News | RACOM - Part 2

Ukraine’s energy companies are doing their best to keep their distribution networks up and running and to provide electricity supplies even as the unprecedented war continues after Russia attacked Ukraine.

We are glad that RACOM can contribute with its products to keep the power distribution networks working and the Ukrainian industry and population have access to electricity as much as possible without interruptions.

RipEX radio modems and M!DGE cellular routers are used in dozens of countries to provide communication for distribution networks control systems. They are used to control reclosers, transfer data from industrial control computers in the field, etc. You can learn more about examples from Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Vietnam, New Zealand, Brazil and other countries in the references on our website.

We have been supplying our radio modems to Ukraine since 2005, mainly to power distribution companies. We have a long-term cooperation with the Ukrainian company ALCOMA LLC, which managed to get a contract for another control system for power distribution company even in war conditions. This time the SCADA system will be deployed in the central part of Ukraine and will include four networks with total of 66 pcs of RipEX radio modems.

We believe that the installation of the equipment will go smoothly and our partner, with the help of our technical support, will put the equipment into operation as soon as possible despite the difficult situation in Ukraine.

Power distribution network in Egypt is being upgraded extensively, including the installation of smart meters. The project, with a total value of approximately EUR 150 million, is being financed by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) and is being implemented in three state-owned distribution companies serving more than 10 million connection points:
AEDC – Alexandria Electricity Distribution Company
NCEDC – North Cairo Electricity Distribution Company
NDEDC – North Delta Electricity Distribution Company

Due to the scale of the project, which involves connecting hundreds of thousands of smart meters to the system and upgrading the management of the entire distribution network, the selection of individual devices took almost two years. After a lot of studies and testing, RACOM’s RipEX2 radio modems were selected for data communication on private radio networks.

Together with the general contractors for each area, Siemens and Elsewedy, we designed the radio networks to connect the individual locations and together proposed the communication method of the connected devices and its setup.

Everything had to be tested and approved by representatives of the investor and the end users before sending the equipment to Egypt. We are happy to inform that both FATs (Factory Acceptance Test) with Elsewedy and Siemens were successful.

We were able to conduct the FAT with Elsewedy remotely in February 2023, with representatives from Elsewedy, JICA and NCEDC joining and monitoring everything online.

The second FAT with Siemens took place in August 2023 at RACOM’s headquarters, with representatives from Siemens Egypt, JICA, AEDC and Xceltra, our partner in Egypt, providing on-site installation and servicing. The whole FAT was really comprehensive and took three days. Everything went well and the final report was signed without any comments.

The first 200 pcs of radio modems, some of them in hot-standby version, can therefore be shipped to Egypt during August and September, including antennas and other accessories.

We delivered the first radio modems to Egypt in 2005. We are pleased that our hard work in this market has now paid off and our radio modems are part of such a large and important project.

RACOM always carefully tests all its new products before they are launched. RAy for 80 GHz was no exception, on the contrary, it passed tougher tests than usual. The first RAy3-80 link for field testing was installed in May 2022, i.e. a year before the official launch.

To ensure that the product meets all the expectations, we subsequently invited several of our experienced customers to test the link in real operation in their networks. So we can be sure that we have done our best to test RAy3-80 before its launch, and even the very first customers are getting a product that has been proven in practice.

RACOM

RACOM tested the RAy3-80 in the field in two phases. First, we verified the basic HW design on a 1.3 km link, modified casing for sufficient cooling, and in June 2022 we measured 10 Gb/s for the first time in the field.

In September 2022, we installed the link over a distance of 6.8 km with 60 cm antennas. During the entire testing period (9 months), the link did not disconnect even once. It operated at speeds above 4 Gb/s for >99.90% of the time (>99.95% above 1 Gb/s) and only dropped below 1 Gb/s for <0.05% of the time. We dare to say that our ACMB and ATPC are working perfectly.

ZNET Telekom

ZNET Telekom is the biggest ISP in Hungary and uses dozens of RAy links in the 24 GHz band in its network.

RAy3-80 was tested over a distance of 3.4 km with 40 cm Jirous antennas placed 40 and 50 m above the ground. The link was in live operation for 4 weeks, during which several intense rain showers occurred. During these, the modulation was reduced from 128QAM to only 64QAM. All other fluctuations were resolved by ATPC and the link never disconnected.

ZNET compared the RAy3-80 with the SIAE links it has been using in its network to date. The comparison was clearly in favor of RAy3-80, especially in terms of higher RF power (+20 dBm) and ATPC and ACMB functionality.

PilsFree

PilsFree operates probably the largest community network in the Czech Republic. The community has over 38,000 members connected in Pilsen and the surrounding area. There are about 800 microwave links deployed in the network, of which more than 300 are in the 80 GHz band.

In PilsFree, RAy3-80 was tested from January to April 2023 on a shorter link of 0.5 km with 60 cm Jirous antennas. The aim was both to debug the firmware and to test the operation of the new link from the rooftop, where there are a total of eight TDD and FDD links in the 80 GHz band. There were no active or passive interference problems, but problems were found in the operation of ATPC and ACMB, which RACOM gradually fixed in subsequent firmware versions during the testing.

Subsequently, a longer link of 1.3 km was built, where a group of administrators and active members tried to compare RAy3-80 with similar devices from other manufacturers (Ericsson, Siklu, Ceragon) with 10 Gb/s capacity on the same link and the same antennas. The real values from the link were compared with the data given in the manufacturers’ documentation. Here no discrepancies were found between reality and the datasheets.

The tests in Pilsen also focused on comparing the sensitivity and RF power performance of the individual links. The declared worse sensitivity of RAy3-80 is sufficiently compensated by higher output power and in the overall comparison with most of the links of other manufacturers RAy3-80 does not lag behind and performs similarly – with the same size of antennas it is possible to build the same long route with the same availability.

We are pleased to announce that we have completed the development and launch the next member of the RAy p-t-p microwave links family, this time for the free 80 GHz band.

The launch took place at the KKDS conference, which was attended by more than 500 representatives of most Czech ISPs.

RAy microwave links are used by ISPs and global telecom operators for backbone networks and high-speed last-mile links.

RAy3 for 80 GHz has all the latest features including 10 Gb/s FDD speed and RF power of +20 dBm. Due to its cost and ease of installation, it can replace fiber optic cables even in challenging environments where high speed and availability are required, such as for base station connections for 4G and 5G networks.

RAy3-80 is based on the third-generation RAy concept for 10, 17, 18 and 24 GHz, which is designed for high-performance links with maximum reliability, exceptional gain and interference immunity. All the latest features have been carefully implemented in the final solution without compromise. RAy3 has been on the market since 2019, proven in thousands of installations in dozens of countries from the poles to the equator.

RAy3-80 has a significantly higher speed compared to other frequency bands, 10 Gb/s instead of 1 Gb/s FDD. Its RF power output of +20 dBm is among the highest on the market. Power consumption, which starts at 35 W, minimizes operating costs and enables solar panel power. The full outdoor concept uses the same aluminum die casting as on other frequencies. The minimum weight of 2.8 kg guarantees easy installation.

Intuitive management with Wifi connectivity, a mobile app for antenna alignment and other proven features of the RAy3 will be appreciated by existing and new users.

Similar to the RAy3 for other frequencies, the RAy3-80 provides one metallic Ethernet interface (1 Gb) and one SFP+ (10 Gb).

We believe that the RAy3-80 will be as successful in the market as its ‘siblings’ for other bands and will quickly spread to all corners of the world thanks to the worldwide unlicensed 80 GHz band.

IWCE 2023, Las Vegas

MARCH 29-30, 2023 | LAS VEGAS, CA, USA

During the ‘RACOM Partner Meeting‘ in Prague in September 2022, we introduced the new RipEX2e radio modem, which we are now officially launching.

RipEX2e is the essential version of our flagship RipEX2, which has been on the market since 2018. Find out how and why RipEX2e came into the world in the video.

RipEX is a platform of radio modems that provide 24/7 reliable service for wireless data transfer in mission-critical applications such as SCADA and telemetry in critical infrastructure of power, water, gas and oil companies. Its performance has been proven in thousands of installations in more than 100 countries on every continent since 2011.

RipEX2e is based on and fully compatible with the RipEX2 radio modem. Both types can therefore be combined seamlessly in one network on one frequency. Its deployment is expected in less demanding installations that do not use all the features of RipEX2. With RipEX2e, the channel width is limited to a maximum of 50 kHz, modulation to a maximum of 64 QAM, and only two Ethernet and one serial interface are available. RipEX2e does not have an mPCI slot, so it cannot be expanded with GPS, additional serial interfaces or cellular interfaces.

We will continue to produce the first generation of RipEX, but we will not implement new features into it, because its HW capacity is not sufficient for that. We recommend to use it only to extend existing networks and to use RipEX2 and RipEX2e exclusively for new networks, among other reasons, because the physical protocol layers on the radio channel of RipEX and RipEX2/RipEX2e are not compatible.

There are no plans to discontinue production of RipEX at this time. We expect to be able to supply it to expand existing networks for several years, similar to how we are still able to supply the MR400, which was launched in 2005.

We believe that RipEX2e will find its place in the market and customers will appreciate the ability to combine RipEX2 and RipEX2e in one network according to the needs at each site.

In January, we held our traditional sales meeting, where we always evaluate the previous year and discuss sales expectations for the year ahead. We also use the meeting the product management team to inform of upcoming news from R&D. This year, we decided to save travel time, so the meeting was held in two days fully online.

Although RACOM has tripled the amount of stock for production compared to before the Covid pandemic, there were still issues with components supply in 2022. We had to buy some parts on the open market and pay even two hundred Euros more per piece than normal. In addition, we had to deal with the increased risks and costs associated with testing.

Despite all the difficulties, we consider 2022 a successful year. The reality was even higher than the sales forecast presented by our sales team at the beginning of the year. Our sales were comparable to 2021, which was our most successful year ever. Since we did not pass on all the increased expenses to our customers, profit was logically lower.

We sold more Cellular routers compared to 2021, and sales were slightly lower for Radio modems and Microwave links. The reason for the slight decrease in radio modems was mainly due to customers postponing deliveries for large tenders already won, while in microwave links we had to partially reduce production at the end of the year due to a shortage of components.

The sales forecast for 2023 presented by our sales team is optimistic and slightly higher than the reality of 2022. We believe that, similar to the previous year, we will be able to exceed the forecast and continue to grow. The news from R&D presented by the product management at the meeting will certainly help to achieve this.

DISTRIBUTECH International 2023

FEBRUARY 7-9, 2023 | SAN DIEGO, CA, USA

RACOM tries to do as much as possible in-house so that it is not dependent on third parties and has control over the quality and delivery times for its equipment.

As our production volumes are constantly increasing, we have higher requirements for the production of mechanical parts of our products. The existing mechanical manufacturing facility has been utilized to the maximum and there was no more space to accommodate additional CNC and other machines that are necessary for the production of mechanical parts of our products. Therefore, we had to handle part of our production in cooperation.

RACOM has owned the land and the project to build a new facility for several years. Since everything indicates that the demand for our products will continue in the future and we have other products in development that the market is eagerly awaiting, we have decided to start construction of a new facility for mechanical production in January 2022.

The contract for the construction was signed on January 28, 2022, 4 weeks before the war in Ukraine started. Despite all the negative circumstances, we decided to start the construction and in March the first excavators went on site. We managed to complete the construction on a slightly increased budget and on schedule.

On October 24, 2022 we took over the finished building. Nowadays we consider it a small miracle that the construction, including the final work on the surrounding land, was completed within 7 months. In November we moved everything to the new premises and since December all mechanical production is running here.

We now have 1,600 m² of space available, so we have sufficient reserve for the future. The factory meets the most modern requirements. Among other things, there is an air conditioning system that keeps the internal temperature in the production area within the range of +/-3 ^oC. This allows us to produce microwave filters and duplexers with an accuracy of thousandths of mm.

The new building is only 1 km away from our headquarters, so there are no logistical problems either. The land on which our new production facility stands is large enough to allow us to expand further if necessary.

We believe that our investment of 2.8 million EUR makes a lot of sense and will soon be visible in the quality and availability of our products.