RACOM’s radio modems becomes more and more popular also in Central America. One of the largest and most important electricity distributor there uses several hundred RipEX and RipEX2 radio modems at various positions in its network.
Power distribution company used radio modems from different vendors with which it had more or less issues. A typical example is a network located on the Caribbean coast in difficult terrain conditions. Even though the application required common p-t-mp communications, there were many p-t-p lines in the network that added a lot of latency and instability into the communications. The end user has therefore had to invest heavily in repairs and ongoing maintenance of the network.
All problems were solved when RipEX radio modems were deployed. The network works in p-t-mp mode even though there are no direct line of sight between the sites. The redundant p-t-p links have been removed. Response time and reliability have been significantly improved, interventions in the fields are not needed. For maximum reliability backup routes, a unique feature offered by RipEX radio modems, are also configured in the network.
Another problematic p-t-p link was between the centre of the first network and the next city. Using existing radio modems, the 68 km distance and multipath propagation required many repeaters, yet the link was unstable. When using RipEX2 no repeaters were needed. The link showed high reliability and a significantly shorter response time. In addition, the customer is considering switching this link to full duplex mode to increase the throughput.
The central RipEX2 interconnects both networks. It is equipped with an LTE module through which all radio modems in both networks can be remotely controlled and monitored.
Based on this experience the customer decided to deploy RipEX2 and RipEX modems also in other places, mostly for communication with reclosers. Today (2024) about 300 modems of different types from RipEX to full RipEX2 with LTE module were delivered. Most of the networks are star type with BDP protocol on the radio channel.
