User guide

Reference RLX-IH ♦ 802.11b
Industrial Hotspot
ProSoft Technology, Inc. Page 73 of 99
April 10, 2007
6 Reference
In This Chapter
¾ Product overview.................................................................... 73
¾ RLX-IH Backward Compatibility ............................................. 74
¾ Radio hardware...................................................................... 75
¾ Antennas................................................................................ 77
¾ Regulatory Approvals............................................................. 85
¾ Glossary................................................................................. 87
6.1 Product overview
The RLX-IH is an industrial high-speed Ethernet radio. You can use it in place of
Ethernet cables to save money, extend range, and make connections that may
not otherwise be feasible. The radio operates as a wireless Ethernet switch, so
any data that you can send over a wired network can also be sent over the radio.
The RLX-IH is certified for unlicensed operation in the United States and Canada
at 2.4 GHz. With an output power of a half-watt and approved high-gain
antennas (page 77), the radios can achieve distances of more than 20 miles
line-of-sight between them. You can use multiple repeaters (page 34) to extend
this range to far greater distances. An external half-watt amplifier (page 79) is
also approved for installations such as towers, where significant antenna cable
loss is present. The radio can operate at 11MB/s, even over long distances.
You can develop a highly reliable wireless network by creating redundant (page
37) wireless paths. Multiple master (page 34) radios can be installed without any
special programming or control. Repeater (page 34) 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
reconnect to a different repeater, keeping the network intact. You can create
large, self-healing tree-like networks in this fashion. Fully redundant paths are
possible because the Spanning Tree (page 37) protocol in the radios disables
and enables paths as necessary to avoid Ethernet loops, which would otherwise
make your network stop functioning.
In addition to acting as a switch, every master or repeater radio in an RLX-IH
wireless network can simultaneously act as an 802.11b access point. This allows
802.11b WiFi clients to connect and roam between radios for monitoring of the
wireless network or general network access. The RLX-IH has a special client
mode (page 19) that allows connection of any Ethernet device to any existing