miles) + 36.6

RSL = Tx Power - Tx Cable Loss + Tx Antenna Gain - FSL + Rx Antenna Gain - Rx

Cable Loss
.& ! ! !
 ! / ' ! !
What if measured RSSI (signal strength) is less than
the predicted received signal level?

This difference is called unmodeled error.

Reasons:

• Foliage
• Fresnel loss due to terrain or buildings
• Other more complex NLOS loss

Catalog these unmodeled error types to build your RF

path engineering experience. You can then more easily
predict path viability without need of a link test.
 0
• Edge diffraction
– Like a balance sheet where you have parameters that add to or
detract from your to have a viable link.
– The units of measure are dB, and dBm
– GOOD: RF power, antenna gain, more receiver sensitivity.
– BAD: cable losses, distance, higher frequency.

• Fade Margin (a.k.a System Operating Margin)

– The bottom line of the Link budget.
– The number of dB that the link exceeds or fall short of providing a
viable link. + is good - is bad.
 0
• Direct visual path (line of sight) is important but it is
not enough .
• r increases for lower frequencies or longer distance.

Fresnel Zone = 72.1 * Sqrt (dMi / (FreqGHz * 4))

0
 1 2*++ # 34++ 56++ ,-
• Higher frequencies
– Less Fresnel zone clearance required.
– More antenna gain with a specific physical size of antenna.
– Better antenna directivity with a specific size of antenna.
– Shadowed or blocked more easily in most cases.
– Better frequency reuse because of the ability to use narrow beam
width antennas.
• Lower frequencies
– For the same RF power EIRP and gain of antenna, allow a better
link budget.
– Have less allocated (unlicensed) spectrum
 1 2*++ # 34++ 56++ ,-
• With all parameters equal, 915 MHz has ~8.5 dB
advantage over 2440 MHz.
• With all parameters equal, 915 MHz has ~16 dB
advantage over 5800 MHz.
• 900 MHz is good for low bandwidth long range
applications.
• 5800 provides excellent directivity (frequency reuse)
and wide bandwidth.
• Co-channel - same channel

• Desensitization – nearby band eg. pagers

• Intermodulation – mixing of 2 signals co-channel

 ' !
• Steer the null of antenna to suppress co-channel or
desensitization interference

• Use attenuator to reduce intermodulation

• Gain, dBi vs dB vs dBd
• Beamwidth vs gain.
• Clearance to pole or nearby objects.
• Clamp to element clearance
• Use signals from rear of yagi antenna
• Splitters.
• Lightning Arrestors
• Gain, dBi vs dB vs dBd

9 dBd = 11 dBi (2 dB difference)

• Beamwidth vs gain.

Narrow beamwidth = higher gain

• Clearance to pole or nearby objects.
– 18 inches for 900 MHz yagi
– ½ panel dimension for panels.
– Increase distance for objects in front of antenna.

• Mast clamp to Yagi element clearance

– As far as possible
• Use signals from rear of yagi antenna
• Front = 9 dBd, rear = -16 dBd
• Splitter 3.25 dB loss for each antenna
– Consider using rear of yagi.
– 2 way antennas available but higher cost.

• Lightning arrestor
– Low cost = high feed through
• 300V to 600V typical
– Higher cost = low feed through
• 3V to 10 v peak typical
! '

Sensitivity
-108 dBm 1e-6 BER = -110 dBm 1e-5 BER
FEC and retries improves the rating. Many manufacturers
state sensitivity with retries and FEC turned on.

RF Power Control
10dB vs 1 dB steps

BER –> Bit Error Rate

 Radio configuration software
Remote Diagnostics
WEB RF path analysis tools
Real time spectrum analyzer

WEB tools at www.simrex.com “free tools”

 ' -
• Horizontal vs vertical polarization noise floor
• Out of band vs in band signals.
• Desensitization test.
• Recording all sweeps and results to file.
 7

PHOENIX HIGHWAY PRODUCTS

www.phoenixhighwayproducts.com

SIMREX CORPORATION
www.simrex.com